Forensic science proved invaluable in helping police identify the bodies of two murdered foreigners found buried in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Chok Chai district last month.
They were identified as a Vietnamese woman and a Nigerian man and their deaths may be linked to transnational crystal methamphetamine trafficking, according to police.
The slain victims were identified with the help of the serial number on the woman’s silicone breast implants and their fingerprints.
On the evening of July 28, a mushroom collector found the bodies after noticing a fresh pile of earth covered with branches in a community forest in tambon Thung Arun in Chok Chai district, about 300 metres off Highway 224.
When exhumed, their bodies were naked and each covered with a thin layer of concrete. The pair, who police initially could not identify, had both been shot in the head, according to police.
Forensic officers also found spent cartridges and bullets less than two metres from the grave.
Pol Gen Suchart Teerasawat, deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, took charge of the investigation with the support of the Provincial Police Region 3, the Crime Suppression Division, and particularly the Central Police Forensic Science Division, which went to play a key role in identifying the bodies.
When dug out from the ground, the bodies had already decomposed, making it hard for authorities to identify.
Investigators also checked surveillance camera footage from areas where the pair were believed to have been killed and buried, but they did not find any clues.
After a week of identification efforts, the forensics team decided to trace the serial number of the woman’s silicone breast implants with a manufacturers’ database, which showed the implants were sold in Vietnam.
Forensic officers also molded the fingers of the bodies to replicate their fingerprints and the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok was asked to run a check on them.
This helped identify the female victim as 33-year-old Nguyen Thi Van, who had the silicone breast implants with the serial number mentioned above.
An inspection of the man’s fingerprints provided a match for Anabon Chka Hen, a 38-year-old man from
Nigeria.
This information provided investigators with further clues to expand their probe and find the killer.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, the assistant national police chief, praised forensic officers for their hard work and collaboration with other countries to identify the victims’ bodies with the aid of modern technology.
The cartridges, the bullets and the source of the cement used to cover the bodies are still being examined, Pol Lt Gen Sompong said.
A police source said information exchanged with a neighbouring country suggested the pair might be linked to a major crystal methamphetamine trafficking gang.
The house where they had lived in that country was a suspected transit point on a smuggling route.
However, investigators remain uncertain whether international traffickers would have killed the pair directly or used a proxy. Inquiries are continuing.
The source also said relatives of the murdered Nigerian had not yet picked up his body after an elder brother initially confirmed the victim’s identity from photos and dental records.
Accounts given by relatives of the victims pointed to them being lovers, the source said.
Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th.
