Family suspect cover up in death of American expat in Hua Hin

[Grubster]

57 minutes ago, gemguy said:

This and other factors is what I keep on telling people about.

Basically the Thai police do not want to open up a whole can of worms and go about thoroughly investigating the evidence concerning "another" dead foreigner.

Proving that a foreigner was murdered and could very well have been done by a Thai person is not good for business ..so to speak.

I can easily surmise that the police tow the line and do what they are told to do from higher up and told to wrap up the case and quell the publicity.

It is the way it has always been while I do not think it will change much.

Not many cases are vigorously pursued by the police while most of them just fade away without anyone being held accountable.

Back in 1997 a German client of mine asked me to visit him at his hotel to say hello and discuss some business.

In his room he showed me the latest copy of the German magazine publication Der Spiegel.

He pointed out an article that was written about the German Foreign Affairs Ministry notifying German Airlines and German based tour operators and air flight ticket agents and vacation booking agents requesting them to notify German citizens booking for travel to Thailand to be forewarned about how many foreign people on vacation in Thailand  were dying under unsolved and very questionable circumstances and reported by the police and for the record reported as suicides or accidents or heart attacks....a lot of heart attacks

In the article it point out how many questionable deaths had occurred from 1993 to 1996 and how they were left unresolved and not investigated by the Thai police.

If I recall the correctly the number  was 154 Foreign nationals had died in the 3 year period while 126  were German citizens and far more than other nationalities and hence the reason why the German foreign affairs ministry was forewarning German citizens about the many unresolved deaths of German citizens having traveled to Thailand

Of the 126 German citizens reported dead, 109 of them were reported dead in the sea side resort city of Pattaya....as in 90 percent of them. 

The rest  of the deaths were made up of Americans and Australians and British and 1 Canadian and  a few Asian nationalities also.

My client told me he used to go to Pattaya many years before but no way he was ever going again....as he was disgusted by this while asking me how can they ( the authorities ) say all theses unresolved deaths are suicide or heart attacks or accidents....while he called "Bullshit"

The article was pretty explicit while it begged the question: What are the Police doing about all these deaths???.... while the article answered its own question by pointing out NOTHING...or certainly very little while very perturbing considering the numbers involved.

 

Then...about 1 year later I am reading the Bangkok post and there is a very lengthy news paper article written about a Pattaya based gang of girls / women who were caught out and exposed for drugging people to death...as in dead...tits up with X's in their eyes dead....while the victims were most commonly found dead in their hotel rooms by the hotel staff after a period of time.

In the article it pointed out that the gang consisted of around 15 to 20  girls and women,  both young and middle aged who would drug their victims with enough sedative to kill them and then rob them and then bring the money and or credit cards or valuables back to the Gang leader, who was known to be a Chines man and based out of Hong Kong and possibly connected to Triad societies in Hong Kong ..but never proven as he quickly fled the country when the gig was up.

The first girls that were caught out and arrested confessed to the police telling them that all the girls involved would share the proceeds and they made an average of 40 to 60,000 baht per month doing their part.

It turned out that the Chinese man gang leader would incorporate Indian and Pakistani nationals that had over stayed their visa and having difficulties obtaining enough money to leave Thailand so the gang leader used them to search out foreign tourists that looked like they were big spenders and drinking a lot and having the time of their life in Pattaya.

When the scouts found a worthy mark and it was confirmed the mark was spending money freely and drinking a lot and getting drunk, after following the mark for over a 2 or 3 day period, then the scouts would report that a mark was "good to go"

Then, one of the many "pretties" or "lovelies" would be put on to the mark ...where the pretty or lovely would have a chance meeting with the happy go lucky tourist mark and find himself in the company of a "nice girl" who says she fancied the mark and goes about befriending the mark.

Then the mark was now in the company of a nice women who was taking care of him and sleeping with him and having sex for "free" while the mark would be figuring he had hit the jack pot while she would make sure the mark is well taken care of and make sure he was continually drinking and enjoying himself ..but kept oblivious to the fact that he was being observed and set up while watching how much money he would carry on himself and the amount of valuables he owned or credits cards and how much money he would draw out of the ATM or bank account and observed over a period of several days.

Meantime the relevant info was being relayed back to the big boss who would finally decide that the time was right.

The girls would then be furnished with a very strong sedative and instructed to make sure the mark was good and drunk and ...have one more drink before going to sleep.... "honey" ...while the drink was liberally laced with the sedative or "knock out" drug.

The end result ...heart seizure from the combination of alcohol and the type of sedative administered in amounts far more than recommended by any doctor and considered safe ..rather known to be deadly....and one more foreigner found in his room dead with all their money and valuables gone while the police would say, for the record, the man had a heart attack and someone??? had removed his valuables and cash from the room ...but no one was ever convicted or arrested and no follow up.

Eventually one guy did not die as planned and found the girl that had drugged and robbed him and made a major issue over it and one thing lead to another and the gang was exposed.

