Serial killer suspect ‘strangled four’

A SUSPECTED serial killer calmly told reporters that he strangled four prostitutes in northern Thailand, following his arrest yesterday after a nationwide manhunt.

Police detained Somkid Phumphuang, 41, as he checked into a hotel in northern Chaiyaphum province with a prostitute who investigators believe he was planning to kill, said Maj Gen Winai Thongsong, chief of the Crime Suppression Division.

At a news conference which a handcuffed Somkid also attended, Winai said that investigators followed Somkid from a nearby massage parlour where he hired the prostitute.

He will be interrogated by police pending trial on charges of premeditated serial murder and faces the death penalty if guilty.

Police believe Somkid is guilty of strangling five prostitutes, four in northern Thailand and a fifth in southern Trang province. All of the prostitutes were found dead with their hands tied behind their backs.

Earlier this year, three sex-workers were found killed in northern Thailand. On June 11, investigators found the strangled body of a sex worker Patcharee Amata-niran in a hotel room in Trang in south central Thailand, hours after she was seen with a man who resembled Somkid.

Then on June 19, police found a masseuse dead in the north east. A hotel camera captured pictures of Somkid checking in with the victim.

Somkid said that he killed four prostitutes, but denied he had strangled Patcharee in Trang.

“I killed them out of anger because sometimes they overcharged and double-charged me after I had sex with them,” he told reporters calmly. “I spent the money that I robbed from them to buy more sex from prostitutes.”