Doctors who performed autopsies on the six Bangkok hotel guests who died mysteriously confirmed on Wednesday that they had traces of cyanide in their blood.
Dr Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University’s medical school, said at a news conference that a CAT scan showed no signs of blunt force trauma on the dead, reinforcing the hypothesis that they had been poisoned.
Police found traces of cyanide in the cups of six Vietnamese and American guests at a central Bangkok luxury hotel and one of them is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment, Thai authorities said Wednesday.
The bodies were found on Tuesday in the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, a landmark at a central intersection in the capital busy with malls, government buildings and public transit.
The six had last been seen alive when food was delivered to the room Monday afternoon. The staff saw one woman receive the food, and security footage showed the rest arriving one by one shortly after. There were no other visitors, no one was seen leaving and the door was locked. A maid found them on Tuesday afternoon when they failed to check out of the room.
Lt. Gen. Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force’s forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermoses that police found in the room, but initial results of an autopsy were expected later.
Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese, and said they were 3 men and 3 women. Their ages ranged from 37 to 56, according to Noppasin Punsawat, Bangkok deputy police chief.
AP/PTI