The Criminal Court on Thursday handed another life sentence to serial killer Sararat “Aem Cyanide” Rangsiwuthaporn for fatally poisoning a policewoman in Khon Kaen province.
The court found Sararat, 39, guilty of mixing potassium cyanide into a meal and beverage consumed by Pol Capt Sukanda Wimolman on Aug 9, 2022.
Judges handed down the death penalty but commuted it to life imprisonment as the defendant gave useful testimony during her trial.
The latest sentence is in addition to a death sentence and a life imprisonment term that the convict received earlier for the deaths of other victims.
The killing spree carried out by Sararat shocked the nation and led to intensified scrutiny of toxic chemical controls. Police found 15 people had been poisoned in seven provinces between 2015 and 2023. Only one survived. Three cases have now been concluded but several more are pending.
Investigators said money motivated the poisonings as all the killings were for the purpose of clearing debts. The victims had been with Sararat just hours before they died.
The case first came to light after the death of Siriporn Khanwong in Ratchaburi province on April 14, 2023. Sararat and Siriporn were friends.
Siriporn collapsed and died beside the Mae Klong River in Ban Pong district, where the two women had gone to release fish for merit-making. Cyanide was found in the victim’s body. Sararat did not come to her rescue when Siriporn collapsed. Instead, she drove away with the victim’s belongings and cash.
Sararat, the wife of a high-level police officer, was four months pregnant when she was arrested on April 25, 2023.
She was given a death sentence for the murder of Siriporn. She received life imprisonment for poisoning another police officer with cyanide in Nakhon Pathom province.
