Thai husband dismembers wife and scatters her body parts on street

A crazed Thai husband allegedly dismembered his wife and scattered her body parts along a street in a drunken rampage.

Sommai Sriprom, 59, was said to have butchered his spouse Chinda, 59, before tossing out her severed head, leg, and torso out of their home in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, in the early hours of August 26.

CCTV footage shows an individual holding a flashlight appearing to dump items in a dimly lit area of the neighbourhood at around 12:54am.

Locals headed to work at a nearby rubber plantation found the human body parts in front of the couple's house in the early morning and notified the police.

Police rushed to the scene and found Sommai standing in his yard, wielding a bloody axe and a large knife believed to have been used to murder and chop up Chinda.

He was said to have gone berserk and could not be reasoned with. Police continued to surround his two-storey home and finally subdued him in his house at around 7:30am local time.

Officers found gruesome blood stains on the second floor and on the stairs while Chinda's right leg was stored inside the family's refrigerator.

Police believe the victim was killed at least two hours before her body parts were found.

Police Major General Manop Senakul, commander of Chiang Rai Provincial Police, said Sommai allegedly had a history of alcohol abuse.

He said: 'The suspect has been neglecting his treatment and medication recently. Until now, we are still unable to talk to him because he is speaking incoherently.'

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wittawat Wongsa, a case officer from the Doi Luang Police Station, said Sommai was known in the neighbourhood to be a drunkard and frequently had rows with his wife.

The couple's son, Chakkaphan Sriprom, 31, said he lived with his parents, but was away during the alleged murder.

He said: 'It's true that my father is an alcoholic, but he has never consumed drugs. Normally, he keeps to himself and refuses to socialise with anyone. We just had dinner the night before and everything was normal. I can't believe he would do something like this.'

The family's neighbour, Charunat Chachumpa, 42, was the first to notify police of the incident.

She said someone had called her on the phone telling her a body part had been left under a tamarind tree in a nearby alley. She asked her husband to check and found it was a real human body part that belonged to their neighbour.

She said: 'Something is wrong with that man. He has previously tried to harm himself by hanging or climbing to the roof of his house. But he has never hurt anyone else until now.

'This is the biggest shocking incident in Doi Luang District. The villagers are still scared.'

Sommai was detained at the Chiang Rai Provincial Court and charged with murder and concealing a body.