A butcher-turned-cook has been arrested in Yala for the murder and dismemberment of his wife, whose body parts were dumped in Saraburi province four months ago.
Kamolchart Kaewthong, 32, a native of Nakhon Ratchasima's Khong district, was apprehended in Yala on Tuesday and later brought to a police press conference in Saraburi, Thai media reported on Wednesday.
The arrest followed the discovery of female body parts placed in four fertiliser sacks and a plastic bag dumped under an elevated bridge in Saraburi on Jan 29.
The woman was later identified as Wanwimol Mathet, 30, wife of Mr Kamolchart, said Pol Maj Gen Amnuay Nimmano, commander of Provincial Police Region 1.
Shortly after the discovery of the body parts was made public, Mr Kamolchart showed up at Kaeng Khoi police station in the central province to see the body, claiming he was looking for his wife, who had gone missing from Saraburi in November.
After seeing the remains, he told police that the body was not his wife. Officers asked him to take his five-year-old daughter to undergo DNA testing to rule out a possible link. However, the man left and did not contact authorities again, said Pol Lt Gen Amnuay.
Police later took his wife's parents for DNA testing and the results showed that their DNA samples matched those of the victim.
A police investigation found that the suspect used to work as a butcher in Kaeng Khoi before moving to southern Yala province to work as a cook, said Pol Lt Gen Amnuay.
Police said Mr Kamolchart confessed to killing his wife in a fit of jealousy. He said he had been engaged in a heated quarrel with her on Nov 11. His wife had picked up a knife and threatened to stab herself in the chest. That drove him to take the knife from her, but she fell to the floor and the knife accidentally pierced her chest, he claimed.
He later dragged her body into a bathroom where he chopped her body into parts and later dumped the remains under the bridge before fleeing to Yala.
Police initially pressed charges of killing his wife and dismembering her body.