Police indicate that the motive for the murder of Hans Peter Ralter Mack was greed as two other German nationals sought to extort money and property from him. The macabre scene on Monday night even shocked and appalled experienced forensic officers with the head of Mr Ralter Mack found covered in a mask amid a jumble of body parts.
Police in Pattaya have issued arrest warrants for two German nationals following the gruesome discovery of the body of missing German property mogul Hans Peter Ralter Mack on Monday night at a single-story residence in the Nong Prue area of Pattaya. His body had been sawed into 13 parts sealed in a chest freezer and transported to the property where it was deposited in a bedroom with the current running.
The week-long search for missing German businessman Hans Peter Ralter Mack came to a sad and macabre ending in Pattaya in the early hours of Tuesday morning when police investigators confirmed that missing body parts found in a sealed freezer were those of the German property tycoon.
On Monday night, at Chok Chai Gardens, a housing estate in the Nong Prue district of Bang Lamung, in Pattaya, an excited crowd of hundreds of people gathered outside the single-storey detached house with an area of approximately 40 to 50 square metres.
Hundreds of shocked people gathered outside the residence in the Nong Prue area of Pattaya as news spread regarding police fears as to what lay inside
As mounting speculation spread that police believed the body of a missing German man was contained within the property in a freezer, the grim news caused consternation.
It is not clear how the investigation developed but it is understood that police came to be aware that the body of the German businessman was in a freezer which had earlier been transported in a four-door black pickup driven by two individuals, one of whom, it is reported, is a Pakistani man.
It is thought these two suspects have links to a German couple, called in for questioning by police on Sunday night.
On Tuesday morning, police investigators at Nong Prue police station confirmed that arrest warrants had been issued for the two Germans concerned in the case linked with the murder of Mr Ralter Mack.
It is understood that the Germans were in the process of perpetrating a fraud on the businessman which sought to deprive him of his assets until things went awry.
Police investigators have suggested the motive in the murder was greed and that an attempt was made to extort money and property from the successful tycoon.
฿2 million taken from the German property tycoon’s bank account between last Tuesday and Monday when the family requested it be frozen by the police
In any event, up to ฿2 million was transferred from the German man’s bank account since he went missing last Tuesday until police on Monday were asked by his distraught family to freeze it.
Police quiz German property broker and partner as they impound black SUV in the Ralter Mack case
Police have identified two young women who may have parked the car of missing German in Pattaya
On Monday night, police investigators brought a search warrant from Pattaya Provincial Court to a 35-year-old housekeeper responsible for the property, named Ms Nuch.
She told officers that the house had been rented out for more than a year, at ฿9,000 per month, to foreigners, but she was not aware that it had been sublet.
She confirmed that the rent was paid on time and was shocked to hear that police suspected that the freezer inside the property contained the body of the disappeared German man.
Police entered the small rental house and found the freezer plugged in and running in an unused bedroom
Police are reported to have entered the residence at 10.45 pm where they found a large food freezer in a bedroom sealed with black tape and running with coolant being circulated continuously.
It is reported that when experienced forensic officers opened the freezer, they were taken aback by what they saw which was evidence of an atrocious murder.
In the freezer, wrapped in black plastic bags were 13 body parts of a human being including the head which had a mask placed on it
A small tree saw which had been used by whoever perpetrated the crime to cut the body up was thrown on top of the human remains.
Reports from the scene suggest that the saw had traces of blood on it, so too had the inside of the freezer.
Police confirmed that the dissected body was that of 62-year-old Hans Peter Ralter Mack at 11.30 pm on Monday night shortly after the shocking discovery
At 11.30 pm senior officers associated with the kidnapping case confirmed to the waiting press posse outside the property that they believed that the body they discovered was that of Hans Peter Ralter Mack, the 62-year-old businessman who had gone missing at 12.41 pm last Tuesday, 4 July.
Mr Ralter Mack’s distinctive Mercedes E350 coupé was last seen following an SUV driven by a German property broker, 54-year-old Ms Peta who has been identified as one of the key suspects in the case at a key intersection in Pattaya after the pair had finished a business meeting on that day last week.
On Sunday night, Ms Peta and her 52-year-old partner, Mr Olaf were called in for questioning by police and interrogated for three hours.
Body parts removed locally by Rescue unit
Police are now believed to be searching for the four-door pickup used to transport the freezer which was under the control of two men including the Pakistani individual who has already been identified from CCTV footage.
At fifteen minutes to one in the morning on Tuesday, rescue workers with a local foundation removed the body parts of Mr Ralter Mack from the freezer and they were sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for a thorough autopsy to be carried out.
It is understood that the head recovered from the freezer showed clear signs of having sustained blunt force trauma which may give some indication of how the German met his end.
Murdered German man charged in 2018 in connection with an underage prostitution case in the same area of Pattaya where his mangled body was found
The 62-year-old German national, it was revealed on Monday, was himself charged in an underage prostitution case in February 2018 when a 41-year-old woman identified as Amornrat Kateuy was arrested for procuring underage girls as prostitutes in the Nong Prue area of Pattaya.
Police in Pattaya had been monitoring a house in the resort city which they understood to be involved in underage prostitution.
They identified Ms Amornrat arriving on a motorbike with a fifteen-year-old girl riding with her.
Police detectives monitoring the house observed the 41-year-old Thai woman and the girl go inside.
Shortly after, detectives observed Mr Ralter Mack emerging from a bedroom without his shirt.
Police approached the property and when the occupants of the house refused them entry, officers broke down the door and discovered a 15-year-old girl in a bedroom dressed only with a towel.
Family described the case as a misunderstanding
The girl told police that the man who had been with her had purchased a sexual service. She had been taken there for that purpose.
Following the police operation, the 41-year-old Thai woman was charged with human trafficking and procuring a sex service related to an underage girl.
It was also reported, at that time, that Mr Ralter Mack was also facing charges.
On Monday, when his family were questioned by reporters concerning the incident, they described it as a misunderstanding and insisted on focusing their efforts on securing the return of the German businessman to them.
Early on Tuesday morning such hopes were dashed with the gruesome news from another residential property in Pattaya.
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Further reading:
Police quiz German property broker and partner as they impound black SUV in the Ralter Mach case
Police have identified two young women who may have parked the car of missing German in Pattaya
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