Thailand News

[george]

Update:

Killers of slain Welsh tourist will be apprehended

BANGKOK: -- Investigations into the death of a 21-year-old Welsh woman found dead at Thailand's southern resort of Koh Samui in Surat Thani Province earlier this week has made considerable progress and police now know the identities of the murderers, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday.

Mr. Thaksin told journalists that he had ordered Pol. Gen. Chidchai Vanasatidya, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister, to quickly apprehend the culprits who murdered Ms. Katherine Horton, as police now know the identities of the murderers.

Denying that he had ordered police to bring in the culprits dead or alive, Mr. Thaksin said he wanted the murderers to surrender themselves to the authorities and face the courts.

At the same time he said he did not want to say that the act was committed by locals or foreigners.

Ms. Horton, a psychology student from Reading University, Cardiff, the United Kingdom, was attacked near a bungalow where she had spent her New Year's holidays with friends on Lamai Beach on the Samui Island on New Year's night (Jan 1).

Her body was found floating in the sea a few kilometers away the next day.

Police have said that she was raped, as sperm was found in her body and they are waiting for a DNA comparison with suspects they had questioned.

Mr. Thaksin admitted that this shocking crime had caused a negative impact on the country's tourism industry as foreign tourists would be reluctant to visit the country, especially British tourists -- after two of them were murdered within a "short space of time".

Meanwhile, Pol. Gen. Chidchai said he was confident that police would be able to apprehend the culprits as Pol. Maj. Gen. Assawin Khwanmuang, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, is now handling the case himself.

Pol. Gen. Chidchai reiterated that real culprits would be caught and not scapegoats as Pol. Maj. Gen. Assawin had traveled to the area to supervise the investigation himself.

--TNA 2006-01-07

[sriracha john]

The 21-year-old student's father, Ian and brother Christopher on Friday began the long journey to return Katherine's body from the island of Koh Samui home to Cardiff, south Wales.

Following an arduous long-haul flight it is understood that they arrived at Heathrow airport on Saturday morning from where they were expected to travel back to Wales.

South Wales Police and the Foreign Office have refused to confirm the whereabouts of Ian and Christopher Horton or whether Katherine's body had arrived back in the UK.

Earlier this week Mr Horton appealed to reporters in Koh Samui for privacy as they took Katherine's body home.

A second post mortem examination, in addition to the original autopsy performed in Thailand, is due to be carried out in the UK early next week.

[sriracha john]

Royal Thai Police have put 100 detectives on the murder case

Thai murder hunt 'steps up gear'

One of the last people to see murdered student Katherine Horton alive in Thailand says police are making every effort to catch her killer. Callum Macdonald, 23, from Edinburgh, said the hunt on the island of Koh Samui began slowly, but accelerated.

He and a friend had dinner with Miss Horton and her friend Ruth Adams on 1 January, the night she disappeared.

The Thai prime minister has ordered that the killer of Miss Horton 21, of Cardiff, is found as soon as possible.

Miss Horton's body was flown back to Britain on Saturday, and Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra has told police to solve the case as soon as possible to avoid further damage to the country's reputation as a peaceful haven for tourists.

Mr Macdonald said the police hunt was "very much a real live investigation".

"Initially the local police on Koh Samui were handling the investigation," he said. "This is a very small island and they are not used to dealing with this type of case.

"So the investigation maybe got off to a slightly slow start. But with the arrival of specialist police from Bangkok things have really stepped up a gear.

"There are an awful lot of police, and they are making every effort to get to the bottom of it."

Mr Macdonald said those who met Miss Horton at the beach resort were "still reeling".

"It doesn't seem quite real yet," he said.

"It's the sort of thing that you hear about happening on some distant beach and you read about in the newspapers - it's not the sort of thing you ever expect to find yourself in the middle of."

He described how he and a friend had eaten with the Reading University students on the evening of New Year's Day next door to the beach bungalow where they were staying.

"We came back to the bungalows, Kath took her phone (and) went off down the beach to call home and then we never saw her again.

"On 2 January, Ruth came to our door first thing in the morning. She was very concerned that Kath hadn't come home.

"We thought that Kath might have come home during the night because the note Ruth had left for her and a set of Kath's shoes had disappeared during the course of the night.

"But we went to the police station later that day and after a few hours of giving various descriptions and talking through the events they pulled me aside and broke the news to me that Kath had in fact died and they had found her body.

"They showed me some photos to confirm that it was in fact Kath and then they asked me to break the news to Ruth because English is obviously not their first language.

"They thought it would be better coming from someone who she knew.

"Ruth was very upset when she got the news, obviously. She called home to her parents and just didn't feel up to breaking the news to Kath's family.

"So I called Kath's brother and told him as gently as I could. There was no easy to say your sister's died."

[LaoPo]

Royal Thai Police have put 100 detectives on the murder case

Thai murder hunt 'steps up gear'

One of the last people to see murdered student Katherine Horton alive in Thailand says police are making every effort to catch her killer. Callum Macdonald, 23, from Edinburgh, said the hunt on the island of Koh Samui began slowly, but accelerated.

