PATTAYA: Police have seized a speedboat belonging to a prime suspect in the murder of a German property broker, as they believe he might have intended to use it to dump the victim’s dismembered body at sea.
Investigators from the Nong Prue police station took the 18-foot speedboat from a house on Phra Tamnak Soi 5 in Pattaya on Wednesday night.
The boat was owned by Olaf Thorsten Brinkmann, 52, one of four suspects arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of Hans Peter Walter Mack, 62. The boat was kept at the house of a German friend who alerted police after learning about the arrest of his compatriot, said a police source.
His friend told investigators that Mr Brinkmann had sought help on July 8 to tow his speedboat from Nong Krabok Soi 4 to the Chokchai Garden Home housing estate in Nong Prue.
On July 9, the friend told Mr Brinkmann that he would tow the boat to the Ocean Marina pier in Pattaya. But because it had no registration documents, the boat could not be moored there. He then brought the boat to Phra Tamnak Soi 5.
Surveillance video at a fishing supplies shop showed Mr Brinkmann and another suspect, Shahrukh Karim Uddin, buying some gear there. Mr Uddin, 27, a Pakistani with Thai nationality, was arrested in Kanchanaburi on Wednesday afternoon after trying to flee across the border to Myanmar.
Police believe the two men were planning to go to sea and dump Mack’s body overboard to destroy evidence. However, the dismembered body of the victim was found hidden in a freezer at a rented house in tambon Nong Prue on Monday night — six days after the German man went missing.
Officers who searched the house found the freezer containing the body, along with an electric saw, ropes, food seals and bottles of drinking water, soda and beer. The victim’s body had been dismembered, with the head, torso and limbs separated and put into bags inside the 1.5-metre-long freezer.
Mr Brinkmann and Mr Udin were among the four suspects arrested for the murder. Also in custody are two other German women: Petra Christl Grundgreif, 54, and Nicole Frevel, 52. Ms Frevel, who is disabled, rented the house where the body of the German businessman was found.
Mr Uddin was taken to Nong Prue police station on Wednesday night after his arrest in Kanchanaburi, and placed in a cell next to Mr Brinkmann.
His parents and his elder brother arrived at the police station to see Mr Uddin. The tearful parents were seen hugging their son.
Mr Uddin’s parents, who run a frozen seafood business in Phuket, told reporters that they knew Ms Grundgreif, a land broker, as she had approached them two years ago about jointly investing in the seafood business.
The German woman wanted the couple to supply products to her in Pattaya. However, they were reluctant to comply with her request that they send products to her first before receiving any payment.
They said they had no contact with the woman since the negotiations failed. However, they later learned that their son had contacted the woman about investing in a property business.
The parents said they tried to persuade him not to do business with the woman, but to no avail. Mr Uddin later told them he received money from a land sale in Phuket from the woman. After that, the parents said they had not paid attention to their son’s business.