The man who allegedly killed his girlfriend and then dismembered her body, hid her severed head in a backpack and dumped it in the bushes, was jealous after she decided to reunite with her ex-husband, police said on Sunday.
Deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Srivorakhan said Thanakrit Prakob, 25, told investigators that jealousy led him to kill Lasana Kamlangkeng, 26, on June 12.
The suspect became consumed by jealousy after Lasana, who he was dating, decided to move back in with her ex-husband, Pol Gen Chalermkiat said. Mr Thanakrit and the victim worked at the same factory before she resigned in April. They were living together in a flat in Min Buri district before they broke up.
She returned to collect her belongings from the flat on June 12. Mr Thanakrit allegedly killed her in the room and dismembered Lakkhana's body into 14 pieces. He stuffed her head into a backpack and placed other body parts in sacks before dumping them in bushes in Khlong Sam Wa district.
A backpack containing the woman's head and other items were discovered on Saturday.
"The crime was committed at 8pm on June 12. The suspect used a hammer to kill her," said Pol Lt Gen Charnthep Saesawet, the Metropolitan Police Bureau chief, who was also in the press briefing. "He covered her body with a sheet and went to work the next morning. On his return, he dissected her body into 14 pieces and then dumped them in several different locations."
CCTV footage showed the two entering his room together on June 12. Later footage showed him leaving the room alone and two days later, carrying several bags out of the room. The footage from the apartment building's security camera provided the principal evidence for Mr Thanakrit's arrest.
Investigators gathered additional evidence from the woman's body, including fingerprints, and began searching for people connected with her before they located and captured Mr Thanakrit.
Somkid Jaemung, Laksana's uncle, said she had two children with her former husband before they broke up. The woman left her native home in Suwannaphum district in Roi Et to work in Bangkok and had been in a relationship with Thanakrit for about two years, he said. Laksana had taken him to meet her parents.
The suspect was charged with premeditated murder and concealment of a body, said police.
After the press briefing, he was taken to his apartment to re-enact the crime.
Laksana's family members, including her father, Kaewmoon, came from Roi Et to take her body home on Sunday. A religious ceremony for the cruelly murdered woman will be held at Wat Dong Hua Ruea in Suwannaphum.
