Jealous Thai husband shoots ex-wife and her family leaving lone toddler survivor

A jealous Thai husband shot dead his ex-wife and her family, leaving his two-year-old daughter the lone survivor of the bloodbath.

Noppadol Unthasee, 55, visited his former spouse Khalita Faengrit, 28, at her house in Khon Kaen province, Thailand, to try mending their relationship on the morning of September 21.

However, he was said to have gone into a rampage when the mother-of-three spurned him and said she already had a new boyfriend.

The shocked husband reportedly pulled out a firearm and started shooting the family one by one before turning the gun on himself.

Police Captain Phongphit Thanaphanpakdee of the Mancha Khiri District Police Station said cops received a report of the shooting at 11:30am. They arrived at the gruesome scene and found four people, including Noppadol, dead.

The gunman was lying on a bed dead from a gunshot to the mouth. Khalita was shot twice in the head while her mother, Jaruayporn Faengrit, 50, was on a bed with bullet wounds on her torso.

Khalita's nephew, Phonphiphat Thongyot, 18, was slumped in a corner of the bathroom with gunshots to his head.

The lone survivor of the carnage was Noppadol and Khalita's two-year-old daughter, whom police found trembling and crying next to her mother's corpse.

Police Colonel Pichai Nakhandee, superintendent of the Mancha Khiri Police Station, citing witnesses said the couple had broken up around a year ago, and Noppadol had often tried to reconcile with Khalita.

He said: 'The shooting happened after the husband learned that his former wife had started seeing someone else. A search of his car also found drug paraphernalia inside. We believe he had acted alone to commit the shooting.'

Khalita's grandmother Orn Faengrit, 68, said the house belonged to Khalita's older sister Yaowaluck who works in Bangkok with her husband. Khalita had fled there allegedly to escape her Noppadol's frequent beatings.

Orn said: 'As far as I knew, Khalita was often physically assaulted by her husband. This prompted her to flee to stay with her parents in Mancha Khiri. Noppadol kept persuading her to return. She later returned to stay with him. But the domestic violence was repeated three or four times.'

She added that Khalita had two children from a previous marriage and a two-year-old daughter with Noppadol whom she brought with her to the home.

The family's neighbour Amporn Chaokudrang, 56, said she heard eight gunshots over around 10 minutes.

She said: 'At first, I did not think it was gunfire, but my son insisted there was a shooting going on. I alerted the village head immediately.'

Noppadol's body has been handed over to his relatives for a funeral. His sister has volunteered to take care of his daughter.

Thailand has one of the highest gun ownership and gun homicide rates among Southeast Asian nations. Many of the firearms are on the secondary market are believed to have been sold by army and police officers, who can buy and sell them at a discounted rate under the government's 'gun welfare programme'.

The persistent gun culture is said to stem from a distrust of crime control policies, especially in rural areas.

Former Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had previously vowed to tighten gun control laws following a shooting at a Bangkok mall in October 2023 that rattled locals in the capital. He was ousted from office by disgraced ex-convict Thaksin Shinawatra.