Man blames quarrel with wife for rape
KALASIN: A suspect wanted in connection with the rape and attempted murder of two university students has turned himself in three days after the manhunt for him began, with police threatening to take him dead or alive if he resisted using firearms.
Thisanu Thonarat, 30, is also wanted for carrying unauthorised weapons in connection with Tuesday’s attack on two university students.
He contacted the Kham Muang district police requesting he surrender yesterday at a petrol station owned by his elder sister, said a police source.
When being questioned he told investigators he had broken up with his wife due to a violent quarrel two days before committing the crime.
Late on Monday, before encountering the students sometime after midnight he drank a bottle of liquor, took two methamphetamine tablets and went for a drive, the source said.
After spotting the f emale student riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by a male, Mr Thisanu said he shunted t he bike with his car, causing it to stop.
The 21-year-old woman told police Mr Thisanu then proceeded to try and drag her away to rape her. When the male student attempted to intervene, the suspect shot him in the face.
The bullet only grazed his face but he played dead so that Mr Thisanu would not shoot him again, the 23-year-old man told police.
The suspect then took the woman to Phu Phan mountain range and raped her three times before leaving her there and driving home.
In a strange twist, he then returned 400 baht from the 1,000 baht in cash he had stolen from her purse, the source said.
The suspect told investigators he drove his car home before fleeing into the jungle, the source added.
After her ordeal the woman stumbled into Phu Phan police station in neighbouring Sakon Nakhon province at about 5am of the same day in a distraught state, the source said.