Two Burmese migrant workers have been arrested for the murder of a duck farm owner and his wife in Photharam, about 100km west of Bangkok in central Thailand.

Ratchaburi regional police announced this week that four Burmese migrant workers were involved in the double murder of Chukiat Nimnual, 65, and his 35-year-old Burmese wife, Ma Mee, who were killed on the night of 19 October.

[related]

Two of the suspects, named simply as Yao, aged 26, and Ek, 16, have been arrested and charged, while two other Burmese suspects, Sue and Leik, were on the run, police said at a press conference on Thursday.

Police said the suspects had confessed that they killed the couple for money. They said the migrant workers had knocked on the farm house door and called to the farmer’s wife that snakes were eating her duck eggs. When Ma Mee came and opened the door, they allegedly stabbed her with a knife, before cutting her husband’s neck with a knife while he slept. The suspects then stole around 150,000 baht (US$5,000) from the couple’s bedroom, police said, noting that they also recovered three mobile phones, one motorbike and a pickup truck, all presumably property of the duck farmers.

The news comes at the same time as another high-profile murder case in Thailand where two Burmese migrants have been arrested for the 15 September murder of two British tourists on the island of Koh Tao.