Police have arrested a 29-year-old man on charges of killing his 12-year-old niece and stuffing her body in a plastic box concealed beneath a kitchen sink of their home in Bangkok.
Yutthana Madee was apprehended while with a woman at the Aryan Suites Hotel in Din Daeng district of Bangkok at 4.30pm on Tuesday, police said.
He was suspected of beating his niece to death on Sunday because she had eaten some of the dietary supplements that he and his wife were packing for customers, police said.
Forensic police earlier on Tuesday found the body of the beaten girl in a plastic box in the suspect’s rowhouse in Bang Khen district. Inside the box the body was covered with concrete and soil.
The box was found under a sink in the downstairs kitchen of the two-storey house in the Sinsap Nakhon housing estate on Phahon Yothin Soi 48.
The body was naked and wrapped in black garbage bags and towels. There were many severe impact wounds to the face and body. A doctor estimated the girl had been dead about 48 hours, police said.
A 24-year-old woman identified only as Apinya had called police to the scene. She said the girl was a distant relative who had been separated from her parents since the age of five.
The girl had lived with her 31-year-old aunt Niramol, who was Apinya’s cousin, and with Mr Yutthana, Niramol’s 29-year-old husband.
According to Ms Apinya, the girl was aggressive and often stole things at home. Ms Niramol and her husband frequently scolded the girl, and also hit her.
Past punishment had only made the girl more aggressive and the couple had told Ms Apinya they did not know how to deal with her, according to police.
About 7pm on Monday the couple visited Ms Apinya at her house in Ram Intra area. The man told her he had beaten the girl to death with a baseball bat about 1am on Sunday.
He said he did not intend to kill the girl, wanting only to punish her for stealing and eating food supplements the couple were hired to pack and send to customers.
Mr Yutthana said he had thought about dismembering the body, but shied away from it.
The man told her that on Sunday evening he had bought a large plastic box, put the body inside and covered it over with concrete and then soil, Ms Apinya told police.
He then asked Ms Apinya to call police, and he left.
Police also detained Ms Niramol for questioning to determine if she had played a part in the girl’s death.
Police question murder suspect Yutthana Madee after arresting him in a hotel room in Din Daeng district of Bangkok on Tuesday evening. (Photo supplied)
The Metropolitan Police Bureau earlier issued this picture of suspect Yutthana Madee and asked for information on his whereabouts.