Australian Girl Shot In The Neck

[bannork]

He said the word used, "kwuay", translates as penis and is the most offensive form of Thai abuse

doesn't it mean buffalo?

Yes it does and it can be used in a derogatory way in terms of someone being stupid.

He more likely meant 'kai'.

Trivia aside, deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Pam Fitzpatrick.

May she RIP.

Khuay in Kan would probably mean <deleted> as it means penis-khuay, a rude word in Thai.

Buffalo in Thai is khwai, a different sound, but in Issan khuay means buffalo so perhaps the killers thought they were being doubly insulted as being presumed to be Issan and or foolish pricks.

[gcad]

RIP fellow Australian.

Hopefully the ones responsible for this murder are punished to the full extent of the law. Tourists needn't put up with stray bullets whilst on holiday, travelling is dangerous enough as it is.

[sriracha john]

Dangers of travel in Thailand

POLICE in Thailand are hoping that a bullet extracted from the spine of shooting victim Pamela Fitzpatrick will lead them to her killer.

The Brisbane nurse, 26, died in a Bangkok hospital on Wednesday three days after she was shot in the neck by unknown assailants in a bar in the tourist town of Kanchanaburi.

Police have made little progress in tracking down the shooter and are under intense pressure to solve a crime that has shone an unwelcome spotlight on the unseen dangers of travel in Thailand.

On Thursday, a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra said that the Australian Ambassador to Thailand, Bill Patterson, had spoken with senior police to register the Australian Government's strong interest in the investigation.

Forensic tests were done on the bullet after it was removed from Fitzpatrick's body during an autopsy on Friday.

Police believe that the tests will reveal the make and model of the weapon used in the attack.

They have been working on the theory that the weapon was a Colt revolver, an uncommon gun in Thailand.

"If it is, then it will make it easier for us to find the shooter because they are not that common," Police Colonel Vorapat Vadhanavisala, a senior officer on the investigation, said.

Weapons are easy to obtain in Thailand, and cheap local models can be bought on the black market in Kanchanaburi for as little as $160. (4,492 baht)

Police believe Fitzpatrick may have been the latest victim in a series of drive-by shootings committed by bored youths in the town that have already left five people dead this year.

One of those victims, a Thai man, was shot and killed in February in an identical attack in a bar just 200 meters from where Fitzpatrick was shot, The Courier-Mail has confirmed. That case received no publicity.

Fitzpatrick's distraught family received a briefing on the progress of the investigation in Bangkok on Thursday from Kanchanburi's deputy police chief Colonel Kriwit Namtong.

It is believed that the family planned to fly out of Thailand on Friday and return to Brisbane.

The day before they released a statement in which they described Fitzpatrick as a fit, strong, happy and lovely individual who enthusiastically lived her life to the full and cared deeply for the physically disabled people she looked after as nurse.

The statement said that for her to be struck down like this was a cruel blow to her and to everyone she loved and helped.

Last night Fitzpatrick's body remained in a morgue at Bangkok's hospital. It is expected to soon be flown back to Australia for burial.

- couriermail.news.com.au

[Boo]

Rest in peace.

[ErikaG]

RIP fellow Australian.

Hopefully the ones responsible for this murder are punished to the full extent of the law. Tourists needn't put up with stray bullets whilst on holiday, travelling is dangerous enough as it is.

I agree, the criminals have to be punished, who ever they are and where ever they go, they will be punished, i wish that at least for pam memory !

[Krungthepian]

The wrong place, the wrong time

By: Andrew Perrin

Courier Mail, Brisbane

Pamela Fitzpatrick was doing what many young travellers do. Then she was shot. Andrew Perrin reports from Thailand

THEY were, in the words of the guesthouse owner where they stayed in Thailand, two beautiful girls who were obviously close.

They were sisters, born six years apart in Johannesburg, whose family had moved to Springwood in Brisbane in the 1990s to escape the violence in South Africa.

But now here they were in Thailand, in Kanchanaburi, the popular tourist town 130km west of Bangkok, and the site of the World War II Burma railway and bridge over the River Kwai.

