Photo Credit: Getty Images
Two US citizens are among six people who were found dead inside a luxury hotel room in Bangkok Thailand. The six are said to have likely drank from tea and coffee cups laced with cyanide following a dispute linked to bad investments.
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.
Authorities initially said they were searching for a seventh person who was part of the hotel booking. But on Wednesday they dismissed this line of inquiry, saying they believe one of the deceased poisoned the others with the deadly fast-acting chemical cyanide.
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.
The group ordered food and tea, which was delivered to the room around 14:00 local time (08:00 BST) and received by Ms Chong - who was the only person in the room at the time.
According to the deputy police chief, a waiter offered to make tea for the guests but Ms Chong refused this. The waiter recalled that she “spoke very little and was visibly under stress”, authorities said. The waiter later left the room.
The rest of the group then began streaming into the room at various points, between 14:03 and 14:17. No one else is believed to have entered the room apart from the six inside and police have said the door to the room was locked from within.
Among the dead are two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals including a married couple aged between 37 and 56, Thai police said.
The US state department has offered its condolences and said it is "closely monitoring" the situation.
Lewis Musonye
