PHETCHABUN: A Hmong man, 25, was arrested in Lom Kao district on Sunday and charged with the mutilation murder of his pregnant wife.
Chingchai sae Song was apprehended while fleeing on his motorcycle, a few kilometres from their home in tambon Wang Ban.
Relatives and police had a short time before found the mutilated body of his wife, Duangjai Charoenraktrakul, 24, inside their one-storey wooden house in Ban Thap Boek village.
The body lay face down. Hands and lower legs were cut off and her head savagely slashed and almost unrecognisable. Two knives were left stabbed into her genitals and anus and two more into her back. A long, blood-stained knife was also found dropped nearby, police said
Relatives said the couple were married about two years ago and grew cabbages for a living. Mr Chingchai was addicted to methamphetamine, was extremely jealous and often quarrelled with his wife.
On Sunday morning they had argued again and he became violent. A relative tried to stop him but Mr Chingchai slashed the relative's fingers and back with a knife, so the relative ran to get the police.
When the relative returned with police they found the wife, who was six months pregnant, had been brutally slain.
The suspect was charged with murder and drug abuse.