David Lyall Crisp, a 56-year-old gay British music teacher was found dead in his apartment in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai today.
“‘He had beaten about the head with a teak mug. His throat had also been cut with a six inch knife and the murderer tried to finish the act off by smothering him in a cloth which covered his piano,' said Police Colonel Pattipol Serichainchana David Crisp was a prominent member of the Chiang Mai expatriate community. He drove a BMW 5 series, and owned a classic Citroen and was a member of the Classic Cars of Lanna (the old northern kingdom of Thailand) Club. He was also director of a choral society known as the ‘Spirit House' singers and earned a living from writing and directing music and teaching the piano. But he was also reportedly frequented gay bars for which the northern capital is famous and according to his housekeeper Prinjai Saedin, 73: ‘He often brought young men home, so I knew he was gay. But I don't think he would ever harm anyone'. Two young men whom he had brought from a gay bay to live at the back of his house have since disappeared, possibly fearing they would be blamed. But on January 20th he had brought home a young man who has not been seen since.”
Police are reportedly questioning frequenters of gay bars in Chiang Mai, but believe he was killed by a member of the Shan hill tribe, who live along the Burma-Thai border.
“Before the killer left the murder scene he smashed the ceiling light in Crisp's home office on the Lakeland Estate in Chiang Mai, a custom which Shan tribesmen believe would put the police off their trail.”
