Thai police to charge Daniel Sancho with premeditated murder in Edwin Arrieta case

Investigators have concluded that the death of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta was premeditated and that Daniel Sancho stabbed him before dismembering him, the deputy chief of the Thai National Police, Surachate Hakparn, announced Tuesday at a press conference in which some of the evidence gathered and the conclusions of the police operation on the island of Koh Pha-ngan were laid out. The police have ruled out that Arrieta’s death was accidental, as the Spanish chef had initially claimed, and the involvement of third parties, as no DNA evidence or footage from security cameras has been found to support that hypothesis. “We have consulted the prosecutor about some of the evidence and it is consistent enough to charge him with premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty,” Hakparn said, as reported by EFE. The case will now be handed to the prosecutor to study and establish the penalty request for Sancho’s trial. Sancho, the son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, has been in pre-trial custody since August 7.

According to the police investigation, the motive for the crime was that Sancho wanted to end their relationship, but Arrieta refused. “Daniel has confessed that he killed Edwin because he wanted to break up and Edwin didn’t want that,” said Hakparn, who is known in Thailand by his nickname of “Big Joke.” The deputy chief also categorically ruled out the hypothesis of an accident. “Investigators are sure that it was not an accident; it was a premeditated murder because he had previously planned to buy material, including a knife. In addition, the victim had stab marks on the right side of the chest.” During the press briefing, Hakparn displayed images of Arrieta’s shirt with cuts the size of a knife blade. Sancho tested negative in toxicology tests for drugs and alcohol.

The police reconstruction of the crime concluded that Sancho stabbed Arrieta in the chest and the latter, upon falling, hit the bathroom sink of the hotel room they shared in Koh Pha-ngan. This, coupled with evidence that Sancho bought knives, gloves, trash bags and cleaning products, led investigators to rule out an accidental death. What investigators have been unable to pinpoint is whether the immediate cause of death was stabbing or the impact of the surgeon’s head on the sink. According to the police account, Sancho spent around three hours dismembering the corpse and spent another day cleaning the room of evidence. The police also found $9,000 in a safe in Sancho’s hotel room. “We don’t know why he had this money,” said Hakparn.

The investigation also ruled out the involvement of another person in the crime. Responding to the question from a reporter, Hakparn said: “There cannot have been another person. We have found no recordings on the security cameras and no traces of anyone else’s DNA” at the crime scenes. The investigators also stated that genetic material recovered from Arrieta’s shirt indicated that Sancho is the only suspect.

Despite considering the case closed, investigators have acknowledged there are still some loose ends remaining. Hakparn said messages between Sancho and Arrieta are still being examined and the results of the autopsy are still to be released. There are several pieces of evidence that have not yet been found, such as a knife that is considered relevant to the investigation, the victim’s phone, and some objects belonging to Arrieta that Sancho confessed to having disposed of.

Police reconstruction

During the press conference, the police reconstruction of the crime was revealed. Among the evidence gathered were stills from security cameras in which a person with similar characteristics to Sancho, and whose face had been covered with a black band, was seen in two supermarkets in the area, as well as photographs of the reconstruction of the events that unfolded in the hotel bathroom, one of which shows Sancho sitting on the floor with his back to the door and a Thai police officer lying on the floor.

Under Thai law, the police normally have a period of 84 days to conclude an investigation, but Sancho’s cooperation has accelerated the entire process. The police will now submit their report to the Prosecutor’s Office to set a trial date. Under Thai law, murder and manslaughter carry three types of sentences, depending precisely on these circumstances. The most severe is the death sentence, although a life sentence or up to 20 years imprisonment are also possible.

According to sources familiar with the country’s judicial system, capital punishment is only applied in cases where the victims are members of the security forces or high-ranking government officials, and there are no known recent instances of a foreign national being executed. It is customary for King Maha Vajiralongkorn to take advantage of special dates, such as his birthday, to apply such pardons, as was the case in 2020 when another Spanish citizen, Artur Segarra, sentenced to death in 2017 for murdering and dismembering businessman David Bernat in Bangkok, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition