A Lao butcher has been charged over the murder of a woman whose body parts were found scattered across Bangkok khlongs on Sunday.
Jai Kenwankham, 39, is accused of murdering the woman identified as Mali, who police described as a Thai Yai, or from a hill tribe.
Members of the public alerted the police after they discovered the body parts of the woman at five different khlongs on Sunday.
The boyfriend of the woman, who had been missing since last Thursday after failing to turn up to her job at a karaoke shop, reported her disappearance after hearing about the gruesome discovery.
Police arrested Jai at his apartment in Bang Kapi district. They said the suspect confessed to arguing with Mali after she refused to marry him and then strangled her.
The butcher, who once worked at a pork abattoir, then cut up her body and tossed her body parts into the Saen Saep canal, where it is believed currents and tides scattered them to the other canals, police said.
The identifying marks on the body parts, including a tattoo reading “Jod” in Thai on the woman’s right shoulder, along with the missing-person report, helped police identify the body and they quickly narrowed in on Jai as the chief suspect, the Bangkok Post reported.
The Metropolitan Police Bureau said DNA analysis of the body parts confirmed the dead woman was of Asian origin with pale white complexion, aged about 30.
Photo: Philip Roeland
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