Kho Phangan is one of the most touristic islands in Thailand, known worldwide for hosting the full moon party, during which the beaches are crowded with people celebrating with music until dawn. Daniel Sancho Bronchalo and Edwin Arrieta had agreed to meet in the paradisiacal place to attend the festivities, a meeting that ended with the death and dismemberment of the second, a Colombian plastic surgeon, at the hands of the first, a Spanish cook and son of actor Rodolfo Sancho who has confessed to the crime.
Arrieta, 44, booked a hotel from July 31 to August 3, but it was his 29-year-old Spanish friend who arrived on the island before the Colombian, although it has not been disclosed when. On the same day, the 31st, Sancho searched the room, as described by the police to the local media. Sancho assures that it was Arrieta who decided to join his trip. The Thai police maintain that the Colombian paid all the expenses.
Daniel Sancho and the surgeon Edwin Arrieta, in Thailand.Thailand Police
Although Sancho stayed in the room that Arrieta reserved, the son of actor Rodolfo Sancho (and grandson of Sancho Gracia) had another hotel reservation, for Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 August, in accommodation near Salat beach. , as confirmed by the police to the Thai newspaper Bangkok Post. On Tuesday, they both had dinner at a restaurant near this second hotel. In the evening of that day, the Spaniard was captured by security cameras buying knives, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning utensils in a store, according to the same source.
In his first statement to the police, Sancho assured that he had seen Arrieta for the first time on this trip on Wednesday, August 2, around three in the afternoon (10 in the morning in Spain), when he went to the Koh pier. Phangan to pick it up. As Sancho added in his police statement, they both went to eat at a restaurant and then visited Haad Rin beach, near the hotel where they were staying. The crime had occurred a day earlier.
Koh Phangan landfill (Thailand), where human remains were found. SITTHIPONG CHAROENJAI (EFE)
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Already in his confession on Saturday, Sancho alleged that Arrieta came to his hotel room on Tuesday asking him to have sex. According to what was stated before the agents, the Spaniard refused and, in a fit of rage, pushed his friend, who fell and hit her head on the bathtub. Sancho decided to get rid of the corpse by dismembering it and throwing the pieces of the Colombian’s body in different places on the island, including the sea.
To do this, he acquired a kayak that was found on Saturday about 300 meters from the hotel where the murder took place. According to the managers of the store to which the canoe belongs, Sancho entered on Tuesday around nine at night (four in the afternoon, Spanish peninsular time) visibly agitated, asking to “rent a boat.” Although both initially claimed that it was not safe for a tourist to navigate at night, they ended up accepting the $1,000 (about 900 euros) that the Spaniard offered when he insisted on “buying” it.
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After throwing a suitcase with some of Arrieta’s remains into the sea, Sancho returned to his room. He checked out at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to the Bangkok Post. During the day, the local media reported that a garbage collector had found a severed pelvis and human intestines hidden in a bag of fertilizers at a landfill on the island around 12:30 p.m. In an article published on that day, the Thai newspaper reported that the police estimated that the murder had occurred at least 24 hours before the body parts were found and that, due to their size, they must have belonged to a foreigner.
Sancho, who is chef of the Madrid catering service La Bohéme, went to the full moon party that Thursday with two girls he met at the hotel. After returning from the celebration —and after news of a murder hit the press— he reported the disappearance of his Colombian friend, who, he said, had arrived on the island on Wednesday. This is, a day after the murder.
Daniel Sancho (with cap) with Thai police officers in the reconstruction of the events. ROYAL THAI POLICE HANDOUT (EFE)
On Friday, during a new search at the same dump, more human remains were found in a plastic bag, including two parts of the lower extremities, in addition to some clothing, the newspaper from the Thai capital reported that same day. After these discoveries, the agents decided to question Sancho as a suspect on Friday, also after noticing that the Spanish cook showed cuts and scratches on his body when he went to the police station to report the disappearance, according to Efe.
When the police inspected the room that Sancho had reserved, they found that both the refrigerator, the bathroom and the sink were completely clean, but the forensics collected samples of hair, grease and tissue from the drain. Sancho has been in police custody since Friday. On Sunday, in front of his Thai public defenders and several agents at the Koh Phangan police station, he acknowledged to the Efe agency: “I am guilty, but I was Edwin’s hostage.” Before, in a first interrogation, he had denied being the author of the events. Asked if he felt forced by the police to plead guilty, he replied: “I didn’t feel comfortable, but I didn’t feel forced either”, and insisted that the Thai authorities were treating him well and that he had not been ill-treated: “Nobody He has not hit me or hurt me”.
Sancho has denied having a sentimental relationship with the victim, as Arrieta’s family had declared to the investigators of the case and was reported by the Thai media. “He was obsessed with me. He deceived me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, to put money into the company of which I am a partner. (…) But it was all a lie. The only thing he wanted was me, to be his boyfriend,” he said. “Every time I tried to get away from him, he threatened me,” she told reporters from the Efe news agency.
On Sunday, the Thai agents took Sancho to different parts of the island to reconstruct the crime and the Koh Samui Provincial Court approved a court order against the defendant, who will presumably be transferred to that town on Monday. The court order was issued after obtaining the results of the tests carried out with the human remains found in a landfill on the island and the samples of hair, fat and tissue that forensics obtained from the drain of the room in which it allegedly occurred. the homicide. The DNA corresponds to that of Arrieta, a surgeon from the Colombian town of Lorica, in the department of Córdoba, in the north of the country, owner of a clinic in the city of Montería.
The Spanish chef is accused of premeditated murder, concealment and theft of body parts to cover up the death or the cause of it. The Penal Code of this Southeast Asian nation considers manslaughter and murder one of the most serious crimes, punishable by life imprisonment and even the death penalty, although this can be commuted by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. In fact, it already did so three years ago with the Spanish Artur Segarra, who in 2016 was sentenced to death for murdering and dismembering David Bernat in Bangkok. Segarra now complies with permanent prison. Article 288 of the norm also considers a sentence of between 15 and 20 years in prison for murder, which can be increased if there are aggravating circumstances.
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