A heartless and evil convicted murderer who shot a Dutchman in the back and bludgeoned his head with a concrete block at a Pattaya rubbish dump has finally been arrested and will be sent to death row. The victim had been cuckolded by his unfaithful wife who had an affair with his killer and a child by him.
Thailand’s elite Crime Suppression Police this week announced the arrest of 54-year-old Anupong Suthani, a convicted murderer sentenced to death in 2007 for the murder four years earlier of successful Dutch businessman Jules Odekerken in the resort city of Pattaya. The man was cruelly and viciously murdered in a dark plot hatched by his wife and brother and law but driven and led by Mr Anupong.
On Wednesday this week, the head of Thailand’s Crime Suppression Police, Police Major General Jirabhob Bhuridej announced the arrest of a convicted murderer on Tuesday the 18th of February in the northern province of Phrae.
Former Lang Suan municipal councillor and mayor, Anupong Suthani, was arrested on foot of a bench warrant issued nearly 13 years ago on December 21st 2007 when he was sentenced to death in absentia for the brutal and calculated murder of 49-year-old Dutchman Jules Odekerken.
Dutch businessman who fell in love in Pattaya in 1997
Mr Odekerken, a Dutch businessman who came to Thailand in 1997 and fell in love with then 31-year-old Marisa Prommana, a prostitute and brothel keeper, in the resort city that was then at the height of its reputation as a world’s sex capital.
The Dutchman made the woman his wife and they moved to the Netherlands. However, Marisa simply did not adapt to the Dutch mode of living and consequently, the couple moved back to Thailand in 1998.
Family returned to live in Bangkok in 1998
There, Mr Jules worked in Bangkok for the leading Dutch financial institution Rabobank. The couple later moved residence to a large and luxurious villa in Pattaya because the Dutchman’s Thai wife could not tolerate the notorious Bangkok air.
Mr Jules continued to work in Bangkok travelling every weekend to his family in the coastal city.
Couple had two more children and began with one
The Dutch Thai couple began with one child, a daughter whom Marisa brought to the union, Kawiphan, whom the foreigner, from the outset, treated as his own. The couple had two more children, a little girl called Massaya and later a boy called Sob Chai.
Foreigner’s work honoured by Princess Ubolratana
During this time, Mr Jules was honoured by an award from Princess Ubolratana for his work in Bangkok and also developed a successful media business and news agency.
He owned a publication called Quick News in Pattaya and a newspaper that circulated in Pattaya and Phuket aimed at foreigners.
Not all was as it seemed in the relationship at home
However, all was not what it seemed in Dutchman’s relationship at home. His wife Marisa had formed a sexual liaison with Mr Anupong from Chumphon province whom the Dutchman had initially hired for building work in Pattaya. Mr Anupong was a municipal employee in Chumphon.
The Thai wife later used her husband’s financial resources to extract her brother, Seksan Pornhommana, from serious criminal charges in another province in a deal brokered by her lover, Mr Anupong who was reputed to be influential and a fixer.
Thai wife discovered her husband’s wealth
Then according to police, the Thai wife began to fixate on the wealth attached to her husband.
In the aftermath of her husband’s murder and as police carefully closed in on Ms Marisa, she suggested that she had been extorted by her lover to find money from her husband’s wealth with threats from Mr Anupong, her lover and the father of her third child, Sob Chai, whom Mr Jules thought was his own.
Plot hatched to murder the businessman
Marisa discovered that her husband, together with insurance policies on his life and other assets, had a worth of between ฿100 and ฿200 million.
The course of action soon became clear.
Obliged to his sister’s lover, Mr Seksan was recruited to participate in the act that was planned by Mr Anupong. The Dutchman, his lover’s rightful husband, was to be murdered.
Dutchman Mr Jules was attacked by his brother in law and his wife’s lover carrying wooden sticks
The murder took place on Sunday, November 16th 2003.
The two men found Mr Jules alone in Pattaya and attacked him with wooden sticks. They beat him until he was unconscious and then used his vehicle to transport him to a public dump in the Banglamung area of the city.
Strangled in his own vehicle on the way to the dump
On their way to the disposal point, Mr Jules somehow regained consciousness and the men, even as Mr Anupong drove the victim’s vehicle, began to strangle him.
Once the vehicle arrived at the scene, they dragged their victim out and shot him in the back. They then used a concrete block to smash his head leaving the victim’s body in an unrecognisable state.
Wife and brother confessed – sentenced to life to his active role the murder and expressed remorse
Subsequently, both Mr Seksan and the Dutch man’s wife, Marisa, were convicted by Thai courts of his murder and sentenced to life in prison. Both had confessed.
The Thai wife’s brother was the first to breakdown and told police the shocking and evil truth behind the foreigner’s brutal murder.
Driver of the plot insisted in his innocence
Mr Anupong continued, however, to protest his innocence. Before the breakdown of Mr Seksan and the arrest of Ms Marisa, he even told police that he did not know Mr Jules or his wife too well at all.
He later managed to obtain court bail but failed to turn up for the court verdict at the end of 2007 when he was convicted and sentenced to death in abstentia.
With nothing to lose, the evil killer confessed
This week, Thailand’s CSD police chief told the media the man had finally confessed to his involvement at the heart of the affair.
He also expressed remorse for his actions.
Evaded police by changing his names and using a proxy to purchase a property in Phrae province
Police outlined on media on Wednesday how Mr Anupong had changed his first and last name to elude them.
He also managed to arrange for a representative to buy property on his behalf in the Mueang district of the province of Phrae three years after he absconded from justice.
This is where police finally tracked him down to this week in tambon Wang Thong and arrested him so that he can finally face justice for his despicable actions nearly seventeen years ago.
Murderer to be handed over to Pattaya’s court
The CSD officer who led the arrest team was Police Colonel Nethi Wongkularb who told reporters that the convicted murderer will now be handed over to the Pattaya Provincial Court.
Given the fact that he is also sentenced to death, it is likely that he will later be transferred to Thailand’s Bang Kwang prison which is the home of Thailand’s death chamber and where death row inmates are housed.
There are currently over 500 people on Thailand’s death row. The last execution took place on June 18th 2018.
A survey that year showed 93% of Thai people support the use of the death penalty as a criminal deterrent.
Further reading:
Death sentence for murderous trio who executed a loving Thai wife and her UK husband in Phrae
Love triangle murders in Thailand linked with popular TV soaps, foreigners and money
93% of Thai people want to see the death penalty put to use to curb shocking murders and drug gangs
