A British gym instructor has been quizzed over the suspected murder of a Ukrainian woman who was in a love triangle with him and her husband.
Phillip Armstrong, 47, was interviewed by police yesterday evening after his lover Olha Frolova, 32, was found dead on Koh Samui island in southern Thailand.
He had reportedly been arguing with her on the day she went missing on May 25.
Olha’s badly decomposed body was discovered covered by a pile of coconut palm leaves deep in the jungle on June 5, sparking fears she had been murdered, due to the apparent way her corpse had been concealed.
She had reportedly left her husband Dimas Frolov, 40, two months ago to stay with Phillip following a year-long affair.
The British fitness fanatic told officers that he had been in a relationship with Olha but was unaware what had happened to her after she went missing.
He said: ‘I don’t know where Olha went after she disappeared. Neither me nor her husband know.’
Asked via an interpreter if Olha wore a gold ring or necklace, Phillip said: ‘No, she very rarely wore jewellery. I don’t remember if she was wearing that when she disappeared.
‘Police from the Bo Phut district station said that Olha suffered from bi-polar disorder and was prone to violent outbursts.
They examined CCTV which showed Olha returning a rented motorcycle on May 25, the last day she was alive.
She reportedly had to leave her passport at the shop then sell her mobile phone to pay the bill.
Local media reported that she then returned to the shop on a motorcycle with Philip. The owner said the couple were arguing.
Officers said that her Olha’s husband Dimas, a wedding photographer, had identified the body of his late wife.
He told police that she had left him two months ago to live with another man on the island but they stayed in touch.
Dimas, the person who first reported his wife missing, said: ‘We have been married for 12 years and have one son together. We moved to Koh Samui for about five years ago.
‘My wife started to see someone else about a year ago before she decided she wanted a divorce and to move out to live with her new boyfriend, who is also a foreigner.
‘However, while we were working on the paperwork, she sometimes still brought our boy to me and asked me to take care of him for a day or two.
‘The last time I saw her she had done the same but this time she had not come back for our kid for four days, so I decided to go to the police.’
The Thai man who found the body, hotel worker Uthane Wiangnon, 47, said he had gone into the woods looking for mushroom when he found a corpse hidden under coconut leaves.
He rushed home to tell his wife and friends, who went with him back to the area to look at the body before they reported it to the police.
Officers who attended the scene removed coconut leaves and found a decomposed body with the skeleton visible.
They believe the dead woman had been there for around two weeks. They also found Olha’s purse with 700THB (£17) cash inside.
Speaking today, Police Lieutenant Colonel Tanongsak Aksonsom, Deputy Superintendent at Borpood police station said the cause of death is yet unknown.
He said: ‘We have questioned all witnesses and two male suspects, the woman’s ex-husband and her new boyfriend.
‘The woman had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she sometimes injured herself with no reason.
‘The body was too badly decomposed to investigate the cause of her death so we have to conduct a postmortem examination of a body to find how she died, then we can try to find the suspect.
‘Police have not made any arrests or charged anyone over the death.’
