For 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla, a brief meeting with a foreign man on a busy street in Thailand’s coastal resort city of Pattaya ended in tragedy.
Within hours, the Thai teenager was allegedly killed by an Australian expatriate, her body later found packed into a suitcase — a disturbing case that has cast renewed attention on the grim realities linked to Thailand’s sex tourism trade.
Police were notified at about 5pm local time on June 26, after a friend of Donhomla reported her missing and said she had last been seen walking away with a foreign man.
Investigators believe Donhomla encountered the Australian man early Thursday morning on Pattaya’s Beach Road, an area lined with bars and known locally as the “Coconut Bar.”
The two then went to the man’s condominium, where police allege a dispute erupted after he refused to pay the agreed 1,000 baht (£23) and instead offered her 500 baht (£11).
Police say the confrontation escalated, and the 17-year-old was strangled to death.
Two days later, Thai authorities discovered the teenager’s naked body inside a suitcase abandoned in waist-high grass near a railway line, not far from the beachfront. Officials said her body bore signs of violence.
Authorities quickly opened a homicide investigation as they worked to identify and pursue the person behind the brutal killing.
Tunchanok Donhomla (pictured) was found dead inside a suitcase alongside a railway line
CCTV allegedly showed the Thai teenager and the Australian tourist holding hands as they walked into a lift
Police reviewed CCTV footage showing a girl in jeans and a taller man in shorts and a black sleeveless shirt holding hands and walking into a lift around 3.35am on Thursday.
The white Onitsuka trainers Donhomla wore in the video were also found in the suitcase alongside jeans, underwear, a mobile phone case, a wallet, her gold bracelet and necklace.
A second CCTV video shows the man, dressed in similar clothes, dragging out a large black suitcase and driving away with it on a motorbike.
Police also searched an apartment where they found the suspect’s passport, but were unable to trace the man.
However, at almost the same time as the body’s discovery, Thai immigration authorities at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport apprehended a middle-aged Australian man.
Simon Peter Carman was attempting to board a flight out of the country without his passport when he was arrested.
The 45-year-old was then charged with premeditated murder, concealing a corpse, moving or destroying a corpse and abduction of a minor for indecent purposes, according to Thai police.
Under Thai law, premeditated murder carries a penalty of life imprisonment or death, the latter rarely enforced.
In Pattaya, a popular beach resort known for its colourful nightlife and an epicentre of illicit sex tourism, police said that Carman had made a partial confession.
‘He said he did not intend to kill [Donhomla], but admitted strangling her, causing her death,’ Police Colonel Anek Srathongyoo, the superintendent of Pattaya City police station, told Reuters.
‘He stated that they had an argument and, during the altercation, he strangled the woman.’
In taped interviews police have released online, Carman addressed Donhomla’s family.
‘I feel bad for what happened to your daughter,’ he said.
‘It was out of my control. I know you’ll be very sad, upset. It shouldn’t happen, and I hope you’re OK. I know you’re not, but I hope, and please tell other girls… to be careful.’
He allegedly told investigators that Donhomla had attacked him with a knife, and that he acted in self-defence.
Asked by an officer if he killed the girl, Carman said, ‘No’.
He was asked about the visible scratches and bruises on his neck and arms.
Carman said the marks were due to ‘the spiders,’ which he said were ‘always’ coming out at the flat where he stayed.
Simon Peter Carman, 45, is currently being held in Pattaya Prison after the 17-year-old was found dead
A CCTV video shows the man, dressed in similar clothes, dragging out a large black suitcase
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Thai authorities said they found the teenager’s naked corpse, stuffed inside a suitcase
Investigators are continuing to gather evidence while awaiting the results of the victim’s autopsy, Anek said.
Once the investigation is complete, the evidence will be submitted to prosecutors, who will decide whether to bring an indictment.
As the case grows, more information has come out about the suspect, who people have described as odd.
Carman had been living for eight months in the Rimhad Jomtien Condominium complex, popular with foreigners chasing a quieter life, where he worked as a handyman and kept a low profile.
Neighbours said he spent most of his time at the ground-floor bar or doing small jobs around the complex and was not known as a heavy drinker.
A woman who spoke with him almost daily said he appeared ‘a bit abnormal’.
‘He speaks slowly and looks at things for a long time,’ she told The Australian.
‘But he lived like a normal expat, swimming, eating out, walking along the beach when he couldn’t sleep.’
The woman said Carman did not seem to be aggressive, but he would sometimes get angry with drunk people causing a racket in the building.
One source said nobody in the building had heard anything on the night Donhomla was allegedly killed.
‘The young girl did have an ID card that said she was 22, all of the girls here have ID cards that say they are older, because if they’re underage, you’re in trouble,’ they said.
The former truckie had reportedly been living alone in a Rockingham industrial estate on the outskirts of Perth before he moved to Thailand.
He has a lengthy history with Western Australian Police, having been charged with disorderly behaviour in a public place, driving while disqualified and demanding property with threats.
Former friends in Australia described Carman as a loner with few close mates who loved firearms and shooting, owned multiple guns and frequently rubbed people the wrong way.
‘He is a weirdo,’ one former acquaintance said, ‘He would always try to assert dominance in every situation. He’d make it out like a joke but would start wrestling with guys just to show off.
‘The news of him being arrested for killing a teenager is awful, but I’m not shocked. I’ve seen him on the news and he looks too cool and calm. That’s exactly how he is.’
The former mate also claimed Simon went to Thailand in the hope of finding a wife after having no luck with women in Australia.
‘He has never had a girlfriend here. No way,’ the acquaintance said.
The parents of a Thai girl who was allegedly murdered were seen breaking down in tears
The suitcase was dumped in waist-high grass, near a railway track, a short distance away from the beachfront
Donhomla’s stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, said when they saw news coverage of the suitcase they feared the worst.
‘We were scared,’ she said. ‘We just hoped it wouldn’t turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying.’
Donhomla’s father Thongchai Donhomla and stepmother were in Bangkok on Monday to collect their daughter’s body.
Thongchai and Ordee, both 46, who made the journey from their home in the northeast Thailand province of Kalasin, told local media that Donhomla had only arrived in Pattaya days before her death.
It was her first visit to the town famous for its nightlife, but her parents had let her go with a friend because she had a helpful attitude and never had issues with drugs.
Through tears, they said they wanted the alleged perpetrator prosecuted and, if found guilty, to receive the maximum punishment according to the law.
They rejected Carman’s apology, and Ordee, said: ‘I told the police I want him executed. As a stepmother I don’t know what else to say. I just want him executed.’
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that it is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in Thailand and declined to comment further.
