How cops cracked the case of the broken skulls
A sinister black magic practice operated above a convenience store
Published: 7/05/2012 at 02:03 AM
The discovery of five discarded human skulls with large holes in their foreheads led police to track down a modern black magic practitioner.
The five skulls, wrapped in a plastic bag and pulled out of a canal in Pathum Thani by a fisherman late last month, initially led to speculation of a major serial murder case.
The truth, however, was even more bizarre. It was later found the skulls had been stolen by a witch doctor who used them to make love potions.
The fisherman plucked the macabre find from the waters of Khlong 13 in Pathum Thani.
Further examination of the skulls found that the holes had not been caused by gunshots.
The next theory was that it was the work of occultists, prompting police to look for known practitioners in the area.
Locals pointed officers to Singkhon Khreaudaeng, 41, who lived in the Khlong 13 area and was considered one of the most powerful black magic masters in the region.
Police determined Mr Singkhon was the prime suspect in the five skulls case, but they chose to wait for further evidence before pouncing.
The next day, on April 30, they received a tipoff that Mr Singkhon had an accomplice, 18-year-old Worachet Thawornpian. They arrested him immediately.
Police said the teenager was quick to confess to his role, saying he had once provided Mr Singkhon with a skull he had stolen from an unclaimed skeleton in Wat Phichit Pitayaram in the Khlong 13 area. The witch doctor paid him 1,200 baht, he said.
This gave the police enough reason to raid Mr Singkhon's home later that day.
Police found Mr Singkhon's premises, above a convenience store, had been converted into an office where he met customers seeking black magic services.
Among items found at the office were two bags of ashes, a motorised saw, bone scraps and eight books on black magic rituals.
Mr Singkhon was arrested and allegedly confessed he was responsible for the five skulls found in the canal.
Police said he told them the forehead part of the skulls was used in the production of a love potion called pan neng.
Many of his customers were heartbroken women seeking his help to bring back husbands who had left them, police said.
The forehead bones were ground into powder and mixed with other ingredients to form a "dough" that was kneaded into dolls of tiny men and women clinging to one another.
This was supposed to help the women get their husbands back, but apparently even the self-taught Mr Singkhon admitted they were largely ineffective.
"He's admitted that in most cases, the love potion service just didn't work," said acting chief of Provincial Police Region 1 Kamronwit Thoopkrachang.
"The few wives who were actually successful in attracting their husbands back home had also followed his advice to stop scolding and nagging them."
Mr Singkhon also allegedly confessed to stealing the five retrieved skulls himself. He dug them out of graves in Meng Hui cemetery in Chon Buri's Muang district, police said.
Police took him to the cemetery to point out the graves he robbed and upon exhumation, found the five skeletons there were indeed headless.
Mr Singkhon told police he had another accomplice, Niphon Srisuk, 38, to dispose of the skulls. He was supposed to burn them but apparently had failed in his duty and simply dropped them in the canal instead.
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