Mother let baby drown—Thai police

BANGKOK — Kanokwan Khaoprae, 21, has been arrested by Chonburi and Chanthaburi police while she was travelling on a Chanthaburi-Bangkok bus.

Upon arrest, she reportedly confessed to murdering her daughter, aged one year and three months, by letting her drown in a pond in Moo 1 Tha Chang, Amphoe Muang, Chanthaburi Province, said Muang Chanthaburi deputy superintendent Thanyapat Boonsook. 

Police believed the young woman was stressed from arguing with her partner. 

According to the police, Kanokwan said she brought her daughter from her rented room in Tha Chang to calm her down after she cried incessantly. She stopped her motorcycle at an exercise space close to a pond and phoned her boyfriend who is on compulsory military service. However, the two ended up fighting. 

Angered by the baby’s crying and her partner, Kanokwan put the baby near the pond and let her fall down without looking back at the drowning girl, leading to her death, he said. 

During the crime scene re-enactment, Kanokwan was brought to the pond. She was also reported to being in tears while asking to light incense to ask for forgiveness from her deceased daughter.

The mother was also seen crying and hugging her dead daughter when the police brought her to the morgue at Prapokklao Hospital where they kept the girl’s body. She was charged with murder and is now detained by police before being sent to Chanthaburi Provincial Court’s prison to await prosecution.