The Bowdoin Orient

February 2, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 14

Local woman faces murder arrest charges in California

by ERIC CHAMBERS, STAFF WRITE

   A nine-year-old California murder case was recently solved with the arrest of a local Brunswick woman who worked at The Thai Place, a restaurant located on Pleasant Street.
   Forty-seven-year-old Sawan Navarat was arrested in connection with the murder of 40-year-old Opapin Ponvisutrakul in Flagstaff, Arizona, on January 21 after having fled from Brunswick.
   According to California authorities, Navarat shot Ponvisutrakul four times in the head after a heated argument in Los Angeles in 1991 in which Navarat accused Ponvisutrakul of being her husband's mistress.
   Hours after Navarat's arrest in Flagstaff, 42-year-old Warin Toemphanthunan was arrested by Brunswick police and charged with aiding Navarat's escape. If convicted, she could be sentenced to five years in prison, as well as a $250,000 fine.
   Although the murder occurred in 1991, Los Angeles authorities were unable to find Navarat. The file remained open for nine years until an unknown source contacted Detective Michael Crowley of the Bureau of Homicide of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.
   This information led authorities to Portland where, on December 12, police infiltrated a Thai restaurant in the city and arrested a woman who resembled Navarat. However, she was soon released after her fingerprint patterns did not match those of Navarat.
   By another anonymous tip, authorities then went to The Thai Place, on 136 Pleasant Street, to question Navarat. However, she had fled by the time they had arrived.
   While police questioned patrons in the restaurant about Navarat, Toemphanthunan arrived. She claimed not to know who Navarat was, but authorities soon found out that they had been roommates for years. During her interrogation, Toemphanthunan revealed that she had helped Navarat escape Brunswick just minutes before.
   Navarat then hitchhiked to Flagstaff, Arizona, where she took a job as a waitress in a Thai restaurant before authorities finally caught up with her. Local merchants were stunned by this development. In her five years in Brunswick, she had gained a reputation as a dependable, but somewhat withdrawn, person.
   In an interview with Times-Record writer Christopher Cousins on December 15, 2000, Tom Bouthot, owner of Uncle Tom's Market, expressed his shock at Navarat's arrest: "I never would have dreamed she was capable of something like that…[she was] sweet and soft-spoken."
   Both Portland and California police considered her armed and dangerous. Navarat will be tried in California for her crimes. If convicted, she could face life imprisonment.

Information gathered from The Times-Record and the Portland Press Herald.