Police have obtained court warrants for the arrest of three fugitive Chinese men in the kidnap and murder of a Chinese university student whose body was found in a ditch in Nonthaburi province on Saturday.
National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas said on Monday that investigators had identified all suspects in the case. Warrants had already been approved by the court, Pol Gen Damrongsak said.
The body of Jin Can, a 22-year-old Chinese music student at Bangkok Thonburi University, was found in a ditch at a planation in Bang Yai district of Nonthaburi on Saturday afternoon.
Her body was in a sack and had five stab wounds. A towel was tied around her neck.
Surveillance camera footage showed three Chinese men abducted her from from the university last Tuesday. They took her in a red Mazda car to a rented house in a high-priced housing estate in Bang Yai and detained her there, according to Pol Maj Gen Nopasilp Poolsawat, deputy Bangkok police chief.
Detectives learned that gang then used the WeChat app to demand a ransom of 500,000 yuan, about 2.5 million baht, from her father in China. The father received the ransom demand together with a picture of his daughter with her wrists and ankles tied. He then asked the university about his daughter’s whereabouts. He suspected it was a prank.
The university told her father that his daughter was last seen at the university betwee 5pm and 7pm last Tuesday.
Pol Gen Damrongsak said the unpaid ransom and a love affair were thought to be factors in her murder.
“The investigators found that the suspects have fled abroad. Interpol will be asked to issue a red notice and Chinese police will be asked to help bring them to task. Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn has been assigned to coordinate with the Chinese embassy to accelerate the procedures,’’ the police chief said.
He said there had been a considerable number of Chinese nationals committing crimes in Thailand. He had issued instructions to handle this problem. Thailand and China were working closely to deal with crime involving Chinese nationals, he said.
Thailand’s issuing of visas on arrival meant tourists could get visas at the airport and this had proved convenient for them. But this also made it easier for criminals to enter the country, the national police chief said. Suitable measures had to be drawn up to promote tourism and at the same time keep out criminals.
On Monday, police led by Pol Col Somphon Wongsrisunthorn, deputy chief of Nonthaburi police, again searched the suspects’ rented house in Bang Yai district, looking for additional evidence. It is believed the young woman was murdered there.
A woman had rented this house for one month and the contract was signed on March 20. On the night of March 29 she had contacted the house owner, saying she had to urgently return to her country and asked for the return of part of the money she had paid in advance.
Witnesses told police that they saw a red Mazda leave the housing estate around 8.20pm on March 29. It did not return. The car was believed earlier used by the gang to bring the abducted woman to the house.