TAK: A Hmong leader and relative of the family of five killed in Tak last Sunday, has offered a 50,000-baht reward for anyone who arrests three Myanmar suspects whom police believe have already crossed back into Myawaddy.
Seu Saema, 51, a Hmong leader in Ban Pha Phueng village and a relative of the family of Chao Manpatanakarn, 46, Jia Saengsawang, 34, and their three children aged three months, seven years and 10 years, made the offer following the discovery of the family's bodies near the Nakhiri stream about 10 kilometres from the centre of Sri Khiri Rak village in tambon Chiang Thong on Feb 8.
Police also found a spent 9mm bullet cartridge and black plastic bags of ginger at the scene.
An autopsy found knife wounds on Chao's neck and also on his wife and the older two children's bodies.
Their three-month-old baby had been shot in the chest, Mr Seu said.
Pol Col Wasant Sirikarnkomol, chief of Wang Chao police, said police had yet to find the gun and knife that were used in the mass murders.
He said the suspects were hired to work at the slain family's ginger plantation in tambon Chiang Thong, Wang Chao district in Tak province.
Sources close to the police probe believe the suspects killed Chao after he stopped paying their wages and they could no longer afford to pay for drugs.
The Investigation Division Provincial Police Region 6 has assigned a team of inspectors, Tak provincial police and Wang Chao police to track down the suspects, now believed to be in hiding back among the Hmong in Myawaddy, Myanmar, said Pol Col Wasant.
Following a four-day search which failed to find the men, it is believed that all fled to Myawaddy through the Phop Phra district of Tak province, a border town next to Myanmar, Pol Col Wasant added.
However, none of a group of 15 migrant workers who were caught using the route on Feb 9 had come into contact with any of the three suspects.