Man beaten to death in Thailand's Trat province; body found in rubber plantation

A 61-year-old man has been killed and his body disposed of in a rubber plantation in Trat province, eastern Thailand, after a brutal street assault captured on CCTV, with the suspect arrested the same night, police said.

Trat is a coastal province bordering Cambodia, located approximately 315 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. The incident occurred in Khao Saming district, a rural area in the province's interior.

Boonyu Samjai was walking for exercise along Soi Nak Prasit in Moo 9, tambon Thung Nonsi, Khao Saming district, at around 5.08pm on Tuesday, 30 June 2026, when he was approached by a man riding a Honda PCX motorcycle.

The man, later identified as Withawat Tanghu (also known as "Mos"), aged 32, confronted Boonyu before a brief argument escalated into a violent attack, according to investigators at Khao Saming Police Station.

CCTV footage showed Withawat striking Boonyu repeatedly. After the victim attempted to use a wooden stick to defend himself, the suspect wrested it away and used it to beat Boonyu over the head until he collapsed.

Bystanders who attempted to intervene were unable to stop the attack.

Withawat then rode away briefly before returning to the scene with a bamboo pole, which he used to strike the victim several more times as Boonyu lay motionless on the ground.

The suspect subsequently drove to his nearby durian orchard and returned in a blue motorcycle sidecar. Footage showed him loading the unconscious victim onto the vehicle before driving away.

Officers responding to reports of the incident arrived to find both men had disappeared. Police traced the suspect's movements to his durian orchard, located approximately 750 metres from the scene.

A search of the orchard uncovered bloodstains and two firearms — a handgun and a shotgun — but no sign of the victim. Rescue divers were deployed to search a nearby pond after investigators suspected the victim's body may have been disposed of there.

Following a manhunt lasting several hours, police arrested Withawat at 11.05pm on Tuesday at a house near Wat Bamron in Muang district.

During questioning at Khao Saming Police Station, Withawat denied disposing of the victim's body, claiming instead that Boonyu had jumped from the sidecar of his own accord. Investigators said the suspect gave inconsistent statements and refused to reveal where he had abandoned the vehicle.

At 10.10am on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, Boonyu's body was found in a rubber plantation in Moo 3, tambon Thung Nonsi, approximately 1.8 kilometres from the original scene. The body had been stripped of clothing. The area was cordoned off and the body sent for an autopsy.

Authorities later recovered the blue sidecar, which had been submerged in the Ta Kad reservoir in neighbouring Huai Raeng subdistrict, about 5.8 kilometres from where the body was found.

A blue plastic container was also seized from the vehicle as evidence. Police said they were examining whether it had been used to transport the body, but had not yet reached any conclusions.

The victim's sister, Ratsami Samjai, 55, said her brother had moved to the area less than a year ago. She said Boonyu went out regularly for exercise and had no prior acquaintance with the suspect.

According to the family, the confrontation was triggered when the suspect challenged Boonyu over his gaze, asking why he was looking at him before launching the assault.

"I want the perpetrator to face the consequences of what he has done," Ratsami said, as quoted by Bangkok Post.

A local resident told reporters he had unknowingly assisted the suspect's escape on Tuesday night, giving a lift to a man he encountered who was soaked from head to toe and claimed his vehicle had run out of fuel. The resident later realised the man was the individual police were searching for.

Village headman Phongsan Kruapinchai said investigators tracked the suspect's movements to the reservoir, where divers recovered the submerged sidecar. He noted that the suspect had slipped through a police checkpoint by riding in a local resident's vehicle, as officers were unfamiliar with his appearance.

Police are continuing to investigate the motive for the attack. Investigators have noted that Withawat had a documented history of drug use and had undergone rehabilitation on multiple occasions, and are examining whether this may have been a contributing factor.