Police will question former boxing champion Somrak Kamsing to help them figure out what drove a local politician to kill his wife and their two children before turning the gun on himself.
Thawatchai Thong-on, 48, a former member of Nakhon Si Thammarat’s provincial administrative organisation, was found dead at a house in Bangkok’s Hua Mak area, along with his wife Pattcharanat Sangprapai, and their two daughters.
The bodies were discovered late on Wednesday afternoon after security guards at the house heard several gunshots coming from the house.
Lt Cdr Somrak, who won an Olympic gold medal back in 1996, was supposed to meet Thawatchai at a restaurant owned by the dead man on Wednesday afternoon to discuss a debt settlement, but Thawatchai never showed up, police said.
Based on their preliminary investigation of the scene, police believed the incident was a murder-suicide. Their bodies were sent for an autopsy, they said.
Deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, Pol Maj Gen Jirasan Kaewsaeng-ek, said the police will question all potential witnesses including Lt Cdr Somrak to determine the motive for the killings.
The victims’ acquaintances, relatives, neighbours and security guards will also be questioned further.
Pol Maj Gen Jirasan said Thawatchai may have been driven to commit the murder-suicide to avoid his debts.
Earlier this year, Thawatchai was arrested by the Crime Suppression Division for fraud and falsifying an official document, after which he was booked for issuing a dud cheque, police records show.
Media reports quoted Lt Cdr Somrak as saying that he knew Thawatchai as he was approached by the now dead man to take part in an investment scheme involving the sale of lottery tickets worth several million baht.
According to Lt Cdr Somrak, Thawatchai agreed to supply the lottery tickets but never delivered them.
