Police detained the trio in Wang Chin district yesterday (Sept 24). After hours of intense interrogation, they admitted to having colluded in killing Alan Hogg, a 64-year-old retiree, and his wife Nod Suddaen, 61, at the couple’s home in Muang district, according to Thai media reports.
The suspects, whose names were not released, implicated Warut Satchakit, Hogg’s brother-in-law, in the double murder, claiming he paid them B50,000 to do it.
They first shot dead Mr Hogg, in front of a duck pen on the property, and then used a hammer to beat Ms Nod, 61 to death in front of the garage.
They claimed Warut had taken the bodies away to bury in the victims’ garden, the reports said.
The couple were reported missing from their house in Muang district last Thursday(Sept 20) by a friend who said they had not replied to messages or phone calls since last Tuesday (Sept 18), when they were supposed to have met up in Chiang Mai.
Investigators found out their white pickup truck was also missing.
Police later arrested Warut after CCTV footage showed him entering the couple’s home and driving away in the pickup.
Warut denied any involvement in their disappearance. He was charged with theft of the vehicle and released after relatives posted bail of B100,000.
Police were again searching for him.
Earlier yesterday, Maj Gen Poonsap Prasertsak, chief of Provincial Police Region 6, said the investigation had progressed after the missing pickup truck was found in Ayutthaya.
Everything would be clear in a few days, he added.
Maj Gen Sanpat Prabpudsa, chief of the Phrae Police, said the truck was impounded in Ayutthaya on Sunday (Sept 23), and returned to Phra That Hor Chor Hae Police Station, near the couple’s home, for forensic examination.
Investigators learned the truck had been bought from a Thai couple by a Lao man. The sellers and buyer agreed to meet in Sri Samrong district in Sukhothai to close the deal last Friday (Sept 21).
The Lao man then drove it to Ayutthaya on business. When he learned from media reports that police were looking for the vehicle he turned it over to police on Sunday, Maj Gen Sanpat said.
He and the two sellers were then taken to Phra That Chor Hae Police Station, near the missing couple’s home in Phrae, for interrogation.
Col Amorn Kwangpaen, an investigator at Phra That Chor Hae Police Station, said that last Thursday investigators found a backhoe near a hole that had been dug and then filled in at the couple’s property.
The hole was excavated, but police found no sign of any bodies buried there, he said.
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