trigger warning

The Controversial Case of the “Murder Babes”

Authorities are calling it “the most gruesome murder in Thailand history”, but the tragedy and shocking details of the crime itself have almost been buried under the baffling reaction of the public, the killers’ attitudes and the way the local media has covered the story.

Let’s start by the beginning. On May 25, 2017, the body of 23 year old Warisara Klinjui (in the first two pictures) was discovered in the Khao Suan Kwang district, in the northeast of Thailand. Not only had she been strangled and beaten, but her body had been cut in half with a saw and disposed in garbage bins. Warisara worked at a karaoke bar and had last been seen alive on May 23. 

Police quickly identified the suspects as Preeyanuch “Preaw” Nonwangchai (24), Kawita “Earn” Ratchada (25) and Apiwan “Jae” Sattayabundit (28), three women who were soon dubbed “Murder Babes”. The three alleged killers escaped to Myanmar after the crime, but didn’t try too hard to hide. They were caught in CCTV shopping with colorful backpacks and found jobs in local bars.

The case caused a sensation in Thailand. Preaw in particular became some sort of twisted idol, and TV networks even went as far as to show footage found of her having phone sex with her boyfriend. People took advantage of the popularity and started selling merchandising with the women’s faces, copies of the infamous backpacks and even a keychain with a handsaw, as you can see above.

Eventually, the three women were caught and taken back to Thailand in mid July. The situation only got more controversial as the suspects were seen laughing and applying makeup before facing the cameras, taking pictures with police and even wearing face masks. No remorse at all and what many felt was a too lenient treatment by authorities. They confessed to killing Warisara, and explain that it had started with Preaw wanted to give her a lesson because Warisara had given police information about her drug dealing boyfriend. It had ended with her beating and strangling her, and after she was dead they’d stopped at a hardware store to buy the saw they used to dismember her.

“I separated the joints, the arm joints, the leg joints, and had to do two boilings. I think I used four boxes of soilex for each one, put in the upper portion of the body and boiled that for about two hours and then the lower portion for another two hours. The soilex removes all the flesh, turns it into a jelly-like substance and it just rinses off. Then I laid the clean bones in a light bleach solution,left them there for a day and spread them out on either newspaper or cloth and let them dry out for about a week in the bedroom.”

“I took the knife and the scalp part off and peeled the flesh off the bone and kept the skull and the scalp… If I could have kept him longer, all of him, I would have.”

On March 12, 1974 Ted Bundy murdered Donna Manson and incinerated her skull in his girlfriends fireplace. Following is an excerpt from a conversation between himself and Robert Keppel:

“I never wanted to tell this - I promised myself I’d never tell this, because of all the things I did to this woman, this was probably the one she was least likely to forgive me for. Poor Liz. (He was referring to Elizabeth Kendall, his former fiancee.) In her fireplace. That’s not really that humorous, but I mean, the fireplace at the house.” Ted said.

“Burn it all up?” Keppel questioned.

Ted Bundy is probably the most well-recognised american serial killer. His killing spread throughout the united states for five years. Bundy confessed to 30 murders, but estimates of his actual murder count place it between 30 and 100.

Bundy eventually received a death penalty for later murders committed in Florida, namely the murders of co-eds at the Chi-Omega sorority house, and the killing of 12 year old Kimberly Ann Leach. In both his trials Bundy refused court appointed defence counsel and presented his own defence. During the Kimberly Leach trial he managed to get married to his partner at the time, Carol Ann Boone, while she was on the witness stand.

Bundy filed appeal after appeal from 1980 to 1989, and all were dismissed by appellate jurisdictions. Prior to his execution, Bundy attempted to gain time, or perhaps a commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment, by offering to provide additional information regarding the murders. He provided vivid descriptions of the murders, the dump sites and his post-mortem behaviour with the corpses. Bundy admitted to decapitating many of his victims and keeping their heads. He would discard the heads after they became putrefied from decomposition. Bundy also discussed his sexual activity with the corpses.

Robert Hawkins was temporarily placed at an inpatient facility called the Richard Young Center when he was 13-years-old after threatening to kill his step-mother with a knife. He warned, “The only way she will leave the house is in a body bag.” 

During a cognitive behavioral group therapy session the evening of the incident, he thought, “I’m here for no reason, I’m mad,” although he acknowledged, “They think I want to kill my parents.” Furthermore, on one of his intake forms, he listed his three feelings as “Angry to be here, relieved to be away from parents, and confused at why I’m here.”

In the following days, Hawkins remained indecisive about whether he wanted to return home or never step foot in his parents house again, as they explored his relationship with the family, particularly the animosity shown towards his step-mother. He described her as “mean and abusive” and that his father “sides with her everytime.” Hawkins commented she just “hates me so much” and believed it was due to his biological mother, recalling an argument they had when they first met: “I think my step mom thinks I’m just like my mom, that’s why she doesn’t like me.” He made several violent Mother’s Day cards for his stepmother, one with a hangman’s noose on the cover. On the inside, he wrote, “Thank you for not letting me kill myself” and “I tried to love you but I couldn’t.” The cards were confiscated, and in response, he said, “Why, she’s just my step-mom and she knows I hate her.”

Hawkins stated he was “scared” at home because his parents constantly “yell” at him, and he exhibited the same fear about an upcoming family meeting. Instead of facing them, he wished “a car would hit my family on their way here so they wouldn’t come tonight.”

He displayed a noted hopelessness towards the home situation throughout his time at the facility, once commenting, “I used to cry all the time, but now I can’t even cry anymore, I don’t even feel anything.” It was also here that he first expressed fantasies of murder-suicide. He told staff, “If anything happens at home I’ll probably kill my step mom and then kill myself.”