PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — The parents of the alleged rapist and killer of a 13-year-old passenger on a train described their son as a “rather quiet, taciturn and unsociable person”, a police investigator in charge of the case said.
The parents of the 22-year-old train steward-turned rape and murder suspect, Wanchai Saengkhao, were speaking to Pol Lt Col Pratuang Suparat, an investigator at Sarm Kratai police station in Kui Buri district after they were called in for questioning.
After the murder, Suwat Saengkhao, Mr Wanchai’s father, asked his son how he obtained an iPhone. His son flatly told him that he had “found it”. He also told his father that a passenger had disappeared from the overnight train No.174 from Surat Thani to Bangkok on which he was working, according to Pol Lt Col Pratuang.
Investigators said Mr Wanchai allegedly stole an iPhone and iPad from his victim, nicknamed Nong Kaem, after the girl was raped and killed and her body thrown out of a sleeper car window when the train was in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Thap Sakae district in the early morning hours of Sunday.
Wanchai Saengkhao shows police how he strangled a 13-year-old girl before raping and killing her at a re-enactment Wednesday. CHAIWAT SARDYAEM
A source close to the investigation said Mr Wanchai’s parents told police that their son brought home at least a dozen women, all different people, in a one week-span before the murder of Nong Kaem. Mr Wanchai was said to be introverted and obsessed with watching porn movies, the source quoted his parents as saying.
The investigation team also questioned a 19-year-old train staff who was drinking beer with the suspect on the train before the killing took place.
The young man, whose name is withheld, said Mr Wanchai told him he liked a girl in the third bogie, began observing her since she boarded the train from Surat Thani on Saturday evening, and planned to rape her.
Mr Wanchai later walked toward the third bogie and returned to him with an iPhone in his hand shortly after.
He asked the suspect where a young girl, whom he knew later as Nong Kaem, in the bogie had disappeared, and Mr Wanchai said he threw her somewhere when the train was between Wang Pong and Khao Tao stations.
The alleged killer told his colleague that he “found” the smart phone and would sell it and split money to him after they reached Bangkok. Mr Wanchai sold the girl’s mobile phone, which gave police a clue to track him down, but did not share the money with his friend.