BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities said Wednesday that initial autopsies found traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests staying at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, suggesting one of them may have poisoned the others over a failed investment.
of The body was discovered on Tuesday It is located within the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, a landmark at the capital’s central intersection, where shopping malls, government buildings and public transport meet.
The six were last seen alive on Monday afternoon when food was delivered to their room. Staff saw one woman receive the food, and security cameras showed the rest of the women arriving one by one shortly thereafter. There were no other visitors, no one was seen leaving the room, and the door was locked. A maid discovered them on Tuesday afternoon, having forgotten to check out.
Thai police forensics chief Lieutenant-General Trairong Piuphan said there were traces of cyanide in cups and a thermos flask police found in the room.
This was later confirmed by initial autopsies of the six bodies carried out at Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok. Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, said at a press conference that cyanide was detected in the blood of all six bodies, and CT scans showed no signs of blunt force trauma, supporting the hypothesis that they had been poisoned.
Chanchai Sittipant, dean of the Chulalongkorn University School of Medicine, said the team has enough information to determine that cyanide was the likely cause of death.
Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thithi Sansavanh identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals – three men and three women. Bangkok police deputy chief Noppasin Pansawat said they ranged in age from 37 to 56. He said the incident appeared to be a private one and would not affect the safety of tourists.
Noppasin said he had heard from relatives that one of the dead, a couple, had invested about 10 million baht ($278,000) with two others, which may have been the motive. The investment was to build a hospital in Japan, and the group may have been meeting to settle the matter. Police say the remaining person committed the murders, but have not said which of the six is a suspect.
Bangkok police chief Lieutenant-General Thithi Sansavanh said on Tuesday that four bodies were found in the living room and two in the bedroom. Two of the bodies appeared to have been trying to reach the door but collapsed before they could reach it.
Mr Noppasin said on Wednesday that a seventh person whose name was on the hotel booking was a brother of one of the six, and had left Thailand on July 10. Police believe the seventh person is unrelated to the deaths.
Prime Minister Suret Tavisin said the Vietnamese and US embassies had been contacted about the deaths and that the FBI was on the way.
He said the incident was unlikely to affect a meeting planned for later Wednesday at the hotel with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsybirev. “This is not an act of terrorism, it’s not a security breach. Everything is in order,” he said.
Trilon said a mass suicide was unlikely because some of the passengers had made onward travel arrangements, such as guides and drivers, and added that the bodies’ placement in different parts of the hotel room suggested the passengers did not deliberately drink poison and wait to die together.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman in Washington, offered condolences to the families of the victims and said the United States was closely monitoring the situation and would be in contact with local authorities.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with his Thai counterpart on Tuesday, but Miller said he believed that call took place before the death was reported and he didn’t know if the topic came up in the conversation.
In 2023, Thailand was rocked by reports of a serial killer who had poisoned 15 people with cyanide over the course of several years. Sararat Rangsiutapong, or “Am Cyanide” as she later came to be known, murdered at least 14 people who owed her money, making her Thailand’s first female serial killer. Only one survived.
