A US citizen charged with murdering his pregnant Thai wife was taken for a crime reenactment by Nan provincial police today (My 8), Thai Rath newspaper said.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Mongkol Samphawaphol, the head of Nan police, said this case, whereby Mr Jason Matthew Balzer, 32, an American programmer, is facing charges of murdering his wife, Mrs Pitchaporn Kidchob, or Som-o, 32, while she was around three months pregnant is horrific.
It was past noon on May 2 that Balzer allegedly stabbed his wife in the left chest, he said.
After that he drove to a hardware store and bought a green trash bin to use in hiding the corpse.
At around 1 a.m. on May 3 Balzer drove out taking his wife’s body in the bin, a mattress and an air purifier with him. He discarded the latter two items at a garbage dump then drove another six kilometres and dumped his wife’s body at a forested area next to the road.
He returned home at around 6 a.m. and acted as if nothing had happened.
A friend of the deceased, Ms Fon (assumed name), said she was shocked to hear that Balzer had murdered Pitchaporn because they were so loving.
Balzer previously had a good job in the US and plenty of money. He met Pitchaporn during a holiday in Thailand and they got involved with this leading to marriage. He then took her to live in his vacation home in California.
Balzer had been previously married and had a daughter with his ex-wife who cited assault being the grounds for divorce. Pitchaporn knew about this but still accepted Balzer because he measured up to her expectations.
However Balzer did not change his ways with a case being filed against him for trying to strangle her and holding a gun to her head with her friends refusing to let her withdraw it. This case led to him losing his job, which made him furious, but as he still loved his wife so he sold his house in the US for 3 million baht and followed her here.
Ms Fon added that here in Thailand the couple’s relationship turned rocky with there being frequent quarrels over money with Pitchaporn being pressured by her family to get money from him.
Balzer once told Pitchaporn that he could feed her but not her whole family, she said, adding that this financial pressure probably led to the tragedy.
Another close friend said that the deceased was very fond of and proud of Balzer. He would give her anything she wanted, he had bought a two-rai of land plot and a car which were put in her name.
This friend added that the letter that Balzer gave his mother-in-law, purportedly from Pitchaporn’s new boyfriend named Jimmy, was probably written by himself to get sympathy. Police later said Balzer had confessed to having written this fake letter.
A third source said Blazer was under a lot of financial pressure because he had only 10,000 baht left in his bank account after buying his wife the two-rai land plot for 700,000 baht and the car for almost 1 million baht.
He had also given his mother-in-law money several times. Even on the last day when he handed over the fake letter to her he gave her 5,000 baht.
He had fled to Chiang Mai to disguise himself as a tourist and go to a neighbouring country by natural channels, the source said.
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Balzer going through a crime reenactment today. Photos: Thai Rath
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