A 25-year-old woman has been detained for questioning after authorities discovered the body of a two-year-old boy in a refrigerator at a townhouse in Bang Bua Thong district of Nonthaburi on Saturday morning.
Police, forensic officials, rescue workers and a medical team responded to an alert around 7.30am, heading to a housing estate on Rattanathibet Road.
There, they found the boy’s body wrapped in a blanket and stuffed inside a refrigerator in a bedroom of the two-storey townhouse. The appliance was still working.
The woman, identified as Marisa “Koi” Thong-iam, was found near the premises and was the last person known to have been with the child before his death, according to police.
Ms Marisa, who is about six months pregnant, was taken to Bang Bua Thong station for questioning.
An initial investigation found that the woman and her 31-year-old husband Harnnarong, alias Bank, had taken responsibility for raising the boy, whose parents were jailed on drug charges. Mr Harnnarong is the grandson of the house’s owners.
A source said Ms Marisa told police that she was in the house with the toddler and noticed ants near his eyes and hands, with sticky rice in his mouth while he was sleeping. This occurred on Tuesday while she waited for her husband to return home.
When Mr Harnnarong came home, he placed the boy’s body in the refrigerator, his wife claimed.
Pol Col Somphon Wongsrisunthorn, deputy chief of Nonthaburi police, said Mr Harnnarong’s grandparents subsequently detected a bad odour inside the house, leading them to alert the police.
There were five people inside the house — Ms Marisa, Mr Harnnarong, his grandparents and the boy, who was a son of the couple’s friends, said Pol Col Somphon.
He said forensic officials were examining some wounds on the child’s body to determine the exact cause of death.
Pol Col Preut Chamroonsart, chief of the Bang Bua Thong station, said Mr Harnnarong’s grandmother reported the child as missing but suspected he might still be in the house. She asked the police to investigate as her grandson’s bedroom but it was locked.
When the officers forced open the bedroom door, they noticed a bad odour emanating from the refrigerator. The boy’s body was subsequently found inside.
Pol Col Preut said Ms Marisa told investigators that the boy had ingested sticky rice and choked to death when it became lodged in his throat. She claimed she was at a loss about what to do and resorted to wrapping the body in a blanket.
He said police would also question the boy’s biological parents, as investigators were awaiting an autopsy report. (Story continues below)
Police cordon off the townhouse in Nonthaburi where the body of a boy was found stuffed inside a refrigerator. (Photo supplied/ Wassayos Ngamkham)
Police investigators would initially file charges of concealment and destroying a body against those implicated, said Pol Col Preut. The grandparents are unlikely to face charges, given that the grandfather is blind and it was the grandmother who alerted the police, he added.
The station chief said there that in addition to Ms Marisa and Mr Harnnarong, another male relative might have been involved.
Mr Harnnarong has not been located yet.
Peewara Chariyamaetho, deputy mayor of Bang Rak Pattana municipality, said she had learned that the boy’s real parents were addicted to drugs. Consequently, Bank and Koi had taken on the responsibility of raising the child, she said.