American Owner of Thai Gibbon Sanctuary Killed, Police Say
The Associated Press
Published: May 11, 2002
MAE SOT,
Thailand (AP) - An American man who ran a private animal
sanctuary
in remote northern Thailand was fatally shot by
assailants who also
killed
a
3-year-old girl and three sanctuary employees,
police said Saturday.
William Deters, 63, and the other victims, all Thai, were killed late
Friday
at Deters' Highland Farm and Wildlife Refuge,
police said, citing a Dutch
visitor who said he hid from the attackers.
They said the victims had
bullet
wounds in their foreheads, suggesting
execution-style slayings.
The
35-acre farm is 27 miles south of Mae Sot, a major trading post town
on
Thailand's border with Myanmar. The sanctuary
was founded in 1991 and
became
a refuge for abandoned, mistreated or injured
gibbons.
The border area has security problems because
of guerrillas who cross
over
from Myanmar, but police speculated a personal
dispute may have been the
motive.
Deters
had quarreled with neighbors some time ago about the use of
electricity and water from a local stream,
police Lt. Col. Siriwat
Kumsumthia said.
The Dutch
man, Abraham Wilhelm Everardus Osterloh, 24, said Deters told
him
someone had tossed a homemade firebomb at the
farm week ago and that
someone
had cut the electricity lines to the property
three days ago, according
to
police. He said Deters reported the incidents
to police.
Osterloh told police he had been in a kitchen
talking to Deters when he
heard gunshots. He said he went outside, saw
the gunmen, then went back
inside and hid in a bathroom after hearing a
gunman say in English, "I will
kill you."
Police
said they believed there were two gunmen. They said they found
spent
shells from .357-caliber and .45-caliber
handguns and an M-16 assault rifle.
Police
did not know Deters' hometown. He was a longtime resident in
Thailand
and was married to a Thai woman who was not at
the refuge at the time of
the
killings.
An
official at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said Saturday that the embassy
had no knowledge of the incident.
The other
victims were two men and a woman who worked at the farm and the
child of one of the victims, police said.
