Thai police are investigating contacts Spaniard Daniel Sancho had in the country before and after the killing and dismemberment of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta in Kon Phangan. Investigators are gathering an arsenal of evidence against actor Rodolfo Sancho’s son to bolster his thesis that the crime was premeditated before the prosecutor and then the judge on the island of Samui. Agents are waiting to hear in the next few hours the results of the forensic examinations of the remains found at the Kho Phangan landfill where the Spaniard dumped part of Arrieta’s body and whose location by garbage collectors sparked the police operation called Sancho detained in Samui prison without contact with his family.
Thanks to the cooperation of Sancho, who led the Thai police officers to all the crime scenes, the investigation progressed very quickly. This allowed them to reconstruct the comings and goings of Spaniards and Colombians in the days and hours before the murder, as well as the Haad Rin beach hotel where both stayed, according to the Bangkok Post. The people with whom both interacted when they were together have already been interviewed, as have those responsible for the shops where the young Spaniard had equipped himself for the murder: the supermarket employee where he bought the knives, gloves and bags last Tuesday he used for billeting; and the person who sold him the canoe he used to transport body parts to the open sea.
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The contacts that Daniel Sancho maintained after the murder (on Wednesday evening, August 2) are considered the key to reconstructing the mystery and clarifying the exact motive for the crime. Local media point to a mix of economic, sexual and relationship-damaging reasons. Thus, it is known that on Thursday, August 3, when Arrieta was already dead, Sancho went to the full moon party with two girls he had met at the hotel that he was already about to leave. A witness has assured the TVE program La Hora de la 1 that she saw Daniel Sancho having a normal dinner with a young man that same evening, but gave no further details. Her statements, along with the chef’s confession and the plethora of video camera footage, have resulted in Thai police effectively closing the case.
The agents now need to obtain the definitive DNA analyzes of the remains found at the landfill in order to make a definitive comparison with Arrieta’s family (they were compared to the remains found in the room) and the result of the autopsy of the above remains (two parts of the lower one extremities, part of the pelvis and the intestinal tract). The analyzes will make it possible to determine relevant details, such as whether the body showed traces of drugs or alcohol, but also whether there was some kind of aggression that left traces in the recovered parts (the young man said the death occurred when) . Arrieta fell during a fight and hit his head.
Meanwhile, the sea area where Sancho says he dumped most of the body, about 600 meters from the coast, allegedly in a canvas bag, continues to be searched. The agents have recognized the difficulty of this search, both because of the area to be covered and because they believe that the Spaniard has lost his spatial reference points because he carried out the operation at night and in an area unfamiliar to him (like the Thai police has admitted) to which must be added the effects of tides, currents, waves and animals.
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Exterior view of the Koh Samui prison in Thailand where the Spaniard Daniel Sancho is being held. Ramón Abarca (EFE)
In any case, the investigation is limited in time. The police still have more than 70 days, of the total duration of 84 for the investigation, to draw up the final report with which they intend to ask the prosecutor and the judge to bring the Spaniard to justice for premeditated murder and concealment of the body. Some crimes carry the death penalty.
However, the cooperation provided by Sancho can both shorten time limits and allow for reduced sentences or commuted them to lesser sentences in a degree of clemency as King Maha has already granted on previous occasions. Vajiralongkorn. In fact, this happened three years ago with the Spaniard Artur Segarra, who was sentenced to death in Bangkok in 2016 for the murder and dismemberment of David Bernat. Segarra now adheres to permanent liability.