NAKHON PHANOM: An unidentified woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase in the Mekong River in That Phanom district might be a Lao national after a group of businesspeople from Vientiane saw her clothes and believed the woman might be their relative who went missing last week.
Pol Col Thawil Khamket, chief of That Phanom police, said on Friday that Lao businesspeople had recently contacted police to see the body of the woman after learning about the discovery of her body in the Mekong River.
They saw the clothes she wore and believed she was their missing relative. They would travel to Nakhon Phanom to identify the body, said the district police chief.
Police were awaiting autopsy results from Khon Kaen's forensic institute.
The body of the woman, aged around 25-30, was found stuffed inside a suitcase in the Mekong River in That Phanom district on Wednesday. Earlier reports mentioned the woman might be aged around 40.
Her face looked like it had been hit with a hard object, police said, but there were no marks on the rest of her body, which had not been tied with any rope. A large stone had been placed inside the case to make it sink.
There were no documents about her. Only her clothes were possible clues as she wore brand-name outfits, which suggested that the woman might be wealthy.
Police are reported to believe she might have been killed elsewhere before her body was dumped into the river.
Pol Col Thawil said if relatives confirmed the killing had occurred across the border, police investigators would hand over the body and autopsy results to them to proceed with the case in accordance with the law in Laos.
Thai police would have no authority to investigate the matter further, Pol Col Thawil added.