Bangkok hotel horror: 6 killed with cyanide including culprit, police say (2024)

Six bodies found slumped in a luxury hotel suite, a seventh guest mysteriously missing, and a chilling residue detected in used tea cups – all signs pointing to a murder-by-poisoning in the heart of Bangkok that has stunned Thailand and left authorities scrambling for answers.

Police said on Wednesday that blood tests had found evidence of cyanide in all six of the deceased, and that one of them was responsible for the deaths.

“We would like to confirm that one of the six dead caused this incident using cyanide,” Noppasil Poonsawas, deputy commander of investigations at Bangkok’s Metropolitan Police Bureau said at a press conference. “We are confident one of the six conducted the crime.”

The disturbing case unfolded the night before at the five-star Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel, a popular destination for upscale tourists, celebrities, and dignitaries.

According to authorities, the six Vietnamese victims – three men and three women, two of whom also held American passports – had been dead for roughly 24 hours before a maid stumbled upon the grisly scene on Tuesday afternoon.

Cyanide was discovered on glasses, a water container and in coffee shared by the victims, police revealed. Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased divulged there had been a money dispute preceding the killings.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters on Wednesday that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had joined the investigation, as two of the six dead guests were American citizens.

“Someone wanted these people dead,” said Thiti Saengsawang, chief of Bangkok’s Metropolitan Police Bureau, noting the suspicious “residues” found in six of the tea cups. “But we are waiting for forensics to prove how.”

The locked hotel room, the untouched room service, and the missing seventh guest have only added to the mystery, sparking a frenzy of speculation on social media – only heightened by erroneous early reports that the six had died in a shoot-out.

Srettha was quick to address the nation as the news broke, reassuring visitors of their safety and characterising the incident as an isolated event. “There were no signs of a struggle,” Srettha earlier told a late-night press conference at the hotel in Pathum Wan district.

“Our working hypothesis is there was a seventh Vietnamese person” and the victims were poisoned, he said.

Police revealed that five rooms had been booked for a group of seven Vietnamese guests, but only six bodies were found in the fifth-floor suite – leaving one person unaccounted for and potentially a suspect.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Thai authorities took possession of the victims’ packed luggage as part of the ongoing investigation. Photos released by police showed plates of room service that had gone untouched, alongside an open bottle of water and a partially consumed soft drink. Notably, several used tea cups were found on a nearby table, along with a pair of metal flasks.

The crime scene’s appearance has fuelled a flurry of conjecture over the motive, from business disputes to outlandish conspiracies. Weerachai Phutdhawong, an assistant professor of chemistry at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University, earlier suggested the evidence pointed to cyanide poisoning.

“The only thing that was fully consumed was the tea, and for whatever liquid substance is in the flask to kick off this fast, it must be cyanide,” Phutdhawong said.

The mysterious deaths of the foreign tourists have sent shock waves through Thailand’s government, with Prime Minister Srettha acutely aware of the potential reputational damage. Since taking office last August, Srettha has aggressively courted international visitors, offering visa-free travel to help revive an economy still reeling from the pandemic’s impact: weighed down by massive household debt and retreating foreign investment.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Thailand had welcomed nearly 40 million tourists annually. But the rush to lure visitors has also fuelled concerns about criminals slipping through with less scrutiny. This latest incident follows a spate of high-profile kidnappings of Chinese nationals by their own compatriots on Thai soil, dampening the recovery of Chinese tourism in the first quarter of the year.

While both Vietnamese and American travellers can visit Thailand without a visa, unconfirmed social media reports suggest one of the deceased had made multiple recent trips to Bangkok. This has only amplified worries about the reputational fallout Thailand may face from a scandal involving the mysterious deaths of foreigners on its soil.

“It is too soon for tourists to be concerned about this, in my opinion,” Chan Holland, a travel agent with Bangkok-based Canary Travel, told This Week in Asia on Wednesday.

“The majority perhaps do not hear it yet. So far, no one asked about this,” she said.

“Will this impact tourism of Thailand? Maybe to some degree, but if it is only a one-off it will not affect much because, from what I can see, it is not random. It must have been premeditated and targeted a person or groups.”

Another travel agency based in Bangkok told This Week in Asia that he had received a number of inquiries from travellers late last year following a mass shooting in Bangkok’s Siam Paragon mall in October.

“So far I have received no question about [last night’s] incident. But there were some questions in October about the gun safety. That kind of random shooting can scare tourists.”

As the investigation into the hotel deaths continues, the Thai government finds itself navigating a delicate balancing act – between courting much-needed international tourism and ensuring the safety and security of its visitors.

Additional reporting by Amy Sood, Reuters, Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse