A man high on an inhaled solvent has been arrested for stabbing and beheading his blind mother and a male neighbour in Si Wilai district, Bangkok.
According to Police Captain Seksan Nahom, a deputy investigation chief at Si Wilai police station, the gruesome murders occurred at Nong Chan village of this northeastern province.
Police received a report of the crime about 2.30pm on Monday. On arrival at the scene they found the headless body of a man, identified later as Samruay Yodsaeng, 59, lying beside a bamboo tree with a deep stab wound in the back.
The alleged killer, Khet Pimthaphor, 42, had locked himself inside his one-storey house with his mother Suk Pimthaphor, 72, who was crying for help, Thai media reported.
Pol Col Winai Mahapolsirikhun ordered officers to surround the house to find ways to help the elderly woman being held hostage by her son, who was reportedly addicted to glue.
Negotiations for the woman's release and her son's surrender were not successful. When the elderly woman's crying and pleading suddenly fell silent police stormed the house.
They stopped dead and then pulled back when confronted with the sight of Mr Khet holding his mother's severed head at the door to the bathroom. When police re-enetered the house they found Mr Khet had locked himself in the bsedroom. They forced open the door and arrested him. Police said the man was delirious and confused.
The headless body of his mother was found in the room with him. She had been stabbed several times in the chest. The heads of the two victims were found together in a bowl in the bathroom. The floor of the house was stained with blood.
Mr Khet was taken to a hospital for treatment of a knife wound to his left foot. It was believed he injured himself during his frenzied attack on his mother. Police found three large knives, each about 60cm long, in the house. He was initially charged with murder and held in custody.