Newly surfaced photos show the tense moment a friend of a Thai teenager, allegedly killed by an Australian man, went to the suspect’s condominium while desperately searching for her.
Simon Peter Carman, 45, from Perth’s southern suburbs, is being held in custody after the body of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was discovered inside a black suitcase near railway tracks outside Pattaya last Friday night.
Police claim the British-born truck driver put the teenager’s naked body in the suitcase before leaving it in long grass the previous day.
Carman was taken into custody at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, reportedly just minutes before he was due to board a Jetstar flight bound for Perth.
Earlier on Friday, an unnamed friend of Ms Donhomla went to Carman’s messy condo after alerting police that the teenager had vanished when she failed to come home.
Ms Donhomla had shared Carman’s address with friends after the pair arranged to meet on Jomtien Beach in the early hours of Thursday.
As part of her urgent search, the friend visited the unit, but found no trace of the missing teenager.
At that point, the woman was unaware police would later allege her friend had already been strangled to death by Carman.
An unidentified friend confronted Simon Peter Carman at his unit after reporting her friend’s disappearance to police
Empty alcohol bottles could seen as Ms Donhomla’s friend confronted Carman about the teen’s whereabouts
Simon Carman is accused of killing Tunchanok Donhomla (pictured), whose body was found inside a black suitcase near railway tracks outside Pattaya on Friday night
Dressed in a black singlet top, photos obtained by the ABC show Carman being confronted by the woman inside the untidy unit, where piles of clothing were strewn everywhere.
The top of the fridge was littered with cleaning products and multiple empty alcohol bottles.
A small pink bow was seen stuck on the front door.
The photos emerged after friends in Australia claimed that Carman ‘lived like a pig’.
Ms Donhomla’s grieving friends are struggling to comprehend the teen’s death and why anyone would hurt her.
The teen had arrived in Pattaya for a holiday just nine days earlier.
‘She is a well-behaved, friendly person but also timid,’ one friend told the Daily Telegraph.
Room 380 at Rimhad condominium in Jomtien, which Carman rented for eight months, can be entered via a dingy hallway where the electrical wires are strung up alarmingly like power lines in Australian streets.
The transoms above the doors are lined with newspapers.
Photos emerged of Simon Carman’s flat after the Thai teen disappeared. Carman had rented the condo for eight months
Simon Peter Carman, 45, was arrested by police last Friday night. He has since been charged with murder
Inside it is hardly different with tiny rooms just big enough to hold only a double bed, a TV, a nightstand and a small couch.
Extension cords are suspended between a fridge and a microwave opening off onto a tiny bathroom with cracked and mouldy tiles.
Hours would pass before police would finally find Ms Donhomla’s body in a suitcase allegedly dumped by Carman on Pattaya’s outskirts the night before.
Carman’s landlord told the ABC that he had been living at the complex since late 2025 and moved to his current unit four months ago.
She added that he appeared to lead a normal life where he often swam, ate out at restaurants and was friendly with locals.
The photos of Ms Donhomla’s friend in the unit emerged as more witnesses detailed Carman’s alleged movements in Pattaya on the night she was last seen.
Marina 2 Bar and Grill manager Kanyarat Duangdao said Carman appeared intoxicated when she saw him at the bar with another girl before he left alone at 1am.
Another bar employee told the Daily Telegraph that Carman had allegedly asked to pay the woman for sex, which she declined.
A third witness told the ABC they saw Carman approach Ms Donhomla and several friends on a beachside street two hours later.
An autopsy has revealed that she died from strangulation, her family told The Age.
Her grieving relatives, who travelled 600km to Pattaya, have since taken her body to their home in Thailand’s north-east.
Carman has been charged with murder, concealing and moving a body, and taking a minor aged between 15 and 18 for sexual purposes.
Ms Donhomla’s body was found inside a black suitcase dumped near railway tracks outside Pattaya last Friday night – two days after she was last seen
CCTV footage captured Ms Donhomla with Carman shortly before she was allegedly strangled to death
He denies the allegations and claims he acted in self-defence, alleging that Ms Donhomla attacked him with a knife during an argument over money.
In taped interviews released by police, Carman addressed Ms Donhomla’s family.
‘I feel bad for what happened to your daughter,’ Carman said.
‘It was out of my control.’
Carman remains in custody at Pattaya Remand Prison, where he is halfway through a mandatory 10-day quarantine period in isolation.
A date has not yet been set for his first court appearance.
A murder conviction in Thailand can result in the death penalty or a jail sentence of 15 to 20 years.
If convicted, Carman will likely be transferred to the maximum-security Bang Kwang Central Prison, known as the ‘Bangkok Hilton’.
The notorious jail is also dubbed by locals as ‘The Big Tiger’ because it ‘eats men alive’.
