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Published on September 7, 2007

At 5.30am police at Ban Beung district rushed to a sugarcane field, one kilometre off Ban Beung-Klaeng Road, where they found the body of Siwaporn Sukmee with two gunshot wounds to her head.

Her boyfriend Somsak Wongrod, 22, who was shot in his left ear, was sent earlier to Ban Beaung Hospital for treatment and was in stable condition.

Somsak told police he and Siwaporn were riding on his motorbike looking for a late supper after the Kluaymai Restaurant where they worked closed. Two men each riding a motorbike approached them.

One of the men pointed a gun at the couple, forcing them to pull off and get on the other man's motorbike, he said.

They were taken to the sugarcane field where the two men took turns raping Siwaporn, despite Somsak's begging them to stop. After, he said, they shot Siwaporn and him, and he had to pretend to be dead.

However, Colonel Somneuk Chanket, superintendent of Ban Beaung police station, said police, after inspecting the scene and hearing Somsak's testimony, suspected the boyfriend might have committed the crime and tried to cover it up by shooting himself before filing a police complaint.

There were many dubious points, Somneuk said. For instance, the culprits should have shot Somsak more than once to ensure he was dead.

Somsak said they were held at gunpoint at about 2am, but Siwaporn's uncles Poj Nainet and Songkran Sukmee told police that they saw Siwaporn and Somsak riding around the Ban Beaung Market area at 4am.

Police also learned that Somsak was wooing Siwaporn by giving her a ride home after work every night but the

girl did not think of him in such a way.

The scene showed no signs of struggle and an autopsy on Siwaporn's body indicated intercourse but found no traces of semen, Somneuk said.

The Nation

CHON BURI