UK tourist found dead on Koh Tao consumed Valium, alcohol: police
AFP

BANGKOK: -- A British backpacker who was found dead on a popular Thai tourist island had consumed a potentially fatal combination of alcohol and Valium, police said Tuesday citing preliminary autopsy data.


The body of Christina Annesley, 23, was discovered in a bungalow on Koh Tao, southern Thailand, last Wednesday.


"The initial results from the autopsy found Valium and alcohol in the victim's body," Thai police spokesman Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri, told AFP.


"There were no signs of rape," he added, saying the full autopsy results would be released within three days.


Annesley's death came four months after a British couple were found murdered on the same island in a case that placed local police under intense pressure.


Two Burmese nationals have been charged for the murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23 -- but both men have retracted their confessions saying they were obtained under duress.


Officers were also heavily criticised for allowing locals and journalists to walk over the crime scene.


Police in Koh Tao have said there was no evidence of foul play in the bungalow room where Annesley was discovered.


But in an indication that they wanted to avoid any criticism over their handling of the case, her body was sent to Bangkok for a full autopsy, which was carried out Sunday.


Many of Annesley's final tweets -- under the handle @chrstinadarling -- spoke of the beauty of Koh Tao's white sand beaches and azure waters, which are popular backpackers and divers.


She also made reference to taking both Tramadol, a painkiller, and Valium, an anti-anxiety medication, in the days leading up to her death.


Last week Koh Tao police said they had found three kinds of medicine in her room, but no illicit drugs.


British daily The Telegraph said Christina's mother Margaret had posted on her daughter's Facebook page saying she had died of "natural causes".


Tourism is a mainstay of Thailand's economy, which has struggled despite the military promising to turn the country's financial fortunes around after they took over in a May coup following months of street protests.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-01-27

I should have been dead years ago if that mix kills . . . . .

Backpackers here get excited about what's freely availlable in the pharmacy's. Valium is just one of them.

But why do UK-girls want to be pissed all the time? On a place like Koh Tao you can be happy without any drugs i guess.

A valium and alcohol will have virtually zero additional effect, like an extra drink or two.

Technically it's possible that it can kill you but I believe you would need to consume a huge amount of both alcohol and valium for this to happen. It wouldn't happen by accident.

Certain painkillers which won't generally be available in Thailand are something different entirely, a few of them with a night of drinking can send you directly to the morgue just like all those hollywood types who occasionally die. They often take valium too but it's the opiate based medications that do the damage.

So they don't know what killed her and are assuming it is the mix of Valium and alcohol. She would have to have wanted to kill herself if this was the case as one pill and alcohol is not enough also Valium stays in the blood so she could have taken them many days prior to having a drink. The article uses the word "potentially" which pretty much means they do not know. I hope forensics in her country can learn more than here because this coroner obviously did not care to find the cause of death!

I should have been dead years ago if that mix kills . . . . .

You're lucky and have a rigid constitution then. A casual friend of mine died through that combination.

He drank a lot of booze, was an alcoholic (were're talking heavy liquor first thing in the morning).

He went on a heavy night binge. Woke up just after dawn. Took a cold shower, popped some valium to get back to sleep, never woke up again. The combination slows your heart down to the point it fails to beat.

This happened on Koh Tao and he used to own a bar on the beach at Sairee.

Poor girl..
At the beginning of her life.

I feel for her family and friends

Backpackers here get excited about what's freely availlable in the pharmacy's. Valium is just one of them.

But why do UK-girls want to be pissed all the time? On a place like Koh Tao you can be happy without any drugs i guess.

I hear what you are saying, Its a ''British'' thing, We all start drinking at a very early age, and it often gets out of control..

Go to any City or Town at the weekend, and its ''Wild''... and of course ''Dangerous''..

So not natural causes as first touted then.

So, did she take the Valium deliberately or was it secretly administered? Clue for BiB - Was a container found in the room? (no don't go back and look now, one will have been installed)

Anything else in the bloodstream?

