Autopsy Reveals Cyanide in Body
One Member of Group Appears to Have Killed 5 and Taken Own Life
Six foreigners were found dead in a luxury hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. Local police believe the cause of death to be poisoning.
On the 17th (local time), local media including the Bangkok Post reported that six bodies were discovered in a hotel suite in the Ratchaprasong area of downtown Bangkok. According to police investigations, the deceased included two Vietnamese-American individuals and four Vietnamese nationals.
The first person to discover the bodies was reportedly a hotel staff member. The staff became suspicious when the guests did not check out despite their reservation period ending, and entered the suite themselves, finding four people dead in the living room and two in the bedroom.
Initially, rumors circulated in Thailand that a shooting had occurred in the room, but the police dismissed these claims as false. Instead, they explained that the victims appeared to have been poisoned. During a briefing, the police stated that forensic analysis detected substances similar to cyanide in the bodies.
Bangkok, Thailand. The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article. [Image source=Pixabay]
Additionally, the police confirmed traces of cyanide in six teacups and a thermos containing coffee used by the victims. Based on this, it is suspected that one of the six deceased poisoned the others and subsequently died themselves.
Thiti Saengsawang, Chief of the Bangkok Police Department, explained that the deceased guests ordered food and drinks via room service on the afternoon of the 15th, left the food untouched, and consumed only the drinks. The police stated, "It appears that all the guests died approximately 24 hours before we arrived at the scene," and suggested that the incident stemmed from debt issues.
Among the deceased, a woman in her 50s, presumed to be the suspect, had borrowed money from others in the group and invested in a hospital construction project in Japan, resulting in a loss of about 10 million baht (approximately 385 million KRW). The deceased also included guarantors, and it is believed they gathered in the room to resolve debt problems.
Earlier, the police reported that a total of seven people had booked five rooms, initially suspecting one person other than the six deceased as the prime suspect. However, it was later revealed that this individual had already left the country on the 10th, leading to their exclusion from suspicion.
Meanwhile, following the mass death of foreigners at a luxury hotel in the heart of Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin reportedly visited the scene on the 17th. The Prime Minister urged that "this incident should not negatively impact the tourism industry." The Thai government also explained that since two of the deceased held U.S. citizenship, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting with the investigation.
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