Chil-ling Messages From Australian Suspect’s Thai Ex Surface as Friends Break Their Silence in Shocking Murd3r Investigation
FINAL UPDATE: FRIENDS BREAK THEIR SILENCE AFTER AUSTRALIAN’S SUITCASE MU-RDER ARREST – SAY THEY WERE ‘NOT SH0CKED’ AS CHILLING MESSAGES FROM HIS THAI EX EMERGE
The gun-loving Australian truck driver accused of murdering a teenage girl in Thailand was a ‘weirdo’ and ‘creep’ even by the standards of Western men who crawl Bangkok for younger lovers, according to former friends.
And his most unsettling trait of all, say those who knew him prior to his arrest making global headlines, was his obsession with asserting his dominance over other men.
Simon Peter Carman, 45, is accused of murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla before allegedly stuffing her body into a suitcase and then dumping it beside railway tracks in Jomtien, a coastal town three kilometres south of bustling Pattaya.
Carman was arrested on Friday night at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport as he allegedly tried to board a Jetstar flight to Perth.
He has since been charged with four offences, including murder, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment in Thailand.
Carman denies the allegations and claims he acted in self-defence.
Now the Daily Mail can reveal Carman had been living on and off in Thailand’s tourist hotspots for years, reportedly bankrolling his party lifestyle with a substantial workers’ compensation payout after suffering a back injury while driving trucks in Australia.
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.
Simon Peter Carman, 45, is accused of murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla before allegedly stuffing her body into a suitcase and then dumping it beside railway tracks
Carman was seen in the video looking to the camera and addressing the family of Ms Donhomla (pictured), saying he felt ‘very bad’. Carman denies murder and claims he acted in self-defence after alleging the teenager had demanded more money and tried to rob him
Carman sent this text to his Thai contacts after settling back into Jomtien after a period living in Australia. One of the recipients was a Thai ex-girlfriend who, during his absence, had married a local man. ‘She is scared by the news of that girl,’ a friend of the woman told the Daily Mail
‘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 friend also rejected online speculation that Carman had an intellectual disability because of his slow speech.
‘He had a tumour removed from his brain when he was a kid and you can still see the scar, but he functioned perfectly fine as an adult,’ he said.
‘He had a job, hobbies like camping, fishing and dirt bikes. He owned multiple guns and loved shooting. He is in no way mentally disabled. He just speaks slowly.’
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.’ he said.
Carman is accused of strapping the luggage to his Yamaha motorbike and then dumping it off the side of the road – just ten minutes away from his hotel
Inside the suitcase with Ms Donhomla were the white Onitsuka trainers she wore in the video with Carman, jeans, underwear, a mobile phone case, a wallet, her gold bracelet and necklace
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is ‘providing consular assistance to the Australian detained in Thailand’. (Pictured: Carman allegedly seen on CCTV riding a scooter)
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EXCLUSIVE
New details about man accused of murdering Thai teen and stuffing body in suitcase – as CCTV emerges
‘No woman I know here would give him the time of day, he is just a typical family friend who gets invited to things because he always has.’
But the image painted by those who knew Carman in Thailand couldn’t have been more different.
Friends told the Daily Mail Carman had become a familiar face in the popular tourist town, living there on and off since before the pandemic and returning after border restrictions eased.
‘He moved back again around a year ago and sent a message to all of his friends saying he was in Jomtien [south of Pattaya] and living in the same building he was in before,’ the friend said.
One of those messages was sent to a Thai woman whom he had briefly dated. For her, that text has now taken on a chilling significance.
According to a friend of the woman, she has been left shaken by the charges against Carman and wonders what might have happened had she rekindled the relationship.
‘Before he left because of Covid, he took my friend on some dates,’ the friend said.
‘She was not young like this girl. She was 34 already and she was a cleaner in a building near where he lived and he really like her.
‘He came to my house with her and was a nice guy.
‘He have lots of Thai friends here – male and female friends. But I only ever see him with Thai.
‘When Simon go back to Australia, they stop dating and work was hard here in pandemic so she stopped working and then get married to local man.
‘Simon come back maybe one year ago. He message with her to say he is back now but she tell him she is married now.
‘She is scared by the news of that girl. We can’t believe how something like this can happen. Why this can happen. It’s bad.
‘Now she say, “What if I meet with Simon? What if I marry Simon.” But we never see him like that. [He] always look like a nice guy.’
The naked body of Tunchanok ‘Nong Cake’ Donhomla (pictured) was found in luggage near railway tracks at Pattaya, south Thailand, on Friday night
CCTV of the night allegedly showed Carman holding hands with Ms Donhomla as they walked into an elevator
Hours later, CCTV captured him leaving the hotel with a black suitcase
CCTV of the night allegedly showed Carman holding hands with Ms Donhomla as they walked into an elevator, and hours later captured him leaving the hotel with a black suitcase.
Ms Donhomla was found stuffed inside a suitcase alongside a railway line, just ten minutes from Carman’s hotel, while the Australian man was arrested trying to catch a Jetstar flight to Perth from Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Friday.
Carman allegedly told authorities they had agreed on 1,000 baht (AU$43.45), but the pair had an argument when he offered 500 baht (AU$21.72).
In a video recorded by police, Carman told investigators the teenager had demanded more money and tried to rob him, before he acted in self-defence.
‘I had my wallet open to get my money out, next thing I know there’s a knife in my face,’ he claimed.
Carman was later seen in the video looking to the camera and addressing the family of Ms Donhomla, saying he felt ‘very bad.’
‘I feel bad for what happened to your daughter,’ he added. ‘It was out of my control’.
He was also asked about the visible scratches and bruises on his neck and arms.
In the police footage, Carman said the marks were due to ‘the spiders’ which he said were ‘always’ appearing at the condominium where he stayed.
The former truckie had reportedly been living alone in a Rockingham industrial estate before he moved back to Thailand last year, with neighbours saying he was on medication for a bad back and kept firearms before police confiscated them.
Pattaya detectives have charged Carman with four offences: murder, concealment of a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor aged between 15 and 18 for sexual purposes.
As the parents of Ms Donhomla travelled to Pattaya to collect their daughter’s body, they rejected Carman’s apology.
Thongchai Donhomla and Ordee Butrakhamare, both 46, who made the journey from their home in the northeast Thailand province of Kalasin, told local media that Ms Donhomla had only arrived in Pattaya days before her death.
It was her first visit to the town infamous 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 guilty, to receive the maximum punishment according to the law.
SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15936105/Simon-Peter-Carman-murder-charge-Tunchanok-Donhomla-Thailand-Pattaya-inside-story.html
