BANGKOK, July 18 – Police suspect a 56-year-old Vietnamese woman with US citizenship of using lethal mixture of cyanide and tea to poison five compatriots when they met at a luxury hotel in Bangkok to resolve a financial dispute, Bangkok Post reported.
Pol Maj Gen Nopasilp Poonsawat, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, on Wednesday identified the suspect as Vietnam-born Sherine Chong.
Hotel staff said she had been waiting, alone in room 502 on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, when her alleged victims arrived on Monday.
She had earlier ordered food and tea from room service. She refused the room attendant’s offer to brew the tea for her in the room, saying she would prepare it herself.
Security camera recordings showed the five other Vietnamese arriving at the room with their luggage. From 2.17pm on Monday, no one had left the room. On Tuesday evening a maid found their bodies in the room.
Chong was among them.
Pol Maj Gen Nopasilp said the suspect had invited the other five people to invest in construction projects. They included a couple who reportedly invested the equivalent of 10 million baht in a hospital project in Japan. When there was no progress in the projects, they had taken legal action.
The six were scheduled to meet in court in two weeks. Chong invited the five to meet for out-of-court negotiations. They intially planned to go to Japan, but could not meet there because of visa issues. So, they turned to Bangkok.
They arrived in Bangkok at different times and stayed in different rooms at the 5-star hotel, which is in the city’s commercial and diplomatic district.
The five Vietnamese had checked out at noon on Monday, but Chong kept room 502 and invited them back for another round of talks. She had ordered food and tea for everyone.
Pol Maj Gen Nopasilp said cyanide residue was found in the six used teacups found in the hotel room. Police were tracking down the source of the poison.
Chong’s alleged victims were identified as Dang Hung Van, 55; Tran Dinh Phu, 37; Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, 47; and a couple: Nguyen Thi Phuong, 46; and Pham Hong Thanh, 49.