But this went on for 5 years while the police were told the girls rotated and went back home 1 or 2 days after they had done their deed and collected their share of the shared proceeds and then come back after 2 weeks or so and do it all over again, is what the police were told by some of the girls that were pressured to confess.

This was going on during the time period of 1993 to 1997  that my German client pointed out in the Der Spiegel magazine article that he showed me.

A coincidence ??? I think not

Cheers

WOW thats quite a story, I feel like they are looking the other way on many cases now, but I am not to impressed with our own governments not taking any interest either. I would think that sending an embassy rep to the scene would make them think twice about looking the other way. Well I guess it just confirms that a guy should not party alone in the tourist areas here.   Thanks for the story

[gemguy]

7 hours ago, Grubster said:

WOW thats quite a story, I feel like they are looking the other way on many cases now, but I am not to impressed with our own governments not taking any interest either. I would think that sending an embassy rep to the scene would make them think twice about looking the other way. Well I guess it just confirms that a guy should not party alone in the tourist areas here.   Thanks for the story

I know..it is sad without a doubt.

If you are familiar with the Charles Sobhraj ( dubbed the Bikini Killer ) serial murder case then you will get a better Idea of how the Thai police handle a murder investigation.

They actually had arrested the guy and then let him go because they did not want any undue publicity about the murders he had committed.

I lived in the same apartment complex where he had been arrested, but that was several years after he had been arrested and had fled the country while some of the people that lived at the apartment complex and of course the employees and the manager remember the man and said he was a "nice guy" a "really nice guy" is how they remembered  him...but meantime he was befriending young tourist travelers and had murdered several of them.

Look it up on Google and you will find out.

Cheers

[thetruth revealer]

On 27.11.2016 at 0:58 PM, arrowsdawdle said:

 

The powers that be are of the position that no Thai would do such a thing and that warped view is whitewashed over everything that does not challenge it. Anybody living in LOS for any time at all knows this.

 Remember the Ko Tao case with the Burmese Scapegoats.

[thetruth revealer]

On 27.11.2016 at 1:48 PM, Grubster said:

No but they could take the time to go to the police and view any evidence they were willing to share, and take a look at the autopsy report just as a curtesy to one of their fellow US citizens that died here. After all they do need to complete a death certificate for him anyway.  If they saw a discrepancy, I'm sure they could pass that info to somebody of relevance.

If they want to do so, yes.

[sambum]

7 hours ago, thetruth revealer said:

If they want to do so, yes.

Quite so! In the same way that the Koh Tao police only showed the British Police what they wanted them to see! There is an old expression in the UK/USA which states:-"Being economical with the truth" Just about covers it! 

[Grubster]

3 hours ago, sambum said:

Quite so! In the same way that the Koh Tao police only showed the British Police what they wanted them to see! There is an old expression in the UK/USA which states:-"Being economical with the truth" Just about covers it! 

But remember that the Brit authorities only went there after the 1st police chief got ran off the case for looking into the HiSo Thai guy. Had they talked with that police chief day one, things may have evolved differently.

[Gang Warily]

http://websterjournal.com/2016/11/30/webster-thailand-faculty-members-mysterious-death-questioned-family/

 

[Nanchanok]

On 11/28/2016 at 0:22 AM, Pitty Sing said:

I am a worker at the uni and from what I've seen, all was handled well there.  Yes, the cremation ceremony was short, but that was after a 2 hour memorial at the university in which students and faculty, including the rector, paid great tribute to the man.  And that was the second ceremony!  The first one was held the day that James was reported dead.  No mention of that in the article.  Also, our website newspaper published a very nice tribute.  

The article claims cover-up, but why no effort to contact the university?  what kind of journalism is that?
(And motive?  for the school?  I suppose they might have been interested in shielding the student body from reports that there is some killer loose, targeting beloved instructors...)

Had they done so, they probably would have gotten some answer that suggested that the school could not be responsible for trying to contact an employee who did not wish to be contacted, without violating his rights.  Upon getting the autopsy, they immediately shared the final conclusion (though truly, not the details listed in the article; but why did the article not mention the final results?  or the accurate reporting of those final results to the staff and students by mass email?).  Is the implication that the school was able to influence the police?  And were the police trying to cover up or were they just trying to get home for dinner once they found that there was no robbery, and no forced entry and no immediate attribution of the bruises to the death (the hotel staff evidently had seen James actively coming and going for two days prior with those cuts and bruises).  The cease and desist letter was an attempt to respect (ironically) the wishes the of the brother so that he would share (ironically again) the autopsy results so that those results could be shared with the school who was looking for closure and hoping that suicide was not the final determination.  The cease and desist letter was targeted at an individual who seemingly took some kind of pleasure in looking at and sharing these pictures which explained nothing but certainly were morbid, dark, ugly and unsettling.  Could you imagine a few hundred students roaming around campus with those after-images burned in their eyes, and talking about without having even an inkling of any of the circumstances (kind of like what I've seen here and on Facebook since the disappearance).  

