KANCHANABURI: A man has been arrested for the murder of a sugar factory repairman in Bo Phloy district of this western province on Aug 6, police said.
Boonthad Lawa, 50, an employee in the factory's repair and maintenance section, was found dead in a room of the workers' living quarters on Aug 10, according to Pol Maj Sudkhet Pimpakul, a Nong Ree police duty officer.
The body - with six knife wounds - was swollen and emitting a foul smell when it was found.
Police invited Boonthad's relatives and close associates for questioning. In a search of Boonthad's room and his belongings, the police found that his strap bag, containing cash and ATM cards, had disappeared.
In a further investigation, the police found that the ATM cards had been used to withdraw about 100,000 baht from Boonthad's accounts.
By examining ATM security camera footage, the police learned that the person who withdrew the money was Apichart Phachan, 44, a worker at the same sugar factory.
Mr Apichart was invited for questioning on Saturday. He initially denied involvement in the murder, police said. After being shown the ATM footage, he confessed to killing Boonthad.
According to police, Mr Apichart gave the following account.
He frequently met Boonthad for drinking sessions and learned that Boonthad was a money lender. Late on the night of Aug 6 he went to Boonthad's room with a knife and knocked on the door. When Boonthad opened the door, he stabbed him several times in the chest and slashed his neck with the knife. He grabbed Boonthad's strap bag and returned to his room.
In the bag was 200 baht, a gold ring and three ATM cards with pin numbers written on them. The following day, he drove a motorcycle to the banks and withdrew money before fleeing to his home village in tambon Tha Pha in Ban Pong district, Ratchaburi province. On the way, he burned the ATM cards and threw the knife into an irrigation canal at tambon Don Khamin in Tha Maka district.
On Sunday morning, Mr Apichart was brought to the workers' living quarters for a re-enactment of the crime.