YANGON — A Myanmar couple and their children, including a four-month-old baby, were murdered in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on Sunday, according to a community volunteer.
U Zayar, vice chairman of the People’s Volunteer Association, said he visited the family’s hut — where the attack occurred — with local police. He said the victims included the baby; husband, 47; wife, 45; and their other child, who was 4.
“All four were bludgeoned to death. The four-month-old was beaten in the face and died near its mother. The others were beaten on the head. The four-year-old was beaten and thrown into a lake in front of the hut,” he said.
Two bloodstained iron rods and a bloody piece of wood found near their bodies were collected as evidence by the police, he added.
U Zayar said the couple made a living cutting sugar cane or tending cattle in the area, and that the wife’s three other children from a previous marriage were away from home when the attack occurred.
He said the woman’s 19-year-old daughter told police that her parents had a quarrel with a neighbor couple and their friend over a cow the night of the attack. He said the three were seen leaving the area that night and that police were searching for them as suspects.
“The three suspects, including a couple living in the same compound and a male friend of theirs, ran away the same night. They had a quarrel with the victims earlier. The police suspect that they killed the victims and are looking for them,” U Zayar said.
A police official in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township, across the border from Mae Sot, said Myanmar police would cooperate with their Thai counterparts to investigate the case.
Translated from Burmese by Myint Win Thein.
