Alleged killers say friend's FB 'lies' caused rows with wives

The two murder suspects are put through a crime re-enactment on Wednesday at the palm oil plantation in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Thung Yai district where their friend Wirat's body was found the day before. (Photo by Nujaree Raekrun)

NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: Two men charged with murdering their friend told police they were angry because he had used a Facebook account to accuse them of having affairs with several women - causing them problems with their wives.

Witthawat Jaijaeng, 37, and Siriya Phonpichai, 33, both of Nakhon Si Thammarat, were apprehended at their houses in Thung Yai district late on Tuesday.

Wirat Singsit, 37, of Thung Yai district, was found dead at an oil palm plantation along the Tapee River in Thung Yai district earlier on Tuesday afternoon. He had a fatal shotgun wound to the right side of his chest.

His relatives had earlier filed a missing person report with local police after he left the house on Nov 13 and never returned.

Police found a shotgun and three rounds of ammunition at Wirat’s house.They also seized a shotgun and a pickup truck, both allegedly used for the crime, from Mr Suriya’s house.

The two suspects were interrogated separately. Police said afterwards that the two men, who are distant cousins, had confessed to killing Wirat. They said he was their friend but they believed he had created a Facebook account in another name and used it to wrongly accuse them of having intimate affairs with several married women.

These messages had caused arguments with their wives, Pol Lt Col Kasem Chomphong, deputy chief of Thung Yai police station, said.

Angry, they plotted to murder him. After getting Wirat drunk at a food shop in Thung Yai district, the two suspects allegedly then took him in Mr Suriya’s pickup truck to the oil palm plantation.

There they asked their friend why he had wrongly accused them. Wirat did not accept that he had done anything wrong, and they became even angrier. First, they beat him up, then they shot him dead, according to Pol Lt Col Kasem.

The two suspects were taken to the plantation for a crime re-enactment on Wednesday.