Police on Pha-ngan Island are holding a Spaniard for questioning, suspecting that he may be involved in the murder and decapitation of a foreigner whose remains were found in a plastic bag at a garbage dump in Ban Thong Sala on the island.

The Spaniard, only identified as “Daniel”, showed up at Pha-ngan police station on Friday night to file a report about a missing friend, a Columbian, whom he identified as Edwin Arita. Police are holding him for questioning, but have not filed any charges yet.

Also yesterday, forensic officers went to the garbage separation site to examine two additional body parts, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts and a pair of blood stained red boxer shorts, which were found stuffed in a black plastic bag by a garbage collector.

Police believe that the additional body parts belong to the same victim and the black plastic bag is believed to have been collected from the rubbish dump in Ban Thong Sala and trucked to the garbage separation site.

Police say that they have received a report from a hotel that a Spanish customer had rented a motorcycle to buy a knife and plastic bags from a local store and did not return to the hotel until last night, when he also showed up at the police station to report that his friend was missing.