The dead body of a Ukrainian woman found on the resort island of Samui on Sunday will be sent for autopsy at Police General Hospital to determine the cause of death, police said yesterday.
Deputy police spokesperson, Pol Col Kissana Phattanacharoen said police have not ruled out murder and an investigation is underway with forensic evidence being gathered from the crime scene.
An initial autopsy carried out by Koh Samui Hospital could not find any evidence of assault or injury since the corpse had been decomposing for many days. The body will now be sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Police General Hospital in Bangkok to determine the cause of death.
The dead woman was found in a ditch on Koh Samui by a hotel employee. She was estimated to have been dead for about two weeks.
Shortly afterwards, a Ukrainian man, Dimas Frolova, 40, a photographer, viewed the body and confirmed it was his wife Olha Frolova, 32, who had been missing since May 25.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Frolova said he and Olha had been married for 12 years and had a son. They had been living on Samui for about five years.
During the past year, his wife had met another foreign man. Two months ago she left him and went to stay with her new boyfriend, taking their son with her. Olha had contacted a lawyer and they were preparing documents to file for a divorce, he said.
Over the past two months, she had visited him several times and sometimes left their son with him.
On May 25, she visited him and left their son in his care, saying she would return to pick him up later.
Mr Frolova said he waited until May 29. She had still not returned so he filed a missing person report with Bo Phut police and asked them to look for her.
Mr Frolova, her new boyfriend and people who knew them would be questioned and surveillance camera recordings from the area would be examined for clues, according to police.