A Thai mother received justice from a Thai court this week when her daughter’s former mistress and employer was convicted of pre meditated murder of the young 16 year old maid in 2012. She was given a life prison sentence. The murder had gone undetected for 5 years until the girl’s mother began a search in 2017 to locate the whereabouts of her missing daughter. The girl had been hired out in 2012 as a maid to a wealthy woman, Krissina Suwanpatik, in Bangkok. After a fruitless search, initially involving police and other agencies, a breakthrough came in October 2017 when a dramatic and anonymous telephone call to Janthira, the Thai girl’s mother, shocked the woman and revealed the chilling fate of her daughter, Jariya Srisak.
A harrowing story and ordeal for a Thai mother who spent five years searching for her missing 16 year old daughter came to a close on Wednesday when her employer, to whom she was hired out as a maid, was convicted of her pre meditated murder by a Thai Criminal Court sitting in Bangkok. The court heard how the murdered girl’s mistress, a former but now aged beauty queen, regularly launched frenzied and violent attacks on the young girl before fatally injuring the teenager with a hot hair straightener on April 11th 2012. The young girl’s body lay concealed for five years until her mother’s search for her resulted in a breakthrough mystery call which led Thai Crime Suppression police to the door of Krissana Suwanpitak and her wealthy family. Ms Suwanpitak was convicted of the girl’s murder this week and sentenced to life imprisonment.
A Thai court handed down a severe sentence this week on a former beauty queen in Thailand. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for what the court found was the premeditated murder of her young maid in 2012. The young Thai girl was only 16 years of age, barely a teenager, when she died following a frenzied and vicious attack at the hands of her employer.
Former Thai beauty queen taken to prison convicted of the murder of her maid in 2012
47 year old Krissana Suwanpitak was also informed by the court that the sentence could not be suspended and the woman was taken into custody by the Thai Women’s Correctional Institute. Her application for bail is to be decided later by the Court of Appeal. The case saw three defendants come before the court in relation to the matter and was prosecuted by three different prosecutors.
Murder of the teenage Thai girl covered up by three defendants all found guilty
One of the other two defendants who were the convicted on Wednesday was the accused Thai woman’s brother, Pramote Suwanpitak, who is reported to be 45 years of age and a local village headman. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison. Ms Suwanpitak’s friend, 37 year old Prathana Tuamsap, was given a sentence of one year and four months. Thai police and prosecutors had implicated and charged the duo with assisting Krissana Suwanpitak to cover up the murder of the young girl after she died following the attack in 2012. Specifically, they had provided help and support in removing the body from the murder site and placing it elsewhere. The young girls body was not found for five years.
The two accomplices received lenient sentences from the Thai court because they had volunteered to cooperate with Thai police in investigating the killing of the young girl and getting to the bottom of the matter. This allowed the full facts to be placed before the court.
Principal prosecution witness was wealthy Thai woman’s daughter who witnessed the fatal attack
It has emerged that one of the principal witnesses in the murder case was the daughter of the accused. Ms Suwanpitak’s daughter was reported to have seen her mother launch frenzied attacks on the maid at certain times and in particular, on the day the maid suffered fatal injuries. She formally gave evidence in the case for the prosecution against her mother.
Murder lay undiscovered for 5 years
The horrible crime and murder lay undiscovered for 5 years until the mother of the victim sought out her young daughter. The court heard that in February 2012 the young girl had been hired out as a home maid. The 47 year old woman who took her on, the accused Krissana Suwanpitak, was formerly well known as a beauty queen who had participated in many local beauty shows and pageants. These included the Nang Noppamas beauty pageant held every year in Thailand to celebrate Loy Krathong.
Dramatic phone call was the breakthrough for the Thai girl’s mother when she began her search after 5 years not hearing from her daughter
The court heard further evidence of the search conducted by the young girl’s’ mother to find her daughter and of the breakthrough moment which gave Thai police the evidence they needed. It emerged that in October 2017 the mother of the murdered girl, Janthira Srisak, received a mysterious and anonymous call. It laid the story bare. The caller told the stunned mother that her daughter had been viciously attacked by her mistress. It identified the resting place of her daughter, Jariya, as near a tree located at a house in Phetchaburi province.
Respected Thai NGO involved in the search for the missing Thai girl as mother was mislead
The mother of the murdered girl had also sought help from the Paveena Hongsakula Foundation which is a Thai NGO that does excellent work assisting victims of Thailand’s sex industry and women or girls who have been the subject of abuse in Thailand. The unfortunate mother had feared the worst for her daughter after not hearing from her in 5 years. It emerged in court that the mother of the murder victim had been deliberately misled by the now convicted murderer, Krissana Suwanpitak. She told Jariya’s mother that the young Thai girl had run away.
