Proudly Introducing: Thailand's Daily Crime Pill #1
To be taken with a splash of soda, Chang, tea, or coffee -- the choice be yours.
Dear expats and readers,
Have you noticed my absence?
Maybe, maybe not — no matter. I’m back. Whether you or I like it or not, I just can’t stop dishing out the grittiest crime stories out of Thailand.
I’ve taken a short hiatus to rethink and strategize about the future of True Crime Thailand and the work I do.
I’m confident that it’s been a productive, albeit introspective, short break from the daily crime stories and the weekly newsletter and the deep-dives that I send out to you all.
So I’ll cut to the chase.
I’m proud to announce the next stage of the work I’m doing here at True Crime Thailand.
Thailand’s Daily Crime Pill
Whether this is the first True Crime Thailand story you’ve read, or if you’ve been following along since the beginning, you know that after every story I give my angle — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Well, it’s time I’m expanding that.
Every day, I’m putting out an exclusive newsletter called Thailand’s Daily Crime Pill.
A mouthful, yeah. But it goes well enough with a swig of your favorite beverage — splash of soda, Chang, tea, or coffee — it’s no matter.
Here’s what the Crime Pill offers:
A daily feature story chosen for its interest to readers, its relationship to crime trends in Thailand, and the information I’m able to dig up from my sources (the Thai press and social media).
This feature story will be posted on the main True Crime Thailand website as well, but the Crime Pill will be where I pen exclusive commentary to the story — my angle, as it were.
But that’s not all.
An additional 3 to 5 other crime stories from around Thailand will be included in the Crime Pill that I bet dollars to donuts did not get covered by the major English language press.
These extra stories will be short summaries: the who, what, when, where, and why’s — along with a bit of banter for good measure. These will be exclusive to the newsletter.
Over time, True Crime Thailand aims to paint a more robust picture of crime trends in Thailand from our reporting of daily stories.
As need and inclination arises, I’ll do write-ups of these trends in the commentary as it applies to the stories that come across my desk on a daily basis.
Think: the yaba epidemic; Golden Triangle drug trafficking; village murders; the rise in crime since COVID19; corruption in every nook and cranny in the country.
What to expect then?
A daily newsletter. That’s 7 days a week with a feature story and a smattering of the grimiest crime out of Thailand.
How do I find the time to do it?
I’ve hired a Thai assistant to help me sort through the daily stories and track down the dirtiest crime content from across Thailand. She’s bilingual and a gem!
She’s even using a fancy spreadsheet to keep track of the stories so that I can go back and do follow up on specific stories and follow trends in the country’s crime news.
Don’t fear: True Crime Thailand is still dedicated to doing deep dives on historical crime, too. Thai serial killers, unsolved farang murders, big mafia bosses — yes, we’re still on those beats — and I will be doing Part 2 of the Chuck Ditlefsen murder here soon.
These deep-dive stories take a lot of time and effort, so they will be published when I can put them out. I typically put 100+ hours into them between research, writing, editing, and publishing.
Well, that’s that.
Without further ado, get ready for your first dose of... Thailand’s Daily Crime Pill #1.
Feature Story
Team of Nuns Swindle 7 Million Baht from Lay Followers in Nakhon Phanom
One nun flaunted a double life on Facebook, flirting with a Tom, wearing a wig, and taking selfies at flower farms -- meanwhile bilking devotees out of millions at the temple.
On April 27th, 2021, police in the Nong Yat subdistrict of Nakhon Phanom raided a meditation center ran by a team of four nuns identified as Ms. Isaree Ichaiya, aged 49, who claimed to be Phraya Thammikarat (พระยาธรรมิกราช in Thai), or the living embodiment of a legendary royal monk; Ms. Darunee Chantanam, or the Nun Thongpoon; Ms. Pailin Soonthornsuwan, or the Nun Cartoon (I am not making this detail up); and Mrs. Kitiya or Ploen Klawas.
Ms. Isaree claims that she is a noble monk in the body of a nun. She claims to have established a Jungle Cloth Fund to help the poor. Ms. Isaree and her team of crooked nuns used this fund as a cover for swindling hundreds of lay devotees out of a reported 7 million baht.
The scheme operated by Ms. Isaree asking her followers to make merit by donating 3,555 baht to start. Days later they would receive 1 Salung of gold worth roughly 6,000 baht.
