'Sex tourist' facing death penalty over teenager's death
A tourist has admitted to police he killed a Thai teenager after being arrested while trying to flee to Australia.
Simon Carman, 45, met Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, in the early hours of Thursday on a beach in Jomtien, Pattaya, an area known for sex tourism.
Police believe Carman had initially agreed to pay 1,000 baht (£20) but at the hotel he offered half the money instead.
This, he claimed, prompted a violent argument and she held a knife to his throat, so he told police he strangled her.
They were filmed hand in hand arriving at his hotel at 3.30am, but then just before 10pm that day, CCTV footage shows him dragging a black suitcase out of the building and leaving with it on a motorbike.
He returned to the hotel at 10.06pm without the suitcase.
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It was later found near a railway line and opened on national television, revealing Tunchanok’s body.
A warrant was issued and he was stopped trying to board a plane at Bangkok Airport.
Superintendent Anek Sarathongyu said Carman had initially denied killing her and claimed she left the room while he was sleeping.
When questioned about scratch marks on his neck, he said he thought they were from a spider, which investigators believe consistent with signs of a struggle.
It was only when Carman was shown the security footage of him carrying her body that he confessed.
Speaking from custody, he told Tunchanok’s family: ‘I know you will be very sad, upset, same me. It shouldn’t happen and I hope you okay, I know you’re not, but I hope. Please tell other girls… just to be careful.’
Carman faces multiple charges, including intentional homicide, taking and transporting a minor, and destroying a corpse.
If found guilty, he could face the death penalty or life in prison.
Tunchanok, who was known by her family as ‘little cake’, moved to Pattaya from Bangkok and started working on the city’s notorious vice strip.
Her stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, said she and the teenager’s father had tried but failed to contact her.
‘She sometimes helped her father and me by selling garlands or fruits at intersections on the road, during Songkran (water festival). We did not force her to work,’ Ms Oradee said.
‘She was still young, so sometimes we let her go out and gave her 50 to 100baht (£1.70 – £2.40).
In a tearful interview outside a police station in Pattaya, Ms Tunchanok’s father, Thongchai Donholma,said ‘I am deeply saddened. My daughter had no mother, so whenever she wanted anything, she would find a way herself, and she always helped me too,’ he said.
‘We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn’t turn out the way we feared,’ Ms Oradee added.
June 25, 3.34am: CCTV footage from a condo lobby shows Carman and Ms Tunchanok walking hand-in-hand and entering an elevator.
June 25, 9.25pm to 9.48pm: CCTV captures Carman dragging a large suitcase out of his room and leaving the condo on a motorcycle with the suitcase strapped to the back. He then sped alongside the railway tracks, disappearing from view for nine minutes.
June 25, 9.57pm to 10.06pm: CCTV footage shows Carman returning to the accommodation.
June 26, 11.36am: A friend lodged a missing person report for Ms Tunchanok, telling police they had last seen her with a foreign man.
June 26, 2.26pm: Carman is seen leaving his condo.
June 26, no time provided: Police gather evidence to request an arrest warrant from the Pattaya Court. Officers find Mr Carman’s passport during the inspection of a hotel room.
June 27, 1.15am: Investigative teams from the Pattaya City Police Station and the Immigration Bureau arrest Mr Carman at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
June 27, 1.30am: Police discover a suitcase near railway tracks about a 10-minute drive from Mr Carman’s hotel, which contains Ms Tunchanok’s body.
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