Australian man arrested in Thailand after 17-year-old’s body found in suitcase

An Australian man has been arrested at a Thai airport in connection with the alleged murder of a 17-year-old girl whose naked body was found in a suitcase, according to local police. The man , 46, was stopped at about 9.30pm on Friday while preparing to travel on a Jetstar flight to Perth, according to local media. Images show Thai immigration officers at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport taking the man into custody. Police arrested the man after they investigated his alleged connection to the Thai teenager, whose body was found in a suitcase behind the Floating Market in Pattaya, on Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast, according to a statement released on social media by Pattaya city police. The suspect, who denies involvement in the teenager’s alleged abduction and murder, was taken into custody after an interrogation, a police official in the resort city of Pattaya told Agence France-Presse. Investigators were awaiting the results of a postmortem examination and “other evidence” in the case before filing charges, the official said. The charges could include child abduction, murder, hiding a corpse and “abduction of a minor for sexual purposes”, added the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. Police allege CCTV footage showed the suspect entering an apartment in the seaside resort of Pattaya in the early hours of Thursday along with the 17-year-old Thai girl, according to reports. …