The jealous strangler
A Nakhon Ratchasima man convinced himself his girlfriend was seeing someone else and spied on her for a week before deciding to take her life.
Prasert 'Mod' Nguanklang
Nong Bun Mak police charged truck driver Prasert "Mod" Nguanklang, 33, for strangling to death his girlfriend of four years, Emon Inkanon, also 33, at an abandoned petrol station near village 4 in Nong Takai sub-district on July 10.
A goods trader who runs a casual car-parking service at the abandoned station said Emon left her motorcycle there every day at 6.30am before catching the bus to work, and picked it up again in the evening.
"Keow" (assumed name), said while Emon would typically get the bus back before the next leg of her journey home, on some nights she would be dropped off at the station in a private motor vehicle.
"For the past week her boyfriend would arrive and secretly wait to confront her. On the day of the incident a car turned up at 6.30pm and her boyfriend immediately started arguing with her and charged at the vehicle with a pocket knife. However, the car drove off first," she said.
"I heard the pair arguing, but I could not make out what they were saying. The sun was setting so I couldn't see much either," she told reporters.
Mr Mod, who admitted killing his girlfriend, left her body by the side of the station in the darkness. The station has no lighting and at first family members who came in search of Emon could not find her.
Moments after strangling her, he took his motorcycle to a nearby tapioca flour factory for which he had worked in the past, and asked a security guard for a drink of water. The guard, Tiangthong Konkatok, 51, who knows Mr Mod from his time with the firm, said Mr Mod turned up at 7pm, barefooted and looking exhausted.
"I asked jokingly what he had been doing to work up such a thirst, and he replied he had just killed someone.
"I was shocked so I asked who and he said he had killed his girlfriend."
According to the guard, he said: "'She lied to me. She has someone else.
"The cops will arrest me before long. We probably won't see each other again for many years."
After Mr Mod left on his motorcycle, Mr Tiangthong called a friend asking them to get in touch with the victim's family.
The victim's younger sister, Nichthawan Inkanon, 27, said when Emon had still not come home by 8pm, she went to the station to look for her.
She found her motorcycle there, but no sign of her sister. Later she received word about what Mr Mod had told the guard.
"I returned to the station and looked again. At first I still had no luck as it was so dark but when we trained the headlights of a pickup on the area I found her against a wall," she said, speaking from her sister's funeral at Wat Mai Sri Sukratbamrung.
"At first I thought she was merely unconscious. We called rescue workers but they said she was dead."
Rescue workers found bruises around her throat and shoulders. "I reckon he forced her to the ground and strangled her," she said.
Ms Nichthawan said Mr Mod was wrong to think Emon was unfaithful, as she was too busy to see anyone.
"He claimed my sister had a secret lover, but I know that's not true. She had time only for work, to pay off debts he had run up on gambling websites."
Mr Mod was hooked on gambling, and the two argued often as a result.
"He wants her to sit like a doll in front of his truck, accompanying him to work every day.
"In April they argued and he put her in a headlock. She grabbed a piece of wood and hit him over the head. Still, I never thought it would come to this.
"I want his side of the family to help with funeral costs but have yet to hear from them," she added.
Asked about the man who drove her home, she said Emon would sometimes get a lift back from friends.
Emon Inkanon
Surrendering to police, Mr Mod said he killed the victim out of jealousy, and repeated his claim she was seeing someone else.
Amarin TV took a look at her social media posts. On July 1, she wrote: 'You tell other people I am no good...but perhaps I am only that way with you."
On July 10, she wrote about her partner in a similar vein, though on a sadder note: "With a face like mine, I can't be a good person to anyone; I can only be bad."
Police said they sent the body to hospital to determine the cause. They charged Mr Mod, who handed himself in at 9pm, with assault causing death.
Power kick sends hubby flying
A woman went to her husband's aid as he was being electrocuted on a ladder, but ended up sealing his fate on the ground instead.
This is the ladder which Suchart Karaphakdee fell off.
Electrician Suchart Karaphakdee, 52, from Hanka district, Chai Nat province, was on a ladder connecting a housing project to the main power supply at a village in Kukot district, Pathum Thani, when he electrocuted himself.
His wife, Som Khunkang, 50, works in the village as a cleaner and had just come back to join her husband for lunch when someone rushed up to say he was being electrocuted.
Seeing her husband was still on the ladder clutching the wires, she gave it a sharp kick, sending him toppling to the ground and hitting his head.
"At first he was still conscious after striking his head. He complained of having hurt his neck. I called rescue workers who tried to keep him alive but without success," she said.
Rescue workers found burns to his right hand, and above his head, a severed wire and dangling plug. The nape of his neck was also bleeding. Ms Som was in a state of shock after losing her husband and had to be comforted by friends.
Deputy inspector of investigations at Kukot station, Pol Cap Patiphol Promket, said rescue workers had sent the body to hospital for an autopsy.
A mysterious bag of pills
A Rayong man is cursing his bad luck after a motorcyclist ran into the back of his pickup, and a bag of speed pills appeared at the accident scene as rescue workers were present.
Praphat is pointing to the back of his pickup where the drugs were found.
Praphat, 30, said he and his girlfriend had just been out for the night in Mapyangphon, Pluak Daeng district when she started to feel queasy so he pulled over by the side of the road and put on his hazard lights.
He had helped taken her to the side of the road as she vomited when a motorcyclist ran into the back of the pickup. He hit the tailpipe and lay there groaning so Mr Praphat called rescue workers to tend to his injuries.
As they were flipping him over, a small bag of five speed pills appeared on the ground.
"As they were tending to him, the rescue workers were stunned when the baggie appeared. Everyone stared at it and wondered how it got there: whether it belonged to the injured guy or me," he told reporters later.
Mr Praphat insisted he was innocent and the bag wasn't his. "There were 10 rescue workers there and they agreed the drugs appeared when they were turning over the injured guy.
"Still, police called me to the station for a urine test, which was negative," he said, lamenting his fate to be tied to the drugs.
"On top of that I have to get the damage to my vehicle repaired," he said, complaining that two strokes of bad luck had befallen him in one go.
The police are waiting to question the motorcyclist about the drugs, and he would have to wait for them to do their work. "I am still stunned about why the bag had to appear at the rear of his truck just at that moment," he said.
