BANGKOK, July 17 – Thai police have concluded that the deaths of six foreign nationals found in a Bangkok hotel room were a case of murder-suicide by poisoning.
Traces of cyanide were found on the mugs and flasks in the hotel room, the police said at a news conference on Wednesday (Jul 17).
One of the dead was believed to be behind the poisoning.
“We would like to confirm that one of the six dead caused this incident using cyanide,” said Noppasil Poonsawas, deputy commander of investigations at Bangkok’s Metropolitan Police Bureau.
“We are confident one of the six conducted the crime.”
Police added that interviews with relatives of the dead revealed there had been a dispute over debt.
The six people, who were of Vietnamese descent, were found in a room at the luxury Grand Hyatt Erawan on Tuesday. Two of them had US passports.
The group of three men and three women had checked into the hotel at separate times after arriving on Saturday and Sunday, according to the chief of Bangkok’s Metropolitan Police, Thiti Saengsawang.
They booked different rooms – four on the seventh floor and one on the fifth floor.
Cleaning staff discovered the six bodies on Tuesday afternoon – all in the fifth-floor room – after the guests failed to check out as scheduled.
There were no signs of robbery or a struggle. The room was locked from the inside.
Plates of uneaten food ordered from room service were left on a table. Some were still covered in plastic wrap.
Thai police said late on Tuesday that they suspected a case of poisoning as “suspicious substances” were found on the bottom of several glasses in the room.
Authorities were looking for a seventh guest, a Vietnamese national.
