This Monday, August 7, the Spanish chef Daniel Sancho entered the Koh Samui prison, in southern Thailand, after a judge ordered provisional detention against him. According to the Police, Sancho confessed to having murdered and dismembered the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, on August 2. The alleged perpetrator confessed to the crime would have assured that he had received threats from Arrieta. Now, the 29-year-old faces life imprisonment and even the death penalty in the Asian country.
It was around 12:30 noon on Thursday, August 3, when a local garbage collector discovered something terrible on the Thai island of Kho Phangan: a human pelvis and intestines stuffed into a bag of fertilizer.
According to police sources, after the first analysis of the remains, it was estimated that they belonged to a foreigner due to their size. The remains belonged to Edwin Arrieta, a 44-year-old Colombian plastic surgeon, the authorities later reported.
This Monday, August 7, four days after the first remains were found, the Spanish chef Daniel Sancho entered the Koh Samui prison, in southern Thailand, after a judge ordered preventive detention, for being the alleged perpetrator. confessed to the crime But what happened on one of the most famous islands in the Asian country for a night out to end in murder?
“I want to collaborate in everything,” Sancho told the EFE news agency while being escorted to prison by the authorities.
According to the Thai Police, Sancho pleaded guilty to the murder and dismemberment of Arrieta at the Koh Phangan police station.
What is known about the death of Arrieta
The events date back to Tuesday, August 2, when Sancho, a Spanish chef and son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, met Arrieta on the famous island.
According to the authorities, Arrieta, the 44-year-old victim, booked a hotel on the island from July 31 to August 3 to enjoy the full moon party with his friend Sancho. Although the Spaniard had a reservation at another hotel, he arrived before the Colombian and checked into the room that Arrieta had paid for.
According to the police reconstruction of the events, Sancho went to pick up Arrieta when he arrived on the island and they were later seen having dinner together in a restaurant. That same night, security cameras recorded Sancho buying knives, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning utensils in a store, an anonymous source said, quoted by the EFE news agency.
🛑✖️ The last moments of the life of the Colombian doctor, Edwin Arrieta, who was dismembered in Thailand.
🇹🇭 🎥 These videos were released by the Koh Phangan Police and would be the main evidence against Daniel Sancho, the main suspect in the crime. pic.twitter.com/Nc0nA0Zr2l— THE TIME (@THETIME) August 6, 2023
After that night, Arrieta was never seen alive again. On Thursday, two days after his murder and when the facts were made public, Sancho himself went to the Police to report the disappearance of the Colombian after attending a party.
On Friday, the Police designated him as the main suspect because he had gone to the police station full of scratches and injuries.
“Blackmail and threats”: the statement of the alleged author confessed
Sancho and Arrieta had known each other for at least a year, the chef said, according to authorities. The version indicates that they met through Instagram, began to chat and exchanged photos with sexual content. Later, they met in person and had sex. collects exclusively the newspaper ‘Bangkok Post’.
The relationship escalated. Arrieta invested at least 10,000 euros to open a restaurant in Spain and even gave him a credit card. Later, according to the statements that Sancho would have given to the Police, the 29-year-old tried to end the relationship with the plastic surgeon, but he refused and that was when the threats began.
The 44-year-old doctor was dismembered by Daniel Sancho, son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, during a vacation in the Asian country. In Lórica, Córdoba, a town in northern Colombia, he has decreed three days of mourning https://t.co/OpkvTCoeKX
— THE COUNTRY (@el_pais) August 7, 2023
Arrieta threatened the chef with sharing his explicit photos on the internet, something that would damage his reputation and especially that of his family, especially that of his father Rodolfo Sancho, a well-known actor in Spain.
“He was obsessed with me. He deceived me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, to put money into the company of which I am a partner. But it was all a lie. The only thing she wanted was me, to be her boyfriend,” said the perpetrator of the crime.
According to Sancho’s statement, collected by the ‘Bangkok Post’, this was the reason why he decided to murder him premeditated and that is why he invited him to the island for the full moon party. This was finally confessed by the Spaniard on Saturday, says the Police.
“I am guilty, but I was Edwin’s hostage,” Sancho said in his confession, referring to the victim’s alleged threats against him.
According to the same version, after having dinner together in a restaurant on the island on Tuesday, both went to the hotel room. Then, Arrieta insisted that they have sex, Sancho refused and in a fit of anger he pushed him and hit his head that left him unconscious.
About an hour later, Sancho began to cut it into pieces and decided to try to dispose of the corpse. To do this, he went to buy a kayak and threw some of Arrieta’s remains into the sea in the middle of the night. He made two trips to the beach and three to the island dump to spread the victim’s remains.
Later, the young man returned to his hotel room and did not check out until Thursday, when the media covered the discovery of a local garbage service worker. On Friday, authorities inspected the dump and found more human remains in another plastic bag.
When the Police inspected the room where the events would have taken place, they found the place clean. However, forensic authorities detected the victim’s remains such as hair and grease in the bathroom drain. Also about $80,000 and a gold necklace that allegedly belonged to the victim.
On Sunday, Sancho traveled with police officers to the seven places where parts of Arrieta’s body were thrown. His family issued a statement in which he asked for “maximum respect” in the midst of these “confusing” moments.
“I didn’t feel comfortable, but I didn’t feel forced either. No one has hit me or hurt me, ”Sancho assured when asked if he had felt forced to confess.
Life imprisonment or death penalty?
Right now, Sancho’s future is up in the air. After comparing the DNA evidence found in the hotel room, which matches Arrieta’s, and after Sancho’s confession, the Thai authorities issued a court order against the Spaniard, ordering his detention until the trial progresses. The defendant’s lawyers have requested probation, but this has been rejected by the judge.
In Thailand, voluntary manslaughter is one of the most serious crimes. So much so, that the penalties range from life imprisonment to the death penalty. However, if the sentence against Sancho dictated the death penalty, the chef could avail himself of a last resort: the pardon of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
In August 2020, the King of Thailand commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for the Spaniard Artur Segarra, in a case similar to that of Sancho.
Segarra kidnapped, extorted and murdered David Bernat in Bangkok in 2016, for which he was sentenced to life in prison and later pardoned by the king. A common practice in the country during his monarch’s birthday.
It is even possible that an extradition for Segarra will be approved, which could be replicated in the case of Sancho.
However, the chef implicated in the murder of Arrieta must first face the entire judicial process, while the Thai authorities continue to try to recover the remains of the Colombian surgeon from the bottom of the sea.
With EFE and local media
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