Thailand’s Crime Suppression police was critical to finding Jariya’s body on Phetchaburi province
The anxious Thai woman had originally sought help from the Royal Thai Police in Phetchaburi to locate her daughter. However, the police could not find anything that would lead them to identify the whereabouts of the Thai girl. The case was subsequently taken on by the Crime Suppression Division of the Thai police. Their investigations led them to identify the remains of 16 year old, Jariya Srisak, in Phetchaburi province in 2017. The body of the murdered maid was found near the the home of the mother of her employer, Doro Timitak. This led to the arrest of Krissana Suwanpitak also known as ‘Mona’ a month later in Chachoengsao province.
Thai girl hired as a maid for ฿6,000 a month
In the course of the trial, it emerged that Krissina had hired the Thai girl as a maid from her family for ฿6,000 a month in 2012. Krissana Suwanpitak, the Thai court was told, would often assault the young girl because of her disobedient or non compliant behavior. In court, the most convincing evidence came from the daughter of the accused who confirmed her mother’s angry outbursts directed the teenage servant. Even Ms Suwanpitak’s friend and co accused told the court that her friend had a violent temper which could easily be aroused.
Jariya was killed on April 11th 2012 by her Mistress
The seminal incident which led to the murder of the young girl occurred on April 11th 2012. The court learned that Krissana Suwanpitak attacked the girl violently, beating her on the head with a spray bottle, shaped as a cylinder. She then used the hose of a vacuum cleaner to further beat the young girl on the thighs. Sadistically, the irate Thai woman then used a heated electrical device for hair straightening, to burn marks on the girl’s body in the torso area. The violent onslaught and brutal attack left the girl severely injured. She died the following day. The attack and death of the teenager had taken place at Krissana Suwanpitak’s home in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok.
Conspiracy to hide the young girl’s body
This led to a conspiracy and efforts to conceal the body of the dead maid who this week a Thai court has found was brutally murdered. Assisted by her friend, 37 year old Prathana Tuamsap and her brother 45 year old Pramote Suwanpitak, the body of Jarinya Srisak was transferred to Phetchaburi province and buried in proximity to the home of Krissana Suwanpitak’s mother. The court was told that the body was laid to rest under a palm tree which stood just outside the home’s perimeter fence. Both Ms Suwanpitak and her friend Prathana Tuamsap denied the charges until the court handed down its verdict this week. The convicted woman’s brother, Pramote, had maintained his innocence up to the beginning of the trial and then altered his stance to a guilty plea at the commencement of the legal hearing.
Life imprisonment for maid’s mistress convicted of murder and also ordered to pay compensation
The Thai court decisively convicted the former beauty queen of murder. It is thought the evidence of her daughter who appears to have witnessed the fatal attack, was a critical factor.
The convicted woman, as well as being sentenced to life in prison, was also ordered to pay compensation to her maid’s mother, Janthira Srisak in the amount of ฿1.06 million plus 7.5% per annum inback dated interest payments, by the Thai court. The mother of the murdered girl had sought a payment of ฿1.46 million plus 15% interest.
Convicted woman’s brother and local village headman provided assistance to the murdered girl’s mother but the court declined to suspend the entire sentence
The court heard evidence that the brother of the accused, Promote Suwanpitak, a respected village headman, had helped and provided assistance to the mother of the murdered girl in the intervening period. However, it convicted both the 45 year old man and Krissana Suwanpitak’s friend of carrying out a conspiracy to conceal the murdered girl’s body which lay undiscovered for 5 years. For this, they were both sentenced to 2 years in prison. In the case of Promote Suwanpitak, this was halved both for his positive work as a village headman and his plea of guilty. Krissana Suwanpitak’s friend, Prathana Tuamsap, had her sentence reduced to one year and four months as she had provided useful information to the police in course of the investigation.
Thai mother offers a glimmer of light in an altogether dark story as she forgives the killer
After the court hearing this Wednesday, the mother of the murdered girl provided some glimmer of light in this altogether dark story. ‘I would like to thank the court for justice. The wrongdoer was punished,’ Janthira told the press. ‘Although the defendant did not feel guilty, I still forgive her, so that the soul of Nong Nam can rest in peace.’ Nong Nam was the nickname of the murdered girl.
Convicted Thai woman taken in custody and is seeking ฿600,000 bail pending her appeal
At the Thai Criminal Court, Pradthana Tuamsap and Promote Suwanpitak were each granted bail by the court pending an appeal to the Thailand’s Court of Appeal against the decision. They both had to provide surety of ฿200,000 when bail was granted later in the day. An application for bail by Krissana Suwanpitak pending her appeal against her murder conviction and life sentence was less straightforward. The matter will wait until it comes before the Court of Appeal. It is reported that this may take 5 to 10 days.
In the meantime, the convicted woman was taken into custody and remanded to the Central Women’s Correctional Institute. The Appeals court will give a decision in due course on her application for bail in the amount of ฿600,000. The appeals process itself is a lengthy one, often taking years for a decision and this, in some cases, may even be appealed to Thailand’s Supreme Court over another extended period.
