Police slap Lumpini van driver with murder rap
A van driver arrested after a woman was abducted near Lumpini Park in the early hours of Tuesday has been charged with kidnapping and murder, after the victim’s “boyfriend” died from injuries received trying to rescue her.
Suspect Nadet Sitmanomai, 44, was taken to four locations as part of a crime re-enactment on Wednesday night, Pol Col Suthee Sanehlaksana, the head of Thung Mahamek police station said yesterday.
The suspect has confessed but there is conflicting witness information which requires further investigation, the police said.
A man driving a Volkswagen van snatched the 35-year-old woman from a street near Lumpini Park about 3am on Tuesday.
The purported boyfriend tried to stop the van by grabbing and clinging to the front of it.
The driver crashed the vehicle into traffic signs near the Thai-Belgian Bridge, grievously injuring the man, who later died, Thai media reported.
The woman managed to jump from the van near Wat Chong Lom in Yannawa district and asked people for help.
Her clothes were torn and she was naked from the waist down. The driver fled in the van before abandoning it.
Mr Nadet was arrested in the Chom Thong area on Wednesday evening. The van belonged to his employer, who has a shoe factory in Samut Sakhon, Thai media reported.
It was earlier reported that the 35-year-old woman was snatched from the area after providing a sexual service in the van.
Among the conflicting information was that Mr Nadet had said he had driven around the area in the van many times, but the victim claimed to have never seen him before, the police said.
During interrogation, the van driver insisted he had not intended to kill the purported boyfriend. However, examination of security camera footage and witness accounts pointed to him intentionally driving at traffic signs to get rid of the victim, Pol Col Suthee said.
Besides checking DNA and fingerprints on the van, investigators would take Mr Nadet to a hospital for forensic tests on samples taken from him and the abducted woman, who told police she fought against him in the van.
He would be taken to Bangkok South Criminal Court on Friday, when police would apply to detain him for the first 12-day period for further investigation, Pol Col Suthee said.