Koh Tao murders : Two Britons dead in Thailand.

[Mid]

DNA samples to be sought of all Koh Tao residents
Anapat Deechuay,
Suwannee Bandisak
September 22, 2014

Police are collecting DNA samples of all people on Koh Tao, an island off Surat Thani province, in a bid to find the murderers of two British tourists.

"We are getting closer to solving this case," Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday, "Now, we know for sure that the culprits are Asians".

The bodies of the two Britons were found on the island's beach early Monday.

Prawit, however, declined to give any specific timeframe for the arrest of the culprits.

"We have already dispatched experts from all relevant fields to the crime scene. They are doing their best," he said.

The brutal killings of the tourists have made headlines in both local and international media. Evidence suggests that the female victim was sexually violated.

The Office of Police Forensic Science chief, Lt-General Kamrop Panyakaew, disclosed that a unit under his office's supervision had been assigned to collect DNA samples of all people on Koh Tao.

This move is in addition to the collection of DNA samples from 30 suspects earlier.

"We will submit one set of DNA samples and wait for their results before collecting another set of samples. We will do this until we find the culprits," Colonel Chaiyasak Uakrissadathikarn, the deputy chief of the local forensic science unit, said.

Provincial Police Region 8 chief Lt-General Panya Mamen has now also ordered police to trace workers on fishing trawlers who had stopped by on Koh Tao on the day of the crime, according to Chumphon police chief Maj-General Suttinat Sudyod.

Koh Tao is also near Chumphon province. According to Suttinat, police are looking for possible clues from coastal fishermen's villages and fishing trawlers' crewmen, too.

More than 50 marine policemen used speedboats to check fishing trawlers in the area yesterday.

Surat Thani Police Station superintendent Colonel Paisal Sangthep admitted that the Bt200,000 bounty had not attracted any tip-off yet.

"If you have useful information, please come forward," he said.

An informed source said police were in the process of questioning two suspects. One of them is a Thai while the other is a migrant worker.

Entrepreneurs on Koh Tao are now being asked to increase lighting and install CCTV to help boost safety on the island.

nationmultimedia.com

[Texpat]

If it's not a fellow farang, it must be an itinerant worker from a neighboring country. My guess is they'll gain a confession from a Cambo trawler deck hand within a week.

[Guest]

If it's not a fellow farang, it must be an itinerant worker from a neighboring country. My guess is they'll gain a confession from a Cambo trawler deck hand within a week.

Actually in this situation the pressure is on. Itinerant workers don't drink in bars.

Most likely suspects are the arrogant speedboats drivers and their crews who have money to drink in Farang bars. The unfortunate brits got sideways with some speedboats cnuts and were savagely messed up... permanently.
We can only hope the cnuts will be strung up by their thumbs and barbecued appropriately.

[socal]

Yes, i remember them all and I suspect that just like this case the families and friends trying to deal with bereavement and searching for any kind of answers, will have to put up with your inane drivel while they try to come to terms with the tragedy. If you can't say anything positive or useful it's better to keep your petty prejudices to your self moron.

oh

am I supposed to join the hate on for Thailand out of condolences ?

[Charles]

oh

am I supposed to join the hate on for Thailand out of condolences ?

The international media are doing a fine job. Nothing for you to add which may cause offence to bereaved families.

Is it clear now?

[Charles]

i knew white sluts screwed around with local Thai scum... Told you

A feeble supposition given your English social skills. Do you ever learn to be quiet when grown ups are speaking? No thought not.

[thegent]

My take. Some brittle back packing chav and these ppl must have been on the yaba

Still getting it all wrong I see.

And what's with all this Texpat " brittle " shite? You and he wing men now?

Har, har. Bandits 12 o'clock high coming out of the sun! Tally ho!

[socal]

Actually in this situation the pressure is on. Itinerant workers don't drink in bars.

Most likely suspects are the arrogant speedboats drivers and their crews who have money to drink in Farang bars. The unfortunate brits got sideways with some speedboats cnuts and were savagely messed up... permanently.
We can only hope the cnuts will be strung up by their thumbs and barbecued appropriately.