Pamela Lesley Fitzpatrick, 26, a nurse, and her sister Jennifer Ann Fitzpatrick, 20, were at the beginning of a month-long holiday travelling together through South-East Asia.

They were staying at Apple's, a popular guesthouse and restaurant in Kanchanaburi, famed for its banana pancakes and a 170-year-old mango tree growing out the back.

The sisters shared a room, No. 9, that came with a fan and a shower. The room cost $15 a night, the cheapest room in the place. Their money had to travel a long way.

They had been in Kanchanaburi for only a day but already they had seen a lot, travelling 80km out of town to Hellfire Pass, the memorial to Allied prisoners of war and to the spectacular Erawan Falls.

The next trip on their itinerary was a journey into Laos, the sleepy communist country to the north. They had just received word the Laos embassy had finally processed their entry visas and the sisters planned to travel to Bangkok the next day to pick them up.

But there was still some things the sisters wanted to see. The Socceroos were playing Brazil in the World Cup and, like every Australian, they wanted to watch the match. Their guesthouse was on Mae Nam Khwae Rd, the backpacker strip near the centre of town, and at night the road came to life in a blaze of gaudy neon as rows of cheap bars and restaurants competed to lure in the backpackers wandering along the kilometre long road. The sisters ended up watching the game on TV in one of them, Rascals.

When the game was finished about 2am, the girls started walking back to their guesthouse with three Western backpackers, two men and a woman, with whom they had struck up a friendship in Rascals. The group intended to have a nightcap at Apple's restaurant to complete the night.

When they got close to the guesthouse, at the end of the road, they stopped on the sidewalk. Two men on a motorbike drove past, the only vehicle on the road. But that's not what made them stop. From where they stood they could see that Apple's restaurant had closed. The five tourists stood together in a huddle considering their options.

The Up2U Bar had little to recommend it. A sofa out the front where people were supposed to sit was full of holes, its foam stuffing falling out. Inside, the owner, Natchaya Kraimung, 30, stood behind a bar that held a small selection of near empty bottles of spirits and a fridge stocked with a dozen bottles of beer. The small room had a few pictures of the Thai royal family on its white walls and just two bar stools for people to sit on. There were no customers in the bar.

But one thing about the Up2U was appealing to the backpackers -- it was open, when everything else on the strip was shut, or about to be. The group walked into the empty bar to order what Jennifer would later say was just one last drink.

IF ONLY APPLE'S restaurant had been open. If only the Up2U Bar had been shut. If only they hadn't walked into the bar at that moment, 2.38am, on Monday, June 19, then Pamela would still be alive today, travelling with her sister, Jennifer, through Laos, two anonymous backpackers exploring the well-trodden tourist trail.

Instead, Pamela Fitzpatrick now lies dead in a Bangkok morgue, her body awaiting shipment back to Australia and a Brisbane family is shattered by a killing that has robbed them of a sister and a daughter, and left them searching for answers, when it seems precious few are to be found.

What police know for certain about the events of that night is that when the group walked into the bar, Pamela was the last to enter.

Two people in the group sat down on the sofa outside, while one man walked into the bar to order drinks for everyone. Jennifer was standing facing the couple on the sofa, while Pamela stood behind her, her back to the road.

What she couldn't see was that the motorbike that had passed the group two minutes before they entered Up2U had turned around up the road and started slowly driving back towards the bar.

When it reached the bar the pillion passenger, a young Thai man of 22 or 23, pulled out a revolver and opened fire. Four shots were sprayed into the bar. Three of them hit the rear wall inside. The other one struck Pamela Fitzpatrick in the back of the neck and lodged in the top of her spinal column. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and was later driven in an ambulance to a hospital in Bangkok.

Three days later, on Wednesday, Pamela died.

Police have now thrown everything they have at solving the case. They have more than 60 officers working on it, and on Thursday homicide detectives and forensic teams from Bangkok were brought in to help as well.

``We must solve this because Kanchanaburi is a tourist area and if something happens to tourism in this town then it is in trouble,'' says Police Colonel Vorapat Vadhanavisala, head of the investigation. ``So we need to make sure the tourists feel safe.

