Thanchanok Donhomla – known as Cake to her friends – was going to the big city when she promised to bring back baby clothes for her cousin. She never came back
A 17-year-old girl. A first-ever trip to the big city. A promise that would never be kept. A suitcase. A life, ending.
Thai teenager Thanchanok Donhomla’ s final days alive can be diluted down to short punchy sentences. Or – even worse – boiled down to dot points in the timeline of a police murder investigation.
But the teen girl, who was known as ‘Cake’ to her friends, was worth so much more than a dot point or two. More than her end, in which police found her body discarded in a suitcase on June 26 in the party city of Pattaya.
Australian man Simon Peter Carman was arrested for Cake’s alleged murder. Authorities managed to stop him as he tried to flee the country. He now resides in Pattaya Remand Prison, held on charges of murder, concealment of a body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes.
Her allegedly grisly end has made headlines around the world, and now the world can get to know who Cake really was just a little bit better. Australian journalist Zach Hope travelled to Cake’s small village to meet her extended family to better understand who she was, and what Hope found was a community grieving a the loss of a treasured gem.
Writing for The Age, Hope said “it is clear” that Cake was “very much loved” by those around her. She was a “dutiful teenager” who looked after her great-aunts and her baby cousin. Sometimes she washed people’s dishes to help her family pay their bills. According to her father, Thongchai Donhomla, his reliable, sensible daughter wanted to go to Pattaya for a trip “to see the beach” with her friends.
She even promised to bring home new clothes for her baby cousin from the big city; a promise that she would never get the chance to keep.
Now, her heartbroken parents tell of how the news floored them. They say their worst fears had come true. Speaking to Australia’s national broadcaster in the days after Cake’s body was dound, her family told the ABC they were “shocked and speechless”.
“We never expected this. When they found her, we still hoped she was alive,” her stepmother Oradee Bussarakum said.
He and Ms Oradee made the journey from their home in the northeast Thailand province of Kalasin to look for their daughter after her friends reported her missing. They told local Thai press that the 17-year-old had only been in the city for a few days before she was killed. “We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn’t turn out the way we feared,” Ms Oradee said, adding: “Now our eyes are swollen from crying.” Ms Oradee said her stepdaughter had travelled to Pattaya on June 16, telling her parents she wanted to go for a holiday with her friend.
“She asked for money from her grandmother and she gave her some,” Ms Oradee said. “She said she wanted to see the sea,” Ms Oradee said.
“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. She added: “She was still young, so sometimes we let her go out and gave her 50 (£1.13) to 100 (£2.27) baht.”
It was the teen’s first visit to the city notorious for its wild nightlife, but her parents let her go to visit with a friend.
Thai police claim Carman, 45, picked up the teenager from the Beach Road vice strip in Pattaya in the early hours of Thursday morning, with her friends reporting her missing on Friday after they did not hear from her. Once in custody, the British-born tradesman shared his condolences with her family, and said he felt bad for “what happened to your daughter”.
“It was out of my control,” he said. “Um, I hope you — I know you’ll be very sad, upset; same-same me. “Um, it shouldn’t happen and I hope you’re OK. I know you’re not, but I hope. Um, and please tell other girls to be not — just to be careful, and not — I don’t wanna talk.”
Police do not believe his version of events in which he claims the teeenager “disappeared from the room while [he] was asleep”. Pattaya City Police Superintendent Colonel Anek Sarathongyu told reporters that Carman is being held on suspicion of murder and that he has visible defensive wounds on his neck consistent with a struggle.
“We believe he killed her, and he is being questioned on suspicion of murder,” Col Anek said, adding: “He has fingernail scratches across his body that are consistent with a struggle, but he denies killing her.”
In video footage taken by police after his arrest, Carman claimed the scratches on his neck were caused by spiders. “I think it’s a spider; they always get in here,” he said. The Bangkok Post reports police found signs of a struggle at the hotel room occupied by the teen and Carman. As per the Post, Carman told police he had not known the 17-year-old before they met, and he agreed to pay 1000 baht – £22.68 – “for her time”. There was an argument over the price at Carman’s room, The Post reported, “after which the suspect alleged that the girl picked up a knife to threaten him and demand more money”, the major Thai outlet reports. “He claimed he then acted in self‑defence, grabbing her neck and causing her death. He insisted he had no intention to kill.”
If found guilty, Carman could face life in a Thai prison or the death penalty.
