PHOENIX: Aug 11 was to have been a day of celebration at Wat Promkunaram a graduation of sorts for a grandmother and two young men who underwent training at the Buddhist temple.

Instead members of the area’s small Thai community gathered to mourn the three initiates and six monks who were slain.

Their bodies were found Saturday at the temple which 1s surrounded by cotton fields and desert on the city’s outskirts. Investigators said the eight men and a woman had been shot late Friday or early Saturday.

Officials refused to say what the motive may have been. Investigators believe that at least two people took part in the killings.

The victim’s six monk’s two young men and an elderly woman all in saffron-colored robes were found face down in a living area connected to the temple Agnos said. All had been shot

Article extracted from this publication >> August 16, 1991