He and a friend had dinner with Miss Horton and her friend Ruth Adams on 1 January, the night she disappeared.

The Thai prime minister has ordered that the killer of Miss Horton 21, of Cardiff, is found as soon as possible.

Miss Horton's body was flown back to Britain on Saturday, and Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra has told police to solve the case as soon as possible to avoid further damage to the country's reputation as a peaceful haven for tourists.

Mr Macdonald said the police hunt was "very much a real live investigation".

"Initially the local police on Koh Samui were handling the investigation," he said. "This is a very small island and they are not used to dealing with this type of case.

"So the investigation maybe got off to a slightly slow start. But with the arrival of specialist police from Bangkok things have really stepped up a gear.

"There are an awful lot of police, and they are making every effort to get to the bottom of it."

Mr Macdonald said those who met Miss Horton at the beach resort were "still reeling".

"It doesn't seem quite real yet," he said.

"It's the sort of thing that you hear about happening on some distant beach and you read about in the newspapers - it's not the sort of thing you ever expect to find yourself in the middle of."

He described how he and a friend had eaten with the Reading University students on the evening of New Year's Day next door to the beach bungalow where they were staying.

"We came back to the bungalows, Kath took her phone (and) went off down the beach to call home and then we never saw her again.

"On 2 January, Ruth came to our door first thing in the morning. She was very concerned that Kath hadn't come home.

"We thought that Kath might have come home during the night because the note Ruth had left for her and a set of Kath's shoes had disappeared during the course of the night.

"But we went to the police station later that day and after a few hours of giving various descriptions and talking through the events they pulled me aside and broke the news to me that Kath had in fact died and they had found her body.

"They showed me some photos to confirm that it was in fact Kath and then they asked me to break the news to Ruth because English is obviously not their first language.

"They thought it would be better coming from someone who she knew.

"Ruth was very upset when she got the news, obviously. She called home to her parents and just didn't feel up to breaking the news to Kath's family.

"So I called Kath's brother and told him as gently as I could. There was no easy to say your sister's died."

That's very strange! How can it be that this particular note and a set of shoes disappeared during the night? (IN the bungalow of the girls)...

Maybe be one of the many stories/rumours and not facts.

LaoPo

[limbos]

The note apparently showed up at a nearby bungalow, stuck in a bin or so and who knows can walk away with a pair of shoes.

[lung]

SAMUI MURDER: Couple give ‘very useful’ information

Published on January 08, 2006

Tourists who found victim’s phone go back to island to assist investigation. A couple who are possibly the last people to have seen the murdered Katherine Horton alive yesterday gave police “very useful” information, which the authorities believe will help lead them to the Welshwoman’s killers. Britons Chris and Gill Burrows identified themselves to Samui police as the ones who had found the mobile phone believed to have belonged to Horton.

Chris Burrows said that after finishing their holiday on the resort island they had flown back to Bangkok, where they read a newspaper report stating that police wanted to contact a middle-aged couple who had found a cell phone on Samui’s Lamai beach on the night of the murder.

After contacting Bangkok police, the couple immediately flew back to Samui to assist in the local investigation.

Burrows said he and his wife had seen a young woman coming along the beach and talking on a mobile phone some time after 8pm on New Year’s Day. They were walking in a southerly direction and passed the woman, believed to be the murdered Welshwoman, walking north.

He added that it had been a very dark night with no moon. When they were walking along Lamai beach, about 200 metres from the Buddy pub, the woman suddenly emerged from the shadows. She was chatting on the phone and seemingly very happy.

He said there had been other people on the beach, about 15 to 20 metres away from them.

After passing her, the couple walked towards the New Hut Bungalows, which is where Horton was staying at the time of her death. Minutes later they turned back, this time walking along the water’s edge.

This was when they found an object, which turned out to be a black LG mobile phone, said Burrows, adding that he could not be sure exactly where they had found it.

Samui police took them to Lamai beach last night, but Burrows said it had been impossible to give the precise location as the time and sea level had both been different from when they were there on January 1.

Police were expected to try again last night at a time nearer to when the couple was strolling along the beach a week earlier.

A senior police officer, who asked not to be identified, described the information they had received from the couple as “very useful”, though he said more time would be needed to verify what they had learned.

Meanwhile, the results of DNA testing to compare the sperm found in Horton’s body with DNA samples from suspects are not yet complete.

However, Pol Major Aswin Kwangmuang, deputy commander of central investigation, said initial results showed that the specimens from at least three men did not match the sperm.

He hoped results from the other 26 samples would be available today.

Aswin acknowledged that little progress had been made in the case so far but said police believed that more than one person had been involved in Horton’s murder.

Arthit Khwankhom,

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation

KOH SAMUI

Under-strength Samui police turn to volunteers for security

Published on January 08, 2006

About 800 untrained volunteers from communities across Samui will patrol the island’s beaches to provide security for tourists and make up for the severe shortage of police officers. The 200-square-kilometre island has only 14 tourist police. During peak season it draws as many as 20,000 foreign tourists at a time. Samui also has about 200 local police, but this is not enough to provide security for an island that generates about Bt10 billion a year in tourism revenue, said mayor Warakorn Rattanarak.

