Bangkok, Thailand – A former competitive shooter shot his wife and their nine-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself in a four-storey villa in the Bangkok Noi district, police said, leaving investigators probing motive and recent family trauma.
Scene and discovery
Police at the Bangkok Noi station received a distress call at about 09:10 on 21 October 2025 after three bodies were found in the house. Officers who entered the third-floor living room discovered the bodies of the child and her mother, and the husband nearby. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
A housemaid told investigators she had left the property the previous night at about 23:00 and had noticed nothing unusual. Neighbours described a shocked community grappling with the scale of the violence.
Victims and weapon
The child was identified as nine-year-old Kanyakorn; she was found in her cartoon-patterned pyjamas with a single gunshot wound to the left cheek. Her mother, 42-year-old Sirirak, had a fatal gunshot wound to the head. The husband, 39-year-old Kanathorn, was also found dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators recovered a 9mm pistol beside Kanathorn’s body, which police said was likely the weapon used in the killings. The three bodies were transferred to Siriraj Hospital, where autopsies were carried out to clarify the exact sequence of events.
Background and possible motive
Police described the suspect as a former sports shooter. Friends and neighbours painted a picture of a withdrawn man who had become more irritable and intolerant of noise. “We used to hear gunshots from the house,” one neighbour told officers.
The family had experienced a recent bereavement: Kanathorn’s father, a retired police colonel, died on 26 September. Since then, those close to the family said the man suffered from insomnia and stress. Two days before the killings, he had visited the Bangkok Noi police station to report three missing firearms but left the station without signing the report; why he did so remains unclear.
Investigation and next steps
Police said they were investigating whether the recent bereavement and the suspect’s mental state contributed to the killings. Forensic results from the autopsies and ballistic tests on the recovered pistol were expected to play a central role in reconstructing the final hours.
Authorities also said they would examine why the missing-weapons report was not completed and whether any warning signs could have led to intervention. The case has prompted renewed questions about recognising and responding to mental health distress in families following major losses.