Police on Thursday night arrested Jariyaporn Buayai.
Highlights
- A young woman, in two years, convinced 11 men to marry her
- From each man, she collected between $6,000 and $30,000 before vanishing
- She married four times in the month of August alone
From the Thai media comes the story of a sultry young woman who, over the course of about two years, convinced at least 11 different men to marry her.
Following Thai tradition, each man gave her a generous sum of money - a dowry - at which point she disappeared, the men told police.
From each husband, she collected between $6,000 and $30,000 before vanishing, using various excuses such as she had to return to her family's home to deal with their fruit business or her horoscope advised her that it just wasn't a good time to be married.
So prolific and convincing was this woman that she married four times in the month of August alone, police told local media. Initially, police reported that there were 12 complaining husbands, but later reduced the number to 11.
Not until a warning about her was posted on Facebook did any of the men go to authorities. How the warning got to Facebook has not been revealed. Perhaps it was posted by one of the grooms, of whom there may be more, according to reports.
Indeed, upon seeing the Facebook post, they descended on police, according to The Bangkok Post and other Thai media, and told the stories of how they had allegedly been duped.
According to the English language paper The Nation, quoting a lawyer for the men, the method was pretty much the same in each case.
The woman has not been charged and the investigation is ongoing.
She would friend the man on Facebook, meet him, have sex with him, marry him and then take the money and run.
She is being called "the runaway bride."
Prasarn Tiamyam, 32, described his experience in a report to the police.
He got to know the woman after she friended him on Facebook in February of 2015. She used the name Jariyaporn "Nammon" Buayai. There was a seductive photo of her as identified in the media.
After nine months, she told him she was pregnant (it's not clear by whom) and he agreed to marry her.
They went to a seaside resort in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, the man told police, according to The Nation, where she extracted a dowry of $6,000.
The end came quickly for Prasarn. As The Nation reported:
"During their relationship, Prasarn said that Nammon refused to let him meet her parents. Only four days after their wedding, Nammon told him that she had to deal with their fruit business in Nong Khai province and left.
"Soon after, Prasarn could no longer contact her. Instead, he received a call from a woman who claimed to be Nammon's niece. She told him that Nammon lost the baby and Prasarn should not contact her again."
Pirat Puengsuk, 28, claims to have lost some $30,000, the dowry plus a Toyota pickup truck. He told police he quit his job as a transport driver and married her after a two-month whirlwind Facebook courtship, thinking he would join her and her parents in the fruit business.
"She demanded that I marry her before investing in the business together because it was her family's tradition. If we weren't married, we couldn't do business together," said Pirat, as quoted in The Nation.
She then vanished in his pickup.
As it turned out, a warrant for fraud was already out on the woman stemming from an apparently unrelated incident. After the men went to police as a group, The Bangkok Post reported, police caught up with her in Thailand's Nakhon Pathom Province, known for its fruit orchards.
There, police on Thursday night arrested Jariyaporn Buayai, 32, and a man police described as her real husband. Lt. Thitirat Nonghanpitak, commissioner of the police Central Investigation Bureau, told reporters Friday that he believed there were other victims. He said she netted more than $90,000.
From each husband, she collected between $6,000 and $30,000 before vanishing.
The woman has not been charged and the investigation is ongoing. The woman, according to the Post, said she did not intend to cheat the men, of whom, she claimed, there were only 7 rather than 11 or more. She reportedly said the men had voluntarily invested money in the family's fruit business.
Police want to interrogate her parents, The Bangkok Post reported, to determine whether they might have had a role in it. They based their theory on the fact that her parents showed up for each of the weddings. Thitirat said Friday the parents were in hiding.
The deceived gentlemen, who went to police for justice, are also hoping to protect others.
"I'm so hurt by what happened," said Pirat Puengsuk as quoted in The Nation. "I want her to redeem herself and not do this to other people."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)