Police were called before dawn to the scene where they found Ronnachai’s body with two deep stab wounds in his chest and another in his back. Across his throat was a five-centimetre-deep knife slash.
Police suspected that Ronnachai was on his way to his accommodation in Phuket Town and was followed “by an enemy” who managed to get him to stop his motorbike before murdering him.
Pol Col Sermpan Sirikong, Superintendent of Phuket Town police station, told The Phuket News that neither Ronnachai’s wife nor his parents could shed any light on who might have murdered him.
His wife said that he would often go out at night without telling her where he was going.
Col Sermpan ordered the investigating team to keep searching for clues and to check footage from CCTV cameras nearby.
He said it was clear that Ronnachai had stopped the motorcycle himself because he had turned the engine off and taken out the ignition key.
He added that he believed that robbery was not a motive for the attack, “Whoever attacked him really meant to kill him because we found his belongings – a mobile telephone and a brass necklace – still with him.”