TOURIST'S KILLING: Two held for Samui murder
Published on January 10, 2006
Fishermen confess to raping, killing Welsh student Katherine Horton
after DNA match
Police have arrested two fishermen for the . and murder of Welsh
tourist Kathe-rine Horton on the island resort of Koh Samui last week
after a DNA analysis of semen recovered from her body linked them to
the crime.
The two, Bualoy Pothisith, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, were on a
fishing boat moored off the island's Lamai Beach on the night of
January 1. Horton was attacked that night while walking on the beach
alone as she was talking
to her mother on her mobile phone. Her body was found in the sea off
another beach the next morning.
A DNA analysis of the semen recovered from the body showed that it
matched the blood samples taken from the two suspects and police have
used this as scientific proof to back up their arrests, said deputy
police commissioner General Preowpan Damapong.
The two have confessed to the crime and have been charged with gang
. and premeditated murder, he said.
Region 8 deputy police commissioner Maj-General Santhan Chayanon said
the suspects drank alcohol and watched a .ographic movie on their
fishing boat, the Poh Sirichok, on the night of January 1 before they
swam ashore and spotted Horton.
"They said they intended to find a woman to have . with after
watching the adult movie," Santhan said.
The two saw Horton talking on the phone on the beach a few hundred
metres from her bungalow at the New Hut Resort and one of them hit her
with the wooden pole of a beach umbrella that was close at hand. The
two then dragged her behind a pile of rocks about 40 metres away and
.d her, according to Santhan.
After the .ual assault, they hit her again with the same umbrella
pole and then dragged her about 20 metres into the sea and left her
there, he said.
The two returned to their fishing boat after the crime and went out on
a fishing trip on another, bigger boat the next day. Investigators
zeroed in on them after learning from their colleagues that they had
suspiciously asked to go out to sea again without taking a break ashore
like the other fishermen, said Central Investigation Bureau deputy
commissioner Maj-General Asavin Kwanmuang.
"Undercover police later managed to get aboard that boat and took 29
crewmen for questioning. Two of them confessed to the crime during
interrogation," he said.
The body of Horton, 21, a psychology student at Reading University in
Cardiff, was found floating a few kilometres from Lamai Beach on
January 2. Her mother, Elizabeth, reported that she was talking to her
daughter on the phone on the night of January 1 when she heard
Katherine scream, before the line suddenly went dead.
The two suspects were flown to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in
Bangkok early yesterday morning for a DNA test before being taken back
to Koh Samui for detention. Arraignment in court is scheduled for
tomorrow, police said.
Preowpan said he had instructed police at all local tourist
destinations to strengthen security measures for tourists to prevent
any more crimes in wake of the Horton case.
Police commissioner Gen Kovit Wattana yesterday gave Bt100,000 to the
police team investigating the case as a reward for having made arrests
quickly.
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