The island is also home to about 50,000 permanent residents, and more than 100,000 labourers live there for at least part of the year.

Samui district chief Decha Kangsanant said he had ordered all village headmen to turn the 800 volunteers recruited to direct traffic during holidays into security guards.

They will be divided into three groups for three shifts, from 9pm until 6am, Decha said.

They will patrol the island’s beaches, including Lamai Beach, where Katherine Horton went missing on the night of January 1.

The Welsh university student’s body was found floating off shore the next morning.

“Nobody wants this kind of thing to happen. We all regret the case,” said Sa-nga Pongchababnapha, headman of Lamai village.

“The most important thing to do right now is to regain the confidence of tourists.”

Tourist Police commander Maj-General Panya Mamen said the security strategy for Koh Samui would be upgraded to the same level as that for Chiang Mai and Phuket. The northern city and southern island each have more than 20,000 volunteers to help tourist police.

Panya said he could not shift more tourist police to Samui because there was a shortage of officers. There are only 1,000 for the entire country, he added.

A course would be held on Samui soon for volunteers who want to help tourist police, he said.

Panya said the island’s tourist police currently divided themselves into two shifts.

Ruang-nam Jaikwang, president of the Samui Tourism Association, said the murder of Horton could damage the island’s tourism industry in the long term but so far there had been no cancellations.

Anan Paengnoy,

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation

Koh Samui

[sriracha john]

Police detain 3 teenagers over tourist murder

Bangkok Post

Police Saturday detained three Surat Thani teenagers in Bangkok for questioning over possible links to the Jan 2 rape and murder of Welsh tourist Katherine Horton on Koh Samui.

The three went missing from the island off Surat Thani after the murder and Crime Suppression Division police followed their trail to the capital before arresting them Saturday.

Their names were not disclosed. Police collected saliva and hair samples from them for DNA tests to determine if they were responsible for the crime.

Police have also arrested a fugitive attempted murder suspect, Sirichai Chanphong, for questioning in connection to the case.

[george]

Focus: Murder in paradise

KOH SAMUI: -- Last week Katherine Horton was raped and murdered on a Thai beach. She is the seventh Briton to have died in Thailand in the past 16 months. Dean Nelson in Koh Samui and Claire Newell report

If only they hadn’t argued; if only they had stuck together. That is the thought haunting Ruth Adams, travelling companion of Katherine Horton, the British tourist raped and murdered in Thailand last week.

As Thai police continue to hunt for Horton’s killers, it has emerged that Adams fears that a row between her and Horton inadvertently contributed to the tragedy.

The pair had flown to Thailand just after Christmas for a break before concentrating on their university finals. They were close, but their trip soon began to turn sour.

The trouble began, Adams told friends last week, when they met some young men on the boat to Koh Samui, an island resort in the Gulf of Thailand. Adams was attracted to a 24-year-old Australian called Ben Greig, who was travelling with a friend.

It soon dawned on Horton that while she wanted to “dance on a beach, to ride an elephant, to have a vacation before her finals”, as her father Ian tearfully recalled last week, her friend had become more interested in the Australian.

Horton felt “like a gooseberry”, said Terry Harris, a British resident on the island whose family looked after Adams after the murder.

The tensions were exacerbated on New Year’s Eve and Horton saw in the new year alone. On New Year’s Day she and Adams returned to their bungalow on Lamai Beach and later went shopping. “But as soon as they returned, the Aussie came back,” said Callum Macdonald, 23, from Edinburgh, whom they had talked to.

“Ruth sat with him and his mate. Kath took her phone and walked down the beach. It was dark and you couldn’t see more than 100 metres.”

Had Horton’s annoyance with Adams and the Australian driven her off into the night? Or did she just want some privacy to phone her mother?

Whatever the details, Horton, like so many young Britons, appears to have thought she was perfectly safe. Certainly she betrayed no disquiet when she spoke to her mother by mobile from the beach.

“She seemed quite happy,” said Elizabeth, her mother. “She told me how she was planning to ride an elephant and to take a trip to Chiang Mai for the full moon festival. Then all of a sudden the phone fell out of her hands. I heard a scream, then I heard a dog bark and then nothing.

“At first I thought a wave had taken her by surprise and she had dropped the phone. But as time went by I began to fear the worst.”

Chris and Jill Burrows, walking along the beach after dinner, were probably the last people to see Horton alive. “She came out of the dark, we were a bit startled,” said Chris Burrows yesterday after taking Thai police to the spot. “She was chatting on the phone. She was very happy.”

On their walk back down the beach 10 minutes later the couple, from Silsoe, Bedfordshire, found her phone lying in the sand. “We saw a light in the dark, the water was lapping against it,” said Jill Burrows. “It was a very dark night and we saw people, but no one we would recognise now. They were just shadows.”

