Thai ‘serial killer’ gets death sentence for cyanide poisoning of her friend | World news

A 36-year-old Thai woman, said to be one of the worst serial killers in the country’s history, was sentenced to death for killing a friend by cyanide poisoning, the first of fourteen murders she committed.

Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, addicted to online gambling, is accused of swindling thousands of dollars from her victims before killing them, AFP reported.

The ‘serial killer’ was convicted on Wednesday by a Bangkok court for poisoning and killing her boyfriend Siriporn Kanwong.

Sararat and Siriporn reportedly met near Bangkok in April 2023 to release a fish into the Mae Klong River for a Buddhist ritual.

After a meal with Sararat, Siriporn collapsed, and died shortly afterwards. When she was found, her phone, money and other belongings were gone.

Because her relatives refused to accept it as a death caused by natural causes, Siriporn’s autopsy revealed that there were traces of cyanide in her body.

Sararat was arrested and police eventually discovered her connection to the 2015 series of unsolved cyanide poisonings, officials said.

After the trial, Siriporn’s mother, Tongpin Kiatchanasiri, told reporters: “The court’s decision is just. I want to tell my daughter that I miss her very much, and that justice has been done for her today.”

Tongpin said Sararat smiled as her verdict was read out in court, the BBC reported. The suspect has stated that she is not guilty of the offenses charged against her.

‘Poisoned herbal capsules’

Meanwhile, police said Sararat financed her gambling addiction by taking money from her victims. In one such case, she lent them 300,000 baht (nearly $9,000) before killing them and stealing their belongings.

She managed to lure fifteen people into taking ‘herbal capsules’ that she had poisoned with cyanide. One of the victims survived, police said.

Now Sararat faces another thirteen separate murder cases and has been charged with around 80 crimes in total.

Her ex-husband, a former police lieutenant colonel, was also sentenced to one year and four months in prison for hiding evidence and helping Sararat evade arrest. The suspect’s lawyer also received a two-year prison sentence for this. Both pleaded not guilty, the BBC report said.

Vitoon Rangsiwuthaporn, Sararat’s ex-husband, reportedly turned himself in to the police last year. Police said he most likely helped the suspect poison one of her ex-boyfriends, Suthisak Poonkwan.

In addition, the Bangkok court also ordered Sararat to pay Siriporn’s family two million baht ($57,667) in damages.

Cyanide is one such poison that deprives the body cells of oxygen, which can then lead to heart attacks. Early symptoms of cyanide poisoning may include dizziness, shortness of breath and vomiting.

It can also cause death within seconds if consumed in large quantities.

Earlier this year, six foreign tourists were found dead in a luxury hotel in central Bangkok. The Thai forensic department had found traces of cyanide in the empty coffee cups that the police found in their room.

Of the dead, the Thai Foreign Ministry said, two were Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals.