Thai suspect 'seeking deal' over backpackers' murder

The Thai policeman wanted for the murder of two British backpackers remains “in hiding” today, police said.

Sergeant Somchai Visetsingha is on the run after Adam Lloyd and girlfriend Vanessa Arscott were gunned down in cold blood in western Thailand earlier this week.

The chief suspect has been missing since the deaths but a translator for local police said she understood the officer had contacted them yesterday morning.

She did not know what was said but it is believed the man may have been trying to agree a deal in which he could hand himself in. Today she said he was still in hiding and the investigation was continuing.

Yesterday, versions of the killings, which happened close to the famous bridge over the River Kwai, continued to vary.

Mr Lloyd, 25, and Miss Arscott, 23, were shot in the western province of Kanchanaburi after a row in a local restaurant late on Wednesday – the early hours of Thursday in Thailand.

Visetsingha is the owner of the restaurant, reportedly called S&S, and is believed to have had an argument with the couple, regular visitors to the premises earlier in the week.

Mr Lloyd was shot in the stomach, head and arm before the killer turned on his girlfriend, hitting her with his car and dragging her 200 metres down the road before blasting her in the body and head.

Reports yesterday said the row broke out initially between the Britons and some Thai men and they were attacked by Visetsingha as they left and headed back to their guesthouse.

They suggested Mr Lloyd was upset by the way other people were looking at his partner.

But Bangkok newspaper The Nation said the couple had a row and Miss Arscott left in tears.

Mr Lloyd is said to have followed her with Visetsingha in his car and the row continued.

The off-duty officer is believed to have followed them and shots were then heard, the Nation said. The couple were taken to the Phahol Polpayuhasena hospital but pronounced dead.

An arrest warrant was issued on Thursday for Visetsingha and his car was found with bloodstains, Thai police said.

Colonel Vej Somboon, of Kanchanaburi police, said yesterday: “We hope to get him soon.”

The grief-stricken families have paid tribute to the couple who had been due to return to Britain tomorrow after travelling together for two months on a dream trip.

Adam’s mother Linda, who runs the Buckingham Lodge Hotel in Torquay, Devon, with her husband Brian, described him as “a lovely lad”.

Miss Arscott’s parents, Joyce and Graham, who live in Ashburton in Devon, said their “beautiful and vivacious” daughter had been “snatched” from them.

The province of Kanchanaburi, 70 miles west of Bangkok, has several resorts and is the site of the Second World War’s infamous bridge over the River Kwai, where the Japanese built a railway using prisoners of war as slave labour.

Thousands of tourists flock there every year to see the bridge made famous in David Lean’s powerful 1957 film.