The skeleton was dug up after Mata Isawan, interviewed in Hungary by private investigator Ferenc Chilko, admitted to helping David bury the body of millionaire Laszlo Csapai, and told Mr Chilko where it could be found.
Surat Thani Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Kiattipong Khaosum told The Phuket News today that preliminary examination of the skeleton revealed that the bones at the back of the neck had been severely damaged, probably by a heavy blow. The original theory advanced by police was that a hoe – a farming implement with a heavy blade – had been used.
There were no clothes buried with the body, nor any rings or other personal possessions, which accorded with Isawan’s account that the body had been stripped before being buried.
Attempts to identify the body from the teeth had got nowhere, Gen Kiattipong said, because Mr Csapai travelled a lot, using dentists wherever he happened to be, so no dentist could be found who had complete dental records for him.
Instead, the identity of the skeleton will, it is hoped, be identified by DNA matching.
Hungarian police have extracted a DNA profile from samples provided by Mr Csapai’s mother, and this has been sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok, where DNA is being extracted from the skeleton.
The two profiles – from Hungary and from Thailand – will be compared to see whether there is a close enough match to state definitively that the skeleton is that of Mr Csapai.
This should take another two weeks or so, Gen Kiattipong said.
Moshe David is being held in Phuket prison awaiting trial over another murder, that of another Hungarian, Peter Reisz, found on November 30 stabbed to death and dumped in woods in Phuket.
Also arrested in that case was yet another Hungarian, Lajos Gyorgy Kvalka, who admitted to helping David dispose of Mr Reisz’s body.