PATTAYA — In a shocking case where an Iranian restaurant owner and his Thai wife were brutally murdered, the court has approved arrest warrants for the suspects, who are a Myanmar employee and his girlfriend. It was discovered that the pair had turned themselves in for illegal entry charges in order to be deported back to their country.
On July 19, Pattaya Provincial Court approved arrest warrants for two Myanmar suspects: Mr. Kyaw Myint Oo, 23, and Miss Ei December, 19. The male suspect, an employee of the restaurant, is suspected of committing the murders, while the female may have been an accomplice.
Mr. Mojtaba Ghanbariazad, 64, an Iranian restaurant owner, and Ms. Thanaporn Poonprakon, 49, from Buriram province, his wife, were found murdered on July 16, 2024, in the second-floor bedroom of their restaurant, Banu Iran Restaurant, in Soi Day Night, South Pattaya, Chonburi Province.
Forensic results revealed that the couple were murdered on July 11. Mr. Mojtaba was strangled with sweatpants, while his wife was bound with a charging cable on her hands and straw rope on her feet, then beaten to death with a hammer found at the scene.
Police Lieutenant General Thawatchakiat Jindakhuansanong, Commander of Chonburi Provincial Police, stated that the male and female suspects are wanted for premeditated murder. The motive is presumed to be robbery, with investigations ongoing to determine what items are missing.
CCTV footage on July 11 shows the suspects fleeing on the victims’ motorcycle, which they abandoned about 3 kilometers from the crime scene. They then took a taxi from Pattaya to Bang Phongphang district in Bangkok, and then to Nakhon Pathom province.
The suspects later surrendered to immigration police in Nakhon Pathom for illegal entry and voluntarily requested to return to Myanmar. At that time, Nakhon Pathom immigration police were unaware of the murder case in Chonburi, so they fined the suspects and sent them to the Mae Sot border checkpoint in Chiang Rai, allowing them to leave the country.
Police will now coordinate with Myanmar authorities to help track and arrest the two suspects to face charges in Thailand.
Ms. Wan, 59, a close friend of Ms. Thanaporn, said she had known the deceased since coming to Pattaya. Thanaporn had complained about frequent money disappearances from the restaurant, suspecting the Myanmar employee who brought a Myanmar woman with him. Thanaporn didn’t say anything because she was kind-hearted.
Ms. Wan believed that the motive is likely robbery, as Thanaporn’s daughter had recently bought her mother some gold.
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