The next morning Horton’s body was found floating in the sea by a jet-skier. Detectives say evidence indicates she had been raped by two men, beaten and suffocated. DNA tests have now ruled out three western backpackers as the attackers, though others are still being investigated as well as three Thai men who had a party on the beach that night.

Horton is the seventh British tourist to have been killed in Thailand in the past 16 months, a statistic that alarms Thai ministers and British diplomats alike. It reflects the changing nature of travel as ever more people fly off in search of paradise in a shrinking world.

Believing that far-flung places now pose no unusual risk, travellers are becoming complacent, say some experts. At the same time, destinations such as Thai beach resorts are transmuting fast, sometimes for the worse.

Only 20 years ago Koh Samui was sleepy and unspoilt; now it increasingly resembles a Spanish resort, complete with tattooed sun-burnt Brits, prostitute bars, live Premier League football and McDonald’s. The potential for culture clash between rich westerners and relatively poor locals is clear.

British officials fear the island — which has a permanent population of just 40,000 but receives 770,000 visitors a year — is being targeted by violent gangs from the sex trade. In the past eight weeks the island has suffered at least five murders, 21 robberies, 20 violent assaults and 14 gun- related incidents.

Though the odds of being murdered in Thailand remain low, they are rising. Some 750,000 Britons visit the country each year and until recently murders were rare. But in each of the past two years at least five have been killed.

For the 200,000 young British travellers who set off all over the globe each year, it is a worrying trend evident elsewhere on the backpacker trail.

TO MANY young Britons, the developing world offers an intoxicating antidote to western consumerism, a sort of escape to sun-drenched poverty. But visions of a cheap paradise can mask some brutal realities.

One traveller captivated by Cambodia was Eddie Gibson, a student from Brighton, who visited the country during his gap year. “He had fallen in love with the country and the people there,” his mother Jo recalled last week. “He saw how they had very little but were very kind and open.”

In 2004, soon after starting at Leeds University, he returned to Cambodia, intending to stay only a few weeks, but disappeared.

“The last contact Eddie had with us was on October 24, 2004,” said his mother. “He had a reservation on a flight to come home on November 1, but he never got it. We went to the airport to meet him and he wasn’t there.

“We were just waiting at Heathrow for ages and he never appeared.”

As the Gibson family searched for Eddie, the lack of investigative systems taken for granted in the UK swiftly became apparent. “We’ve been over to Cambodia four times since Eddie has gone missing, to the capital, Phnom Penh, and to the border town Poipet,” said his mother. “At the beginning it was just like looking for a needle in a haystack. Eddie’s disappearance wasn’t taken seriously at all. It seemed he just didn’t matter.”

She believes many young travellers underestimate the risks they take.

“When you travel to southeast Asia or other faraway places, you’ve got to understand that the people in that country have different values and cultures. To people in Asia, westerners have lots of money. They have very little and think we’re all rich. Sometimes behind the smiles people are thinking about money and other bad things.”

Nor does travelling with a companion necessarily provide protection. In February 2004 Gareth Koch set off for a trip to Nepal with a friend who was a former police officer, aiming to go to the Everest national park. They fell out at the beginning of the trek and his friend flew home early. Gareth never returned.

His parents went to Nepal for four weeks in September 2004 to retrace the route he would have taken. But no trace of him or his belongings has been found and the British embassy has been of little help. “They have no protocol for these kinds of things. There is no system,” said David Koch, his father.

Koch believes young travellers are becoming complacent about the risks they take: “Walking around late at night is dangerous on holiday, just like it is at home.”

A niche business has grown up providing training courses for those who want to be as prepared as possible. One company is Objective Travel Safety, where Charlie McGrath, a well-travelled ex-serviceman, is a director. “Lots of people say that travelling is no more dangerous than being at home,” he said. “But the problem is you are a lot more in tune with your environment at home. You can read the signals easier. You have local knowledge.”

Even the best prepared backpackers can run into trouble. When Vanessa Arscott and Adam Lloyd hit the trail in 2004 they studied guidebooks and planned their journey in detail. But after an argument in a restaurant in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, they were shot by the owner, who was a policeman. Adam was shot at point blank range; Vanessa was killed as she tried to flee.

“They were smart, intelligent young people, and yet still ended up being murdered,” said Adam’s father Brian. “Evil lurks in paradise. We live in a country that is still one of the freest in the world. Most of the world is a dangerous place.”

IN A typical year about 60 Britons are murdered abroad, according to the Foreign Office. Several hundred also go missing.

To the great mass of travellers, those are reassuring figures. Britons make more than 60m trips abroad each year and only a tiny number end in murder.

By that measure exotic travel remains remarkably safe. Indeed, more Britons tend to get murdered in France and Spain than in, say, India — though that is probably because greater numbers travel in Europe.

But each murder or rape or missing person is a family tragedy. Yesterday Horton’s grieving father flew back from Thailand with her body. Adams has also returned to the UK.

