The murder of Jenjira Ployangunsri was a sensational crime that took place in Thailand in 1998. Jenjira, a 23-year-old medical student, was killed on 26 January, and her body subsequently dismembered, by her boyfriend Serm Sakhonrat, also a medical student. The case received intense media coverage as the investigation proceeded over the following weeks until Serm was arrested and parts of Jenjira's body were identified. It saw the beginning of the use of DNA forensics in criminal investigation in Thailand and brought public attention to the work of forensic pathologist Porntip Rojanasunan.
Murder Jenjira Ployangunsri, aged 23, was a fifth-year medical student at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok in 1998. She had been in a relationship with Serm Sakhonrat, a second-year medical student at the BMA Medical College, who was one year her junior. The two had met a few years earlier at church (both were Catholic), when Serm was an engineering student (he had gained early university admission at the age of 15, and entered medical school after completing his engineering degree). Jenjira was last seen on 26 January 1998. She and Serm were at his apartment in the Phetchaburi Road area, where he shot her in the head with an illegally owned .38 revolver, killing her. He then dismembered her body using a kitchen knife, and disposed of the flesh and organs by flushing some down the toilet and disposing the rest directly in the apartment's septic tank. He placed the flayed skull, limbs and bones in bin bags, and drove to the Bang Pakong River in Chachoengsao Province, east of Bangkok, where he threw them into the water. The following day, he visited the house of a friend on Charansanitwong Road, in the western Thonburi side of Bangkok, where a witness later reported he spent some time car-washing. The next day, the 28th, he visited his family home in Chon Buri Province, where he burned Jenjira's clothing. He also took Jenjira's car and left it in the Muang Thong Thani neighbourhood in Nonthaburi Province.
Investigation
Jenjira's parents reported her disappearance to the police on 30 January, and also informed the police of her relationship with Serm, whom they knew. As the last person identified by Jenjira's classmates to have been seen with her, Serm was brought in for questioning. He initially denied knowing of her whereabouts, claiming that they had dinner together at the World Trade Center shopping mall, but left separately after a disagreement. The police remained suspicious of his claims, and followed him and called him in for further questioning several times over the following weeks, also subjecting him to polygraph tests. They found that he provided contradictory and false statements, but failed to find physical evidence in his apartment, where he continued to live. The police eventually tracked down the witnesses who reported on Serm's suspicious activities at his friend's house and his Chon Buri home, and brought him into custody on 5 March. He confessed to killing Jenjira, claiming to have strangled her in her car at the mall in a fit of jealousy, and then, in fear of being caught, checked in to a love motel where he dismembered and disposed of her body through the toilet. He revealed the locations where he left her car, which was found by the police, and where he disposed of the bones, though police scuba divers were unable to find any remains. However, the investigation team was informed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine (IFM) of two unidentified human skulls earlier found in the river and reported to the local police. Craniofacial superimposition of one of the skulls, which had been found by fishermen on 28 January, found it compatible with Jenjira's features, and dental identification and DNA analysis would later confirm that the skull was Jenjira's. However, the skull exhibited a gunshot wound, contradicting Serm's statements. Investigation of the motel's septic tank also failed to reveal any evidence. Following further interrogation, Serm altered his confession twice over the few following days, first revealing that he killed Jenjira and dismembered her body at his own apartment, then that he used a gun to kill her, which he hid at his Chon Buri home. The gun was recovered, and investigations of the apartment's septic tank revealed numerous pieces of human flesh, which were found to match Jenjira's DNA. The case was the first instance in Thailand of forensic DNA analysis being used in a murder investigation. A lot of public attention fell on forensic pathologist Porntip Rojanasunan, whose riotous hairstyle became a sensation amidst the intense media coverage of the investigation. The case had been brought to her attention as a lecturer at Ramathibodi who was overseeing student issues, and as Ramathibodi's forensic unit regularly collaborated with the police IFM, she served as a liaison who brought on the capabilities of DNA experts from Ramathibodi's pathology department. The case introduced the Thai public to the field of forensic medicine, and Porntip became a celebrity and one of the field's foremost public faces. It also marked a turning point that would lead Porntip to push for the creation of the Central Institute of Forensic Science under the Ministry of Justice.
Trial and conviction
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