Bangkok hotel dead presumed to have swallowed cyanide from teacups in murder-suicide case
Traces of cyanide were found in a teapot and six coffee cups in the hotel room at Grand Hyatt Erawan.
Six foreign nationals of Vietnamese descent were found dead in a room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel on (Jul 16), in a case of poisoning. (Photos: AFP/Chanakarn Laosarakham, X/@SaksithCNA/Royal Thai Police)
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BANGKOK: All six foreign nationals found dead in a luxury Bangkok hotel are presumed to have died after ingesting cyanide from teacups, a forensic doctor who performed autopsies on the dead said on Wednesday (Jul 17).
The bodies of the six Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a suite at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the Thai capital on Tuesday afternoon.
"The mouths and nails on all the bodies turned purple, showing a lack of air could be a joint reason of the cause of the death," forensic doctor Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin told a press conference at the Chulalongkorn University on Wednesday.
"We presume they all died from cyanide which causes a lack of air in some organs," he added.
At a news conference earlier on Wednesday, Thai police said that traces of cyanide were found in the liquid in a teapot and in six cups in the hotel room.
The police concluded that it was likely a murder-suicide case, with one of the dead believed to have carried out the crime.
"We would like to confirm that one of the six dead caused this incident using cyanide," said Noppasil Poonsawas, deputy commander of investigations at Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Bureau.
"We are confident one of the six conducted the crime."
Police added that interviews with relatives of the dead revealed there had been a dispute over debt related to an investment.
The six people - three men and three women - were found in a suite at the luxury Grand Hyatt Erawan under mysterious circumstances on Tuesday.
Police released their images on Wednesday, along with their identities.
Two of them also had American citizenship - Chong Sherine, 56, and Dang Hung Van, 55.
The other four were Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, 47, Pham Hong Thanh, 49, Tran Dinh Phu, 37, and Nguyen Thi Phuong, 46.
The six were also seen in security footage with their suitcases, apparently heading to a room on the fifth floor of the hotel on Monday.
They were found dead in the same room about 24 hours later.
One of the US passport holders, Chong Sherine, was said to be the person suspected of poisoning the others.
According to the Thai daily Kaosod English, citing sources, she had persuaded a couple in the group to invest in building a hospital in Japan. However, they ended up losing 10 million baht (US$278,000).
Speculation that a seventh person may have been part of the group was dispelled by the police.
Earlier reports said authorities were looking for a seventh guest, a Vietnamese national believed to be the younger sister of one of the six dead.
But the woman had left the country on Jul 10 and was unlikely to have had anything to do with the deaths, the Bangkok Post reported.
Tran Dinh Dung, the father of one of the victims, said his 37-year-old son was due to return to Vietnam last Sunday.
"I kept calling him but couldn't get through so I was very worried, but I didn't expect him to die in Thailand," Dung said in an interview with Vietnam's Thanh Nien newspaper.
"Phu's mother has fainted countless times, she could not bear this shock," he said.
Mystery shrouded the case after Thai media initially said there was a shooting, only for authorities to swiftly dismiss those reports.
Photos released by police of a bloodless crime scene showed plates of untouched food, two insulated flasks and several cups.
Police had suspected a case of poisoning as "suspicious substances" were found on the bottom of several glasses in the room.
Some people among the six appeared to have been on their first trip to Thailand.
The group had checked into the hotel at separate times after arriving on Saturday and Sunday, according to the chief of Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Thiti Saengsawang.
They booked different rooms - four on the seventh floor and one on the fifth floor.
Cleaning staff discovered the six bodies on Tuesday afternoon - all in the fifth-floor room - after the guests failed to check out as scheduled.
There were no signs of robbery or a struggle. The room was locked from the inside.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation had assisted Thai police with the investigation.
Vietnam's government said its embassy in Bangkok was closely coordinating with Thai authorities on the case, while the US State Department said it was monitoring the situation and local authorities were responsible for the investigation.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Wednesday the crime was "a private matter", unrelated to national security, and should not affect the lucrative tourist sector.
