PHUKET police are circulating 'Wanted' posters for English professional kickboxer Lee Aldhouse as the hunt for the alleged killer of former American Marine DaShawn Longfellow enters its fifth day today.

With intense checks on expats leaving Phuket through the airport or by road, the officer leading the manhunt continues to believe that Aldhouse, 28, is still a fugitive somewhere on Phuket.

Colonel Vichid Intharasorn is confident that police will arrest Aldhouse. He is alleged to have stalked the 23-year-old Purple Heart award veteran of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and knifed him to death before dawn on Saturday in revenge for losing a bar fight on Phuket.

Western fugitives in murder hunts are rare on Phuket. But over the past few weeks, there have been two. Back in June, former American Navy officer Ronald Fanelli knifed to death a hostess from Sweethearts Bar and stuffed her naked body into a travel bag that he dumped beside an isolated road.

Fanelli failed to escape from Phuket but he did elude police for four weeks and a day. That case was different, however, because the identity of the suspected killer was unknown and police had few clues.

When caught, Fanelli admitted the killing but described it as a ''horrible, horrible accident.''

Wanted posters carrying a Phuketwan photograph of Lee Aldhouse, taken in April, are now being distributed across Phuket and in neighboring provinces. US embassy officials are understood to be taking a keen interest in the case.

Longfellow continues to be missed by family and friends. Daniel Lenel, a high school wrestling teammate, said he hadn't seen Longfellow in a few years, but remembers ''a smile that could light up any room.''

He was known simply as "Deeds'' to the Marines who served with him, according to newsok.com.

Matt Gronbach, a Marine who called Longfellow "a great mentor to me and a (superior) machine-gunner'' in Afghanistan, explained: ''He got the nickname Deeds off the movie 'Mr Deeds' because Adam Sandler's first name in the movie was Longfellow and his last Deeds.''

Close friend Kelly Cochran said her husband, Beaux, and Longfellow served four years together with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. She described Longfellow as "a happy guy, carefree and full of laughter.''

Phuketwan has posted dramatic footage of a man who looks like Lee Aldhouse obtaining two knives from a 7-Eleven store shortly before Mr Longfellow was stabbed to death. View the footage at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvuYakEINGg