Thai police expand probe into murder of Russians

Pattaya (Thailand) March 3: Thai police are looking into the possibility an unemployed Thai who confessed to murdering two Russian women in the resort city of Pattaya had not acted alone, the national police chief said today.

Police General Seripisut Temiyavej said he believed Anuchit Lumlert, 24, who admitted to pumping bullets into Tatiana Tsimfer, 30, and Liubov Svirkova, 25, had not acted alone and efforts would be made to find his accomplices.

''Although we have made some progress in arresting the culprit with the suspected motive of robbery and murder, we are still unconvinced and not satisfied,'' police chief Seripisut told a press conference.

''The profile of his confessed crime does not seem to fit, raising the possibility of more possible motives and more culprits besides him,'' he said.

Police had said Anuchit was suspected of 10 robberies in the Pattaya area and killed the Russian women when high on drugs because they screamed.

The suspected killer was caught in blurry pictures on a hotel security camera arriving on a motorcycle, walking through a garden to the beach, then later walking back to it.

He also left the womens' wallets behind.

Police brought in experts to identify the motorcycle model, which helped track down Anuchit while witnesses at the beach also identified him from the security camera picture.

Prior to his arrest on Thursday, Anuchit was freed on bail in January to await trial on charges of robbing a South Korean tourist.

Forensic tests on the pistol, found in a dumpster hidden by a friend who bought it from Anuchit, matched the shell casings left at the scene, police said.

Police have not said why a gunman would be hired to kill the two women, but media reports have pointed to inter-gang rivalry in Pattaya, a city notorious as a haven for international criminals 90 miles from Bangkok and where prostitutes from the former Soviet Union are common.

Reuters