Six people, including two US citizens, who were found dead inside a luxury hotel room in central Bangkok likely drank from tea and coffee cups laced with cyanide following a dispute linked to bad investments, Thai police said Wednesday
The grisly discovery was made on Tuesday when staff at the five-star Grand Hyatt Erawan in the Thai capital entered the fifth-floor suite after the guests missed check out by more than 24 hours.
When police arrived at the scene, they found the bodies of three men and three women, a table full of untouched food wrapped in plastic and used cups with traces of a white powder. The door was locked from the inside, police said, though a backdoor was left unlocked.
Among the dead are two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals including a married couple aged between 37 and 56, Thai police said.
Chief of the Police Forensic Office Trairong Phiewphan said in a press conference that cyanide was found in mugs and cups in the hotel room and at least one of the blood samples collected from a deceased man had traces of the chemical.
“Cyanide was found in the liquid inside the teapot, in all six coffee cups,” Trairong said.
- Uneaten meals.jpg (322.3 KiB) Katsottu 2419 kertaa
Uneaten meals are left on a table in a suite at Bangkok's Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, where six people were found dead on July 16, 2024.
Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Noppasin Poonsawat told reporters they believe one of the members of the group may have poisoned the five others.
That person, police said, had ordered the food and tea to the room and “looked under stress” when staff arrived.
Noppasin said from interviews with hotel staff, one of the members of the group was alone in the room when the food arrived and was later joined by the other guests.
“One of the relatives said one of the deceased was an investment agent and all (the deceased) invested, but the business was not going as expected. They made an appointment to discuss the matter in Thailand,” Noppasin said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/17/asia ... index.html