``If anything happens to tourists, it immediately becomes top priority.''

Police say they are confident of catching the killer but the clues they have so far are hardly case closers.

Eyewitnesses have helped police construct an identikit picture of the suspect. Meanwhile, the bullet lodged in Fitzpatrick's spine was removed after she died and with it police hope to be able to identify the make and model of the gun, believed to be a Colt revolver, which may lead them to the shooter.

While police search for the killer, finding a motive for the shooting is proving equally elusive.

Initially, police believed that the shooting was a vendetta against the bar owner who only two days before the shooting had become involved in a dispute with a Thai customer over money and a girl.

The customer was interviewed on Wednesday but police could not find any evidence to link him to the crime.

Now police are working on the theory that the shooting was committed by men either paid to shoot up the bar to frighten off customers, or else a couple of drunk, gun-toting hooligans blowing off steam.

Either way, they are certain that Fitzpatrick was an innocent victim, someone unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That was also the conclusion of the Australian ambassador to Thailand, Bill Patterson, who this week described the shooting as a freak occurrence.

But Fitzpatrick's shooting is not as random an incident as some would make it out to be. While Kanchanaburi's reputation will remain undimmed among tourists who come here for its incredible history and rolling green hills, among Thais its reputation is mostly for violence.

In an area of town called the Pier, on the River Kwai's edge, a five-minute drive from Mae Nam Khwae Rd, gangs of youths hang out, drinking long into the night.

Shootings and stabbings here are an almost weekly occurrence.

This year five people have been killed and dozens injured in the violence.

Down on the Pier, everyone has a gun or else knows someone who does. A revolver can be bought in Kanchanaburi for as little as 4000 baht ($A145) on the black market.

Life is even cheaper.

In a part of town where many people earn less in a month than a budget backpacker spends in a day, a shooter can be hired to shoot up a bar for, according to Colonel Vadhanavisala, the price of a drink.

``The violence is killing this town,'' says Prasert Soonkirt, 62, a retired official who has lived his whole life near the Pier. ``With every generation it is getting worse.''

Even before this week's tragedy, the tourists areas were not immune from the violence. In 2004 a decorated Thai police officer was jailed for life after shooting two British tourists in a bar dispute.

On Mae Nam Khwae Rd tourist strip, where Fitzpatrick was shot, there have been at least four shootings in the past two years. In February, in an attack identical to the one that killed Fitzpatrick, a Thai man was shot and killed in a bar, just 200m along from the Up2U Bar.

Ask any Thai who lives here when the most dangerous time is they will all tell you that it's after 2am. That's when the shooting always starts.

FITZPATRICK KNEW NONE of this about the town when she walked into the Up2U Bar early on Monday morning. It's not the kind of information you find in a guidebook. Instead they walked inside and, according to Penpuk Makajan, 24, a waitress at the adjoining bar, Fitzpatrick and her sister walked in looking happy.

Penpuk recalls the motorbike driving past and paid special attention to it because the driver of the bike had on a full faced helmet, unusual in Thailand, she says, unless you are trying to hide something.

She watched them travel a few hundred metres up the street, then turn around and come slowly back towards the bar. The driver was wearing a white shirt. The man sitting on the back was wearing a black shirt. They were young, fit, and the man on the back with no helmet, was handsome, she says.

As they passed the man on the back pulled out a gun, a black Colt revolver, yelled ``Hey'', and opened fire.

Penpuk said the gunman's face was expressionless as he fired the gun using both hands. Then he was gone.

At first it appeared that no one had been injured, but then she saw Pamela lurch to one side, then right herself, before slowly sinking to the ground, convulsing. Jennifer saw it too, and started screaming, ``Pamela, Pamela''.

She picked her off the ground and held her in her arms.

Then she started trying to save her sister's life. She gave her mouth to mouth for at least 10 minutes.

Fitzpatrick did start breathing again, but, in truth, she had been handed a death sentence the moment the bullet entered her neck. It had shattered her spinal cord.

On Wednesday, with his daughter lying in a coma in a Bangkok hospital, Kevin Fitzpatrick read a prepared statement on the condition of his daughter. He said his daughter remained in a critical condition and the situation remained very serious.

