PHUKET: Confessed Norwegian killer Stein Havard Dokset interrupted a reenactment of the crime today because there were too many media looking on, taking photographs and filming.
He was going through the conventional Thai police ''replay'' at the spacious home in the beach resort of Kata that he once shared with his lover, Rungnapa 'June' Ratchasombut.
Back at Chalong Police Station, Mr Dokset gave police a fuller account of the day in July 2009 when they argued. He said that she hit him first, he responded, her head hit the wall and she fell to the floor.
He left her there, thinking she would recover, but failed to find a pulse when he returned 30 minutes later.
Instead of going to the police - he thought it would go badly for him - he put June's body into a plastic bag and shoved her into a green wheelie bin and parked it in a downstairs laundry space.
Three months later, he opened the door to the laundry space and cleaned the floor in the room. He said he sprayed air freshener, but did not add anything to the bin to make the body decompose faster.
Mr Dokset has beern charged with murder, unlawfully disposing of a body, and illegal possession of a firearm.
This afternoon he was on his way to Phuket Provincial Court where he will probably be refused bail, although his parents are reported to be travelling from Norway to help if they can.
There are similarities between this case and the recent case of American Ronald Fanelli, who stabbed Phuket bar hostess Wanpen Pienjai in a ''horrible, horrible accident'' that necessitated him stuffing her naked body into a suitcase and dumping her by a Phuket road.
For Fanelli, the process of crime and punishment has been faster. He disposed of Khun Wanpen, mother of two, in 2010 and was sentenced last year to 10 years and three months in jail.
For Mr Dokset, 50, the process has been somewhat more extended. But as with Fanelli, he is the only person who knows the truth. Dead victims don't talk.
Whether his prolonged silence will count against him remains to be seen.
A cousin in June's family told Phuketwan today that it was remarkable that her body was discovered when Crime Suppression Division police raided Mr Dokset's home on Tuesday.
Tri, who did not want to give his full name, said that relatives became concerned when June's husband, a Patong policeman, called them in 2009 to say she'd been missing for three days.
By that time, June had remarried, changed her surname to Suktong, her husband's name, and had a third child.
''I drove to Phuket from Surat Thani and went to Stein's home to see if he'd seen her,'' the cousin said. ''Her Honda Accord was parked outside.
''Stein said June had paid him a visit, left the car, and went off with someone in a pick-up.''
June always carried all her most important documents in her car, including the title deeds to properties. She and Stein ran a business constructing and selling homes, but June always kept the titles because foreigners could not own land, the cousin said.
''All the documents were missing from the car,'' the cousin said. ''After a while I took the car back to the owner, June was buying it on time-payment.''
June's family were concerned that either her husband or Stein may have had a hand in her disappearance, but their pleas fell on deaf ears when they visited police in Patong and then later at Region 8 Police Headquarters.
Only when they recently went to the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok was real interest shown.
And that, cousin Tri said, was because another of Stein's girlfriends had also gone missing.
So the Bangkok team came to Phuket with two women missing, and Stein as the target.
The day before the raid, the other Stein girlfriend was found - but police decided to go ahead and check out Stein's house anyway.
Inside they found his grim secret, the remains of June's body three years on, in the green wheelie bin.
Phuketwan has been told that Mr Dokset was a regular comments contributor to Phuketwan under the name 'Katabeachbum.'
His comments were always level-headed and he took a special interest in public transport, tourism and vehicles of all kinds.
He was going through the conventional Thai police ''replay'' at the spacious home in the beach resort of Kata that he once shared with his lover, Rungnapa 'June' Ratchasombut.
Back at Chalong Police Station, Mr Dokset gave police a fuller account of the day in July 2009 when they argued. He said that she hit him first, he responded, her head hit the wall and she fell to the floor.
He left her there, thinking she would recover, but failed to find a pulse when he returned 30 minutes later.
Instead of going to the police - he thought it would go badly for him - he put June's body into a plastic bag and shoved her into a green wheelie bin and parked it in a downstairs laundry space.
Three months later, he opened the door to the laundry space and cleaned the floor in the room. He said he sprayed air freshener, but did not add anything to the bin to make the body decompose faster.
Mr Dokset has beern charged with murder, unlawfully disposing of a body, and illegal possession of a firearm.
This afternoon he was on his way to Phuket Provincial Court where he will probably be refused bail, although his parents are reported to be travelling from Norway to help if they can.
There are similarities between this case and the recent case of American Ronald Fanelli, who stabbed Phuket bar hostess Wanpen Pienjai in a ''horrible, horrible accident'' that necessitated him stuffing her naked body into a suitcase and dumping her by a Phuket road.
For Fanelli, the process of crime and punishment has been faster. He disposed of Khun Wanpen, mother of two, in 2010 and was sentenced last year to 10 years and three months in jail.
For Mr Dokset, 50, the process has been somewhat more extended. But as with Fanelli, he is the only person who knows the truth. Dead victims don't talk.
Whether his prolonged silence will count against him remains to be seen.
A cousin in June's family told Phuketwan today that it was remarkable that her body was discovered when Crime Suppression Division police raided Mr Dokset's home on Tuesday.
Tri, who did not want to give his full name, said that relatives became concerned when June's husband, a Patong policeman, called them in 2009 to say she'd been missing for three days.
By that time, June had remarried, changed her surname to Suktong, her husband's name, and had a third child.
''I drove to Phuket from Surat Thani and went to Stein's home to see if he'd seen her,'' the cousin said. ''Her Honda Accord was parked outside.
''Stein said June had paid him a visit, left the car, and went off with someone in a pick-up.''
June always carried all her most important documents in her car, including the title deeds to properties. She and Stein ran a business constructing and selling homes, but June always kept the titles because foreigners could not own land, the cousin said.
''All the documents were missing from the car,'' the cousin said. ''After a while I took the car back to the owner, June was buying it on time-payment.''
June's family were concerned that either her husband or Stein may have had a hand in her disappearance, but their pleas fell on deaf ears when they visited police in Patong and then later at Region 8 Police Headquarters.
Only when they recently went to the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok was real interest shown.
And that, cousin Tri said, was because another of Stein's girlfriends had also gone missing.
So the Bangkok team came to Phuket with two women missing, and Stein as the target.
The day before the raid, the other Stein girlfriend was found - but police decided to go ahead and check out Stein's house anyway.
Inside they found his grim secret, the remains of June's body three years on, in the green wheelie bin.
Phuketwan has been told that Mr Dokset was a regular comments contributor to Phuketwan under the name 'Katabeachbum.'
His comments were always level-headed and he took a special interest in public transport, tourism and vehicles of all kinds.
(moderated)
Posted by Just Curious on March 1, 2012 17:56
Editor Comment:
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