Pattaya police are keeping a close eye on prostitutes in the seaside city after one of them turned a night of sex services into a night of murder and theft.
Malee Jindawong, 33, is seen in security camera footage leaving her apartment in southern Pattaya after she allegedly drugged three foreign tourists at a hotel. The dead body of year-old Bangladeshi tourist, Business Chan, was found in his hotel room on the morning of May 12 after he met a Thai woman on a beach the night before. All three were allegedly drugged by a woman who made off with their valuables. The crime happens with some regularity, police said, although in most cases the victims are only rendered unconscious.
Local officers made solving the Chan murder a top priority as they didn't want the case to scare away tourists from the holiday and party town. Provincial Police Region 2 commissioner Panya Mamen decided to look into the case himself.
Just four days after the murder, his investigators managed to arrest the suspect, a woman from Nakhon Si Thammarat. Investigators admitted it was not easy to identify the woman from among the myriad of prostitutes in Pattaya.
They had to gather clues gradually from footage obtained from security cameras. They also spoke to nearly prostitutes in Pattaya as they attempted to track down the suspect. Pattaya police inspectors Pol Lt Col Anak Prasongsuk and Pol Lt Col Chetsadawit Inpraphan began by comparing the footage obtained from a security camera at Bella Express Hotel Pattaya, where the victims stayed, and a photo on an identification card, which was thought to be the suspect's.
