Police are hunting a 40-year-old village headman who declared that would commit suicide after shooting dead his young wife in front of her mother.
Pol Col Iskanda Amin, deputy commander of Nakhon Si Thammarat police, said on Thursday that police were looking to arrest Kriangsak Kulsri, head of village No.4 in tambon Nariang of Phrommakhiri district for the murder of his estranged wife Malita Kulsri, 25, on Wednesday night.
The woman was shot once in the chest while on her motorcycle on Khao Poon-Kamphaeng Thom Road in Nariang at about 9.15pm.
Her mother On-uma Noothong, 48, was on the pillion seat. Investigators said Malita had recently left Mr Kriangsak. He was riding a motorcycle when he caught up with the two women.
He asked Malita to take him back, but she refused. In response. the village headman's temper flared and he shot Malita before speeding off on his motorcycle, shouting that he would take his own life so that he could be with her.
Malita died of her wound at a local hospital.
Pol Col Iskanda said the couple had quarrelled frequently when they were together, until she finally she left him.
