PHUKET: A MAN who says he ''played dead'' and survived today alerted Phuket police to the execution-style murders of two people whose bodies have been found near a five-star resort on a quiet west coast road.
Police are now looking for a gang of up to 10 men and the female leader who apparently ordered the killings and planned to roll all three victims into the sea, according to the man who ''played dead.''
However, the bodies lodged in jungle on a steep slope close to Trisara and the Anadaman White Beach Resort on the Phuket west coast road between Nai Thon and Layan.
About 8.30am police found the bodies of a woman, her hands tied, killed with a blow to the head that probably came from an axe, and on top of her a man, hands handcuffed and killed by a bullet behind the ear.
Both appeared to have been blindfolded at some stage.
The man who escaped told police that he had been blindfolded and beaten and pretended to be dead, but managed to stagger early today to alert Phuket people on the lonely road.
He said the three were construction contractors who had come to Phuket from Krabi. Their borrowed Krabi-registered vehicle, with blood staining the tray, was found on the other side of Phuket later this morning.
The man told police the three responded last night to a telephone call from a woman and went to meet her at an address on Thepkasattri Road, where they were jumped by about 10 men.
The surviving victim said he was blindfolded and unable to say precisely what happened, apart from hearing the gunshot and suffering the beating before pretending to be dead.
Police from Tatchatchai are continuing to question the man. Officers initially suspected revenge and drugs could be part of the motive for the Phuket killings.
However, they have since named the dead woman as U-rai Choochern, aged 50, and the man who survived as her husband, Sanit.
Police are now looking for a gang of up to 10 men and the female leader who apparently ordered the killings and planned to roll all three victims into the sea, according to the man who ''played dead.''
However, the bodies lodged in jungle on a steep slope close to Trisara and the Anadaman White Beach Resort on the Phuket west coast road between Nai Thon and Layan.
About 8.30am police found the bodies of a woman, her hands tied, killed with a blow to the head that probably came from an axe, and on top of her a man, hands handcuffed and killed by a bullet behind the ear.
Both appeared to have been blindfolded at some stage.
The man who escaped told police that he had been blindfolded and beaten and pretended to be dead, but managed to stagger early today to alert Phuket people on the lonely road.
He said the three were construction contractors who had come to Phuket from Krabi. Their borrowed Krabi-registered vehicle, with blood staining the tray, was found on the other side of Phuket later this morning.
The man told police the three responded last night to a telephone call from a woman and went to meet her at an address on Thepkasattri Road, where they were jumped by about 10 men.
The surviving victim said he was blindfolded and unable to say precisely what happened, apart from hearing the gunshot and suffering the beating before pretending to be dead.
Police from Tatchatchai are continuing to question the man. Officers initially suspected revenge and drugs could be part of the motive for the Phuket killings.
However, they have since named the dead woman as U-rai Choochern, aged 50, and the man who survived as her husband, Sanit.
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Husband survived the "beating!", wife killed by an axe, and who is the third one who got shot? Strange that not shot all three of them, if you want to kill them!
Posted by Ex xpat on May 31, 2011 19:44