So not natural causes as first touted then.

So, did she take the Valium deliberately or was it secretly administered? Clue for BiB - Was a container found in the room? (no don't go back and look now, one will have been installed)

Anything else in the bloodstream?

Doesn't take long for a Thai Visa detective to pop up I see.

If you read of some of the other reports you will see that she had been complaining of being ill a few days before she died

But why do UK-girls want to be pissed all the time? On a place like Koh Tao you can be happy without any drugs i guess.

I don't know that they do, but nice generalisation there. I've travelled the world and seen young girls inebriated from all countries and cultures (including, very likely, from your country), though I guess if you have a chip on your shoulder you see what you see.

English girls and boys me feel love to try exotic races for pleasure and I see many of them like to get smashed before the session so the drugs may be in relation to the hunt for pleasure in the hotel room, if they could learn to enjoy without drugs and alcohol be safer for them but sometimes I feel they dont want it but they do want it and so they may be confused peoples

I, like many others, wait patiently for the British autopsy to truly find out the cause of this tragic death. That being said, below quite clearly shows a mix that in my unprofessional opinion could prove deadly.

The wests junky kids deserve all they get! Life is fun and then you're dead!

So not natural causes as first touted then.

So, did she take the Valium deliberately or was it secretly administered? Clue for BiB - Was a container found in the room? (no don't go back and look now, one will have been installed)

Anything else in the bloodstream?

She would need a considerable amount of Valium, not merely a 10 mg tablet. Valium is very bitter as is Xanax etc, they're produced that way deliberately, the only quite tasteless one is Klonopin. If a quantity was administered in liquid it's likely that she would have spat it out. Often drugs like Valium aren't carried in a container, a lady might hide a few in a compact, make up case, even empty lipstick case etc. My guess is she liked the feeling she got from Valium, has taken them with booze before and never had a problem. This time......well, this time there was possibly a problem.

I, like many others, wait patiently for the British autopsy to truly find out the cause of this tragic death. That being said, below quite clearly shows a mix that in my unprofessional opinion could prove deadly.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422339832.545132.jpg

The toxicology report would provide the details necessary to determine cause of death. They're just not releasing it to the media, and why should they? When you run a toxicology report, it gives you the concentration of alcohol and drugs in the blood. A medical examiner could then rely upon that data to determine whether it more than likely caused her death. A British autopsy won't yield anything more, just as sending British investigators into Koh Tao revealed no new facts about the unrelated case the Brits keep yapping about on this thread.

I, like many others, wait patiently for the British autopsy to truly find out the cause of this tragic death. That being said, below quite clearly shows a mix that in my unprofessional opinion could prove deadly.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422339832.545132.jpg

The toxicology report would provide the details necessary to determine cause of death. They're just not releasing it to the media, and why should they? When you run a toxicology report, it gives you the concentration of alcohol and drugs in the blood. A medical examiner could then rely upon that data to determine whether it more than likely caused her death. A British autopsy won't yield anything more, just as sending British investigators into Koh Tao revealed no new facts about the unrelated case the Brits keep yapping about on this thread.

I was more referring to the fact that nobody will truly believe the Thai police conclusion. If the UK autopsy wields the same results then I expect there will still be cynics that claim her body has been manipulated in someway. I wasn't calling into question their actual conclusion.

If the murders had not occurred last year then I'm not sure this would even be news, however tragic it is.

English girls and boys me feel love to try exotic races for pleasure and I see many of them like to get smashed before the session so the drugs may be in relation to the hunt for pleasure in the hotel room, if they could learn to enjoy without drugs and alcohol be safer for them but sometimes I feel they dont want it but they do want it and so they may be confused peoples

What a generalised idiotic statement, and racist at that Dumu Ali. Shame on you!

The wests junky kids deserve all they get! Life is fun and then you're dead!

