Body Found in Abandoned Hotel After Electricity Theft Attempt
Villagers discovered a headless skeleton and a separate skull near an abandoned hotel in Chaiyaphum after following dogs attracted by a foul smell. Police believe the victim died while trying to steal electricity from a utility pole and his body lay undiscovered until it decomposed. The deceased has been identified as 45‑year‑old Chaiwat, whose relatives had previously reported him missing.
A foul smell guided villagers who followed barking dogs to the abandoned hotel, where they found a headless human skeleton and a skull about 100 meters away. Authorities suspect the man climbed a power line pole to steal cables, fell and died unnoticed, leaving his body to decompose to bones. At 11:00 a.m. on October 9, 2026, Police Lieutenant Wacharin Hu Chaiyaphum of Mueang Chaiyaphum Police Station received the report and, together with doctors from Chaiyaphum Hospital, investigators, forensic officers and the Sawang Khuntham Chaiyaphum rescue team, inspected the scene. The deceased was identified as a 45‑year‑old man named Chaiwat (surname withheld) from Nai Mueang Subdistrict, Mueang Chaiyaphum District; his skull lay 100 meters from the skeleton and another 500 meters away a black Honda motorcycle with a Khon Kaen license plate was found hidden in a cassava plantation near the forest. The first person to spot the skull, 47‑year‑old Damrong, said he followed the dogs, noticed a strong odor from the hotel, then saw clothing and bones and alerted the village head to call police. Local residents who graze cattle nearby said the motorcycle had been parked unusually long, though they had seen it come and go every other day without suspecting a death nearby. Police found damage to the utility pole and severed cables, indicating the victim likely attempted to steal electricity, fell from the pole and died; his remains were only discovered after decomposition. Relatives had previously reported him missing to Mueang Chaiyaphum Police Station. The body was sent to hospital for examination, and after legal procedures it will be released to his family for religious rites.
