A MAN from Ratchaburi who was facing a possible jail sentence tried to fake his death by killing another man, staging a crash and burning his body in the car.
Reports in the Bangkok Post said police discovered the body of a man who was burnt to death in the car at an upholstery shop in Chom Bung district.
Police later discovered that the body was not of the shop owner as speculated, but that of a scrap collector killed by the suspect.
The suspect, 43-year-old Thitinan Phoosuwan, had staged the entire episode to escape a jail term for another crime he had committed.
He was apprehended in Ban Kha district of Ratchaburi and taken to the Chom Bung police station on Saturday.
The Post said the case began after two cars were found to have caught fire at the shop in Tambon Rang Bua, Chom Bung, on the night of July 26.
A man’s charred remains were found in the driver’s seat of the first car, and police initially believed he was the shop owner who had gone missing earlier.
Upon investigation, they found that the two cars had crashed before the fire, which they thought could have resulted from a faulty fuel system in one of the vehicles.
However, officers later obtained evidence that shed light on how the incident unfolded, said Ratchaburi police chief Major-General Anuparb Srinual.
For a start, a gas cylinder had not yet been connected to the engine system. Investigators also found that a motorcycle that Thitinan regularly used was missing.
Thitinan had been arrested on a charge of attempted murder last year and sent to jail, where he tried to commit suicide.
Relatives secured his temporary release and he was due to make another court appearance on Aug 18.
Forensic results confirmed that the burnt body belonged to Plian Seechompoo, 54, a scrap collector in Chom Bung district.
Colonel Waipoj Naenpimai, superintendent of the Chom Bung police station, said Thitinan admitted to luring Plian to visit his shop for drinks and then using a crowbar to kill him.
The suspect took the body to a car and started the engine, causing it to hit another car parked nearby. He then set fire to the cars, believing people would assume the body was his.
If Thitinan was declared dead, the court would return his bail money to his guarantor. He also had life insurance policies, the payouts from which would go to his family. At that point, he figured he would be free, according to his confessions.