I'm sticking with the homosexual rage theroy . It was a crime of passion . They knew their attacker

[socal]

The international media are doing a fine job. Nothing for you to add which may cause offence to bereaved families.

Is it clear now?

It's all clear that you are a fcuking follower. Don't you have any original thought or do you just follow the crowd ? and bash anyone with a diffrent take then the nanny state deadbeats

[socal]

Still getting it all wrong I see.

And what's with all this Texpat " brittle " shite? You and he wing men now?

Har, har. Bandits 12 o'clock high coming out of the sun! Tally ho!

I like what Tex came up with. So I use it. Usually I just go with limey chav but brittle is good too.

whats it like to be a brittle ?

you aren't thecvnt I can tell. TD thecvnt ain't this cvnt

[socal]

A feeble supposition given your English social skills. Do you ever learn to be quiet when grown ups are speaking? No thought not.

There is two white sluts dicking around with Thai mafia in that pic.

So I am factually correct.

[Delayed]

Socal what fact are you correct on?

Your fact that this was not a Thai should have you in good standing for rapid promotion in the Thai police ranks!

ps that is not a fact just me making an off the cuff statement. Get the difference?

[Charles]

There is two white sluts dicking around with Thai mafia in that pic.

So I am factually correct.

You are not factually correct at all. You have chosen to make a needless and deliberately offensive statement which has no bearing on this case whatsoever.

[Mid]

Terrified Briton flees Thai island after 'mafia' death threat
Tom Phillips
22 Sep 2014

A friend of murdered British backpacker David Miller flees the Thai island of Koh Tao after claiming local intimidation as police want every man on the 2,000 population island to provide DNA for testing

A petrified British man has fled the Thai island where two British backpackers were murdered last week after claiming the "mafia" was trying to execute him.

Sean McAnna, 25, from Shotts near Glasgow, was a friend of David Miller, the tourist whose body was found last Monday on Koh Tao island along with that of Hannah Witheridge.


Backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were killed on a beach in Thailand

Mr McAnna claimed that two Thai men, who he believes may have crucial information about the murders, threatened to kill him in the early hours of Monday morning while he was drinking at a bar on Sairee beach near to where their disfigured bodies were discovered.

He fled, took refuge in a nearby supermarket and was only able to leave when police were called and arrived on the scene at around 5am. They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

With those two men still at large, Mr McAnna spent the day in hiding before fleeing Koh Tao fearing he could be killed if he stayed.

"I need to get off this island," a tearful and visibly nervous Mr McAnna told The Telegraph during an interview conducted inside the back of a taxi before he departed.

"I genuinely thought that was the day I was going to die," Mr McAnna said. "I genuinely thought that this was me dead. That I was gone."

"I phoned my mum, I phoned my sister. I told her I loved her and that I would try and make it home. I said that if this was going to be the last conversation that we had then it was a really sad one to have but she's been great and I love her."

Mr McAnna met Mr Miller last year while both men were living in Leeds. He was the singer and guitarist in a Leeds band called These Fading Polaroids and Mr Miller was an engineering student. Both lived in the Hyde Park area.


Sean McAnna was a friend of David Miller

Mr McAnna said he recently returned to Koh Tao - where he had previously spent 18 months living and working as a barman - and had planned but failed to meet Mr Miller on the night he and Ms Witheridge were murdered.

Police have yet to make any arrests for the horrific murders and now say they plan to force every man on the 2,000 population island to provide DNA for testing. Locals appear reluctant to discuss the case, apparently fearing reprisals from mafia-style families who are said to control Koh Tao.

Mr McAnna said he believed it was people linked to one such group who threatened to kill him. At around 2.30am he was accosted by two Thai men at Koh Tao's AC Bar, a beachfront nightclub where Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge had been just before they were murdered.

"They just said to me: 'It was you who killed them. You've got two people's deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You're going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang. You will die tonight.'"

"So I just ran. I just left and ran," he said.

A terrified Mr McAnna took refuge in a small supermarket into which the men chased him. They tried to convince him to leave but he refused, fearing he would be murdered.

"They wouldn't have shot me. They would have taken me up into the hills and hung me to make it look like I'd hung myself," he said.

