Thread: Two Tourists Brutally Murdered on Koh Tao, One Raped: Police Spark Thailand Manhunt

Son of Koh Tao Island Chief Denies Role In Britons' Murder

This link expands a bit on the story. There is a bit more than just the video stills.

Our TD forensic scientists can make up their own minds about the validity of the date stamps.

^ Just a hunch based in life and work experience and 9 years in Thailand, but getting away with murder does not seem to be enough for some of these Thai elite psychopaths; they also have to flaunt it.

Maybe I'm wrong?

Originally Posted by koman

Our TD forensic scientists can make up their own minds about the validity of the date stamps.

Must defend the locals at all cost. They are sweet and innocent and would never do something like this, heh Koman?

I saw and want to unsee those photos. That was not just a rape and a knock on the head. That was all out anger and rage against her. For why? Because she perhaps spurned the advances of the local playboy who is used to getting his own way?

Originally Posted by YOrlov

the time stamp multi coloured , uneven.

He does look like the man in the video, in fact.

Attendence documents are not conclusive.

It is obviously changed, but cannot really work out the mechanics of it. It is mostly white, except for the black "9-20". which made me think they had changed the month - BUT - the only 13th with a Saturday is in September. If the original is black, then it means all the white is changed......

There is not a single shred of evidence to link McAnna to these crimes. Repeated speculative comments based on no more than the musings of an idiot is unhelpful and only serves to bolster idle Internet chatter and to provide futile foundation to the now discredited theory the crimes were perpetrated by a farang.

Is it alright to say that here? I could be more succinct but my definition of robust may not accord with whoever moderates here.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

There is not a single shred of evidence to link McAnna to these crimes. Repeated speculative comments based on no more than the musings of an idiot is unhelpful and only serves to bolster idle Internet chatter and to provide futile foundation to the now discredited theory the crimes were perpetrated by a farang.

Is it alright to say that here? I could be more succinct but my definition of robust may not accord with whoever moderates here.

I think that is a fair enough comment. It's clear who did it; the Thai way is to let them buy their way out of it though which is what is happening. Witness statements are worthless. Even more so now that one has come forward saying about the efforts the cops are using to make people lie to corroborate their fanciful made up version of events that does not implicate their mates.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Originally Posted by koman

Our TD forensic scientists can make up their own minds about the validity of the date stamps.

Must defend the locals at all cost. They are sweet and innocent and would never do something like this, heh Koman?

I'm not "defending" or "prosecuting" anybody. I don't know who dunnit.. and I'm not making any claims to know, one way or the other.

Opinions posing as facts don't really advance the case however much you want them to. It could have been any number of people, so I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Terrible I know....

Be that as it may Koman, empirical evidence of how thai police act is what some people are choosing to ignore either through ignorance or some belief that they are basically good hard working people trying to solve the crime.

If they were indeed trying to actually solve this case still, they would not be trying to bribe people into making false witness statements, and would confirm if the most likely suspects have been DNA tested or not. Alas, they are just covering up and taking the bungs as usual.

clearer pics here.

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To my eyes (correct me if I am wrong) but he does look suspiciously like the skinny chap, that sprinted past the CCTV camera - on the night of the murders.
*Have they done DNA tests on him?

Not saying it's him, i reserve my judgment - till we know for sure... (or as sure as we can be within the Thai justice system).

I think it pretty much evident from all that has passed that the killers are now well identified.

The nonsense put out by the government over tagging tourists is just a smokescreen designed to distract attention from the bungling and cynical investigation which is doing its best to exculpate the killers.

In view of the deafening silence from the British embassy I would think that there is a power struggle behind the scenes to resolve matters which is still unfolding. On one hand we have the local power play of head families protecting their own personal interests and the killers. Bangkok police will be struggling with Surat Thani police who aren't wild about one of their officers being implicated. We have regional politicians concerned about the reputation of one of their cash cows and to a certain extent this is bound up with the national consensus. The embassy will know what is happening at the ground level and will be aware of what DNA is being taken and who is being left out of this only means of identifying the perps beyond doubt. This has already been considered and over the weekend we had a Police General who tried to assert that continued DNA testing was both too costly and unnecessary. This was just another step in the dance of the macabre currently being practised.

The embassy will be dealing daily with the bereaved families and unless they are satisfied that the known perps will be prosecuted then this case will become a watershed in Anglo Thai relations.

It is down to the junta to decide how they want to play it. To prosecute the guilty and accept the truth of the matter and purge the island or to frame some foreign workers and let Thailand's " reputation " off the hook.

