Law student Kornkamon Leenawarat had had a history of being beaten by the older roommate suspected of having killed her and then herself last week in a Seattle apartment, according to Kornkamon's uncle.

The two women were found dead in a unit at the Malloy Apartments in Seattle's University District on Tuesday, about three days after their deaths.

Kornkamon, 25, died from multiple stab wounds and her death was ruled as murder, while Thiti-on Chotechuangsab, 32, died from a stab wound to the chest and her death was ruled a suicide, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

Official results of the post-mortem examination of the bodies are expected in two months. The body of Kornkamon is expected to arrive in Thailand this week. Krisada Leenawarat, her uncle, is also mayor of tambon Thanyaburi municipality in Pathum Thani. He said on Friday an obsessive jealous love for Kornkamon may have driven Thiti-on, whom he described as a lesbian, to commit the crime.

He said Kornkamon had previously told her brother that Thiti-on had assaulted her out of jealousy when the two women were living together in Boston.

"No one else has heard about this assault before as she only told her brother," the uncle said.

Before Kornkamon began her graduate studies in Seattle, she briefly returned to Thailand from Boston before she left for Seattle on Aug 21, he said.

Thiti-on returned to Thailand looking for Kornkamon. Thiti-on then flew back to the US to seek Kornkamon, he said.

Mr Krisada said he did not think Kornkamon was in a relationship with Thiti-on because his niece had a boyfriend who she met in high school. She talked to him almost every day on the phone while she was studying in the US.

No one should assume the women were in love just because they were roommates. Students share a room to split the rent, the uncle said.

Kornkamon met Thiti-on at a language school in Boston University, said Jakkrit Likhitpanyawat, a Thai Rath correspondent in Boston, citing his interviews with Kornkamon's friend there.

Kornkamon had confided in a close friend that she thought of Thiti-on as a sister. However, Thiti-on told her friend she had fallen for Kornkamon, the report said.