A man was found dead and naked in the trunk of a car Wednesday night in Khon Kaen province, the beginning of a strange tale that has police still scratching their heads.
The vehicle had been submerged in the Chee River by three men, according to witnesses, and as it sunk, witnesses saw a woman escape from the car and swim ashore to hiding.
The woman, who was the deceased’s wife, was found 50 metres from the riverbank, evidently shaken, Bangkok Post reported.
Police identified the dead man as 63-year-old Thitiphan Phakdi. His wife, 59-year-old Sa-ard Phakdi, was questioned while in the hospital.
Sa-ard told her rescuers she and her husband had been attacked by the robbers, who electrocuted her husband to death and stripped him, before stuffing him into the trunk.
She also said that she was beaten up, and after feigning death, was put into the car’s front seat. The robbers then drove the couple’s car to Chee River, and proceeded to push the car in after making away with some jewelry.
Investigators had qualms about Sa-ard’s account of her husband’s death by electrocution, as an autopsy revealed Thitiphan had been dead for quite some time – six to 12 hours, specifically. Police said they will question her again. Meanwhile, Sa-ard has been assigned a 24-hour guard.
All the witnesses remember about the suspect trio’s vehicle was its license plate, which they said ended in “45.”
Police have offered “personal conflict and theft” as possible motives.
