A Thai couple confessed to killing their newborn baby and burning the body in a charcoal kiln at a friend’s home in Khon Kaen province.
A local in the Ban Fang district of Khon Kaen discovered the corpse of the newborn in a charcoal kiln in a sugar cane field on August 17 and reported it to Ban Fang Police Station. The body had been burned in the kiln, and bloodstains were present at the scene.
Police began searching for the baby’s parents, and upon reviewing CCTV footage, they found a suspicious couple riding a motorcycle near the area. The woman was seen carrying a pink plastic basket, which officers suspected contained the infant’s body.
CCTV footage later revealed that the couple had visited a friend, who was the owner of the sugar cane field where the kiln is located. The landowner admitted that the couple came to his home, but he did not see the pink basket or the body.
Officers later identified the couple as 30 year old Pongsathon and 34 year old Panadda. They were arrested at their homes nearby. The couple initially claimed that their newborn had died during delivery, so they took the body to be burned in the kiln.
Panadda stated that she gave birth in a rented room while her husband was away at work. She said she was exhausted and lost consciousness, waking only when her husband returned and discovered that the child had died.
The couple admitted they had been afraid of being arrested for the baby’s death and tried to conceal the case by burning the body.
Police were not convinced by their account and awaited autopsy results before pressing charges.
The autopsy revealed that the newborn had suffered a wound from being struck with a hard object. Furthermore, the baby’s digestive system had been active. Moreover, the child had cried, drunk milk, and defecated before death, indicating that the infant had not been stillborn.
Faced with the evidence, Panadda confessed to killing her child on August 16 by covering the baby’s nose with a blanket until it suffocated. She and her husband then burned the body in the kiln. She explained that financial concerns had led her to believe they could not care for the child.
The couple revealed that they moved out of the rented room after the murder and lived separately with their families until their arrest.
They have been charged under Section 288 of the Criminal Law for intentional murder, which carries the death penalty, life imprisonment, or a prison term of 15 to 20 years.
Their actions of concealing the death also violated Section 199 of the Criminal Law, punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both.
The story Thai couple confesses to killing newborn and burning body in Khon Kaen as seen on Thaiger News.
