Airport Mystery Deepens as ‘One Tiny Clue’ Triggers Arrest in Thai Teen Suitcase Murder Case
The Australian government may provide help to a man behind bars accused of murdering a teenager in Thailand, as more details reveal his strikingly “normal” daily tasks he’s alleged to have carried out after killing her.
Former truck driver Simon Peter Carman, 45, has been charged with the murder of Thanchanok Donhomla after the 17-year-old’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase near railway tracks in a resort town south of Bangkok.
Simon Peter Carman has been charged by Thai police with killing a teenage girl. Supplied
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday did not reveal any details about what consular assistance her department is providing Carman, but told reporters it is available where required.
“It’s a horrific case, and I think we’ve all been horrified by what has happened, and our sympathy goes to the friends and family,” she said.
“But in relation to consular assistance, again as minister, I’m bound by privacy obligations.
“We obviously provide consular assistance to Australians overseas where required.”
Speaking to the ABC, Wong said she will speak with her foreign counterpart in Thailand about the matter at the ASEAN meeting in November.
The Department of Foreign Affairs website says it provides consular assistance in the event an Australian is jailed overseas through welfare support, recommendations for local lawyers and ensuring basic needs are met.
It does warn that it cannot help Australians out of local laws and penalties, including the death penalty.
The government can, however, provide financial help to cover the cost of legal fees if the accused is facing the death penalty.
Carman is potentially facing the death penalty if found guilty of Thanchanok’s alleged murder.
Her father described the teen as a good girl who worked to support her family and said whoever killed her should be executed.
Pattaya City police Colonel Anek Srathongyoo on Monday revealed more details about what triggered the police investigation that led to the Australian’s arrest at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport early on Saturday morning, allegedly while trying to flee the country.
“From around 3.30am until about 9pm, when he disposed of the body, he appeared to go about his daily routine as usual. We watched every single clip. He went downstairs to buy food, bought some groceries, did his laundry – everything seemed completely normal,” Srathongyoo alleged, in comments to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Then we came to the part of the footage where he’s with the suitcase … but instead of leaving through the front entrance, he exited through the back door.”
The body of Thanchanok Donhomla was found stuff in a suitcase in Thailand. 9News
CCTV footage from 3.34am on Thursday shows a man and a female – allegedly Carman and Thanchanok – walking hand-in-hand in the lobby of a condo at Jomtien, south of Pattaya.
Some 18 hours later, police say CCTV showed Carman taking a black suitcase from his room and leaving the condo on a motorcycle with the suitcase on the back.
The comments from Srathongyoo fill in a gap from that timeline of events released by Pattaya Police earlier.
Thanchanok was reported missing by a friend, who said they had last seen her with a foreign man, at 11.36am on June 26.
“Normally, we would issue a missing-person alert. But in this case, something didn’t feel right to me,” Srathongyoo said.
“We’ve had cases before where a foreign suspect committed a crime and then rushed to catch a flight out of the country. So I told my team to check whether the missing-person report was genuine … and then decided to go back to where it all started with the CCTV footage [at the condo tower].”
At 1.15am on Saturday, Carman was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Thai police say the girl’s body was stuffed into a suitcase. Pattaya Police
At 1.30am the same morning, police found a suitcase, which they allege contained Thanchanok’s body, near railway tracks about a 10-minute drive from Carman’s condominium.
Carman had some minor run-ins with Western Australia Police before moving to Pattaya, copping a $900 fine in court last August for driving without a licence and in September facing a disorderly behaviour in public charge, which was later dropped.
His social media showed him publicly pursuing women, writing “Hello gorgeous, where are you located?” in one comment and simplify saying “too fat” in another.
The father and stepmother of Thanchanok Donhomla have called for whoever killed her to be executed 9News
Carman, who is believed to have been born in Ballarat, confirmed on social media in October that he was living in Thailand.
Before that, he was living inside a unit at an industrial complex south of Perth on and off for the past decade.
Neighbouring businesses told 9News he mostly kept to himself but could sometimes be quite hostile to other workers, particularly when it came to parking around the complex.
Carman has denied murdering Thanchanok, and Thai police have said he claimed she tried to rob him.
CCTV allegedly shows Carman walking hand-in-hand with the 17-year-old girl. Supplied
“I had my wallet open to get my money out, next thing I know there’s a knife in my face,” Carman claimed in a video recorded by police.
Police claimed Carman admitted to placing the girl’s body in the suitcase.
“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,” Carman said in a video message to the teen’s family.
“Please tell other girls … just to be careful.”
