NAKHON RATCHASIMA - A 41-year-old German man, who was arrested this week on charges of assaulting female dentists at local clinics, was found dead with his throat slashed inside his house in Non Sung district of this northeastern province on Friday night.
Police and rescue workers alerted to the discovery found the man, identified later as Matthias Ebner, lying on a bed with two large wounds on his neck, apparently made by a sharp object. There was also a knife wound on his left hand. There were bloodstains on the bed, and a 25cm-long knife was found on the bed under the body.
Documents and other belongings were scattered over the floor, with two fierce-looking Rottweiler dogs guarding the body. Police told a maid to take the dogs away.
The Thai wife of the deceased, who was working in Prachin Buri province, contacted Anan Chanamklang, head of Don Chomphu village, saying she had been unable to contact her husband, according to Sainoi Boonsri, the assistant village head.
She then called a foreign friend of her husband who lived in downtown Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima to check on him. The woman asked Ms Anan to accompany the foreigner, who arrived with another friend, said Mr Sainoi.
Ms Anan and the two men opened the gate at the house and shouted the man’s name, but there was no response. When they looked inside through a window, they saw the body and Ms Anan immediately alerted police.
Two men look at the body of the German man through a window. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)
Pol Col Sitthiphon Thimsungnoen, chief of the Non Sung station, said on Saturday that there were no traces of a struggle or an assault inside the house. Forensic officers also found the deceased’s fingerprints on the knife.
Police investigators believed that stress coupled with mental illness might have driven the man to use the knife to take his own life, he said. The body was sent to Non Sung Hospital for a post-mortem examination to determine the exact cause of death.
Ebner’s wife had said earlier that her husband suffered from mental illness but was not taking his medication.
Ebner was arrested at a car park at a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima on March 18. He had been accused of assaults on female dentists and causing damage at several clinics in Muang district since November last year.
Police took him to the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Court to seek his detention. They opposed bail but the court granted his release and he returned to his home in Non Sung district.
Police were preparing to ask the Immigration Bureau to revoke the man’s visa as he was considered a dangerous person with aggressive behaviour that posed a threat to society.
Police cordon off the house of the German man who was found dead, in Non Sung district of Nakhon Ratchasima on Friday night. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasaert)