Thailand: three men arrested over murder of British millionaire and wife

Police in northern Thailand have arrested three men in connection with the murder of a British millionaire and his wife.

Alan Hogg, 64, from Edinburgh, and his Thai wife, Nod Suddaen, 61, were reported missing from their home in Phrae province on Thursday after they failed to meet friends in the nearby city of Chiang Mai.

Bloodstains were found in the sink and changing room area around the pool at their home, with signs that those surfaces had been wiped, but no bodies have been found. A mobile phone belonging to Nod was still charging when police arrived to search the property.

On Tuesday morning, police confirmed they had arrested three men who had admitted to killing the couple and burying their bodies away from the house. Police Gen Sanpat Prabpudsa, who was leading the investigation, said: “We have arrested three men who have confessed.”

The men confessed to first shooting Hogg in front of the duck pen and then beating his wife to death with a hammer in the garage. They also implicated Hogg’s brother-in-law, Warut Satchakit, in the crime. Police said it was linked to a family dispute.

The three men who carried out the murders said Satchakit, who lived locally, had taken away the bodies to bury them. “The brother-in-law had problems with money and there were family issues,” Prabpudsa said.

The police said the men had informed them where the bodies were buried and they would be recovered on Tuesday. Prabpudsa said: “We know the spot they are buried; I think we can find the bodies today.”

Satchakit was arrested on on Monday after CCTV footage showed him entering the couple’s home on Thursday morning and driving away their car. He was released on bail and has since disappeared.

A recently dug hole that had been filled in was also found near the couple’s house.

Hogg, who worked as an engineer and businessman, had moved to Thailand several years ago and built the couple’s luxury three-storey home in Phrae province, which included a swimming pool, summer house and cattle yard. Their daughter, Robyn, flew to Thailand from the UK over the weekend to assist in the search.

Hogg appears to have severed many of his ties to the UK. He resigned in July 2017 as a director of the specialist dry-cleaning firm Clayfull, based in Bonnyrigg, near Edinburgh, which he co-founded in 1994.

He had controlled 50-75% of the company’s shares and was listed as the only person with significant control of the business until it was sold that month to Johnson Service Group, a UK-wide firm that rents out and launders workware, and hotel and restaurant laundry.

Another firm, Sherwood Edinburgh, which listed Hogg as an offshore construction manager, is in liquidationTwo other companies of his were dissolved more than a decade ago.

(THE GUARDIAN)