He didn't discuss his daughter's chances of recovery.

He didn't have to.

His eyes betrayed him.

They were without hope.

Later that night, when the media had gone, her life support was quietly turned off. The statement released the next day said she had died from injuries sustained in the attack.

She was the 22nd foreign tourist to die a violent death in Thailand in the past two years.

Just one more sad and sorry statistic from the Land of Smiles.

=======

[Krungthepian]

Above report - Wrong Place, Wrong Time - was published in Brisbane Saturday June 24.

(as well as the other one above: Bullet to give lead to killer - An unwelcome spotlight on the unseen dangers of travel in Thailand).

[Netfan]

The wrong place, the wrong time

By: Andrew Perrin

Courier Mail, Brisbane

She was the 22nd foreign tourist to die a violent death in Thailand in the past two years.

=======

A tragic loss for the family and her friends.

It's a well written story (IMHO). Tourism Authority of Thailand probably won't be thrilled.

IF this statistic is true, it is shocking and should be a wake up call to the authorities. There are plenty of drive by shootings in the US, just last week 7 kids were shot in New Orleans, there were others that made the news in L.A. and N.Y., but it wasnt tourists who were shot.

Between stories of political unrest and crime, Thailand is going to find itself facing a downturn in tourism that is beyond anything they are seeing due to "world cup".

[sriracha john]

The wrong place, the wrong time

By: Andrew Perrin

Courier Mail, Brisbane

The most powerfully written news article I've read in 2006.

A very impressive effort by Mr. Perrin.

A very sad story for the Fitzpatrick family.

A very disturbing event in my adopted country.

[Phil Conners]

You really think so? I though it was very biased, read like something you'd read in a tabloid.

I don't suppose Kan's finest have gotten any further with their "inquiries".

[Boatabike]

Kanchanaburi tourist police will do everything they can to help get this solved, they are the most helpful tourist police i have come across any where in Thailand, far more helpful than your negative remarks made in every one of your posts in this tragic story for sure.^

They do not however have the leading role as this will be done by the local police force as it involves murder. Don't forget that Somchai was sentenced here, and that is not a very common event for a policeman with contacts to actually get done for his crimes in Thailand. Two thugs who have no known contacts will be hung drawn and quartered as soon as they have them, they have the number plate of the vechicle so it is only time till they have the 2 bastards. They know who they are and if they don't have them yet it will only be because they are in hiding. A tragic situation for the family and if certain posters haven't got the common sense to know when to show a little respect when it is needed then they should shut up and go sit some where and wait for some bored thugs to drive past.

[Phil Conners]

Jeez, give me a reason to be positive about anything in this thread. I don't see any references being made to your best-buddies in the TP. Somchai was eventually caught and sentenced but only after heavy pressure without which he would still be around killing anyone he didn't like. Besides, who say he is going to be in for more than a brief term under cushy conditions, one of the problems here is the complete lack of transparency. So don't tell me about being negative.

[Backpack_thailand]

Kanchanaburi tourist police will do everything they can to help get this solved, they are the most helpful tourist police i have come across any where in Thailand

I wouldn't go that far!

[yeti]

Kanchanaburi tourist police will do everything they can to help get this solved, they are the most helpful tourist police i have come across any where in Thailand

I wouldn't go that far!

I'd agree with Boatabike, when I needed tourist police in Kanchanaburi, they were really helpful.

What I think is kind of weird is the nearly complete lack of information on this story on TV and in English language newspapers (nothing in the Bangkok Post and 5 lines in The Nation).

[stumonster]

Australian drive-by victim cremated

From correspondents in Bangkok

June 25, 2006

THE body of a Queensland nurse, who was caught up in a drive-by shooting in Thailand, has been cremated in Bangkok.

Pam Fitzpatrick, 26, was killed by a shot to the neck while drinking with her sister and friends at a Thai bar on Monday.

Senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade attended the funeral service.

