The father of a nine-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Nakhon Phanom is demanding that police quickly bring the killer to justice.
The family of a nine-year-old girl call on police to urgently arrest the rapist killer. The girl's body was found dumped in a swamp on Jan 4. (Photo by Pattanapong Sripheachai)
The body of the girl (name withheld) was found dumped in a public swamp near her village on Jan 4 afternoon by her relatives. She had gone missing from her house at Thavorn village in tambon Mahachai of Pla Pak district of this northeastern province on the night of Jan 3.
Police called to investigate found there were severe bruises on her body, which was sent to Srinakharind Hospital in Khon Kaen for an autopsy to establish the cause of death.
The initial autopsy found the girl died before she was immersed in the swamp. There were signs of assault and raping, said police.
Relatives said the girl, a Pathom Suksa 2 (Grade 2) pupil at Ban Thavorn school in tambon Mahachai, had lived with her grandparents in the village since her parents divorced several years ago. Her father had gone to work in another province.
The girl's saddened 29-year-old father said he could not accept that anyone would do such an inhumane thing to his 9-year-old daughter.
He had asked his parents and neighbours if there were any indications of danger or threats before his daughter disappeared in thehope of turning up evidence pointing to the killer.
Nothing like this had ever happened in the village before and there were no clues pointing to a suspect.
He called on police to urgently find and arrest the rapist as the murder had spread fear in the village. He believed the murderer might live in the village.
Pol Col Permsak Srisoda, chief of Pak Pla police, said investigators have summonsed people for questioning. He was confident the rapist-killer would be unmasked soon.