Phetchabun: A man has confessed to strangling his two-year-old grandson to death and hiding his body, police say.
He also invented a story to fool his wife and neighbours that the toddler had gone missing and later dumped the body in a watercourse hoping to trick police into believing it was a drowning, they said.
Sanan Daengdongbang, 61, the grandfather, made the confession late on Tuesday night, police say. He was charged with manslaughter, hiding a corpse, and lodging a false complaint.
The body of his grandson was found on Tuesday in the watercourse, about one kilometre from the grandfather's home, in a manner that police said suggests the boy was murdered and his body later dumped there.
Parinya Wisithakul, deputy Phetchabun provincial police chief, said the body was found in a thick forest area on a steep mountain. It was unlikely that a boy so young would get there on his own. Worse still, the body was found in a manner that suggested it was thrown from higher ground into the watercourse, said Pol Col Parinya.
Mr Sanan told police he strangled the boy to death on Aug 11 in a fit of anger after failing to make the boy stop crying. He was alone with the boy and his daughter's new baby, while his wife was away. He also said he had been under stress after his daughter, who left home to work in Bangkok, sent the baby back home for him and his wife to look after without providing any money.
"Children of other families in this village who have left home to work in the capital always bring back home presents for their parents, while my daughter only brought burdens. She hasn't sent any money home to cover the cost of raising her children," said Mr Sanan, adding his daughter had previously left four children for him and his wife to raise.
Police said Mr Sanan told them he first hid his grandson's body about 500 metres from home and told his wife when she returned from the market that the boy had gone missing, which prompted a search. While that was on, Mr Sanan said he moved the body to the spot where it was found two weeks later.