Thai homeless murder suspect held
Bangkok: The police will soon submit a 20-year-old Myanmar man identified only as Bungor Jimmy, who was arrested on Friday for allegedly murdering three homeless people in Pathum Thanis Thanyaburi district last week, for a psychiatric examination to determine if he is mentally ill, city police chief Lt-General Sanit Mahathaworn said.
Bungor has admitted to being the person filmed on a surveillance video taken close to the scene of one murder but has denied killing anyone.
The man was arrested on the side of Kamphaeng Phet Road in Chatuchak district on Friday and gave confusing testimony to police during an interrogation that lasted for hours, Sanit said.
However, police believe that they have the right man because a witness told police that he saw Bungor at the scene before one killing and that the suspect had asked him to have sex.
A six-year-old child also had claimed to have seen Bungor tying up one victim, the police chief added.
Sanit said police had found a bloodstain on the man’s T-shirt, which they suspect came from another person.
He said the man’s clothes were submitted for DNA testing and if there is a match with any of the victims, police would link him to all three murders. He said the DNA test results should be available in one to two weeks.
A source in the investigation team said Bungor was also accused of a fourth murder for allegedly killing newspaper vendor Wanchai Noimontree, 56, who was found dead with 10 stab wounds to his neck and torso on Sept 5, at a park in Phayathai.
At the time, homeless people in the area, including Bungor, were rounded up for questioning but there was no evidence to prosecute him for the murder.
The Myanmar man was charged with illegal entry, then deported on Sept 12, but he returned and allegedly committed more killings, the source said.
Police will collect samples of his DNA to compare with evidence from the slaying of Wanchai, including a knife and a wooden stick, the source said.
Police have already filed charges against Bungor for the murder of the three homeless people slain last week.
The victims were Supakorn Khokkran, 25, Supapan Khongyoodee, 38, and Sathien Sornchai, 48, whose bodies where found on Tuesday and Thursday with hands tied behind their backs.
The accused was brought to Thanyaburi Court on Saturday.
Bungor told police that he was in the Pathum Thani neighbourhood for only six days to collect and sell garbage, but he travelled to Bangkok because he wanted to beg for money and possibly get a job.
He claimed he ran away after spotting police because he lacked documentation and had been arrested for illegal entry earlier. After his deportation, he said he walked back to the border at Mae Sot, and was given a bicycle by a kind-hearted villager, which he rode to Bangkok. — The Nation/Asia News Network