A Thai woman considered one of the worst serial killers in the kingdom’s history was convicted and sentenced to death Wednesday for poisoning a friend with cyanide, in the first of her 14 murder trials.
Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, 36, an online gambling addict, is accused of defrauding her victims of thousands of dollars before killing them with cyanide.
A Bangkok court convicted her on Wednesday of fatally poisoning her friend Siriporn Kanwong.
The two women met near Bangkok last April to release fish into the Mae Klong River as part of a Buddhist ritual.
Siriporn collapsed and died shortly after. Investigators found traces of cyanide in his body.
Police were then able to establish a link between Sararat and unsolved cyanide poisonings dating back to 2015.
“The court’s decision is fair,” the victim’s mother, Tongpin Kiatchanasiri, told reporters after the verdict.
According to the police, Mme Sararat financed his gambling addiction by borrowing money from his victims — in one case, up to 300,000 baht (nearly $9,000) — before killing them and stealing their jewelry and cell phones.
She encouraged 15 people – one of whom survived – to take poisoned “herb capsules”, the same source added.
Mme Sararat faces 13 other murder trials and has been charged with around 80 offenses in total.
Her ex-husband, a police lieutenant colonel, was sentenced to 16 months in prison and her former lawyer to two years for complicity in Siriporn’s murder, the victim’s family lawyer said.
Thailand has been the scene of several sordid and high-profile criminal cases.
Earlier this year, six foreigners were found dead in a luxury Bangkok hotel after cyanide poisoning believed to be linked to debts worth millions of baht.