DNA has stymied the usual Thai ploy in these sorts of cases. In the end the junta will have to decide.

Originally Posted by Stranger

Are they his bosses

Originally Posted by Stranger

working in the bar

2+2 = 4 mate. Oh, likely was a dealer as well. After all, no action of that sort would occur without the local big wigs and cops getting their snouts in the trough.

Originally Posted by NZdick1983

To my eyes (correct me if I am wrong) but he does look suspiciously like the skinny chap, that sprinted past the CCTV camera - on the night of the murders.
*Have they done DNA tests on him?

Not saying it's him, i reserve my judgment - till we know for sure... (or as sure as we can be within the Thai justice system).

Yes he does. With his new hair cut and everything, still looks like him. Along with his dodgy dossier of photo as well which have been altered...

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

deafening silence from the British embassy

Wouldn't read too much into that. Embassy and Consulate are only concerned with opening doors for UK business. Stuff like this they don't care about other than a quote to the press about "supporting families" which invariably they don't bother to do either.

Me thinks our friend in the CCTV, the son of the headman, doth protest too much. For sure those stills look totally fake.

Fake CCTV images, DNA tampered with.....what's next on the agenda for the BIB? You have to hand it to them, when they want to make sure something goes "unsolved"...or at least the perpetrators go untouched, they really do one hell of a job.

Originally Posted by thailazer

I wonder why the Pornprasit Sukdam story hasn't been picked up by the major newspapers in Thailand or even the ones in the UK? The UK papers have likely moved to other things but in Thailand, maybe TAT has some influence on what gets covered. Sure is showing me how really messed up this place is.

Thai police investigating Hannah Witheridge and David Miller accused of beating driver | Daily Mail Online

Does anybody know if this taxi driver (Pornprasit Sukdam) is the "key witness" the BIB were talking about. The one that was going to break this case once and for all?

Bit of a bummer for the BIB if the key witness refuses the bribe and tells them to piss off....

This is a good article written by a Thai lady in Chiang Mai.

Pretty foreign ladies, so warned our Prime Minister, should not be wearing bikinis if they wish to be safe in Thailand.

Sigh.

There is nothing at all surprising about this statement, if you have lived in this country for any amount of time. When there is a violent crime against a foreigner, authorities seem to go into blind panic mode. It is a "protect Thailand’s reputation at all costs" mentality.

Having not only followed, but covered many such stories over the years, I can but shake my head at the pattern. The initial knee-jerk reaction is that the crime was committed by a fellow foreigner. In 2000, seven foreign suspects went through hell as police talked freely to the press about their possible, even likely, guilt following Kirsty Jones’s murder here in our city. Had they waited for the DNA results ten days later they would have found that the DNA belonged to an Asian (which, of course, didn’t stop the chief of police from opining that foreigners could have bought DNA from a male sex worker to plant on the scene). The initial line from authorities in the 2008 Pai shooting of Carly Reisig and Leo del Pinto by a policeman was that the two foreigners were fighting and began to attack the (armed) Thai cop when he approached them to help, resulting in his multiple self-defence shooting.

Once the foreigners are off the hook, attention often is focused on the Burmese or ethnic minorities. During Jones’s case, a Karen man, Narong Abraham, was kidnapped and tortured but bravely refused to confess before DNA evidence cleared him. And don’t forget all the Burmese and Cambodian migrant labourers who were swept up along with the (later to be found guilty) Thai fishermen for DNA testing following Katherine Horton’s 2006 rape and murder on Koh Samui.

Once fingers have had to be retracted from pointing to non-Thai nationals following DNA exoneration, it is time to insult the victims. The murdering Pai policeman attempted to sue Carly Reisig for attacking a police officer…who is now serving 37 years in jail. Kanchanaburi’s police killer of Vanessa Arscott and her fiance Adam Lloyd accused Lloyd of being enraged over jealously of his flirting girlfriend…which led the officer to run them over before executing them in front of up to 16 witnesses.

The bumbling lead investigator overseeing the Kirsty Jones case gleefully showed all the news reporters the condoms found in her travelling bag then outlandishly suggested that she was having consensual sex which got out of hand. “It was an accident,” he said before the autopsy proved him not only wrong but an utter imbecile. And now our dear general is inferring guilt on the Koh Tao victim simply because she had the audacity to be pretty while wearing a bikini…on a resort island.

