A heartbroken German man was found dead after he allegedly ‘hanged himself then set his house alight’ because his wife left him.
Firefighters rushed to the two-story home in a village in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, in the early hours of Monday morning February 7.
The half-wooden home was in a narrow lane where officers had to break the front gate to enter and spray water to calm the raging fire. The team took more than two hours to keep the fire under control.
They discovered the dead body of a 63-year-old German ex-pat, named locally as Uwe Albrecht, hanging from the iron fence next to the house. His body has been completely burnt to black by the fire.
Officers also found English text sprayed outside the home wall saying ‘21 years cheating but never enough f*** you.’
Inside the house, two cooking gas tanks with valves left open and a car tire placed around them were found. There was also the smell of oil around the house as if it had been poured before the incident to set the whole property on fire.
The German man’s Thai wife Kamonwan, 60, said: ‘We have been married for 21 years. He came to Thailand to get married and live with me.
‘But last month, I started living separately with him in a different district. I left him alone in this house. I was shocked when I found out that he set the whole house on fire and hanged himself.’
Police believe that the deceased was stressed after his wife left. His body has already been sent to the hospital for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.
Police Lieutenant Sanguan Jaihan said: ‘Police received notification from the fire service at 3am. The fire was extinguished and the body of the German national was found hanging inside the property. Officers also found a flaming gas tank and a burned car tire nearby.
‘The deceased’s wife was interviewed and the initial impression was that there was an emotional problem between them that lead to him committing suicide, but we are still investigating to find all the facts and the cause of death.’