Thai in Sydney ditch ‘was beaten’
The family of a Thai man whose body was found dumped on the side of a busy Sydney road this month is asking the Royal Thai Police (RTP) to send Australian police his fingerprints so they can receive the body for funeral rites.
One of the relatives of Wachira “Mario” Phetmang, 33, told the Bangkok Post she contacted the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Sydney two weeks ago to help them get in contact with the RTP via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok but still has not received a reply.
“The Australian police told us that his fingerprints he had given to the Criminal Records Division of the RTP before travelling to Australia are very important. They need them to check they match,” said the woman, who declined to be named.
“If enough details correlate and the fingerprints are determined to be from the same person, they will ask the court to return his body to our family for funeral rites. We want the Thai police to do it as quickly as possible,’’ she added.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Busadee Santipitaks said yesterday the ministry was working on the matter.
Wachira was last seen entering a South Hurstville petrol station in the city’s south on May 25 before his body was discovered wrapped in material in a rain culvert next to Homebush Bay Drive, according to www.9news.com.au.
Australian police confirmed he was Thai. Wachira, who was recently living in Hurstville, was identified by police after a forensic investigation.
CCTV f ootage has since been released showing him at a service station on King Georges Road, along with a silver 2004 Hyundai Terracan registered in Victoria.
The vehicle is not believed t o have been owned by the dead man and has not yet been located.
Detective Superintendent Scott Cook from the NSW Police Homicide Squad t old t he media Wachira was found wrapped in plastic and a mattress protector.
He was bound and gagged and had been beaten.
NSW police have since confirmed that a postmortem revealed the cause of death to be blunt-force trauma linked to a serious assault.
“I would call upon any member of the public who knows anything about Mario’s whereabouts between May 25 and June 6 to come forward and provide police with information,” the police said.
Possible links to organised crime and drugs are also suspected.