Brother ‘ordered hit’ in Phrae
PHRAE: Police unearthed the bodies of a British millionaire and his Thai wife buried on their own property yesterday morning after three men confessed to their murder and claimed the woman’s elder brother had paid them a total of 50,000 baht to carry out the killings.
Police detained the three suspects in Wang Chin district on Monday but the alleged mastermind was still at large as of press time last night.
After hours of interrogation, the three men admitted to colluding in the murder of Scotsman Alan Hogg, a 64-year-old retiree, and his wife Nod Suddaen, 61, at the couple’s home in the central district of this northern province.
The suspects, whose identities were not disclosed, named Warut Satchakit, Nod’s brother, as the man who planned the killings.
They said they shot and killed Hogg in front of a duck pen on his property and then used a hammer to beat Nod to death in front of the garage. It was not clear why the wife was murdered by more brutal means.
They said Mr Warut subsequently took the bodies away to bury them in the victims’ garden.
The corpses were found next to each other in a hole about 2 metres deep beside a creek running through their large property in Muang district, police said.
Police and rescue workers had previously dug there after a small backhoe was found parked next to freshly turned soil but had found nothing.
A deeper dig yesterday turned up two pairs of shoes before the bodies were uncovered, police said.
The couple had been together for many years and had bought more than 100 rai of land in tambon Chor Hae, which they farmed. They had built a large and well-appointed house.
They were reported missing in Muang district last Thursday by a friend who said they had not replied to messages or phone calls since the previous Tuesday, when they were supposed to have met up in Chiang Mai. Investigators found their white pickup truck was also missing.
Police later arrested Mr Warut after CCTV footage showed him entering the couple’s home and driving away in the pickup but he denied any involvement in their disappearance.
He was charged with theft of the vehicle and released on bail of 100,000 baht.
Police said on Monday the pickup had been located in Ayutthaya and was being sent for a forensic examination.
Investigators said the truck had been purchased last Friday from a Thai couple by a man from Laos, who contacted police as soon as news reports of the couple’s disappearance emerged.