A hardware shop supervisor is being hunted after another employee was found dead, stuffed in an fuel drum buried under concrete, in Bang Khen district, Bangkok.
Police believe a love-triangle quarrel was motive for the murder.
The body of Atcha Noopathum, 38, of Phatthalung, was found buried behind a restaurant on Thepparat Road in Bang Khen on Tuesday.
The 200-litre drum was covered over with concrete, Crime Suppression Division police said on Wednesday.
CSD investigators suspect Prayoon Kaewphayos, who was in charge of the shop.
Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, CSD chief, said a quarrel over a woman was a likely motive for murder. A female clerk at the shop had an affair with Mr Prayoon before she resigned and left in January.
Afterwards, the woman had become romantically involved with Atcha, who worked as a car repairman at the shop.
So far, police had questioned six people, including two friends of the victim and a worker at the restaurant the body was found buried behind.
According to Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop, the restaurant employee admitted that Mr Prayoon had asked him to bury a fuel drum in the area, but he was not aware there was a body inside it.
Mr Prayoon had not been seen or heard from since he left to cast his vote in Phattalung on Sunday. He had not returned to the shop.
Investigators were preparing their case and would seek a court warrant for his arrest
On March 15, relatives of the victim had filed a complaint with CSD police. They said Atcha had not been seen or heard from since March 6. They suspected he had been physically assaulted or even killed.
The CSD investigators began an investigation, starting with examining footage from security cameras in areas near the shop. This led them to the body buried in the oil drum.
Video clip taken from @csdthai Facebook page.