Posted 2006-05-26 08:48:38
Accused assassins claim Laos paid them
Two suspected gunmen arrested on Wednesday in connection with a host of political killings in the Northeast said they were hired by a neighbouring country to kill Lao dissidents in Thailand, police said yesterday.
The pair confessed they had killed 17 people here  , including Lao-American social activists Anouvong and Oulayvanh Sethathirath, who were shot at a monastery in Nong Khai on January 18. The couple lived recently in North Carolina, where they were known as Philip and Ashley McRowan. They claimed to be descendants of King Xay Sethathirath, the founder of Vientiane.
Continued here:
http://nationmultime...es_30004965.php
Posted 2006-05-26 22:14:18
 sriracha john, on 2006-05-20 23:03:46, said:
...“They’ll never find them,” said John McAfee, the drama director at Reynolds High Schools, where the McRowan’s oldest son, Kenneth, went to school. McAfee is a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam and Laos during the Vietnam War.
“Along that border with Laos, it’s a lawless land with guerrillas who come across when they want to and warlords with 7,000-, 10,000-man armies,” he said. “I just feel like Thailand — those people in there, they’ve been bought off.”... Thank you for the updates, John (not only this one  )
This Green Beret guy made my day... Now we are writing the year 2006, is there nobody who could tell "MacAfee" that the war is over...
Posted 2006-05-26 22:47:14
Patex, on 2006-05-26 22:14:18, said: sriracha john, on 2006-05-20 23:03:46, said: ...“They’ll never find them,” said John McAfee, the drama director at Reynolds High Schools, where the McRowan’s oldest son, Kenneth, went to school. McAfee is a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam and Laos during the Vietnam War.
“Along that border with Laos, it’s a lawless land with guerrillas who come across when they want to and warlords with 7,000-, 10,000-man armies,” he said. “I just feel like Thailand — those people in there, they’ve been bought off.”... Thank you for the updates, John (not only this one )
This Green Beret guy made my day... Now we are writing the year 2006, is there nobody who could tell "MacAfee" that the war is over...
mai pen rai, Patex... happy to provide the information on this neglected case. It just gets more and more shocking with developments.
on a lighter note, the "Sargent's" words did get a raised eyebrow from me as well when I read it.
When I pictured a Nam Green Beret vet now teaching drama in a stateside high school... well, I just wondered what kind of school plays they end up with...
Posted 2006-05-26 23:40:11
Patex, on 2006-05-26 22:14:18, said: This Green Beret guy made my day... Now we are writing the year 2006, is there nobody who could tell "MacAfee" that the war is over...
Well, someone should tell the many Hmong who still fight an insurgency in Laos that the war is over. And it should also be told to the many Laotian exiles who still try to topple the Laotian government.
Maybe, if all those people are told that the war is over, it might really be over one day.
Posted 2006-05-26 23:56:58
I've always thought McAfee is now fighting his war against the evil computervirus... but as you said, shocking developments - or should we say: fullfilled expectations?
Posted 2006-05-27 00:11:46
McAfee is refering to "guerrillas who come across"... laotian warlords and their marauding hordes around Nongkai? BS.
Posted 2006-05-27 02:28:16
Patex, on 2006-05-27 00:11:46, said: McAfee is refering to "guerrillas who come across"... laotian warlords and their marauding hordes around Nongkai? BS.
Further up in the golden triangle you do have private armies and drug caravans crossing from Wa held territorries into Thailand, Laos and back. Don't forget - lots of the Labs shifted from Wa areas to Laos during the drug war. You also have Hmong insurgents still using Thailand as a safe haven from which they carry out raids and ambushes in Laos.
Up in the real golden triangle there still are pockets of warlord land.
Posted 2007-01-19 08:01:32
UPDATE.... and a significant one at that
Death sentence ordered for McRowan couple's killer
NONG KHAI, THAILAND - The man charged with the murders of Phillip and Ashley McRowan, the Fairview couple who were shot a year ago in Thailand, has been tried and sentenced to death.
"The Embassy has just received word from the court in Nong Khai that the judge returned a guilty verdict this morning against Arthit Thinchanh for the murder of Philip and Ashley McRowan," Laura Stone, deputy press attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said via e-mail early this morning. "The judge has imposed the death penalty. We are attempting to contact the family."
Stone said a second suspect in the slayings is being sought.
"He is believed to have fled to Laos, but according to Thai authorities his wife has been taken into police custody," Stone said. "The Embassy continues to follow the case closely."
Luke Siharath, Phillip McRowan's brother, said this morning that the State Department had notified him about the sentence. He knows the death sentence cannot bring his brother or sister-in-law back, but he sees the court proceedings as some measure of justice.
"I have mixed emotions about it," said Siharath, who lives near Raleigh. "I don't know what other crimes that person has done. I believe in the court system, whether it's here or over there. They're all modeled to bring justice. Beyond that, I wouldn't know what to say."
Phillip and Ashley McRowan, who had lived in Fairview for more than a decade and claimed to be of royal Lao heritage, were shot Jan. 18, 2006, in daylight by men in dark suits and sunglasses, with several witnesses nearby. In May, police in Thailand arrested Thinchanh.
- Asheville Citizen-Times (USA)
Posted 2007-01-19 08:53:30
This report seems to be in conflict with the one above regarding the accomplice in the murder:
Sentenced to death
Nong Khai Provincial Court yesterday sentenced to death a man convicted of murdering two Lao-American social activists one year ago.
Gunman Arthit Klinchan received the maximum punishment after the court heard he killed United States citizens Anouvong Sethathirath and his wife Oulayvanh Sethathirath at a temple in Nong Khai.
The couple claimed they were descended from Laos' Lan Xang dynasty.
Arthit was arrested in May last year with Suwat Suthang but the court said evidence against Suwat was not conclusive and found him not guilty.
Arthit was dubbed "the butcher of the Mekong" and told police he was paid to kill the pair and other Lao dissidents.
- The Nation
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