Key suspect held in Krabi murder case

Key suspect held in Krabi murder case

Police inspect a site where a group of prospective rock millers planned their business in Ao Luk district of Krabi on Saturday. (Royal Thai Police photo)
Police inspect a site where a group of prospective rock millers planned their business in Ao Luk district of Krabi on Saturday. (Royal Thai Police photo)

Police have arrested a key suspect in the execution-style murders of eight members of a family in the southern province.

Pol Maj Gen Itthipol Atchariyapradit, Metropolitan Police Bureau chief investigator, said the suspect was one of the killers and police would interview him about all the players and the motive behind the murders.

A press conference will be held on Sunday.

National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda on Saturday went to Krabi to supervise the investigation. Crime Suppression Police on Friday detained another suspect before releasing him.

Police have expanded searches and investigations to other provinces including Trang, Ranong, Chumphon, Phangnga and Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Police are focusing mainly on a group of misbehaving soldiers and former soldiers, according to an informed source.

They also tracked down the signal of a mobile phone of Worayut Sanglang, a victim, taken by the murderers.

One theory is that the six or seven killers are linked to an armed group hired to guard palm and rubber plantations in Krabi and Phangnga, said the source.

The suspects were seen wearing camouflage outfits, carrying rifles and raiding the victims' house in a pattern that suggested they were well trained, said the source.

Investigators were also studying information from a criminal case in April in which Krabi police and the 15th Infantry Regiment detained a former military trainer who used to be attached to the 43rd Military Circle in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Thung Song district, said the source.

The former military trainer was arrested along with 16 former military rangers and 19 guns and close to 1,000 bullets. They were found to have been hired by an important businessman in Krabi to scare away villagers encroaching on a major palm plantation, said the source.

Those villagers were illegally occupying the plantation after a concession granted to the plantation operator had been cancelled by local authorities.

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