Mr McAnna said he did not know if the men who threatened him were directly involved in his friend's murder. However, he did believe they had key information about the murders and were attempting to make him a "scapegoat" for the killings.

"I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was. They need a scapegoat and they don't want it to be locals. They want it to be a westerner. So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say: 'See, it was him.'"

Mr McAnna posted information about the alleged threats on his Facebook page at around 4am on Monday and issued a desperate plea for help. "Thai mafia are trying to kill me. Please help me," he wrote.

He said he also spoke to Foreign Office officials in London over the telephone. After being taken from the supermarket by Thai police, Mr McAnna said he spent the rest of the night hiding from the men he feared were going to kill him in the jungle.

"I was scared s*******. I was really scared. So I kept moving every thirty minutes in case anybody had seen me. I would move from one part, to the next part in case there was anyone close that had seen me and could send someone."

Mr McAnna rejected the men's claims that had been involved killing his friend and Ms Witheridge. "Of course I had nothing to do with it." Prachum Ruangthong, the police chief responsible for Koh Tao, confirmed that Mr McAnna had been asked to provide DNA samples as part of investigations into the murders but was not considered a suspect.

The police chief denied recieving reports of death threats against Mr McAnna even though he met him on Monday morning and told the British traveller: "I am sensitive about your feelings. You don't worry, ok?"

Two Thai men were questioned about the incident but they were not arrested. The police chief said he would guarantee the Briton's security while he remained on Koh Tao.

After spending much of Monday in hiding, Mr McAnna travelled to the island's port with a group of British reporters at around 2.30pm. He left Koh Tao on a passenger ferry at 3.10pm.

Mr McAnna's friends took to social media to express their concern. "Sean get off that island now," wrote Jordan O'Hara, a friend. "Can't believe what Tao is turning in to. Madness!" wrote Rachel Howard.

On Monday afternoon, Mr McAnna sat near Koh Tao's main pier in blazing sunshine preparing to board a ferry off the island. "I'm getting nervous," he said, as holidaymakers lined up to board the vessel that would take him to safety.

The 25-year-old Scot vowed never to return to an island that markets itself as a paradise for divers and partiers. "I'm done here," he said, adding that he would only feel truly safe once he had flown out of Thailand. "Something could still happen to me in the next 24 hours."

telegraph.co.uk

[Mid]

Arrests expected today in Koh Tao murders
Supapong Chaolan
23/09/2014



Montriwat Toovichien, a man seen the CCTV footage in the hours before the double murder, meets with police Tuesday.
(Photos by Supapong Chaolan)

Investigators Tuesday interrogated Montriwat Toovichien, a 45-year-old bartender at AC Bar on Koh Tao who identified as the man seen in closed-circuit video footage in the hours before the Sept 15 bludgeoning deaths of Britons David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23.

Montriwat, a brother of Koh Tao subdistrict village chief Voraphan Toovichien, was interrogated for almost three hours. He submitted to a DNA test before he was allowed to leave at 1.50pm.

Mr Voraphan arrived at police headquarters shortly after his brother began to talk to police. He too submitted a DNA sample for testing.

Pol Lt Gen Panya said a second suspect, who fled the resort island to Bangkok, will likely be taken into custody today.

Police say they have identified all the suspects and are linking them to the evidence on hand, he said.

"Please have confidence in our work. There will be no scapegoats," Lt Gen Panya said said. "The case is being closely watched worldwide and we're working hard to make the case as airtight as possible."

The officer also disclosed that previous suspects, both speedboat operators, have been cleared after DNA tests showed no match samples found at the crime scene.

Today's development come after 25-year-old Sean McAnna of Scotland - and AC Bar barman - posted photos on Facebook of two men who allegedly molested Witheridge before she was killed. He then made frantic calls to police and the British embassy claiming Koh Tao criminals planned to kill him and make it look like a suicide.

He left the island late Monday, escorted by British media and embassy officials.

"I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was. They need a scapegoat and they don't want it to be locals," Mr McAnna told The Telegraph Monday. "They want it to be a westerner. So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say: 'See, it was him.'"



bangkokpost.com