Authorities appear eager to ensure the six deaths do not affect Thailand’s key tourism sector.
Thai police suspect cyanide was administered by one of six foreigners whose bodies were found in an upmarket Bangkok hotel.
Police said on Wednesday that traces of the poison were found in the room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, in which the bodies were discovered the previous day. Initial autopsy reports appeared to confirm that poisoning was the cause of death for all six.
Authorities appeared eager to stress that the crime is of a “private” nature and there is no security threat to Thailand’s key tourism sector. It is suspected that one of the six deceased laced tea with the deadly chemical in connection with a dispute over money.
“We found cyanide in the teacups – all six cups we found cyanide,” Trirong Phiwpan, commander of the Thai police forensic division, said at a news conference. “After staff brought tea cups and two hot water bottles, milk and teapots, … one of the six introduced cyanide.”
The dead have been identified as two United States citizens with Vietnamese roots and four Vietnamese nationals with their ages ranging from 37 to 56. The bodies of the three males and three females were found late on Tuesday.
Mass suicide is considered unlikely, Trirong added, because some of the dead had made arrangements for guides and drivers for later in their Thai trip.
Police also noted that the bodies were not grouped in the same place. Some were in the bedroom and some in the living room, suggesting they did not knowingly consume poison and wait for their deaths together.
Initial autopsy results released on Wednesday afternoon appeared to confirm that the six people died from poisoning.
Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University’s medical school, said at a news conference that a CAT scan showed no signs of blunt force trauma on the dead, reinforcing the hypothesis that they had been poisoned.
Chulalongkorn’s dean of medicine, Chanchai Sittipunt, said the team “believe the cyanide to be the answer”.
“Whether they were taking sleeping pills or other stuff, we don’t know, but we can know enough from the cyanide to determine [cause of death],” he said.
That helps support the theory being worked on by police that one of the group administered the cyanide.
“We are convinced that one of the six people found dead committed this crime,” said Noppasil Poonsawas, deputy chief of the Bangkok police.
Police have stated that, based on evidence given by relatives of the deceased, they believe the motive for the crime to be related to debts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A husband and wife among the dead had invested money with two of the other victims, suggesting money could be a motive, said the deputy police chief, citing information obtained from relatives of the victims.
The investment was meant to build a hospital in Japan, and the group might have been meeting to settle the matter, he added.
An unconfirmed report from the German news agency dpa suggested police had identified a 56-year-old woman as the culprit.
‘Everything is fine’
Vietnam’s government said its embassy in Bangkok was coordinating closely with Thai authorities. The US Department of State said it was monitoring the situation but noted that local authorities were responsible for the investigation.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin urged a swift investigation into the deaths in a bid to limit the impact on his country’s travel sector.
When asked if the news would affect a conference with the Russian energy minister at the hotel on Wednesday, Srettha said it was unlikely.
“This wasn’t an act of terrorism or a breach in security, everything is fine.”
Noppasil stressed that the case appeared to be personal and would not affect the safety of tourists.
However, the deaths, initially reported by some Thai media as a shooting, could trigger a setback for a country that is relying heavily on its tourism sector to revive an economy that has struggled since the pandemic.
Thailand is expecting 35 million foreign arrivals this year, up from 28 million last year who spent 1.2 trillion baht ($33.7bn).