A man has been arrested in Champasack Province on murder charges after poisoning two young children and hospitalizing their parents.
The 58-year-old man stands accused of adding rat poison to bottles of soft drink and leaving them in the homes of his victims in Kokdeu Village, Pakse in March last year.
Following the incident, the man, identified as Mr. Phouang, fled to Thailand, Lao Security News reports.
Officers under the Champasack Criminal Investigation Unit say Mr. Phouang was apprehended in Dongkhouang Village, Nongbok District, Khammouane Province after returning from Thailand. He was then placed in custody and transported to Champasack Province.
The man had attacked his wife with a machete before fleeing to reside with relatives in Kokdue Village in Champasack’s Pakse District last year, according to police reports.
Mr. Phouang told police that after residing with his uncle, Mr. Bounta, in Kokdeu Village, Pakse, for some time, he contacted a man who agreed to sell him a handgun. Mr. Phouang said he paid the man, identified as Mr. Khaek, some THB 2,000 in advance but was not provided with the weapon.
On 14 March 2021, Mr. Phouang took his motorcycle to the local market and purchased a bag of rat poison for LAK 10,000 and two bottles of Mirinda, before filling the bottles with poison and placing them in refrigerators at the homes of both his uncle, Mr. Bounta, and Mr. Khaek.
Mr. Bounta’s two children, the suspect’s own cousins, aged six and two years, died after drinking the poisoned soft drink. Mr. Bounta and his wife were also hospitalized after drinking the beverage.
Mr. Phouang escaped to Thailand for a year after the murders before returning to Khammouane Province, where he was apprehended last month.
