A 52-year-old man was arrested on Thursday and charged over the drug fuelled murder of a 33-year-old bar girl in Chiang Mai over Songkran.
Para Chusri, 52, a resident of Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district, was presented at a police press conference. He is charged with murder.
Pol Lt Gen Thanitsak Theerasawat, chief of Provincial Police Region 5, said the accused man was apprehended around noon on Thursday during a police raid on a guesthouse in tambon Chang Moi in Chiang Mai’s Muang district.
Police also seized a mobile phone belonging to the victim, a motorcycle and clothes he wore on the day he allegedly killed the woman. His image was captured by a closed-circuit television camera.
Samorn Khlangdet, 33, an employee at a beer bar in Chiang Mai, was found lying face down on the bathroom floor of a hotel room on Chang Klan Road in Muang district on Tuesday.
An autopsy found the woman had bruises to her face and severe cuts to her vagina and anal area. An empty glass water bottle was found inside an abdominal cavity. Doctors said severe bleeding from her vagina and rectum was the cause of death.
Hotel staff earlier told police the woman and a man had checked in early on April 13, and the man left around 9.45am. A hotel maid found Samorn's body around noon on April 14.
During interrogation, Mr Para told police he had met the victim at a bar and she later agreed to go the hotel with him. They drank alcohol in the room. He confessed that he had put Valium in the drink, causing both of them to lose control, according to police.
He claimed he was unaware that the woman had died when he left the room.
Pol Lt Gen Thanitsak said the suspect admitted he had done similar brutal things to two partners in tambon Chang Phuek and tambon Mae Ping in Chiang Mai, but neither had died.
Investigators were expanding their inquiries as they believed the suspect might have committed similar crimes previously in Chon Buri and Bangkok, where complaints had been filed with police.
Police asked people who believe they may have been among his victims to come forward and see if they can identify him at Chiang Mai police station.