Three charged in Bangkok after grim discovery in fridge
BANGKOK: Three Western men have been charged with several serious criminal offences, as police await the autopsy results on a dismembered body of a foreign man found in a fridge during a raid on a building in Sukhumvit Soi 56.
According to the police detention application at the Criminal Court in Bangkok yesterday, the three suspects have been charged with having guns and ammunition in their possession without permission, forging stateissued documents, possessing illicit drugs and hiding a dead body to conceal a crime.
British national Peter Andrew Colter, 56, who allegedly shot a policeman during the raid on the building, has also been charged with obstructing police in the performance of their duty and the attempted murder of an onduty police officer.
Colter is being held in custody at Police General Hospital, where he is being treated for an injury.
Police yesterday brought the two American suspects – Gabel Aaron Thomas, 33, and James Douglas Eger, 66 – to appear before the Criminal Court for the detention order and objected to them being released on bail on the grounds that they are a flight risk.
The court approved the three suspects being detained for an initial period from yesterday until Oct 5. The two Americans were sent to Bangkok Remand Prison.
Metropolitan Police Area 5 chief Majgeneral Somprasong Yentuam said Colter claimed to be a Usbased chemist who had travelled to the region to do business in Malaysia.
Somprasong said Colter claimed to have had a legal dispute with his wife, resulting in him moving to Thailand, where he befriended Thomas and Eger and operated a batteryselling business with them.
Sompraspong alleged that Colter admitted that he “unintentionally” shot SgtMajor Kanchanapong Chedech and claimed he had been trying to shoot himself. But Kanchanapong had said Colter had aimed the gun at him.
The dismembered body was found in a commercial fridge on the building’s ground floor.
Somprasong said police would send DNA from the dead man to US authorities so try and determine his identity and the result should be known within a week.