Police are looking for a group of four young men who were said to have beaten a 14-year-old boy to death in Bang Lamung district of this coastal province.
The body of the boy, Kraisiri Wongpat, alias Khiad, was found in the garage of a house at Moo 10 village in tambon Huay Yai at about 11am on Saturday.
The discovery was reported to Huay Yai police.
Officers from the station, accompanied by a doctor from a hospital, arrived at the house to find the boy’s body covered in bruises from being struck.
There were traces of his hands being tied with a rope. The 14-year-old was believed to have died about three hours previously.
Den Sinthusra, 40, the boy’s uncle, told police that at about 2am his mother heard the noise of someone crying in pain. She told him to go out to take a look.
Outside the house he found four young men surrounding his nephew and punching him. He said he recognised one of them, a man named Prik who was aged approximately 25.
The four accused the boy of stealing a gold necklace and 3,000 baht cash from them.
Mr Den said he tried to intervene, threatening to call police.
The young men told him they would take the boy to where he had hidden the gold and money, forced him onto the sidecar of a motorcycle and drove off. .
At about 11am on Saturday, he found Kraisiri lying dead in the garage. He was told by neighbours that the boy had been brought back to the house on a motorcycle and dumped in the garage.
Pol Col Surakij In-am, the Huay Yai police chief, said police were gathering evidence and information from witnesses in order to seek a court warrant for the arrests of the suspects.
