The Story About A Bangkok Restaurant Serving Meat Of A Murdered Man To Customers Is False
It never happened, revealed police investigators.
By Sadho Ram — 03 Nov 2018, 05:55 PM
Turns out, a widely reported news piece about a man who was allegedly murdered, cut up and mixed in noodles to be served to customers of a vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok is fake news
The allegedly sensational incident never actually took place, Thai police have clarified.
While a man was indeed murdered, no human flesh was served to any vegetarian as the restaurant was not even open for business, Thai-language news site Khaosod reported.
According to Police Lieutenant Colonel Adul Thongpetch, an investigator with the Lat Krabang police in Thailand, there were no customers dining during or after the period when the 61-year-old victim, Prasit Inpathom, was allegedly murdered.
The story was linked to Singapore's Asia One, which itself relied on articles translated from Chinese-language news portals, mainly Malaysian Chinese language publication called Oriental Daily
From there on, the story was then picked up by media outlets like Vice, the Daily Mail, and Toronto Sun among many others, all quoting an English translation from Asia One.
We at SAYS too had published the story on 30 October based on Asia One's report.
While the restaurant, which is under construction, opened for three days towards the end of the vegetarian festival on 17 October, it had been closed for several days before the man was murdered
"We suspect he was murdered on 21 October," Lt. Col. Adul was quoted as saying by Coconuts Bangkok, adding that the police are investigating the case just for murder.
Police suspect the man was murdered on 21 October
"The murder suspect was attending to the restaurant. Around the time the murder happened, he disappeared. Two days later (23 October), the owner came back to find no one there and alerted the police," Coconuts Bangkok quoted Lt. Col. Adul as saying, who identified the suspect as Boonyuen Kamtawee, brother of the restaurant's owner.
The murder victim's body was found in the septic tank behind the restaurant.
On 27 October, the suspect turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued. However, he has refused to cooperate with Thai police and is now working with his lawyer to defend himself in court.
According to a report in Coconuts Bangkok, a court date has not been set as police is waiting for forensic investigations results before sending the case to prosecutors.