AYUTTHAYA : A legless, decomposing man found dead beside a roadside pond had likely been eaten by monitor lizards, not murdered as first thought, police say.
Shocked villagers flocked to view the grisly find yesterday, amazed that such a “murder” could occur in their normally peaceful surroundings.
But police said an examination concluded that Wan Saengthong, 74, who lived in Moo 5 of tambon Plaiklad in Bang Sai district, had probably fainted and died of natural causes before the monitor lizards moved in to devour his lower body.
Bang Sai district police station chief Prawet Fongsamut said there was a misunderstanding among villagers that someone had murdered a man and cut his body in half.
Pol Col Prawat admitted he was shocked when he received reports of the corpse being found in such a horrific manner in a peaceful community where homicides were almost unheard of.
A preliminary forensic examination showed the man had been dead for at least 10 days and speculated the body had been eaten by monitor lizards from the waist down.
Police said that Wan was “a lonely old man who had begun to lose his memory”.
Wan was often seen walking aimlessly around the village.
They said it was possible that he had fainted during his wanderings and then died without anybody knowing until he was found yesterday.