Thai police and Australian officials believe she was the innocent victim of a gang vendetta against the British owner of the Up2U Bar in Kanchanaburi, 120km west of Bangkok.

full story here

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...04-1702,00.html

slightly offtopic - with the amount of firearms in circulation in thailand and what seems minimal safety practiced by the carriers ( especially the characters on the ubiquitous thai soaps ) , what are the numbers of firearm accidents in Thailand.

[sriracha john]

Thai police baffled

ONLY two days after murdered Brisbane nurse Pamela Fitzpatrick was cremated in a Buddhist temple in Thailand, Thai police have admitted they are a long way from catching her killer.

Ms Fitzpatrick was shot in the neck in a drive-by shooting at a tourist bar in the town of Kanchanaburi, 130km west of Bangkok, last Monday. She later died in a hospital in Bangkok.

Thai police are baffled by the shooting, and despite several promising early leads, have so far failed to identify a suspect or establish a motive for the attack. Yesterday a senior officer on the investigation, Police Colonel, Vorapat Vadhan-avisala, told The Courier-Mail one of the investigations' strongest leads, part of the licence plate number seen by a witness, had come to nothing.

Police found seventeen different motor bikes in the area with the same licence plate number but after a thorough check have cleared the owners of the vehicles as possible suspects.

http://couriermail.news.com.au/story/0,207...0.html?from=rss

[Netfan]

Thai police baffled

The only thing that is baffling here is why the police are not doing what police all over the world do in high profile cases where they need information.

Put pressure on those who could provide information in this kind of case- the underworld. Petty criminals, the gang that have been reported as hanging out near the river. Start shutting down every gambling hall, massage parlor, sweep up drug dealers, roust the kids from the river, pick up numbers runners. Let them know life returns to normal when the suspects are turned over. If the local cops refuse to do this, then bring in CID from Bangkok. Somebody knows who did this.

[kayo]

Dam.n it all to hel_l. Ever since I left there it´s getting uglier and uglier, it seems.

My anger is to the selfish small minded people who make one of my favorite towns unsafe.

Khun Pam, My respects. To the family you leave behind also.

[Backpack_thailand]

Let them know life returns to normal when the suspects are turned over. If the local cops refuse to do this, then bring in CID from Bangkok. Somebody knows who did this.

You know it, I know it, we all know it. This is what should have happened from day one!

Unfortunately there is still a huge "them and us" with regards to incidents involving foreigners. Look how long it took to catch Somchai...!!!

If it had been a highly influential local person then see the difference in the police action. The town would have been virtually shut down until it was cleared!

The Thais don't seem to appreciate or understand what a huge downturn in tourist trade would do to their country. Without the tourists, Thailand is dead!

[Ollie]

Let them know life returns to normal when the suspects are turned over. If the local cops refuse to do this, then bring in CID from Bangkok. Somebody knows who did this.

You know it, I know it, we all know it. This is what should have happened from day one!

Unfortunately there is still a huge "them and us" with regards to incidents involving foreigners. Look how long it took to catch Somchai...!!!

If it had been a highly influential local person then see the difference in the police action. The town would have been virtually shut down until it was cleared!

The Thais don't seem to appreciate or understand what a huge downturn in tourist trade would do to their country. Without the tourists, Thailand is dead!

I don't think they give a toss or failing that, don't understand and why should they? How many incidents have there been over the last few years and what effect has it had!?

They will just wait for the storm to blow over. The Police never say, after such incidents, we must catch these whatever, before they do it again. Any quote, as in this case, is concerned about the effect on tourism.

I would have thought some pressure from the various major embassies might have an impact. Thailand doesn't come out shining of roses on the UK's Foreign Office site in any case. Perhaps an unequivical "it is not safe to travel to this area", as they record for the South, might do the trick?

Edited June 25, 2006 by Ollie

[sriracha john]

Family bid far well to murdered Aust nurse

The family of a young Australian nurse shot and killed in Kanchanaburi last week attended a Buddhist funeral service for her in Bangkok on Saturday afternoon.

The body of Pam Fitzpatrick was cremated at about 2.30pm local time after a short ceremony with Buddhist monks and local officials.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, his youngest daughter Jenny and three sons - Alan, Timothy and Robin - plus a couple of family friends gathered at Wat Klong Toey Nai in central Bangkok.

