The Crime Suppression Division has stepped up the search for the missing Thai wife of a detained Israeli murder suspect by focusing its investigation on security footage stored on a laptop computer.
The woman's husband, Shimon Biton, was arrested late last year for allegedly killing compatriot Eli Cohen and hiding the dismembered body parts in bags in a wall at the couple's Nonthaburi home.
Mr Biton has allegedly confessed to the crime, saying that he acted in a fit of jealousy after learning that Cohen had an affair with his wife.
Anan Saengurai, the woman's father believes his daughter, Nantiya, 38, who he last heard from in November, 2015 is "also dead" but this has yet to be confirmed because no body has been found.
He suspects Mr Biton of involvement in her disappearance after he gave him conflicting accounts about what had happened to her.
Mr Anan also said newly discovered security camera footage could shed light on his daughter's disappearance as he filed a new complaint with the CSD yesterday.
Previous efforts to locate her by CSD investigators, who searched the house in Nonthaburi's Bang Kruai district where the couple and their son had lived, failed to find any other human remains.
Mr Anan said officers need to examine footage from a security camera kept on a laptop computer seized by Bang Bua Thong police after Mr Biton's arrest.
He said the clue was provided by the couple's 18-year-old son, who was suspected of conspiring with Mr Biton to conceal the dismembered body parts of Cohen, a former Israeli police officer.
The son has given police the password to access the footage, but the officers have "still been unable to open the computer because it uses Hebrew script", Mr Anan said.
He said he was also told by his grandson that the couple had a heated row just before Ms Nantiya went missing.
Her father said has not obtained any useful information from Mr Biton, who had lived with his daughter for more than 20 years.
"He tried to avoid answering any of my questions," Mr Anan said, adding his responses about her whereabouts were confusing.
The 54-year-old suspect first said his wife was nabbed by Lao authorities for a drug offence at a border checkpoint opposite the northeastern province of Nong Khai.
A check by police investigators found no record of the woman's arrest by Lao authorities, Mr Anan said.
Later, Mr Biton told him his daughter had not disappeared but had died of cancer.
"My mind's been in turmoil since then," Mr Anan said, hoping his fresh complaint and the new clue should lead police to the truth.
CSD officers said yesterday they will set up a team of investigators again to search for Ms Nantiya.
Mr Biton was arrested on Nov 12 last year when the dismembered body parts belonging to Cohen were retrieved from a wall inside the suspect's house in Phattharawan housing estate in Nonthaburi's Bang Bua Thong district.
CSD police nabbed him during a raid on the rented two-storey townhouse where he lived with his son.
The raid followed a request by the Israeli embassy to search for Cohen who was reported missing on Nov 7 from a condominium in Bangkok's Bang Phat district.
Cohen's relatives had previously submitted a petition to the Israeli embassy about his disappearance.
At Mr Biton's house, police found three black bags after noticing a strong smell and knocking two bricks from a wall which they said looked out of place. The bricks were encased in concrete.
The first bag contained a severed head; the second contained a left leg with a black sock; and the third, the largest bag, contained the torso, arms and the right leg.