A 78 year old Thai man in the central province of Phetchabun murdered his 12 year old granddaughter and committed suicide because he allegedly had romantic feelings for her.
The dead body of the girl, Natticha, was found in a pond by a roadside forest in the Nong Phai district of Phetchabu province on Saturday, March 30, after she disappeared from her home for two days. She was wearing a T-shirt and long trousers with no underwear and was floating face down in the pond.
Nong Phai Police Station officers reviewed CCTV cameras and discovered that Natticha’s grandfather, 78 year old Sangwarn, was the last person seen with Natticha on March 28. Sangwarn was not her biological grandfather as he was her stepfather’s brother.
Further investigation of the CCTV footage led police to the body of Sangwarn, about 30 metres from where Natticha’s body was found.
According to the CCTV footage, Sangwarn rode his sidecar motorcycle to pick up Natticha from her home on March 28. They travelled along the Nong Phai-Kong Thun Road before disappearing from the view. Another CCTV camera showed that Sangwarn was riding alone without the girl at around 1.30pm that day.
Janjira, Natticha’s 38 year old mother, informed PPTV HD that neighbours had reported Sangwarn’s inappropriate behaviour towards her daughter. Locals suspected Sangwarn harboured feelings for Natticha and warned Janjira to keep her daughter away from him.
Janjira warned her daughter about this issue but Sangwarn consistently offered her money. She suspected Natticha might have gone with Sangwarn that day because she needed money for online shopping.
Sangwarn’s wife, 58 year old Lamphan, told Channel 8 that she and her husband had been in a relationship for about eight to nine years. She could not understand the motive behind his actions because Sangwarn had never told her of any problems or suffered from stress.
As for the love affair between Sangwarn and Natticha, Lamphan said that Natticha came to her house quite often but did not see any suspicious behaviour between them. She would like to apologise on her husband’s behalf, even though she does not know exactly what happened.
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