PATTAYA – Four former police volunteers – including two teenagers – were arrested for allegedly killing an ex-colleague whose headless body was found in a secluded Nongprue pond.
Somkiat Jankrajang, 26, Weerawong Klingsompao, 20; Teera Tatsa, 18; and a 17-year-old were apprehended by Nongprue police July 9 for the death of Jirayu Sritunu, 23, whose decomposing remains were pulled to shore from the 1-rai lake in Moo 7 village July 7.
Jirayu’s head later was found in the same pond.
Police found at the scene a mobile phone charger and keys to a motorbike. Jirayu’s family said the victim had been missing for about a week.
Combing through the dead man’s Facebook account, police were led to Somkiat, who crumbled under interrogation and admitted he and his three police volunteer subordinates killed and dumped Jirayu’s body. Police said Somkiat accused Weerawong of actually murdering the former friend by cutting off his head with a spade.
According to police, Jirayu was killed over 3,000 baht. That’s how much the 23-year-old had borrowed from his former boss and never paid back. After many attempts to collect, Somkiat devised a plan to lure Jirayu to the warehouse where he worked as a security guard by having Weerawong invite him to go drinking.
Somkiat was waiting when the two arrived at the warehouse and an argument ensued. Things got violent when the 17-year-old began a fist fight and things escalated from there. The brawl ended when Jirayu was knocked out by a beer bottle.
Somkiat admitted he then ordered his three cohorts to put the unconscious body in a truck and take it to pond in the woods. There, he claimed, Weerawong finished the job with a spade.
The four have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
