Pot head runs amok
A drug addict in Ubon Ratchathani killed his grandfather and blind elder sister after they refused his requests for a cash handout to buy more cannabis, family members say.
Muang police nabbed Natthaphong Hongthong, 27, for the double murder in a bedroom on the upper storey of the two-level family home in Kham Yai sub-district.
Natthakamon Hongthong, 35, who is blind, the suspect's elder half-sister, was found nearby Tubtim Hongthong, 85, his maternal grandfather. A relative broke open the locked door of the bedroom to discover the pair after he was unable to find them for hours.
News reports were unclear about the weapon used, describing it as a blunt object. The suspect also left a crude message scrawled in red felt pen on the door of a wardrobe: "I did it".
Mr Natthaphong, who fled the scene, was found hiding in bushes by a local hotel. Reports say he had initially handed himself in to police, and was taking them to the scene when he fled. Police caught up with him some hours later.
While he admitted killing his relatives, he insists he believes they were intruders aiming to kill him. Police, who charged him with premeditated murder, say he was hallucinating and made little sense.
Four people lived at the house: Tubtim, Natthakamon, Mr Natthaphong himself, and Tubtim's grandson, a 12-year-old boy.
When the boy left home to work outdoors, he left the other three at home. When he arrived back, he waited downstairs without knowing the pair were upstairs, already dead.
It wasn't until an uncle, Surin (no surname given), 54, showed up and broke down the door that they found the pair, who had been dead six to eight hours.
Surin said Mr Natthaphong, who had a psychiatric condition brought on by years of cannabis abuse, asked the victims often for money to feed his drug habit. He suspects they refused and he attacked them.
"His mother tried to take him to Prasrimahabhodi Psychiatric Hospital but he would not go," he said.
The suspect's mother, Phromnapat Hongthong, 57, said Mr Natthaphong had recently returned from Phuket in a terrible state.
"He justified his cannabis smoking, saying it was now legal. However, when he lived in Chiang Mai previously, he was in a much better condition -- a heavier build, clear complexion, and looked well."
News reports say Mr Natthaphong was with the family just a few days after his return from Phuket. The family noticed he was hallucinating and talking to himself.
"I gave him 400 baht three times, and spent it all on dope," she said, adding he had smoked cannabis regularly since he was aged about 10.
"When cannabis was still illegal, I called the police to take him away for rehab," she said, adding he kept relapsing. Once the drug was legalised, he claimed he could smoke as much as he liked.
Jilted lover turns the tables
A man in Bangkok who grew sick of a rival taunting him over his ex-lover has been charged with killing him after the two fought it out on the street.
The rescue workers attending to Thotsaporn.
Phra Khanong police nabbed Ness, or Piya (no surname given), 38, for the stabbing death of Thotsaporn Siritanggnam, 28, in soi Sukhumvit 77 (Onnut) last week.
Thotsaporn, who like his rival worked as a motorcycle delivery guy, was found stabbed once in the left side of the chest. According to some reports, he had pulled a BB gun on Ness, but the magazine fell from the weapon before he could fire.
Ness said his rival would send him messages almost daily, taunting him after he managed to lure away his girlfriend, "Mile". He grew tired of the sarcastic baiting and demanded they meet to clear the air, the reports say.
When Thotsaporn arrived, he immediately pulled out his weapon. Ness charged at him and the magazine fell from Thotsaporn's gun before he could fire it. As Thotsaporn bent down to retrieve it, Ness pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim, who fell to the ground.
Ness fled on his bike and was later nabbed by police, who charged him with premeditated murder.
Another report, by Channel 8 Thailand News, however, paints a different picture. CCTV vision taken from the scene shows Ness, carrying a knife, charging at Thotsaporn along the footpath in broad daylight.
He believes Thotsaporn has a gun, so dares him to fire. However, he manages to reach Thotsaporn first and stabs him. The victim retreats a few metres before collapsing from his injuries.
The CCTV vision also shows a man wearing yellow following the pair on foot as they fight it out. He is carrying a knife before the fatal stabbing occurs, and on his return, heading away from the scene and back to their motorcycle, is carrying a gun as well.
The man, who gave his name as Prasong (no surname provided), said he and Ness were taking their bike in for repairs when they came across Thotsaporn. The two started to argue and chase each other on foot.
He said he didn't know what the fight was about but followed Ness, his junior, in case he needed help. He denied reports Ness had arranged to meet his rival.
He took his knife in case he would have to come to Ness' aid, though in the end did not get involved. After the stabbing, he picked up the injured Thotsaporn's gun and took it with him, he said, in case Thotsaporn revived and started shooting.
Camera footage taken at the scene shows rescue workers trying to revive Thotsaporn, without success.
Thotsaporn's father, Noppadon, 48, who drives a motorcycle taxi, went past on his bike without realising at first that the victim was his son. He said he and his son live apart and he had never met "Mile", the woman at the centre of the love duel. Nor did he know his son carried a gun.
The victim's grandmother, Amporn Prathapsil, said Thotsaporn was a good lad who would take her to the market and the doctor and after work every day would turn up at her place for a meal. She turned up at the stabbing scene in tears and had to be consoled by friends.
Dad teaches son bad tricks
An Ayutthaya drug bust led police to a teen cattle farmer, now aged 15, who admitted taking ya ba since the age of 12.
The teen suspect in the cow hut.
"When I finished primary school my father said there was no need for me to study further; I should raise cows and sell drugs for him instead," the boy, unnamed in news reports, told police.
Wiang Sa district police in Nan province, Nan provincial police, and officers from the Office of Narcotics Control Board found the boy when they turned up to search a hut in a cattle pen, owned by a man nabbed in a drugs bust a day before. The boy is the son of one of the suspects. An expanded probe led police to the hut.
The search of the hut turned up 5,870 pills, branded "99", which the boy said his father had given him to sell and consume. The two would often take pills together, he said. The boy claims he took 130 of the pills, originally part of a three-bundle haul of 6,000 pills in total, and woke up in time to find the police there. He was pictured in news images sitting in the hut as police conducted a search.
The saga started on Feb 29 when Region 1 police, and Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers intercepted a truck taking ya ba pills from the northern border in Phayao province to customers in Ayutthaya and Bangkok.
They stopped the truck at a petrol station on the Asian Highway in Bang Pahan district of Ayutthaya and nabbed two occupants, Charat (no surname given), from Pua district in Nan province; and Theeranan (no surname given), 45, from Nan's Wiang Sa district.
Charat is the father of the teen whom police a day later found at the hut, looking after the cattle and the drugs. Reports say that, despite his tender age, the teen faces charges of possession with intent to sell, and taking the drug. Police also seized a six-wheeler, a pickup truck, motorcycles, and cows worth a total of 2.2 million baht.
