Wayne Rodney Schneider, 38, was found in a freshly dug grave amidst roadside brush on Viharn Sian-Khao Cheechan road in tambon Na Jomtien around 12:10am.
Lying naked in the grave about 1.8 metres deep, Schneider’s heavily tattooed body showed serious head injuries and a broken neck, police said. There was no identification found with the corpse.
Police found tyre tracks about 100 metres from the road to the burial site on “Big Buddha Hill”, as it is known locally.
Pol Maj Gen Amporn Buarabporn, chief of Chonburi police, said Mr Schenider’s body was discovered following the discovery that his abductors had rented a four-door white Toyota pick-up truck with a Chonburi licence plate from a car tent on Pattaya Third Road.
Police tracked the vehicle using GPS and found that it had been parked near the burial site at 7am on Nov 30 for almost 2 hours, said the Chonburi police chief.
The GPS tracking system showed the rented vehicle was last seen near Khao Phra Tamnak hill in South Pattaya, said Pol Maj Gen Amporn. He declined to reveal the name of the person who rented the vehicle.
Teams of police have stepped up a manhunt for those involved in the killing. All the suspects were believed to be in hiding in the country, Pol Maj Gen Amporn. He vowed the culprits would be caught quickly.
On Tuesday, the Pattaya Provincial Court issued an arrest warrant for Australian Antonio Bagnato, 26, on charges of conspiring to assault and detain Schneider, the suspect’s reported partner in a Sydney fitness business.
Mr Bagnato, along with four unidentified men, is accused of abducting the former Hells Angels leader from his rented Jomtien Park Villas home in Bang Lamung district.
Mr Bagnato is believed to come from New South Wales, where Mr Schneider hailed from, and is a fellow biker with a residence in Pattaya.
The victim was invited by a former gang rival, ex-Comancheros leader Amad Malkoun, to jointly rent the Pattaya house a month ago. Mr Malkoun claimed to not hear anything as his housemate was taken by force around 5am.
Read original story here.