Yeah good job Ya-Ba isn't available in the West. Maybe half the youth there would be on it like they are in Thailand.

Is that was you were trying to say ?

How much valium did she consume??

You shouldn't take it with alcohol because of the stupid shit you end up doing, and the possibility of getting hurt while doing it but you'd have to take a hell of a lot for it to kill you outright.

Slightly off topic, but what was the final autopsy report on the frenchman that was found hanged on the island with his hands tied behind him?

Slightly off topic, but what was the final autopsy report on the frenchman that was found hanged on the island with his hands tied behind him?

Were the tied behind him. Or more Chinese whispers from the cynics at TV. It's not unheard of for people to bound their hands so that they can't stop themselves from committing suicide. It's not, I imagine, an easy feat.

And let's be fair, if you murdered someone and wanted to make it look like a suicide. Would you leave their hands tied, especially behind their back. It's illogical.

So not natural causes as first touted then.

So, did she take the Valium deliberately or was it secretly administered? Clue for BiB - Was a container found in the room? (no don't go back and look now, one will have been installed)

Anything else in the bloodstream?

She would need a considerable amount of Valium, not merely a 10 mg tablet. Valium is very bitter as is Xanax etc, they're produced that way deliberately, the only quite tasteless one is Klonopin. If a quantity was administered in liquid it's likely that she would have spat it out. Often drugs like Valium aren't carried in a container, a lady might hide a few in a compact, make up case, even empty lipstick case etc. My guess is she liked the feeling she got from Valium, has taken them with booze before and never had a problem. This time......well, this time there was possibly a problem.

Indeed she would need a considerable amount (assuming Diazepam, today's normal prescription for what was Valium) - AND probably in the region of at the very least 700mg to interact with any alcohol ingested to cause coma, at the probable max. It was reported she went to bed and didn't go out - so something does not add up here if she had no alcohol. Diazepam ingestions of 2000mg have been recorded with the patient leaving hospital within 48hrs and without any side-effects.

I thought we were getting the full chemical analysis yesterday - Monday? Now it's Tuesday, and they want 3 more days?? .... sounds to me like a story needs time to be created. ......... yet again!

despite what people are saying she clearly enjoyed self medicating. it is a fact she tweeted about dropping Tramadol and Valium and was also on the piss. Despite what some superhero's on here are saying that can be a potentially fatal mix tramadol and valium is very nearly the same as taking xanax and valium one lowers your heart rate and the other puts you to sleep add in buckets of alcohol and shit can happen. Kids love to experiment most of us did. In this case it has turned into a tragedy. No conspiracies No serial killers just a girl that got unlucky on a big night out on holiday...R.I.P. young lady

I, like many others, wait patiently for the British autopsy to truly find out the cause of this tragic death. That being said, below quite clearly shows a mix that in my unprofessional opinion could prove deadly.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422339832.545132.jpg

The toxicology report would provide the details necessary to determine cause of death. They're just not releasing it to the media, and why should they? When you run a toxicology report, it gives you the concentration of alcohol and drugs in the blood. A medical examiner could then rely upon that data to determine whether it more than likely caused her death. A British autopsy won't yield anything more, just as sending British investigators into Koh Tao revealed no new facts about the unrelated case the Brits keep yapping about on this thread.

Another racist! If it had happened to two of your own I am sure you'd still be complaining. What's wrong with Brits yapping? Go on. Answer me.

Slightly off topic, but what was the final autopsy report on the frenchman that was found hanged on the island with his hands tied behind him?

Were the tied behind him. Or more Chinese whispers from the cynics at TV. It's not unheard of for people to bound their hands so that they can't stop themselves from committing suicide. It's not, I imagine, an easy feat.

And let's be fair, if you murdered someone and wanted to make it look like a suicide. Would you leave their hands tied, especially behind their back. It's illogical.