Messages of sympathy have flowed to the Horton family. Among them was one from the parents of Kirsty Jones, a British backpacker who was strangled in a guesthouse in northern Thailand in 2000. “I have had lovely cards from them which mean so much to me,” said Elizabeth Horton. “They’re the only ones who can really understand our pain and our loss. “When we heard Katherine was dead, it felt as if the whole world had fallen apart. She was a warm, passionate girl and we will miss her more than words can say.”

--The Sunday Times UK 2006-01-08

[george]

Trawler crew interrogated over tourist's murder

SURAT THANI: -- Thai police Sunday morning searched a fishing trawler and interrogated its owner and three crewmen and took samples for DNA tests to determine if they were responsible for the rape and murder of Welsh tourist Katherine Horton on Koh Samui off this southern province last weekend.

The search was made after the trawler docked at a pier in this Gulf of Thailand port. The search and the subsequent interrogation were conducted after police learned that a fishing trawler had been anchored in the sea near the murder site.

The interrogation of the fishing crewmen came after a British couple identified as Chris and Gill Burrows reported to Koh Samui police that they found a mobile phone believed to have belonged to Miss Horton

while strolling on Koh Samui's Lamai Beach the night of the murder.

Miss Horton went missing on the night of New Year's Day and her body was found floating offshore the next morning.

Little progress has been made so far in the case, but police believe that more than one person was involved in the Welsh student's murder.

Worried that the murder case might have a negative impact on tourism industry, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday called on the police to apprehend the murderers quickly.

--TNA 2006-01-08

[sriracha john]

Vacationers walk past wreaths laid for Briton Katherine Horton at Koh Samui's Lamai Beach

[bulmercke]

Still no charges.....I have a horrible suspicion that this investigation could drag on for several more days or weeks without anyone being apprehended and charged......

I realise the Thai police are doing their upmost to bring the perpetrators of this terible crime to justice....but those twenty-four hours that passed after the body was found were crucial....as anyone involved in murder investigations knows only too well.....

.....let's hope the next forty-eight hours brings arrests.....

[gareth1]

6.00 pm News in UK says 22 Fishermen being held.

One has scratches on his back.

Hope they get the bastars soon,who ever they are.

No excuses hang them.

[lung]

...

the NATION no have some new's. hmm...

2 day's ago they know allready or..? i post it...

hmm... mai kaodchai

[george]

DNA samples from suspects fail to match

KOH SAMUI: -- Police have failed so far in their search for the killer of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old Welsh college student who was raped and murdered while on holiday on Koh Samui. The DNA of the sperm found in the victim's vagina did not match any of the samples taken from the prime suspects.

Police will summon more people for interrogation, including Burmese fishing crewmen.

Pol Maj-Gen Assawin Khwanmuang, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said yesterday the Forensic Science Institute had finished the DNA comparison with the blood samples of six suspects, three Thais and three foreigners, and none matched.

The institute has yet to conduct similar comparisons with samples taken from 26 other people, including 23 Thais and three foreigners.

Pol Maj-Gen Santhat Chayanont, deputy chief of Police Region 8, said the tested blood samples included those of the six foreigners who had stayed at the New Hut Bungalow where Horton had checked in before the murder. The three foreigners were questioned as witnesses and had already left Thailand.

Police yesterday took British visitors Chris Burrow and his wife Gillian to Pak Bang beach on Koh Samui to identify the spot where they had found Horton's cellphone.

The couple said they had passed the woman while strolling along the adjacent Lamai beach on the night of Jan 1.

From their place, The Spa Resort, the couple walked until they reached the New Hut Bungalow and turned around. Ten minutes later they found the LG cell phone on the beach. They picked up the phone and left it with an employee of a nearby restaurant without any clue the phone owner was the murder victim.

The couple could not specify the exact location where the phone was found because of a high tide yesterday. The tide was low on the night of Jan 1. Horton's body was found on Thong Krok beach on Jan 2 and the autopsy indicated she was raped and killed. Police questioned three Thai suspects on Koh Samui yesterday. One is a local resident, and the other two are from Ban Lamai village.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-09

Samui fishermen provide blood samples

KOH SAMUI: -- Police yesterday interrogated and collected blood samples from more than 30 fishermen, including Burmese workers, in connection with the murder of Welsh tourist Katherine Horton on Koh Samui.

The fishermen were taken in for questioning from boats docked at local piers and some of them were still in police custody yesterday evening.

“The investigation is not progressing very quickly. We have yet to establish whether the attacker or attackers are Thai or foreigners,” the Central Investigation Bureau’s deputy commissioner, Maj-General Asawin Kwanmuang, said. However, he said police had almost completed evidence collection and the DNA test results could turn up some useful clues.

Tourist Police chief Maj-General Panya Mamen said police had yet to receive the results of 26 blood samples collected from other men earlier. The new lot of samples will be sent for testing to Bangkok today. Southern Tourism Bureau Region 5 director Pramote Sapyen said Horton’s murder had damaged the country’s reputation as a tourist haven. “Tourists from many countries now believe Thailand is not a safe destination,” he said.

However, he said, the hotel occupancy rate on Koh Samui remained satisfactory.

--The Nation 2006-01-09

[LaoPo]

DNA samples from suspects fail to match

KOH SAMUI: -- Police have failed so far in their search for the killer of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old Welsh college student who was raped and murdered while on holiday on Koh Samui. The DNA of the sperm found in the victim's vagina did not match any of the samples taken from the prime suspects.

Police will summon more people for interrogation, including Burmese fishing crewmen.

Pol Maj-Gen Assawin Khwanmuang, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said yesterday the Forensic Science Institute had finished the DNA comparison with the blood samples of six suspects, three Thais and three foreigners, and none matched.

The institute has yet to conduct similar comparisons with samples taken from 26 other people, including 23 Thais and three foreigners.

Pol Maj-Gen Santhat Chayanont, deputy chief of Police Region 8, said the tested blood samples included those of the six foreigners who had stayed at the New Hut Bungalow where Horton had checked in before the murder. The three foreigners were questioned as witnesses and had already left Thailand.

Police yesterday took British visitors Chris Burrow and his wife Gillian to Pak Bang beach on Koh Samui to identify the spot where they had found Horton's cellphone.

The couple said they had passed the woman while strolling along the adjacent Lamai beach on the night of Jan 1.

From their place, The Spa Resort, the couple walked until they reached the New Hut Bungalow and turned around. Ten minutes later they found the LG cell phone on the beach. They picked up the phone and left it with an employee of a nearby restaurant without any clue the phone owner was the murder victim.

The couple could not specify the exact location where the phone was found because of a high tide yesterday. The tide was low on the night of Jan 1. Horton's body was found on Thong Krok beach on Jan 2 and the autopsy indicated she was raped and killed. Police questioned three Thai suspects on Koh Samui yesterday. One is a local resident, and the other two are from Ban Lamai village.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-09

Very confusing story in the BKK Post, but there is still hope as they have yet to "conduct similar comparisons'

of quite a few other 'suspects', including the Burmese fishing crewmen and the ones from Samui itself.

I really hope they will find the person(s) who comitted this horrible crime and make an example and put them in jail for the rest of his/their life(s) if not worse......

LaoPo

[khall64au]

Southern Tourism Bureau Region 5 director Pramote Sapyen said Horton’s murder had damaged the country’s reputation as a tourist haven. “Tourists from many countries now believe Thailand is not a safe destination,” he said.

However, he said, the hotel occupancy rate on Koh Samui remained satisfactory.

Is the swift investigation only about tourism image? 100 detectives on the case.... ? Seems over the top! The crime is in need of a quick arrest given the seriousness of the case but is the sincerity of the authorities in the right light?

[Patsycat]

I hope those people that heard her scream and did nothing sleep well at night... not.

[george]

BREAKING NEWS - TWO THAI MEN CONFESS

K. Surayuth at Thai TV3 just now (06.35 BKK time) reports that police have arrested two Thai fishermen, both have confessed to the murder of Katherine. They apparently killed her with a piece of wood.

More info as we have it.

[sriracha john]

Southern Tourism Bureau Region 5 director Pramote Sapyen said Horton’s murder had damaged the country’s reputation as a tourist haven. “Tourists from many countries now believe Thailand is not a safe destination,” he said.

However, he said, the hotel occupancy rate on Koh Samui remained satisfactory.

Is the swift investigation only about tourism image? 100 detectives on the case.... ? Seems over the top! The crime is in need of a quick arrest given the seriousness of the case but is the sincerity of the authorities in the right light?

They are only reflecting the view of from the very top...

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has just ordered police to catch the killer of the British backpacker Katherine Horton as soon as possible and he said that the murder had damaged the country's reputation as a peaceful haven for tourists.

"This case has caused severe damage to the reputation of our nation and the tourist business," Thailand's prime minster, Thaksin Shinawatra said.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said the culprits had to be brought to justice “dead or alive”.

“This crime is severely detrimental to the country. The culprits must be brought to justice dead or alive. There is no place for them in this country,” he said.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra wants swift progress because he feels the Horton rape-murder has hurt Thailand's image.

"I have ordered police to get the killer of the British tourist ... as soon as possible," Mr Shinawatra told officials in Bangkok. "This case has caused severe damage to the reputation of our nation and the tourist business."

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, meanwhile, on Friday urged police to speed up their investigation of Horton's murder, which has once again tarnished Thailand's reputation as a safe tourist destination.

[limbos]

BREAKING NEWS - TWO THAI MEN CONFESS

K. Surayuth at Thai TV3 just now (06.35 BKK time) reports that police have arrested two Thai fishermen, both have confessed to the murder of Katherine. They apparently killed her with a piece of wood.

More info as we have it.

That would be good news. Let's hope they are the real culprits and not some scapegoats.

[george]

Two held over backpacker murder

Katherine Horton was last seen phoning her mother on 1 January

KOH SAMUI: -- Two fisherman have been arrested in Thailand over the murder of British backpacker Katherine Horton.

Koh Samui police say they arrested two local fishermen in connection with the murder of the 21-year-old from Cardiff.

The pair, aged 23 and 24, were arrested close to the beach where she was last seen and were taken into custody after their boat returned to the island.

Evidence based on a post-mortem examination suggests Miss Horton was raped and badly beaten.

The Reading University student was last seen just hours before on New Year's Day.

Miss Horton, who was due to return home next week after a couple of weeks in Thailand, was with friends on Lamai beach and is reported to have wandered away from them as she spoke to her mother on her mobile phone.

What happened to her between that moment and the discovery of her body is unknown. Her body was found in the bay by a jet ski operator.

At the weekend, police said they had begun to take DNA samples from fishermen working on five boats which were in the area the night she died.

On Saturday a British couple who had found her mobile telephone on the sand returned to the island to assist police.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, had called on investigators to find those responsible for her death as quickly as possible but urged them also to be prudent.

-- BBC Breaking News 2006-01-09

Edited January 9, 2006 by george

[george]

Fishing fleet detained in hunt for backpacker's killers

KOH SAMUI: -- A SMALL fishing fleet moored off the Thai beach where the British backpacker Katherine Horton was murdered was last night impounded by police who described the crewmen as "prime suspects".

About 21 Thai, Burmese and Cambodian fishermen from seven boats were being held outside the murder room on the beach at Lamai, Koh Samui, where Miss Horton died on the evening of New Year's Day.

In an investigation where a large number of foreigners and Thais have been identified as suspects and then ruled out, police say they now expect a quick end to the inquiry.

The seven boats put to sea from Lamai beach the same morning as the body of Miss Horton, 21, from Cardiff, a psychology student at Reading University, was found. Last night, the small fleet returned to the fishing harbour at Bophut in the north of Koh Samui.

Police say the fishermen are prime suspects because Miss Horton's body was found at Thong Krok - two miles away from the spot where her mobile phone was discovered at about 10pm on Sunday, 2 January.

A police investigator said: "We believe she must have been taken to sea. If she had been put in the water where she was murdered, the body would have travelled in the opposite direction to the spot at which she was found.

"With the currents as they are, it is impossible for the body to have floated in that direction. We believe a boat was involved and that the body was dropped in the water."

Burmese-speaking Thai police were brought in to help with the investigation. Police would not confirm if any of the fishermen had injuries.

One Burmese fisherman said: "We have nothing to do with this. We merely moored off the beach to sell some of our fish."

Last night, it appeared that the fishermen were the last suspects in the eight-day inquiry. The results of their DNA tests are not expected before Wednesday.

--Andrew Drummond, scotsman.com 2006-01-09

[george]

Two detained over tourist death

Confessed during police interrogation

BANGKOK: -- TWO Thai fishermen were detained early today over the rape and murder of a Welsh tourist whose body was found floating in the sea one week ago, officials said.

Bualoy Kothisit, 23, and Wichai Soptayai, 24, were taken into custody before dawn Monday on the resort island of Samui, police Major General Voravej Vinittayon told AFP.

"Under the law, we have not officially arrested them but we have detained these two people early this morning," he said.

The body of Katherine Horton, 21, was found one week ago in the sea off Samui island.

Panu Woravit, chief of the Tourism Authority of Thailand on Samui island, said the two had confessed during police interrogation and were taken to Bangkok so experts could match their DNA against evidence.

He said the two admitted they had seen Horton walking down the beach and knocked her unconscious with a beach umbrella before they raped her, said General Panu, who has acted as a spokesman about the case.

After the rape, they beat her again and then dumped her body in the sea, he said.

--news.com.au 2006-01-09

[george]

Two Thais detained over death of Welsh tourist

KOH SAMUI: -- Two Thai fishermen were detained early Monday over the rape and murder of a Welsh tourist whose body was found floating in the sea one week ago, officials said.

Bualoy Kothisit, 23, and Wichai Soptayai, 24, were taken into custody before dawn Monday on the resort island of Samui, police Major General Voravej Vinittayon told AFP.

"Under the law, we have not officially arrested them but we have detained these two people early this morning," he said.

The body of Katherine Horton, 21, was found one week ago in the sea off Samui island.

Panu Woravit, chief of the Tourism Authority of Thailand on Samui island, said the two had confessed during police interrogation and were taken to Bangkok so experts could match their DNA against evidence.

He said the two admitted they had seen Horton walking down the beach and knocked her unconscious with a beach umbrella before they raped her, said Panu, who has acted as a spokesman about the case.

After the rape, they beat her again and then dumped her body in the sea, he said.

-- The Nation /Agence France-Presse 2006-01-09

Two arrested for tourist's murder

KOH SAMUI: -- Police have arrested two fishermen early Monday as prime suspects in the rape and murder of a British woman, whose body was found last week in a bay off Samui Island resort, officers said this morning.

Bualong Kosit, 23, and Somchai Khaoyai, 24, were arrested on board a fishing boat off Samui Island at 2 a.m. local time by police pretending to be fish buyers, said Police Major General Asawin Kwanmuang, deputy commissioner of the Investigation Bureau.

