The Royal Thai Police took a good solid year to build an airtight criminal case against Chaiphol "Lung Phol" Wipha, the prime suspect in the death of toddler Orawan "Nong Champoo" Wongsricha, who was found dead and violated on a mountain not far from her home in Mukdahan province last year.
He was served with an arrest warrant earlier this month.
Chaiphol, the favourite uncle of the deceased girl, was the prime suspect in this high profile proceeding from the start. He continued to claim his innocence despite changing his testimony multiple times.
From the very beginning to the day the accused was arrested, this case has played out like a soap opera on television news channels with the public concerned over the slow progress law enforcement were making on the investigation.
Chaiphol's much-anticipated court trial to clear his name is currently gaining momentum.
To get an expert's take on how this case has unfolded so far, Life sat down with Krisanaphong Poothakool, a former police investigator-turned-criminologist who has closely followed the investigation.
For starters, the seasoned criminologist said this case comes with complexities primarily because of the where the body of the three-year-old was found -- dense vegetation with no CCTV footage or credible witnesses -- which provided little clues to help police piece together the puzzle.
Second, since there were many neighbours involved in the search team after the victim first went missing, a lot of the evidence was contaminated and tampered with by the time forensic experts actually arrived at the crime scene.
The heightened media scrutiny, which put pressure on police investigators to quickly nab the suspect, inadvertently created a celebrity out of Chaiphol after a handful of channels hoping to increase their viewer ratings began showing him as a reality star. Meanwhile, social media found his good looks and suave and deferential personality irresistible.
"With the main suspect achieving such fame, it did not help with the investigation," remarked Krisanaphong. "Throughout the entire process, the police kept mum about the progress they were making and rightfully so. Much of what was being told to the public about the case originated from unconfirmed sources and social media circles. This made many people believe that the 44-year-old prime suspect was being targeted as a scapegoat by the police."
Krisanaphong said the biggest roadblock in this case was the gathering of forensic evidence and the fact circumstances hindered officers from cordoning off the crime scene, which contributed to contamination and the case taking this long before an arrest warrant was served.
The time it took the police to arrive at the dead girl's village also played a role in throwing investigators off the path.
"The fact that police had to drive a long way to reach the crime scene allowed the perpetrator sufficient time to tamper with evidence.
"Another factor that played a significant part in slowing down the investigation in the initial stages was an obvious lack of forensic experts at the provincial level, a phenomenon which does not happen just in Thailand but elsewhere. This meant that police had to comb through the crime scene multiple times."
Krisanaphong said law enforcement had to keep their investigation low-key because they did not want to scare off witnesses in case their information could cause them undue pressure.
"Among the numerous glitches the investigating team faced was gaining the trust of the locals, so they would be able to offer information on the accused. As rural folks are pretty close-knit, it was a time-consuming effort to get them to open up to strangers."
Chaiphol was served with an arrest warrant which accused him of having played a part in the death of his niece. While he remains innocent until proven guilty by the courts, the initial charges against him include depriving a child of parental care, abandoning a child under nine in a way that caused her death, and tampering with a body to influence the results of an autopsy and police investigation.
One damning evidence implicating his guilt includes clothing, shoes and three hair strands -- whose owner was identified via DNA -- as well as 36 pieces of cut hair from the victim and other forensic evidence and witnesses' accounts. This will make court proceedings lengthy as Chaiphol's team will be rebutting each accusation with their own evidence.
"I foresee a long court battle ahead. Police have to prove how Chaipol's DNA was found on the girl, which by no means will be easy. They will need to use state of the art forensic technology to prove their case. The forensic evidence that was collected during the investigation will be scrutinised by the accused's attorney. Simply put, they will be looking into the process used in maintaining and documenting the handling of evidence. This will be highlighted because it involves the keeping of a detailed log showing who collected, handled, transferred, or analysed the evidence during the investigation. The procedure for establishing a chain of custody begins with the crime scene."
Krisanaphong said he hopes Nong Champoo's case will raise awareness about the need to improve police investigations and the process of bringing criminals to justice.
He proposes community involvement in crime suppression, which he suggests can start with educating village leaders on how to secure a crime scene and the importance of forensic evidence that plays an enormous role in closing a case.
He suggests police and government agencies work in partnership on such a campaign as it will require structure and dedication to make it a success.
Provincial law enforcement should also receive training to up their game, said the criminologist.
"God forbid, we certainly don't want history to repeat itself with a similar crime taking place. We need to plug all loopholes that were made apparent during the year-long investigation of Nong Champoo."
Krisanaphong also raised the point of a need to rehash police protocols of sending their best police team to cases that attract media attention, while the ones that do not are often given little attention.
Having had over 25 years of experience with the crime suppression unit, he said several criminal cases never saw the light of day in court because they never made it to the daily news bulletin.
"The reality is that cases that fetch media attention are prioritised while those that are not at best have a substandard investigation which often results in scapegoats, and actual perpetrators still roaming free on the streets and re-offending. However, in my opinion, we can only get our act together and suppress crime after police reform is prioritised in our nation. Our prime minister pledged to do so but has yet to make good of his promise.
"Accountability and transparency can only happen when we hold police governance in high esteem. Before law enforcement can educate the public on how to police their community, they have to learn themselves what it entails. In my opinion, the entire police system has to be revamped from top to bottom to see tangible change take place. We have hundreds of thousands of warrants today which have seen no progress because the wheels of police reform continue to remain stagnant.
"One of the many lessons from Nong Champoo's case is that the Royal Thai Police cannot financially afford to take one year to bring an accused to court ever again. Thus, it is imperative for our PM to realise just how detrimental it is to continue with the bureaucratic system we are currently using to police the nation. We must agree on nationwide policy reforms as soon as possible."