At first the payments were made and people were impressed with the seemingly magic way that money was being materialized by Ms. Isaree, acting as a holy monk trapped inside a nun's body.
One victim, Mrs. Jang, aged 44, donated over 103,000 baht because she saw so many others that believed the scheme would work. In fact, she did double her money on the first 15,000 baht she donated -- but the rest of the money just disappeared.
When the money stopped getting paid out as promised, Ms. Isaree told people to keep everything a secret. She advised her lay followers to not tell anyone. Don't say too much. Don't ask any questions.
And if they did -- Ms. Isaree warned that they'd leave the meditation center and die in a car crash.
One victim said that no questions were to be asked when he went inside the center. He also saw that monks were bowing to the nuns, which is out of order from the traditional Buddhist hierarchy in Thailand.
Once word spread that the money wasn't going to be paid, people ignored the deathly warnings of Ms. Isaree and over 150 of the victims went to the Tha Uthen Police station to report over 7 million baht that had been stolen. The victims gave evidence to investigators in the case.
All four nuns have been detained and are in the Nakhon Phanom special prison.
There's also allegations that three of the nuns: Ms. Isaree, Ms. Chantanam, and Ms. Pailin, also known as the Nun Cartoon, all had sex while wearing the white garbs of the nun.
The Nun Cartoon's Facebook page was full of pictures of her wearing a wig, with makeup, and taking photos with a Tom lover. She also had a TikTok with her dancing and singing along to the different songs on that platform.
One of the Nun Cartoon's Tom friends told the press that Nun Cartoon met her at a shopping mall in Nakhon Phanom and gifted the Tom a birthday present. The nun invited the Tom to the scheme that the nuns were running butthe Tom refused the offer because of the way the Nun Cartoon was acting, and thus avoided becoming a victim.
Video of the nuns:
My Take on the Crooked Nuns:
The Buddhist Sangha is one of the cornerstones of Thai society — something that is so obvious I feel like a half-baked writer for even having to pen it.
If you poke around enough in Thai history, it becomes really clear how the Sangha intertwines with the military and the monarchy. If you’re curious, just look into how the monarchy relates to the Supreme Patriarchs of the Thai Sangha or the devout Rama IV’s creation of Thai Buddhist organizations.
As for as the modern relationship between the Thai Sangha and the monarchy, I’d direct you to the work of Andrew MacGregor Marshall — he puts out a wonderful newsletter that covers palace and other hush-hush matters of the kingdom. It’s called Secret Siam and I highly recommend it.
This story about the crooked nuns raises a bunch of questions in my mind.
What meditation center sanctioned this scheme? How did it go on for as long as it did? Was there no oversight?
How did Ms. Isaree just step up and claim to be the embodiment of a legendary royal monk who was to come to Earth as a savior type Buddha? And people believed it… the mind boggles.
I guess if one would believe that this woman is the embodiment of a prophesized Buddha that would come to save the world, they’d believe that if they handed over their hard-earned 3,555 baht — the irony in the “555” or “ha-ha-ha” there is not to be overlooked — that they’d get a gold salung in return.
It’s well-known that the Sangha is a safe place for those that have run on the crooked side of the law to find sanctuary and possible reform.
Some do straighten out, of course. They live out their life as a sort of penance. Doing good works around the temple, carrying no possessions, and having no relations with the fairer sex.
But others use the cover of the saffron robe to continue on with their crooked ways.
This is not an indictment on the Sangha, or the institution of Buddhism in Thailand in general. Not from me, anyway — there are plenty out there who love to bash the institution any time there’s a bad actor in the mix.
Personally, I’ve found great solace in temples and the teachings of Buddhism in Thailand. There are one or two temples in particular that have given me a great amount of inner peace when I step onto their grounds.
But the facts remain. Some abuse the institution, and more importantly, the Thai lay people’s belief in the power of monks, their rituals, the temple, and making merit (ทำบุญ in Thai, “tam-boon”) — traditions that seem at once exotic, sometimes foolish, and altogether foreign to the average farang.
These crooked nuns are no different than the scammers that put together that Shopping Mall App a couple months back, or any other pyramid scheme that I read about nearly every week in Thailand — and abroad.
