The 31-year-old American, identified as Tyler Joseph Fulton Sheen Gerard, was taken into custody around 11am Wednesday at an immigration checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province, trying to enter Cambodia.
A team of immigration officials, rangers and police spotted a foreigner wearing a white vest and blue sports shorts with a bandage wrapped around his right elbow as he walked from the Rong Kluea border market to Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint.
The passport matched a list of suspects wanted for Monday’s (Nov 30) abduction of 37-year-old Wayne Rodney Schneider from his rented luxury home in tambon Nongprue of Bang Lamung district.
An arrest warrant was issued yesterday for Australian Antonio Bagnato, 26, on charges of conspiring to assault and detain Schneider, his reported partner in a Sydney fitness business.
But immigration officials announced today that Mr Bagnato managed to escape Thailand. His route of escape and destination were not disclosed. Police today, however, did arrest Mr Bagnato’s Thai wife, who is accused of renting the white Toyota Vigo pick-up truck used to carry out the kidnapping and transport his dead body to its resting place.
The woman, whose name was withheld, allegedly paid B5,000 to rent the truck from Nov 28 to Dec 3 from a dealer off Third Road in central Pattaya. She reportedly told police she did not know what the truck was to be used for and was oblivious to any plan to abduct and kill Schneider.
But police said the woman confessed that Mr Bagnato told her to delete all text messages from her telephone about the truck rental.
Pattaya and Chonburi police today searched the Bagnato household in the resort city, but nothing of significance was reported to have been found.
Mr Bagnato is believed to have been the ringleader of the gang of five masked men that whisked Schneider from his B130,000-a-month Jomtien Park Villas home on Thepprasit Soi 17 around 5am Nov 30.
Pol Lt Col Naruephon Karuna, investigation chief at Khlong Luek police station, immediately alerted Pattaya investigators and arranged to bring the suspect to Pattaya police station today for interrogation.
Pol Col Pairat Pukcharoen, chief of Sa Kaeo immigration police, said his agency had been working closely with Chon Buri immigration and Pattaya City police on the case to prevent suspects on the watchlist from escaping the country.
Pol Maj Gen Amporn Buarabporn, chief of Chonburi police, today said the investigation has progressed well
Pol Maj Gen Amporn said early today that Schenider’s body was found following the discovery that his abductors had rented the Chon Buri-registered Toyota at a car tent on Soi Xyte.
Investigators tracked the vehicle using GPS and found that it had been parked near the Big Buddha Hill burial site on Monday for almost two hours starting at 7am, two hours after Schneider’s abduction, said the Chon Buri police chief.
Investigators eventually found the truck abandoned on Soi Kasetsin 5 on Phra Tamnak hill in South Pattaya this morning. Officers found dirt and grass stains on the vehicle’s floor and the seats were wet, according to Pol Col Sukthat Pumpunmuang, chief of Muang Pattya police station.
Forensic officers collected fingerprints left at the vehicle, but found no other evidence.
Schneider was said to have been living in Pattaya for only a month, invited to rent the luxury villa with a former gang rival, ex-Comancheros leader Amad Malkoun. The Hell’s Angels this year displaced the Comancheros as Australia's top outlaw motorcycle gang, Australian media said, noting that the two gangs have had previous violent confrontations.
Mr Malkoun – who also has a lengthy criminal background including drug trafficking – said he, Schneider and Mr Bagnato, a fellow biker, went out drinking the night before the dead man's abduction, but Malkoun returned early and went to bed.
He told the media that he did not hear anything as his housemate was taken by force the next morning, even though police found blood and bullet casings as the scene.
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