The number two of Thailand’s police, Surachate Hakparn, gave a press conference yesterday in which he assured that there is already enough evidence to accuse Daniel Sancho of the “premeditated murder” of Colombian Edwin Arrieta and gave the investigation for concluded “All the evidence has led the accused to confess. (…) Today we hold this press conference to (announce) the closure of this case and I myself have already spoken to the ambassador of Colombia”, said Surachate, known as Big Joke and who is usually involved in the most media cases or in which there are foreigners.
The Spanish Sancho (29) has been accused by the police of premeditated murder after he himself confessed to having killed and dismembered the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta (44) on August 2 on the Thai island of Phangan.
“We consulted the prosecutor about some of the evidence and it is consistent enough to charge him with premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty,” said Surachate, and clarified: “If it was premeditated and it was something that had been prepared in advance, it is usually a death sentence. However, everything depends on the court”.
Despite the announcement of the closure of the case, the police report has not yet been sent to the Prosecutor’s Office, because some evidence is missing, such as the autopsy of the victim. However, the Prosecutor’s Office could still make use of the 83-day period the police have for the investigation – which began when Sancho entered the provisional prison in neighboring Koh Samui on August 7 – to study and request more evidence, before setting a date for trial.
Surachate Hakparn’s press conference took place in a room at the Kohn Phangan police station with panels on the sides illustrating the case through photographs of those involved and crime scenes. In a chaotic and messy account, marked by translation problems and chaos in the question rounds, Surachate asserted that Daniel Sancho “stabbed” Arrieta on the left side of the chest during a fight and when he fell, “Edwin Arrieta jabbed with his head against the toilet”, although he indicated that they are still waiting for the “autopsy to definitively confirm the cause of death” of Arrieta.
“It was not an accident because (Sancho) went to buy material for the murder, such as a knife and a razor”, insisted the policeman on repeated occasions, and assured that there is no indication to suspect that more people were involved, according to forensic evidence and what was seen on security cameras. “According to the evidence we have from the crime scene, there was only one perpetrator and two knives and a saw were found,” explained the policeman.
He also detailed that the DNA found on Arrieta’s shirt points to Sancho as the only person responsible, in addition to other evidence found at the crime scene. Surachate specified that the dismemberment of the body lasted for three hours, and that afterwards Sancho stayed all night cleaning up the traces at the scene of the crime, a hotel booked by the Spaniard next to Salad beach , on Phangan Island. There, police also found $9,000 in the safe used by Sancho.
When asked about the motive for the crime, the policeman simply said that, according to the confession of the son of the actor Rodolfo Sancho, he wanted to leave the relationship he had with Arrieta, but he would not have agreed . As to whether there was evidence of possible threats on the defendant’s cell phone, police number two noted that he could not reveal the content of the cell phone messages.