Representatives of the Thai police and Australian embassy officials, including Consul Robin Hamilton-Coates, attended the service, which lasted just half an hour.

The body of Fitzpatrick - shot in the town of Kanchanaburi early last Monday - lay in a white casket, while monks chanted and prayed that her soul would rest in peace.

The weather in Bangkok was wet and overcast, and seemed to mirror the mood of mourners at the service.

The family, originally from South Africa, said farewell to a girl who they described as happy and bubbly.

She was a nurse who had cared for paraplegics - a young woman in the prime of her life.

Her sister Jenny, who had been about to travel through Laos with Pam, was said to be "utterly distraught" at Pam's death, which occurred right beside her.

After the service, Kevin Fitzpatrick - who shifted to Australia from Johannesburg because of the violence there - was helped down the temple steps by the Australian consul.

Hamilton-Coates said the family had requested a quiet service and hoped that their privacy would be respected. The Fitzpatricks are due to return home to Brisbane within the next few days.

Investigators have had little success so far in locating the gunman who shot Fitzpatrick.

The nurse was with her sister Jenny, 20, and friends at a bar on Kanchanaburi's main tourist strip when the drama occurred.

More than 60 police have been seconded to look into the case, but the motive for the shooting is unknown.

Several hours earlier there was a dispute between five or six local men and the operators of an adjacent bar. But police have so far been unable to tie that to the tragic events several hours later.

Tests are now being done on the bullet removed from Fitzpatrick after her death.

Investigators say it was possible the two young men were simply "firing the gun" at random.

Australian officials in Bangkok, including Ambassador Bill Paterson, have lobbied senior police to solve the crime.

- The Nation

[khall64au]

Just erased Kanchanaburi from the editorial list of an international tourism magazine I represent (until the murder is solved).

I will not promote the region while it is unsafe for tourists to visit.

Edited June 25, 2006 by khall64au

[Backpack_thailand]

Just erased Kanchanaburi from the editorial list of an international tourism magazine I represent (until the murder is solved).

I will not promote the region while it is unsafe for tourists to visit.

In that case you would need to also erase:

Bangkok

Phuket

Pattaya

Samui

Koh Tao

Hua Hin

....or aren't foreigners ever victims of crime in these places?

Tosser!

[Maejo Man]

Bangkok

Phuket

Pattaya

Samui

Koh Tao

Hua Hin

....or aren't foreigners ever victims of crime in these places?

Tosser!

Lest we not for get Kirsty Jones in Chiangmai

[sexypurny]

how is she now... hope she will be fine sad to hear stories like this......

[silk123]

Seems clearer and clearr to me the longer i stay that

thailand hates foreigners but put up with us for the money income.

Like that thai chinese minister said" not all foreignes are evil, some have things to give, we should take those things."

Sad but true. Likely just a litte burst of Thai's feeling toward foreigners under the facade that innocent austrailian girl getting shot like that.

That policeman is out and about.

[Tony Clifton]

Chalerm boys bar hopping?

[tropo]

*deleted* Just realised this thread started in June, 06

Edited January 6, 2008 by tropo

[Tony Clifton]

Chalerm boys bar hopping?

They are too busy trying to get elected surely?

If you don't think there's something wrong with a society that tolerates alleged cop-killing and women-beating individuals such as the Yoobamrung brothers, not to mention the famous Bangkok pimp, to run for public office I suggest a long hard look at yourself is in order.

Anyway, back on topic, it is sickening how these cases get swept quickly under the carpet.

Here`s what I think of such scum.

[mikethevigoman]

What is she doing in Thailand anyway

what an odd question,no?

very odd question from a very odd poster.

Pot calling the kettle ...

I don't think it is an odd question. I just said what I though, she looks too nice to hang out in a dive in Kanchanaburi - particularly after all the trouble there seems to be there. Just read other posters opinion about that area, and it has had enough publicity in the western press, no?

probably the attraction phil,"oh come on lets go to the town the other couple were murdered !" notorious, and now even more so, i dunno about you but its another reason for me not to go,.be the same as visiting cromwell st in gloucester ( fred west )