All through these horrific cases is the constant plea to the public to protect Thailand’s image. Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded for Thailand to curb such murderous crimes as those against Katherine Horton, saying they would ruin Thailand’s reputation (never mind the fact that they should be curbed so no one else gets murdered). Our current leader has also called for the protection of our country’s name, which “could suffer all sorts of consequences” following the recent murders, urging us to “look at the behaviour of the other party (the victims), too.”

Dear men in authority, please just stop talking. Take some media training courses. Learn to say, “no comment at this time.” Or tell reporters that unless facts have been verified you won’t be speculating on details of the crime, on behaviour of the victims, or on anything else that is simply beyond your ken. What you don’t seem to understand is that crime happens everywhere in the world. No one is going to blame Thailand for having criminals. It will be news as it is news when a vicious crime happens anywhere. But what turns news to sensation, what brings it to the front pages, are your words. You are the ones shaming Thailand. When you speak without thinking, when you make ignorant and insensitive remarks, when you make fools of yourselves, this is when Thailand’s reputation goes down the drain. It is not the crime which hurts Thailand, it is your reaction to it.

As the song goes, you say it best, when you say nothing at all.

Chiang Mai Citylife: Editorial by Pim Kemasingki

^Good editorial. Pretty much sums it up.

Koh Tao murders arrest in 2-3 days - police
Investigators put face to killer's DNA, source says

Police are claiming they will make the first arrest in the murder of two British backpackers on Koh Tao by Saturday.

Pol Lt Gen Panya Mamen, the southern Region 8 police division commander who took over as assistant national police chief today, said Wednesday that authorities have short-listed ten potential suspects and should arrest, or at least obtain a warrant for, on suspect within two or three days.

Police have been under tremendous pressure to arrest those responsible for the Sept 15 killing and rape of Hannah Witheridge, 23 and murder of David Miller, 24. In the past two weeks a string of 'suspects" and "persons of interest" have been named and questioned, only to have each and every one released without charge.

With no leads, investigators on Koh Tao resorted to mass DNA testing of the Surat Thani island's population. From about 300 people, officers identified ten who had been at AC Bar - the last place the British couple was seen - from midnight to 4.30am that fateful night. They also were linked with some forensic evidence, Lt Gen Panya said.

A police source also told the Bangkok Post Wednesday that detectives were looking for three men who shopped at a convenience store near Sairee Beach where the Britons were killed.

Captured on security cameras, the trio bought one item later found discarded. The source said DNA recovered from that package matched that found at the crime scene.


Lt Gen Panya said all ten people short-listed have been under surveillance and will soon be interrogated, some for the second time. The new round of questioning will determine who the culprits were, he vowed.

"We are confident that within two or three days an arrest warrant can be issued or a wrong-doer arrested," Lt Gen Panya said, adding that the list of ten contained both Thais and Myanmar nationals.

"We have confidence in the forensic evidence that points to the wrong-doers, but we must be careful" to investigate thoroughly, he said.

As national police closed in on the perpetrators of the murders, local authorities continued work to shore up safety on the island infamous for parties, excessive drinking, drug use and crimes against tourists.

Pol Col Apichart Boonsriroj, deputy chief of Surat Thani police, said that he wants to see a police substation opened on the island - the closest station is on neighbouring Koh Phangan - and would deploy more officers and volunteers to ensure safety and restore tourist confidence.

Currently the island has a mere police "booth" staffed by only two officers. He urged local business owners and residents to contribute funds to build the station.

Vannee Thaipanich, president of the Koh Phangan Tourism Association, said the murders on Koh Tao have affected deeply bookings the Oct 8 full moon party on that island, with 30% of rooms remaining unbooked. Normally, hotels are booked solid for the party, she said.

Normally, full-moon revellers arrived five or six days in advance and visit Koh Tao for scuba diving. The fallout from the killings is evident, she said.

Mr Vannee said he hoped confidence would be restored in time for high season and the New Year's holidays.

Koh Tao murders arrest in 2-3 days - police | Bangkok Post: news

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

^Good editorial. Pretty much sums it up.

Yes....seconded!

Originally Posted by Necron99

Wednesday that authorities have short-listed ten potential suspects and should arrest, or at least obtain a warrant for, on suspect within two or three days.

WTF does that mean. "potential suspects" "should arrest" obtain a warrant in two or three days??

Where did last weeks "key witness" go....what happened to the "solid evidence" from the week before that?

Where's the DNA samples taken from the suspects referred to as the headman and son? Do you believe the alibi of the son is so watertight it's not worth taking a sample?

Have you arrested any more guitars owned by Burmese folk singers?