BANGKOK — The Australian government and the grieving families of two teenagers who died from suspected methanol poisoning in Laos have sharply criticized the charges expected to be announced by Lao authorities, saying the proposed penalties fall far short of justice.
Australian travelers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, both 19, were among six foreign nationals who died after consuming tainted alcohol at a tourist hostel in Vang Vieng in November 2024. The victims also included an American man, a British woman and two women from Denmark.
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, Jones’ parents said Lao officials were expected to reveal charges later Friday against people accused of supplying the drinks contaminated with methanol.
Bianca’s father, Mark Jones, said the families had been told the accused could face, if convicted, a maximum sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of around 1,600 Australian dollars, or about $1,117. Australian officials have been updating the affected families on developments in the investigation since the deadly incident.
Mark Jones called the expected outcome “unacceptable.”
“It’s like their lives didn’t even matter,” Bianca’s mother, Michelle, said, expressing the family’s anguish. “We’re just really appalled by it all. They were just going over to have a bit of fun and doing that rite of passage that every child or teenager does. So for that outcome, it was just devastating.”
The announcement was expected at the Ministry of Public Security in Vientiane, the Lao capital. Vehicles from the Australian and British embassies were seen leaving the ministry on Friday afternoon, but no details were immediately released. The Associated Press requested access to cover the proceedings, but entry was not approved.
Methanol poisoning remains a serious global health threat, affecting both tourists and, more commonly, local communities. The risk is especially high in places where alcohol is expensive, poorly regulated or sold illicitly. Data on suspected cases compiled by the medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders shows Indonesia, India and Russia among the countries reporting the highest number of incidents.
ALSO READ: Maddison Brown Marries New Zealand Actor Simon Mead in Stunning Queenstown Wedding
Methanol is sometimes added to mixed drinks at disreputable bars as a cheaper alternative to ethanol, but can cause severe poisoning or death. It is also a byproduct of poorly distilled home-brew liquor, and could have found its way into bar drinks inadvertently.
The two Australian women had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel, where they reportedly consumed “free shots” of Laotian vodka before heading out to other venues.
When they failed to check out as planned, they were found sick in their room and eventually evacuated to hospitals in neighboring Thailand, where they later died.
Speaking at a news conference along with the Jones family, Shaun Bowles, the father of Holly Morton-Bowles, described Friday’s anticipated legal development as “mind-boggling because (Laos) is a popular tourist destination for a lot of travelers, a lot of Australian, young Australian travelers and young people from around the world.”
He said he expected potential visitors to Laos to reconsider going “because they’ve demonstrated, the way that they act, and as I say, the value that they put on tourists’ lives over there and the way they’ve tried to cover this up.”
Landlocked Laos is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations and a popular tourist destination. Vang Vieng is particularly popular among backpackers seeking partying and adventure sports.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was “deeply frustrated and bitterly disappointed″ that authorities weren’t pursuing “the most serious charges” in relations to the women’s deaths, she said in a statement Friday. Wong’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for details of the expected counts and her statement didn’t specify how many people were due to be charged.
Wong and Australia’s Prime Minister had dispatched an envoy to Laos on Friday “to convey the Australian Government’s objections and reinforce our expectations for an investigation that delivers justice for Holly, Bianca and the other victims of the methanol poisoning,” the minister said. Australian officials had also summoned Laos’ ambassador to Canberra, she added.
Laos is an authoritarian one-party communist state that tightly controls information. A text message from The Associated Press to the Lao Foreign Ministry asking for an official comment received the reply that information would be made available at a news conference that would be open only to local media and the foreign embassies concerned.
