Thai-US Fugitive with Bt1 million reward arrested
Police arrest a dual Thai-US national wanted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Phitsanulok province on Friday for allegedly murdering his pregnant wife 12 years ago.
The arrest of Saner Wonggoun, 59, followed an announcement by the FBI a week ago that it would pay a reward of Bt1 million for information leading to his arrest or prove his death."Saner was arrested while he was selling goods at an open air market in Phitsanulok," said Pol Col Naphol Kosorulaksananopas, a member of the special investigation police force that made the arrest Friday morning. "He did not his name or face and was using his Thai ID card, although it had expired three years ago," Naphol told Deutsche Press Agence in a telephone interview as police escorted Saner to Bangkok. Saner is on the US's "most wanted US fugitive" list as the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Sopha Yodpet, in California in January 1994. Both Saner and Sopha, of Thai descent, were naturalized American citizens living in the US at the time of the murder. Saner, from Nakorn Nayok province in Thailand, moved to the US when he was 21 and joined the US Air Force in the mid-1970s, rising to be a cargo supervisor at Travis Air Force Base, California. Shortly after Sopha's body was discovered wrapped in a sleeping bag that had been dumped off Highway 1 in Marin County, California, Saner purchased a one-way ticket to Bangkok where he arrived on January 14, 1994, according to police records. Sopha was eight months pregnant when murdered. Since his arrival in Thailand, Saner has gone missing, avoiding a joint Thai-US effort to track him down for the past 12 years.
|
