A former school director has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a young woman who went missing in Prachin Buri more than 10 years ago. The victim's body was found at a cemetery in Chon Buri.
Sa Kaeo Provincial Court handed down the life imprisonment verdict on Jumphon Supaphong, a 57-year-old former school director in Suphan Buri, on Wednesday. The court also ordered him to pay 1.7 million baht in compensation to the victim's parents.
According to reports, the defendant almost fainted after hearing his sentence. He was detained pending an appeal.
Jumphon was arrested in Suphan Buri in February 2021 for the murder of 19-year-old Mayuree Yodphanao, a factory worker in Sri Maha Phot district of Prachin Buri.
Jumphon reportedly had a close relationship with the teenager while serving as a school director in Sa Kaeo. He later moved to Suphan Buri.
Mayuree went missing in Prachin Buri on May 5, 2012. Her parents and relatives filed a missing person complaint with local police after trying in vain to find her.
In 2019, the parents sought help from the Mirror Foundation to help find their missing daughter. Staff at the foundation then gathered information about unidentified bodies in four eastern provinces of Chon Buri, Chachoengsao, Prachin Buri and Sa Kaeo.
The foundation recovered three unidentified female corpses, and her mother gave DNA samples for comparison.
The result showed that one of the bodies matched with the victim's mother’s DNA. The dead woman had been shot and her body was hidden in a sugarcane plantation in Watthana Nakhon district of Sa Kaeo.
A local resident had reported finding the body on Nov 13, 2012. The body was never claimed and was later interred at a privately run cemetery in Chon Buri.
