Police have arrested a man suspected of being involved in the grisly burning of human bodies in Udon Thani after discovering he allegedly colluded with a former police officer to kill a woman two years ago.
Boonna Thongngam was taken to Udon Thani police headquarters yesterday after investigators searched him and raided his house in tambon Non Thong in the province's Ban Phue district.
The 57-year-old suspect is charged with the joint premeditated murder of local money lender Bang-on Thong-on, 52, and trying to conceal the corpse. The body was burned in car tyres in Kud Chap National Reserve Forest in Ban Phue district, now dubbed the "charred body cemetery".
According to deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Srivorakan, Mr Boonna implicated fellow murder suspect Pol Snr Sgt Maj Pramot Bupphasi, a former officer attached to Ban Phue police station and convicted criminal. The pair are accused of being involved in the disappearance of Bang-on on June 4, 2014. Her remains were found four days later.
Mr Boonna told police he did not have any problems with Bang-on. However Pol Snr Sgt Pramot had asked him to help borrow money from the victim and threaten to abduct her should she refuse. Bang-on refused Pol Snr Sgt Pramot's request for 10,000 baht, whereupon the officer killed her by breaking her neck, Mr Boonna said.
The suspects then stole her possessions and bundled her body into Pol Snr Sgt Pramot's truck. They drove to the forest where they burned the corpse, according to the police investigation.
Pol Snr Sgt is now serving a life sentence at Klongpai Central Prison in Nakhon Ratchasima after the Appeal Court found him guilty of committing a separate murder.
He killed a female officer from the Tambon Champamong Administration Organisation in Ban Phue district, a police source said.
Gen Chalermkiat hopes the disgraced former police officer will cooperate to help close the murder case and confess to his alleged wrongdoing.
"His accounts may be helpful to the ongoing probe into other charred body cases in the forest," said Pol Maj Gen Khachonsak Pansakhon, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 4.
Officers have discovered 23 spots in the forest where human remains have been found. Many of them are believed to be victims of abduction and murder, possibly linked to police.