Kamphaeng Phet — Footage has emerged of the moment a gang abducted a Chinese woman from a hotel in the heart of Bangkok and drove toward the Mae Sot border crossing to hand her over. The gang ran a police checkpoint before opening the car door, dragging the victim out, and abandoning her in the middle of the road as they sped away — only to be pursued by Kamphaeng Phet police, who fired on the tyres to stop the vehicle, then tracked down and arrested the entire gang. All suspects are being remanded in custody today.
Today (25 Aug.), officers from Mueang Kamphaeng Phet Police Station brought four suspects, who had abducted a young Chinese woman from Bangkok while heading to deliver her to the Mae Sot border — running a checkpoint and dumping the victim in the middle of Kamphaeng Phet — to identify the sedan used in the crime for inclusion in the case file. The suspects were then taken to the investigator's office for further questioning, and charges have been formally filed against them.
An inspection of the suspect sedan parked in front of Mueang Kamphaeng Phet Police Station revealed that the front and rear tyres on the right side had burst, and there was what appeared to be a bullet hole on the right side of the vehicle.
Pol. Lt. Col. Suwit Phison, Deputy Superintendent of Mueang Kamphaeng Phet Police Station and the officer overseeing the case, disclosed that, based on the evidence gathered by investigators in the initial phase, all four suspects have been charged with jointly detaining and restraining another person and jointly causing bodily harm, in accordance with the evidence found. Other charges are currently under investigation as additional evidence is being sought. All four suspects will be remanded in custody today, even though all of them have denied the charges.
The evidence seized from the suspects consists of two mobile phones, both in a damaged state, believed to have been destroyed by the suspects to eliminate contact information among the criminal group. Police will send the phones to forensic officers for further examination.
As for the Chinese victim, she has stated that she had been travelling in Singapore, where she came to know a woman just before she was due to fly back to China. That woman told her she had a friend — a fellow Chinese national from the same hometown as the victim — living in Thailand, and invited her to come and visit. The victim believed her and flew to Thailand, where a car came to pick her up.
While in the car, with her hands bound and a cloth over her head, and as the suspects were driving away at speed, she was forcibly shoved out of the vehicle by the group.
Meanwhile, closed-circuit television footage shows the suspect sedan evading a checkpoint and turning onto Ratchadamnoen Road in Nai Mueang sub-district, Mueang Kamphaeng Phet district. The car slowed down, and then a man in a white shirt — one of the four suspects, identified as Somkiat, also known as James — opened the car door, pulled the victim out, and threw her from the vehicle before the entire group drove off, leaving the young Chinese woman to run and seek help from residents and a hair salon in the area.
