Man 'admits' to killing lover in jealous rage

Wassana Boonklom, 54, mother of Oraphan Boonklom, 28, whose body was found dumped by the road side in Saraburi on Saturday, breaks down upon learning of her daughter's murder. Oraphan's long-time boyfriend, Thanatpong Kulraksa, who has been arrested and reportedly confessed to the murder, helped police re-create the crime. (Photos by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul

A man has confessed to stabbing his long-time girlfriend to death, dumping the corpse by a roadside and logging into her Facebook account to fool her friends and family into thinking she had gone away with a new boyfriend for a while, police say.

Police investigating the disappearance of Oraphan Boonklom, 28, who worked for Airports of Thailand (AoT), said Sunday they had arrested the victim's boyfriend, Thanatpong Kulraksa, for the murder.

They say he admitted to succumbing to rage after discovering his girlfriend had been seeing someone else, who was in turn cheating on his girlfriend. Her corpse was found dumped by one side of a bypass in Saraburi province's Muang district on Saturday. It was later confirmed to be the remains of Oraphan.

Saraburi police were alerted on Saturday by Thanaphat Kaeocharoen, a truck driver who told investigators a fellow truck driver came across the body late afternoon on Friday and asked him to report the incident to the police on his behalf.

The driver stopped by the roadside and smelled something that seemed like rotting flesh, police said, quoting Mr Thanaphat's statement. He followed the smell until he found the body, Mr Thanaphat told police.

Wassana Boonklom, 54, Oraphan's mother, said Mr Thanatpong lied to her when she called him on the phone to inquire about her daughter's sudden disappearance after she failed to return home on March 5.

Ms Wassana said Mr Thanatpong told her he dropped her daughter off at a convenience store on the soi leading to her home in the Don Muang district of Bangkok.

Pretending he had nothing to do with Oraphan's disappearance, the boyfriend even came to pick up the mother and went to report the disappearance to police together on March 8, said Ms Wassana.

Police say Mr Thanatpong admitted to them after his arrest that he had stabbed Oraphan to death in a fit of anger while on the way home from a movie and dinner.

He said he had confronted Oraphan with evidence of her cheating on him with another man who had also been cheating on his girlfriend.

Mr Thanatpong said they had a fight over what happened and the last straw was when Oraphan, whom he had been seeing for six years, told him she had fooled on him for a long time.

He said the other man's girlfriend sent him some pictures of Oraphan with the man. Mr Thanatpong also admitted to logging into Oraphan's Facebook account to assure her friends they did not need to worry about her disappearance.