What makes their crimes damning in my eyes is that they preyed on the most trusting, and perhaps the most naïve of the population.
I want to be clear: I don’t feel sorry for people who get scammed. In a way, I think it’s the best lesson that can be taught to somebody about personal finance and unrealistic financial schemes.
I want to be clear again: I think that scammers deserve to be exposed, and if they operate in Thailand, I’ll be glad to do it. If you’ve followed my work before, you’ve seen me do just that with original investigative reporting on scammers.
At the end of the day, the stain of this crime is not easy to launder. Frankly, it’s another stain on the religious institution in a nation where religion is everything.
These nuns shouldn’t have even had the chance to pull this off. And their followers should have had sense enough to know it was a scam the minute they were being promised unrealistic financial gains.
Again, I’m not here to bash Buddhism in Thailand. Or the believers of Buddhism. I count myself among them.
But this sort of financial superstition and unbridled greed have no place in Buddha’s teachings. Sadly, this sort of hubris among those who claim to be monks or nuns that can lead to the wholesale theft of 7 million baht from their followers is a feature of Thailand.
Stories like this are not uncommon. And I’m certain there will be others like it soon.
I’ll be here to report them.
Story 2
19 Year Old Graduates School, Celebrates with Selfie, then Jumps to His Death in Rayong
The 19 year old is identified as Mr. Nimit.
He had been taking anti-depressants for about 2 weeks prior to his suicide.
He had recently graduated and was standing on a bridge taking selfies with his graduation cap and gown. He posted the selfies on Facebook with the message:
“It’s over. Sorry for my weakness. This is my last post. I love everyone.”
Mr. Nimit then jumped off the bridge.
His body was found 3 days later on May 2nd.
Mr. Nimit’s mother said that her son was sick and depressed. He had been working at a department store to make money for his studies. He got in a motorbike accident and broke his leg. It took him 2 months to recover and he would return to work after — but his job didn’t hire him back.
This caused more stress for the young man, and is likely a contributing factor to his decision, according to his mother.
Mr. Nimit placed his cell phone, glasses, wallet, black shoes, and graduation cap on the bridge before he jumped.
My Take on Mr. Nimit’s Suicide:
This isn’t a crime.
But it’s a story that I read day in, day out when I’m browsing the Thai news.
If you’re used to reading western style news, suicides are not a prominent feature of the reporting. They’re generally avoided unless the figure was high profile, a celebrity, or if it was part of a greater crime, such as a murder-suicide.
But in Thailand, suicides are part of the daily news.
I don’t cover suicides like this to be gratuitous. I do it because right now there’s an epidemic of suicide in Thailand, especially because of the hardships that have arisen since the past year from the fallout of the pandemic.
Many of the suicides that I read about talk about the economic difficulty that people are facing in Thailand right now.
From time to time I will discuss a suicide in Thailand if I think that it can bring awareness to a social ill in the country.
Video of the scene and discovery of body:
Source: https://www.dailynews.co.th/regional/840799
Story #3
Missing 7 Year Old Boy Discovered Floating in Canal in Kamphaeng Phet
The 7 year old, identified as Kitpong Thaworn, and known as Nong Kai, went missing from his home.
His family and locals searched for him 3 days before finding his corpse in a canal near his home.
The boy’s grandfather, Mr. Prayoon Pinthong, said that Nong Kai went missing. He was very drunk at the time the boy disappeared, according to the report.
The report suggests that the boy tripped, fell, and drowned.
The canal is part of a cassava field and not far from the boy’s home, which he played around normally.
At this point, foul play is not expected.
One of the villagers did say that a local spirit, “The Tiger God”, may have been supernaturally involved in the boy’s death.
My Take on Nong Kai’s Death:
Something stinks about the story.
I don’t know why.
It very well could have been an accident. Who am I to say, I wasn’t there and the reports say no foul play was involved.
The grandfather had raised the boy after the parents disappeared from the picture and he was the last family member left to take care of him.
I’m not saying the grandpa did it — but I hope that a thorough investigation was done in the case.
As far as the tiger spirits being involved: this is a feature, not a bug, of Thai criminal reporting.
Video of the scene:
Source: https://www.amarintv.com/news/detail/778911
That’s all for today…
Until tomorrow’s Crime Pill, stay safe out there everybody.
- True Crime Thailand