Thai model, 25, found dead in elevator, with chilling footage capturing the moment man dumps her body inside
Police are investigating the mysterious death of a Thai model whose body was found dumped inside an elevator at an apartment block in Bangkok.
Thitim 'Bell' Noraphaniphat, 25, a popular promotional model, who boasted of close to 75,000 followers on social media, was found dead early on Tuesday morning, according to Coconuts Bangkok, with chilling footage showing a man carrying her limp body into the elevator and dumping her there.
Police said they did not observe any visible injuries on her body, with Surakit Sitiwallai of the Bukkhalo Police Station in the capital's Thonburi district stating that investigators were waiting on the autopsy report.
The footage from the building not only shows the man dumping her in the elevator but also shows the same man carrying her up to an apartment on the sixth floor, hours before her death. The man has reportedly been identified as Rachadech Wongthabutr, a freelance male model and fitness trainer who has acted in a few movies and TV shows.
In a series of disturbing posts that have since been taken down, Wongthabutr had uploaded pictures of a passed out Noraphaniphat on his Facebook account and joked about her condition. "I didn’t drug her, she was naughty on her own, hahahaha," he wrote in the caption of a video he took of her.
"I don’t know if my 100th wife can make it, hahaha. She’s even wearing my clothes, I put them on her," he wrote in another post where the 25-year-old can be seen with her eyes shut and mouth open.
Police forced their way into his apartment after he refused to open the door for them, and during questioning, he admitted he had worked the same event as the victim the night before her death. He said that, by the end of the night, Noraphaniphat was so drunk that he volunteered to drop her home. He said he took her to his place after she passed out before she could tell him where she lived.
Wongthatbutr told police he then put her to bed and called one of her friends to pick her up. He admitted to carrying her unconscious body back down to the lobby, but insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Surakit said they let him go after questioning because it was still too early to speculate on what caused Noraphaniphat's death.
In another social media post, Wongthatbutr once again stressed his innocence. "I really didn’t know she was dead," he wrote. "Bell drank a lot, she did like 10 shots and only had a little bit of food to eat…. I don’t know when she died. I just brought her back to my condo to sleep and I fell asleep."
"I promise I won’t run away because I’m innocent. I may be a jokester, but I’m a gentleman. … If you’re listening Bell, please understand me," he added.