The Red Bull heir Vorayuth ‘Boss’ Yoovidhya, who killed a policeman in a 2012 hit-and-run, recently escaped prosecution due in part to the emergence of two new ‘witnesses’ who claim he was not speeding (police had previously said that he was driving at 177 kms an hour). This case is currently causing national outrage and has forced a promise from the prime minister to reinvestigate.
The late July’s untimely death of one of the two witnesses, Jaruchat Madthong, 40, in an early morning crash on Huay Kaew Road initially appeared to be so suspicious police asked for his body to be re-examined earlier this week. The second autopsy revealed no signs of foul play.
Captured on CCTV, Jaruchat was seen riding his motorbike behind another man, also on a motorbike, when he rammed him from behind and crashed into the middle of the road, dying instantly.
When police initially interviewed Somchai Tawino, 50, the man on the motorbike which Jaruchat crashed into, he denied ever meeting Jaruchat or knowing him prior to the incident. Somchai had suffered minor injures but was immediately released from hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
However police have now tracked the CCTV footage to the karaoke bar where Jaruchat was prior to the crash. The newly discovered footage shows Jaruchat and Somchai in conversation prior to both men driving out of the bar.
Somchai now says that he recalls meeting Jaruchat, but didn’t connect that the man whom he talked to at the bar was the same as the man who was in the accident with him. According to Somchai the two men were both customers at the bar prior to the accident, but didn’t know each other and only talked to one another at the end of the night when Jaruchat asked him where he was going to next. Somchai told Jaruchat that he was off to find women in Santitham and Jaruchat asked if he could go with him. Telling police that this was normal behaviour for men, Somchai invited Jaruchat to follow along and drove ahead as Jaruchat tailed him.
He said that at that point his memory went black, presumably due to the shock from the accident, and it was only now when the police showed him the CCTV footage, that he has been able to connect the dots and realise that he had indeed met Jaruchat briefly prior to the incident.
Police have invited Jaruchat’s family to Chiang Mai from Phan in Chiang Rai where they live and hope to glean more information about Jaruchat, as his movements over the past eight years since he claims to have witnessed the Red Bull heir’s accident, appears to be mostly unknown.