The bodies of a retired British businessman and his Thai wife have today been found in their garden after a six-day search.
The culprits behind the crime have admitted killing Alan Hogg, 64, and his wife Nott, 61, after they were hired by her brother for £1,175 following family feuds over money, police said.
Hog was shot near his swimming pool and his wife was beaten to death with a hammer in the garage of their mansion, detectives believe.
The bodies were found by sniffer dogs two metres deep behind a duck pond outside their home in Phrae, northern Thailand.
They were exhumed at 12pm local time and have been sent to hospital for post mortem examinations.
Mr Hogg, from Edinburgh, was the director of a laundry company in the UK and had moved to Thailand several years ago.
His daughter Robyn Hogg, a 31-year-old production assistant, flew to Thailand from the UK after being alerted to her parents’ disappearance. She is yet to comment on the tragedy.
After the bodies were found, the three hitmen confessed to the murder and burying the bodies, police said.
The assassins told police they were paid by Mr Hogg’s brother-in-law, Warut Satchakit, 63.
Warut, who was initially arrested for stealing the couple’s brand new white Ford Ranger pick-up truck, has been arrested again after the bodies were found. He denies any involvement in the deaths.
Officers arrived at the home today at 10.30am and used an excavator to dig an area next to the duck pond in the 32-acre grounds of Mr Hogg’s gated three-storey home, which boasts a swimming pool, summerhouse, a cattle farm and geese.
The corpses were later found in a two-metre deep grave with their shoes still on.
Police arrested the three hitmen from Wang Chin district, Phrae this morning after they linked them to Mr Hoggs’s stolen pick-up truck which was found and examined yesterday.
Major General Sanpat Praputsra, who has been investigating the case, said: ‘Warut Satchakit has been arrested again for the theft of the car and being involved with the murder.
‘Three suspects were traced from forensic checks on the car. They have confessed to the murder of Mr Alan and his wife Nott.
‘They used a shotgun to kill Alan and said they buried him near the ducks. The villains used a hammer to murder his wife in the garage.’
Investigators found that the truck had been sold to nearby hill tribe people for £4,600 who then sold it to a man from Laos for £9,800 in Sukhothai last Friday.
The man, from Laos, then drove it to Ayutthaya on a business trip, until he saw reports that police were looking for the vehicle and he contacted authorities.