A Thai woman has been charged with 14 murders, police said Wednesday, in one of Thailand’s biggest serial killer cases.
Sarat Rangseothaporn stole hundreds of thousands of baht (thousands of US dollars) from her victims before poisoning them with cyanide.
The woman had previously been arrested, last week, on suspicion of her involvement in the killing of nine people over several years, while the police quickly expanded their investigations after her arrest.
Surachat Hakparn, deputy chief of Thai police, said today that her husband, a high-ranking policeman, is also accused of fraud and embezzlement linked to the murders.
It is suspected that Rangseothaporn adopted the same method with 15 people, as she poisoned them by making them take “herbal capsules” containing cyanide, knowing that a woman among them survived.
“She used to ask her acquaintances to lend her money and she says she had a lot of debt on her credit cards. When these people started asking her for their money back, she killed them,” said Surachat Hakparn, in a press statement. “We are investigating the total sums she took from the victims,” he said.
Last week, the policeman indicated that the sums for each case amounted to hundreds of thousands of baht.
However, Rangsyothapur and her husband deny the charges against them.
Rangsewuthapur, who is four months pregnant, has been charged with 14 premeditated murders and one attempted murder, while police are investigating two or three other cases involving Rangsewthapurn.
The case was opened when she was suspected of killing a friend of hers in Ratchaburi district, west of Bangkok, about two weeks ago.
Local media reported that her friend was found on the bank of a river.
After questioning Rangseothapur, investigators found a link to other cases of cyanide poisoning in Kanchanaburi provinces (west) and Nakhon Pathom, near the capital, Bangkok.
Over the past week, the police have expanded their investigation into five provinces, most of them west of Bangkok.
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