Thai police claimed today (Saturday) that, during hours of interrogation, murder suspect from Taiwan, Santi Supa-apiradeepailin, who holds dual Thai-Taiwanese citizenship, has allegedly confessed to plotting the murder of a Thai couple there.
According to police in charge of investigating the case, Santi allegedly said that he hatched the plot to lure the couple to a location in Taiwan, where they were to be killed by two Thai men whom he had hired to commit the crime.
Police did not, however, disclose the motive for the murder. The suspect was later escorted to the Criminal Court to seek a court order for his detention at Bangkok Remand Prison for 12 days pending further questioning.
Police claimed that Santi might attempt to flee if granted bail, but the suspect did not apply for bail.
According to information obtained from the Taiwanese police, the two victims were lured to Santi’s office, where he and two other Thai men, identified only as Samart and Thanawat, waited. They then allegedly beat the victims to death with wooden clubs.
They carried the bodies to the trunk of the victims’ car and drove to the parking lot of a train station in Taoyuan special municipality, in north-western Taiwan.
All three of them later flew back to Thailand.
On June 10th, Taiwanese police found the bodies and the Thai Criminal Court issued a warrant for Santi’s arrest on June 14th.
Santi, who reportedly took temporary refuge in Myanmar after his return from Taiwan, surrendered to the Crime Suppression Division police in Chiang Mai yesterday and was immediately flown to Bangkok for questioning.
Police said that the suspect was close to the two victims. The dead woman was five months pregnant with twins.
