However, it also became clear today that the killer had also just formed a new motorbike taxi group at the bus terminal.
The news today came from witnesses at the bus terminal where Phuket City Police officers had the gunman, Vean Aiadchuthong, 60, from Trang, re-enact his movements when slaying the two men: Prakob Chuthong, 54, a resident of Pa Khlok; and Yod Sae Lee, 50, also from Trang.
While retracing his movements at the bus station today, Vean was silent to the press, but police at the bus station – led by Capt Wipawan Wathanangoenthanong of the Phuket City Police and Phuket City Police Chief Col Teerawat Liamsuwan – confirmed that Vean had confessed to the fatal shooting of the two men.
During the re-enactment, Jiraporn Longrak, who owns a small restaurant at the bus terminal, told the police that Vean was a “nice man” and “he liked to help people around him”.
Ms Jiraporn operates a restaurant selling Trang specialties where Vean sat and ate almost every day.
“Mr Vean has been here [at the bus terminal] for about seven years, since the bus terminal opened. He worked at the old bus terminal in Phuket Town before he moved to work here. He used to say that he liked this kind of job,” Ms Jiraporn said.
“Mr Prakob and Mr Yod were also colleagues of Mr Vean and they came to work here together,” she added.
Vean used to be the president of the taxi cooperative at the bus terminal, but his term expired so he had his colleague, Mr Yod, to take over,” Ms Jiraporn explained.
Mr Prakob worked at the bus station, receiving motorcycles being parked in a long-stay garage at the bus terminal.
Ms Jiraporn said that she had no idea what had prompted Vean to shoot dead Mr Prakob and Mr Yod. “He never told me about any problems with his colleagues,” she said.
“But there were times that Mr Vean complained that he was tired and that it was difficult to keep going,” Mrs Jiraporn told the police.
Ms Jiraporn also said that she never saw any fights or arguments between any of the three.
“Mr Vean would normally come to the restaurant every day and buy his colleagues some snacks as well,” she said.
But something had changed recently in Vean’s life, Ms Jiraporn noted.
“Mr Vean lives in a house near the old bus terminal in Phuket Town, but for the last two days [before Saturday night], he was sleeping here at the new bus station, and formed a new a taxi group of which he was the president,” Ms Jiraporn explained.
Ms Jiraporn told the police that before the crime, Vean and his colleagues were sitting in the 24-hour taxi service office and drinking together.
She later heard two gunshots and she ran out to see what had happened, and saw Vean, who she thought looked drunk, sitting in front of the office waiting to surrender to the police.
Vean today was taken back to Phuket City Police Station, where officers said they were moving ahead with charging him for the double homicide.