Recently, a court in Bangkok, Thailand, sentenced Sararat to death for poisoning 14 people, marking the first death penalty handed down in years by Thailand’s “abolitionist” judiciary.
The murderer, Sararat, used deadly cyanide to kill friends and family over eight years, earning her the nickname “Cyanide Witch” among Thai citizens.
This case, the most severe serial poisoning in Thai history, shocked the nation not only due to the high number of victims but also because of the murderer’s unique identity. 
It turns out that Sararat, as the wife of the local deputy police chief, used her connections to cover up her murders.
After Thai police arrested her, they uncovered a network of internal corruption involving gambling and money laundering, with some officers even working directly for online gambling dens.
The global attention-grabbing serial poisoning case began with the mysterious death of a wealthy female businesswoman.
In April 2023, a wealthy woman living in Phuket, Southern Thailand, suddenly collapsed during a temple’s life-release ceremony. Her family immediately called for emergency services, but by the time medical personnel arrived, the businesswoman had already died from a heart attack.
(Family members of the deceased businesswoman at the police station)
Her family believed she lived a regular life, had no bad habits, and suffered no heart-related diseases, so they doubted she would suddenly have a heart attack.
At the insistence of her family, local police conducted an autopsy. The results confirmed that the deceased died of heart failure, with traces of cyanide found in her system.
Cyanide, being a potent poison, is not typically found in the everyday activities of normal people. Her family thus suspected this was a premeditated poisoning case.
Simultaneously, the businesswoman’s sister recalled that her sister had attended the life-release ceremony at the invitation of her close friend, Sararat.
(Diagram for illustration)
The family believed that Sararat, as an informant, might be related to the case. After the businesswoman’s death, her family noticed that her 40,000 baht in cash, designer bag, and two phones had vanished.
Subsequently, the police began investigating 35-year-old pregnant Sararat (who later miscarried in prison), discovering she had previously borrowed 2 million baht from the businesswoman, which she had not repaid upon the debt’s due date.
At Sararat’s mother’s house, the police found two bags containing cyanide and a stack of documents, possibly related to accidental life insurance policies, with different names written on them.
Based on the available evidence and the debt relationship, the police initially suspected that Sararat had poisoned the businesswoman because she couldn’t repay her debts. She might have also forged the victim’s family’s signatures to purchase life insurance policies before committing the act.
However, the businesswoman’s death eventually alerted the police, preventing Sararat from successfully claiming the insurance money and exposing her plot.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, Sararat refused to admit to the poisonings, causing the case to stagnate, and she was actually released.
It was puzzling how such a straightforward case was not pursued further, and why Sararat, the only suspect, was let go so easily, raising suspicions of a cover-up.
Even more chilling, as Thai media continued to delve into the case, they found that numerous other mysterious deaths were linked to Sararat, and her true identity was far more than just a housewife.
During their investigation, a man claiming to be the husband of another victim contacted the media. He recounted how his wife died unexpectedly in 2020, and coincidentally, she was also a close friend of Sararat.
The story goes back to 2020. Victim A, after giving birth to her second child, was offered slimming pills by Sararat, who claimed they would help her lose weight. After taking the pills, A felt dizzy, had a rapid heartbeat, and difficulty breathing, so she stopped taking them.
But Sararat repeatedly reassured A that the side effects were temporary, and to get a good figure, she shouldn’t fear suffering, even personally feeding A the slimming pills.
In November 2020, A felt palpitations and chest tightness after taking the slimming pills provided by Sararat, so she went to rest in her bedroom and didn’t wake up until late. Her husband, sensing something was wrong, immediately called for emergency services. Medical personnel declared A dead from a sudden heart attack upon arrival.
A’s husband always believed there was something wrong with the slimming pills given by Sararat, especially since he witnessed his wife showing clear signs of poisoning before she died.
A’s family reported the incident to the police, requesting an investigation into Sararat, but were told their evidence was insufficient, so their application to file a case was rejected.
A year later, when A’s family saw the news about the mysterious death of the female businesswoman on TV, they thought to seek help from the media.
Under pressure from public opinion, local police finally opened an investigation into Sararat, revealing that at least 13 mysterious deaths were related to her.
The victims in these 13 cases were all middle-aged women close to Sararat, including two female police officers. They all died of sudden heart attacks, showing clear signs of poisoning before death, had lent money to Sararat, with debts amounting to over a million baht each.
With strong calls from the public and victims’ families, local police formed a special task force to thoroughly investigate this serial poisoning case. As more case information was disclosed, even more shocking secrets came to light.
It turned out that Sararat was able to commit these crimes repeatedly and escape justice not only because of her close ties with police insiders but also because someone was backing her up…
After the initial case of the female businesswoman’s death came to light, Thai media rushed to the scene, hoping to get more details from the police. However, the Thai police unusually kept silent, seemingly protecting Sararat’s identity from being leaked.
During a crime scene reenactment, someone saw Sararat openly leaving in a female officer’s car.
Through persistent efforts, the media uncovered Sararat’s true identity.
Born in 1988, Sararat married the local deputy police chief after graduating from university. The couple had two children.
In 2020, Sararat and her husband, Weerayuth, suddenly divorced but continued to live together. Sararat was also pregnant with her third child at the beginning of 2023.
(Weerayuth, Sararat’s ex-husband)
Neighbors also noted that while Sararat was friendly, she was inherently arrogant, only associating with wealthy and influential people and never mingling with ordinary folks.
There were rumors that wealthy women often visited her home, and neighbors had heard about Sararat borrowing money without repayment. Locals speculated that her poisonings were related to her large debts.
After this report on Sararat’s background was publicized, perhaps due to public pressure, Thai police, half a year after filing the case, finally unraveled the case’s mystery.
It turned out that Sararat and her ex-husband, Weerayuth, were addicted to online gambling, amassing a debt of 93 million baht (about 19.55 million RMB). They borrowed money from friends and, when unable to repay, resorted to murder.
Sararat had been working part-time as an insurance salesperson since before 2012. Her ex-husband, using his position, provided her with debtors’ identities and signatures, allowing Sararat to forge victim family members’ identities to purchase insurance policies, then kill them to fraudulently claim the insurance.
(Weerayuth, left)
Sararat’s earliest known crime dates back to 2015. Over the next eight years, she induced at least 15 victims to take cyanide, resulting in 14 deaths.
What’s even more shocking is that her ex-husband, as the deputy police chief, enticed subordinates to participate in online gambling. After Sararat’s poisoning was exposed, he instructed his subordinates to provide false testimony to cover for his wife.
Foreign media reported that 22 police officers were involved in the crimes. By the time Sararat was sentenced to death, 13 had been arrested, with many still on the run.
An insider from the police force revealed that online gambling was very common in Thailand, with many officers participating, even working for gambling dens in secret. Their audacity and arrogance were astonishing.
Returning to the case itself.
In 2023, after Sararat’s serial poisoning case came to light, it dealt a significant blow to Thailand’s tourism industry. The Thai police, in response, promised to crack down on online gambling and purge gamblers from their ranks.
This case also highlights the severe dangers of online gambling, which can lead to financial ruin at best and family destruction at worst, truly ruining generations with a single gamble!
