PUBLISHED : 30 Sep 2023 at 13:04
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Two teenage girls, aged 13 and 15, have been arrested for allegedly murdering a 15-year-old schoolgirl by forcibly drowning her in a pond in Bua Yai district. The incident was reportedly fuelled by jealousy after the victim became close to a boyfriend of one of the suspects.
Pol Col Thatchaphon Songsaeng, chief of Bua Yai police station, and officers conducted a crime re-enactment at Bueng Hua Yai pond on Saturday with the two suspects, whose names have been withheld). Angry residents gathered at the scene to put a curse on them.
The arrest took place on Friday after police examined closed-circuit camera footage, showing the two suspects arriving at the victim’s house in Bua Yai on a motorcycle on Wednesday evening. They then took the girl to the pond, where her body was found floating on Thursday morning.
Police take the two suspects to Bueng Bua Yai pond in Bua Yai district, Nakhon Ratchasima, where the 15-year-old girl was found dead after being forcibly drowned in the water by two teenage girls. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)
According to a police investigation, the two girls engaged in a heated quarrel with the victim, who was a Mathayom Suksa 3 (Grade 9) student at a school in Bua Yai, upon learning of her closeness to one of the suspects’ boyfriend. The altercation escalated, leading to the suspects forcibly drowning her in the pond, resulting in her death from suffocation.
The victim’s tearful mother and relatives held a ritual rite at the crime scene to invoke her soul to return home, following local beliefs.
Psychologists will be called in by the police to jointly question the teenage suspects in the coming days.