“I am sorry that a life has been lost and that parents have lost a son.” Daniel Sancho Bronchalo said this in his closing statement before a Thai court sentenced him to life in prison for the premeditated murder of Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the island of Koh Pha Ngan.
Sancho is a chef and YouTuber, the son of Spanish actors Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre and Silvia Bronchalo and the grandson of the actor Sancho Gracia. He was 30 at sentencing. The court first handed down a death sentence, which was reduced to life because he cooperated during the trial, according to Police Colonel Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police.
He also received two months for concealing the body and two years for destroying the victim’s passport.
How the case unfolded
Arrieta, 44, ran a plastic surgery clinic in Monteria, Colombia. He arrived on Koh Pha Ngan on August 2. Sancho, then 29, reported him missing. Not long after, sanitation workers at a waste site in the island’s Moo 4 area found body parts in a fertiliser sack, and police began questioning the chef.
He first denied involvement. Under further questioning at Koh Pha Ngan Police Station he confessed, and told officers he had put some remains in the sack and packed others into a suitcase that he took out to sea by kayak. Two women who owned the kayak told police a Spanish man came to their business around 9pm that Tuesday asking to rent it. They said no, worried about a tourist paddling out at night. He then offered 1,000 US dollars to buy it, and they accepted. Police later found the kayak at Salat Beach, about 300 metres from the hotel.
Investigators said forensic teams found traces of human hair, fat and tissue in the drainage system of the hotel room. Security footage showed Sancho buying a knife, a saw and garbage bags, and it showed him as the last person seen with the victim. Police sought an arrest warrant. Surapong Thanomjit, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8, said early on: “We do not yet know the motive for the murder. We initially believe it might stem from a fit of jealousy.” Arrieta’s family told investigators the two men had been in a relationship for about a year.
The defence
At trial Sancho said a violent fight broke out when Arrieta tried to sexually assault him, and that Arrieta died after falling and hitting his head on a bathtub. Despite that claim of self-defence, he admitted dismembering the body and disposing of the remains on land and at sea.
The case drew heavy coverage in Spain, and HBO has produced a Spanish-language documentary about it.