The two men have reportedly confessed to the rape and murder of Katherine Horton, 21, whose body was found floating on January 2 in Lamai Bay, Samui.

Bualong and Somchai confessed to coming ashore drunk on the night of January 1 with the intention of raping a woman, when they spotted Horton walking on the beach chatting on her mobile phone.

They allegedly hit her on the head with a piece of wood, dragged her to their small boat where they raped her, hit her again and dumped her body in the water, said Asawin. The two men then returned to a larger fishing boat to stay offshore for a week.

The two suspects have been brought to Bangkok for DNA tests to try to match semen found in Horton's body during an autopsy.

Thai police have been under pressure to solve the Horton murder, which has damaged Thailand's reputation as a safe tourist destination. A breakthrough in the case occurred over the weekend when a British couple who were the last to see Horton on the beach and who found her hand phone returned to Thailand to present their evidence to police.

Horton arrived December 27 in Thailand and travelled to Koh Samui, a popular island resort 450 kilometres south of Bangkok to celebrate the New Year's holiday with a friend.

She went missing on the night of January 1, after leaving her friend, Ruth Adams, to walk on the beach while making a mobile phone call to her mother in Cardiff, Wales.

The call was interrupted when Horton was attacked. Her mother heard her scream and then the line went dead.

Her parents, Ian and Elizabeth Horton, travelled last week to Samui to monitor the investigation into their daughter's murder and to bring her body home.

Horton is the fourth British tourist to be murdered in Thailand over the last five years.

British nationals Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 24, were shot dead on September 9, 2004, in Kachanaburi province by Thai Police Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh. Somchai was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

British tourist Kirsty Jones was allegedly raped and murdered in 2000 in Chiang Mai. Her killer was never caught.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-09

[jaapfries]

Two detained over tourist death

Confessed during police interrogation

The body of Katherine Horton, 21, was found one week ago in the sea off Samui island.

He said the two admitted they had seen Horton walking down the beach and knocked her unconscious with a beach umbrella before they raped her, said General Panu, who has acted as a spokesman about the case.

After the rape, they beat her again and then dumped her body in the sea, he said.

--news.com.au 2006-01-09

=====================================================================

"For Everything That Happens In This Life, There's A Logical Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

- and Then - There's The Truth ! (Sir Winston Churchill)

Let's hope that by Wednesday, the DNA results will, in fact, reveal The Truth !

Meanwhile, my utter sympathy goes out to the family of this young woman: how does one even begin to deal with such a horrid loss ? ? ?

[moondragon]

Jesus... I have two friends of mine going to Samui next week (women 26 and 27) and now I wonder if I should tell them not to go or at least never never wander off on the beach alone

[Jai Dee]

PM THAKSIN SAID EVIDENCE SHOWED THAT MAN ARRESTED THIS MORNING WAS THE MURDERER OF THE BRITISH WOMAN

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has ordered increase in security and care for tourists, and is having the tourism police and local police work together, after the murder of a British tourist on Samui Island.

Prime Minister Thaksin spoke on the arrest on the alleged killer who last week murdered a British woman visiting Koh Samui. He said it is now quite clear that the apprehended man was the one who carried out the murder, but evidence and witness are still being gathered. The country's image is believed to improve after the successful arrest.

In the meantime the premier has ordered erection of more measures to protect and care for tourists, where the tourism police and local police would jointly look over and provide safety to tourists, in order to prevent such incident from occuring again.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 09 January 2006

[Joey Boy]

good job, it shows what the thai police can do if they get off their asses and put 100% into something.. Its a shame it takes international pressure to make this happen though

[sonnyJ]

Money, money, money

It's a shame that locals don't get this kind of help.. well, maybe the rich ones do.

[Jai Dee]

POLICE HAVE ARRESTED THE ALLEGED MURDERER OF THE BRITISH TOURIST

Police have finally been able to arrest the killers of Ms. Catherine Elizabeth Horton, the murdered British tourist on Samui Island, and the criminals' DNAs are being tested in Bangkok.

At 2:40 A.M. this morning, police arrested 23-year-old BUALOI KHOTHISIT (บัวลอย โคทิศิทธ์) and 24-year-old WICHAI SOONTAYAI (วิชัย ศูนย์ตาใหญ่), who confessed to having murdered the British student from Wales. The two said they have been drunk on the night of the incident and were sexually aroused when they saw Ms. Catherine walking by. Later, they charged in and assaulted the victim. Mr. WICHAI used a stick to hit the victim on the head, knocking her unconscious before Mr. BUALOI raped her. The two then used the stick to hit Ms. Catherine several more times until they were sure she was dead, and then dragged her body out to sea.

The two were crews on a fishing vessel. The two also confessed that they had been thinking of raping someone that night, and they found Ms. Catherine alone at the beach.

Police believe the scientific evidence would be able to be used for charging the perpetrators. They are also confident officials did not arrest the wrong people as the confessions of both men matched the condition of Ms. Catherine's corpse.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 09 January 2006