Phetchaburi provincial court has approved an arrest warrant for former Police General Hospital doctor Pol Col Supat Laohawattana, who is suspected of multiple murders.
The approval follows forensic confirmation that a body found at a Phetchaburi pineapple orchard owned by Pol Col Supat is that of a Myanmar labourer of his who had disappeared.
The warrant seeks to have Pol Col Supat charged with premeditated murder, hiding a body and concealing the cause of death, said Pol Col Pichai Pokpong, chief of Tha Mai Ruak police station in Phetchaburi's Tha Yang district.
The investigation team was trying to conclude reports recommending that prosecutors indict Pol Col Supat on three additional charges: theft, possessing stolen items, and illegally detaining people.
The reports will be submitted to prosecutors next week, Pol Col Pichai said.
He said the investigation team had produced watertight evidence which convinced the court to issue a warrant for Pol Col Supat's arrest.
The evidence included DNA test results, witness testimony, and handguns seized from the suspect's two houses in Phetchaburi and Nonthaburi.
Scientists have confirmed one of three skeletons exhumed from Pol Col Supat's orchard was that of a Myanmar national called Ta, formerly a worker at the orchard in Tha Yang district.
DNA collected from the skeleton matched samples collected from Ta's son and father.
A bullet hole was found in his skull. Police earlier quoted a witness as claiming the doctor had killed the worker and that he had another worker bury the man in his orchard.
The other two skeletons were also of Asian men. One was of a man aged 18-21 and 158-168cm tall. His skull also has a bullet hole.
The other skeleton was that of a man aged 18-24 and 163-172cm tall.
Pol Col Supat has also been implicated in the disappearance of married couple Samart Noomjui and Orasa Kerdsap three years ago.
The doctor's third wife, Wilasa Chantarabanchorn, has told police that she saw her husband in the orchard with the couple on the day they disappeared but that she did not know what happened after that.
Pol Col Supat has also been accused by a former employee called Kala, from Myanmar, of killing two other Myanmar nationals who worked in his orchard.