Agreed, skeptics should watch The Life of David Gayle

despite what people are saying she clearly enjoyed self medicating. it is a fact she tweeted about dropping Tramadol and Valium and was also on the piss. Despite what some superhero's on here are saying that can be a potentially fatal mix tramadol and valium is very nearly the same as taking xanax and valium one lowers your heart rate and the other puts you to sleep add in buckets of alcohol and shit can happen. Kids love to experiment most of us did. In this case it has turned into a tragedy. No conspiracies No serial killers just a girl that got unlucky on a big night out on holiday...R.I.P. young lady

A big night out on holiday? I recall her tweeting she didn't go out, nor consume alcohol on the night of her death, because she wasn't feeling well. Care to point me in the direction that she did go out that night and consume alcohol???

Would be interesting to know if she went out the night prior to being found.

A fatal combination would obviously not be a couple of beers and a couple of pills.

So not natural causes as first touted then.

So, did she take the Valium deliberately or was it secretly administered? Clue for BiB - Was a container found in the room? (no don't go back and look now, one will have been installed)

Anything else in the bloodstream?

She would need a considerable amount of Valium, not merely a 10 mg tablet. Valium is very bitter as is Xanax etc, they're produced that way deliberately, the only quite tasteless one is Klonopin. If a quantity was administered in liquid it's likely that she would have spat it out. Often drugs like Valium aren't carried in a container, a lady might hide a few in a compact, make up case, even empty lipstick case etc. My guess is she liked the feeling she got from Valium, has taken them with booze before and never had a problem. This time......well, this time there was possibly a problem.

Indeed she would need a considerable amount (assuming Diazepam, today's normal prescription for what was Valium) - AND probably in the region of at the very least 700mg to interact with any alcohol ingested to cause coma, at the probable max. It was reported she went to bed and didn't go out - so something does not add up here if she had no alcohol. Diazepam ingestions of 2000mg have been recorded with the patient leaving hospital within 48hrs and without any side-effects.

I thought we were getting the full chemical analysis yesterday - Monday? Now it's Tuesday, and they want 3 more days?? .... sounds to me like a story needs time to be created. ......... yet again!

Mate everyone has different tolerances, ya just can't talk in mg for every person. I know guys that can drink a bottle of Jack have two strips of xannies and go out all night. I have one and I am asleep in twenty minutes. Conversely I can take diazepam like they are tic tacs and have never had a problem. Tramadol is an opiate and depending on the dosage is a strong one at that, is very addictive and one of the most popular drugs in Thai boob (don't ask). Point being what you consider to be reasonable could be well into a overdose for some people and to say people have had 2000mg of Diazepam with no ill effects doesn't mean every one can. It is ridiculous to extrapolate on a point with no concrete evidence especially when the unfortunate girl in question is posting about the drugs she consumes. In my world if you not scared to post about them online she wouldn't be too shy about taking plenty of them...

despite what people are saying she clearly enjoyed self medicating. it is a fact she tweeted about dropping Tramadol and Valium and was also on the piss. Despite what some superhero's on here are saying that can be a potentially fatal mix tramadol and valium is very nearly the same as taking xanax and valium one lowers your heart rate and the other puts you to sleep add in buckets of alcohol and shit can happen. Kids love to experiment most of us did. In this case it has turned into a tragedy. No conspiracies No serial killers just a girl that got unlucky on a big night out on holiday...R.I.P. young lady

A big night out on holiday? I recall her tweeting she didn't go out, nor consume alcohol on the night of her death, because she wasn't feeling well. Care to point me in the direction that she did go out that night and consume alcohol???

mate did you read her tweet? She was well pissed and had passed out from taking Tramadol Valium and buckets of piss yeah? Maybe she is one those that hits it early on. She might be on the piss first thing every day for all I know. What I do know is she isn't shy about coming forward about all the self medicating and drinking she was doing and maybe this time she passed out and never woke up. I am just getting over every time someone dies in Thailand it "has" to be foul play <deleted> me maybe she just <deleted> up