The 17-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase (Image: Pattaya Police)
An Australian man has been charged with the horrific murder of a 17-year-old girl after her dead body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Thailand. Police in Pattaya said they found Tuchanok Donholma in a bag that was left near a railway track in the early hours of Saturday, June 27.
Simon Peter Carman, 46, was arrested by Thai Police at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in connection with the crime as he was allegedly “preparing to flee the country”. However, he denies the charges and claims the incident was beyond his control.
According to Pattaya City Police, Donholma was reported missing at 5pm local time on Friday. A statement issued on social media stated that police reviewed CCTV footage that allegedly showed Carman entering a condominium with the 17-year-old at 3.34am the previous night.
Carman then appeared alone, “carrying a large suitcase”, with the statement noting that the had loaded the case onto a motorbike before travelling towards a railway line, BBC reports.
Police officers questioned and arrested Carman at the airport in Bangkok at 1.15am on Saturday, and the teenager’s naked body was found in the suitcase around 15 minutes later.
The suspect denied murder and further charges related to moving or concealing a body and taking a minor for sexual purposes. He claimed that he acted in self-defence.
The 46-year-old denied all charges (Image: PATTAYA CITY POLICE STATION/AFP)
Donhomla’s family told local media that she was an only child who lived with her father and step-mother in the province of Kalasin, about 480km northeast of Pattaya. The 17-year-old, nicknamed Cake, had told her parents she wanted to go on holiday with a friend, and had travelled to Pattaya on June 16
Carman told officers that he agreed to pay Ms Donholma 1,000 baht (£23) in exchange for sexual services, but they had a disagreement when they reached his apartment, and he only offered her half the agreed amount.
It was also reported that Carman claimed the teenager had “disappeared from the room” while he was asleep.
The suspect issued a message to Donholma’s family via video, in which he requested that they warn other girls.
In a video recorded whilst he was in custody, he asked the 17-year-old’s family to warn other girls.
He said: “I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control. I know you’ll be very sad, upset… same [as] me.
“Please tell other girls… just to be careful.”
CCTV footage showed the pair entering Carman’s apartment (Image: The pattaya news)
Colonel Anek Srathongyoo, Superintendent of the Pattaya City Police Station, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that Carman “has fingernail scratches across his body that are consistent with a struggle, but he denies killing her”. When questioned about the scratch marks, Carman said they were possibly down to “a spider”.
Thongchai Donhomla, said he was “deeply saddened” by his daughter’s death.
“My daughter had no mother, so whenever she wanted anything, she would find a way herself, and she always helped me too,” he told a local reporter.
Her step-mother, Oradee Bussarakum, said: “We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn’t turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying.”
“I just want him executed … I even asked the police if I could hit him, if I could beat him,” she added.
If convicted of murder, Carman could face the death penalty.
