PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: A man who apparently committed suicide by letting a southern train run over him on Saturday night phoned his wife beforehand and confessed to killing a 39-year-old woman whose body was found with multiple stab wounds in his rented townhouse in Hua Hin district, police said.
Investigators had identified Dittawat Drosch, 28, a Thai-Swiss hotel staffer in Hua Hin, as the prime suspect in the murder of Suchapat Hiranpanthachot, Pol Maj Gen Surasak Suksawaeng, chief of Prachuap Khiri Khan provincial police, said yesterday.
Police were searching for him when he apparently took his own life by lying in front of an oncoming train at a crossing in neighbouring Cha-am district of Phetchaburi on Saturday night, shortly after the body of the woman was found.
Suchapat, an online saleswoman from Bangkok's Prawet district, was found dead on Saturday evening at the townhouse rented by Dittawat on the Phu Tawan housing estate in Hua Hin. The woman had been stabbed several times in the neck, and her body had been stuffed into a large plastic container in a bathroom.
Pol Maj Gen Surasak said Dittawat had met Suchapat online and arranged to meet her at his townhouse.
The reason for the meeting was unclear, but local police believe the two were having an affair and that during an argument he flew into a rage and struck her across the head with a hard object before stabbing her to death. He then went to work as usual, local police said yesterday.
The man later phoned his wife Anchalee to confess he had killed the 39-year-old woman, the Prachuap Khiri Khan police chief said.
The investigators are awaiting forensic results, which they hope will shed some more light as to why the woman was murdered before concluding the case, Pol Maj Gen Surasak said.
The Sawang Sanphet Rescue Foundation on Saturday night quoted an eyewitness as saying Dittawat rode his motorcycle to the crossing, jumped off and ran over to the tracks, where he lay down as the Sungai Kolok-bound express train was approaching.
Local media reported that on Oct 6 Suchapat posted photos of her hotel room in Hua Hin on Facebook with the message "Recharging batteries ... dumping bad things into the sea". On Oct 8, she posted a picture of herself sitting in her car. It was to be her final Facebook post. She wrote: "It's just dust. It will be washed away."
