Ex-cop charged in grisly Thai killing linked to mass grave

A former policeman in Thailand has been charged with murdering a woman whose fate led to the discovery of a suspected mass grave, police said on Monday.

Reports about a large burial site in the northeast, where criminal gangs may have dumped bodies for years, have swirled in the local media in recent weeks.

Thai police arrest human trafficking suspect after discovery of mass graves

The investigation began when the daughter of a woman who was strangled in June 2014 took reporters to a remote jungle area where her mother’s burned corpse was first discovered. She said she wanted to highlight what she described as a lack of police interest in investigating the killing.

During the visit, reporters found bones that looked human.

Subsequent police investigations have uncovered at least nine possible sites containing bones, some of them certified as human, while 41 people with missing relatives have come forward to offer DNA samples.