An accidental death would not fit the images of Daniel Sancho, before the night of the crime, in which he bought a knife and large plastic bags from a local store even before Edwin Arrieta set foot on the tourist island of Koh Phangan. But until the Thai authorities clarify the facts, the chronology of the cameras that captured that scene is verified and the trial is held, Sancho’s version is, for now, the only official allegation as to whether it was a premeditated crime or not.
According to the prisoner, son of the actor Rodolfo Sancho, the death of the Colombian surgeon was an involuntary manslaughter resulting from a strong fight after which he tried to resuscitate the victim, without success. And the reason for the aforementioned dispute was, according to what the Bangkok Post extracted from Sancho’s statement, that Arrieta was subduing him and threatening to damage his family’s reputation in Spain, because, apparently, the deceased had in his hands intimate graphic material that Sancho had provided him earlier. The two had met on Instagram a year before.
The true relationship between the victim and the accused is another of the most morbid questions in history. Many media give the version that Sancho and Arrieta maintained a relationship more than a friendship or business contacts, but the source from which all this information derives, once again the Bangkok Post, retracted and made this disappear information from their website after a few minutes without giving explanations.
What there is no doubt about is that, after Arrieta’s death, Sancho tried to get rid of the corpse, and for this reason he ended up dismembering it into 14 parts carefully divided between those that were recognizable and those that were not. To get rid of the first ones, he got a red kayak at a tourist beach in the area and went into the sea to release the bags. More of Arrieta’s remains were found at the local incinerator plant by workers.
According to the chronology studied by the local media, Daniel Sancho arrived in Thailand on July 30, and on the island of Koh Phangan on August 1. The surgeon joined him a day later. On the night of the meeting, they had a strong argument that ended with the Colombian dead in the hotel room they shared. After that, Sancho himself reported the disappearance of the Colombian to the Koh Phangan police station a day later, on the night of Thursday, August 3, and he began to be questioned as a suspect on Friday.
Sancho’s confession to the police arrived on Saturday, apparently because the evidence pointing to him was too obvious. On Sunday he was taken to various places on the island of Koh Phangan to reconstruct the crime. Among which was the beach where he would have left the kayak with which he got rid of parts of Arrieta’s corpse.
Another shocking detail of the story is the public statement that Sancho made to E on Sunday night. As he commented on the program, the police were treating him “very well” because he had been cooperative. “To give you an idea, I’m having dinner at the best hotel on the island, which is an Anantara”, revealed the detainee.
Speaking to the Efe agency, Sancho had another opportunity to explain the reason for the crime in his own way: “I am guilty, but I was Edwin’s hostage. He held me hostage. It was a crystal cage, but it was a cage. It made me destroy the relationship with my girlfriend, it forced me to do things I would never have done”, he assured.
Sancho has spent the second night in the Thai prison of Koh Samui and is currently in solitary confinement for ten days due to the covid protocol, a period during which he will only be able to be visited by his lawyer. “He knows what he did. He wants to plan his life in prison”, the lawyer hired by the family explained yesterday at the exit of the first hearing.
Once the isolation protocol ends, Sancho will be awaiting trial, with an undetermined date, for which he could wait weeks or months. Meanwhile, the Thai police still have another nine weeks to complete their investigation.
