1987-12-11

Murder charges filed in Amarillo decapitation

AMARILLO - A woman who said she was in a residence during a slaying has positively identified the victim as a 26-year-old woman whose headless body was found in a ditch northeast of the city, police said.

Police have charged two men and jailed two others as material witnesses in the death Jannette Sue Fain^[1], police said Wednesday.

Ouy Vongkhamphra, 24, and Somay Panekham, 26, both of Amarillo, were arraigned Tuesday before state District Court Judge Jairl Dowell on murder charges.

Dowell set bond for each man at $250,000, and both remained at Potter County Correction Center on Wednesday.

Amarillo police Lt. Jimmy Stevens said two other men being questioned in Fain's slaying have also been jailed as material witnesses. Dowell set bond for the men at $1,000 each, he said.

December 16, 1987 - Two charged with murder

AMARILLO — Two men have been charged with murder and two others picked up for questioning in the death of a woman whose headless body was found last week in a ditch northeast of the city, officials say.

Ouy Vongkhamphra, 24, and Somxay Panekham, 26, both of Amarillo were brought before State District Court Judge Jairl P. Dowell Tuesday and arraigned in the death of Jeannette Sue Fain, 26.

Dowell set bond for each man at $250,000, and both remained at Potter County Correction
Center late Tuesday.

Amarillo police Lt. Jimmy Stevens said two other men were being questioned in Fain's slaying. He said police had not determined whether to hold the two men for further questioning or charge them in Fain's death.

Police would not release any details of the arrests pending formal charges. Fain was slain early Friday at Panekham's residence, but no motive has been determined for the slaying, police said.

Stevens said Fain apparently willingly accompanied her attackers to the death scene.