Nonthaburi police are set to summon five friends of the late actress, Nida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong, for further questioning and lie detector examinations, in an attempt to clear up some doubts about what actually happened in the fatal boat accident in which the actress fell into the Chao Phraya River and drowned last Thursday night.
Nonthaburi’s Muang district police superintendent told the media, today (Monday) that, although the five people have been questioned before, police need to question them further.
Nida’s body was found on Saturday about 300 metres from the Pibulsongkram Pier in Nonthaburi province.
The police superintendent said he is due to meet with Nida’s mother today (Monday). She has promised to hand to him evidence of a message chain, which took place between some of the victim’s friends shortly after the tragic incident.
He said that the testimonies of the five people correspond with each other, but are lacking in detail.
Many netizens, however, seem to believe that the five, including the boat’s owner have not yet told the police the whole story.
Meanwhile, a video clip taken from a CCTV system at shows Nida’s five friends arriving at the dockyard at about 1am Friday morning, about two and a half hours after the accident.
None of them were at the Pibulsongkram Pier, which is the closest landing point to where the accident took place, when rescue workers from the Ruamkatanyu Foundation arrived to begin the search for the then missing actress.
The police superintendent also said that they are still awaiting Nida’s autopsy report from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital and toxicology test results for her five friends.
The Nonthaburi provincial court has issued arrest warrants for causing wrongful death by negligence for the skipper and another friend who was allegedly at the helm of the boat. Tanupat also faces an additional charge of using a boat with an expired license. Both have been released on bail.