And perhaps the school was happy to get back the autopsy report which allowed this whole thing to go away.  No student or friend there wanted to hear about suicide or some dark murder from which he was trying to escape for over a month, especially if there were was nothing from the police or autopsy to warrant such speculation.  And besides, who knows what happened?  the police and staff of the hotel say the room was locked from the inside.  if he had gotten beaten, or fallen down, and died two days later, how do we know it wasn't all on him?  many who knew him knew that he could be belligerent when inebriated, and if in despair on top of that? And James did have some kind of history with depression, and had disappeared before in similar ways that made all close to him hope and pray for his eventual return.   And if he was on a bender, looking for trouble?  You've heard of suicide by cop?  How about suicide by bar patron?  or by street thugs?  or by taxi driver?  I myself have had brushes with violence from Thai folk and Falang in my years here, which came out of the blue without any or much provocation on my part.  and why do we have to investigate every strange death?  Do they do so in the US?  In Russia?  In France.  No, no and no.  Turns out that weird deaths are often enough swept under the carpet in countries all over the world.  And so what?  does the investigation (and spending of time and money and resources really allow justice?  not too often, I'm afraid).  Somehow, people who live here forget that inept or sloppy policing occurs (all over the globe) at least as often as high level cover ups.  Maybe even more?  Who was it on this forum invoked Occam?  

Now why James' brother and his so-called friend are so interested in all of this is anybody's guess.  I've never spoken to him, but all the reports I've heard suggest he's a disturbed and obsessive individual who cannot respect the rights and peace of his brother or his brother's colleagues.  

James was a nice dude with problems.  That's true.  Let's give the guy a break and us, and just let this go away.  For myself, I've been robbed of grieving by vampires and photo hounds -- all infantile egos bent on getting themselves off at the expense of having to deal with real feelings about their own guilt or worthlessness.



 

I am the writer of this article. The second paragraph of your post asks why there was no effort to contact the university. I guess you probably didn't read the article well enough, because I quoted Webster's interim rector Keith Welsh. The reason why I was able to quote him because I called him and talked to him on the phone. Please read the article again.

[sambum]

16 minutes ago, Nanchanok said:

I am the writer of this article. The second paragraph of your post asks why there was no effort to contact the university. I guess you probably didn't read the article well enough, because I quoted Webster's interim rector Keith Welsh. The reason why I was able to quote him because I called him and talked to him on the phone. Please read the article again.

Did you mean:- "Kevin Walsh, the director of Webster University’s Thailand campus, did not respond to a request for comment by press time."

Just asking!

[Gang Warily]

7 hours ago, sambum said:

Did you mean:- "Kevin Walsh, the director of Webster University’s Thailand campus, did not respond to a request for comment by press time."

Just asking!

No she meant the quotes from Mr.Welsh used in the article. 

[Gang Warily]

8 hours ago, sambum said:

Thanks for clearing that up.

Was that an apology?

[sambum]

1 hour ago, Gang Warily said:

Was that an apology?

 

1 hour ago, Gang Warily said:

Was that an apology?

For what? Bit touchy aren't you?

 

"Keith Welsh" and "Kevin Walsh" sound quite similar to me, and sometimes in this country, understandably, errors in translation occur. That's why I said "Just asking!" 

Edited December 3, 2016 by sambum

[Gang Warily]

20 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

For what? Bit touchy aren't you?

 

"Keith Welsh" and "Kevin Walsh" sound quite similar to me, and sometimes in this country, understandably, errors in translation occur. That's why I said "Just asking!" 

Not at all. I am not the one accused. But you have applauded the ramblngs of'Pitty Sing' and repeated his lies not once but twice. An apology would be in order but of course if you have not been taught manners before arriving at Webster I doubt you will learn them there.

There are no translations btw both articles were written in English. The Webster site article has made a correction but still has Mr. Welsh's name wrong.

[onthesoi]

@Andy

Just now, Gang Warily said:

the ramblngs of'Pitty Sing' and repeated his lies not once but twice.

 

 

Can you provide a list?

[sambum]

53 minutes ago, Gang Warily said:

Not at all. I am not the one accused. But you have applauded the ramblngs of'Pitty Sing' and repeated his lies not once but twice. An apology would be in order but of course if you have not been taught manners before arriving at Webster I doubt you will learn them there.

There are no translations btw both articles were written in English. The Webster site article has made a correction but still has Mr. Welsh's name wrong.

You are in danger of being earmarked as a troll!:-

"if you have not been taught manners before arriving at Webster I doubt you will learn them there."

Who are you to make assumptions as to my station in life? I have never been to Webster, and have no intention of going there - at my time of life I have no need of any further lessons in education  thank you very much! So you are in actual fact a liar, and should stop jumping to conclusions, and as far as manners are concerned, I think you should look at your own accusations before criticising others.

"But you have applauded the ramblngs of'Pitty Sing' and repeated his lies not once but twice." 

Just what are you on about? I haven't repeated anything, and I wasn't asking any questions of you in the first place - I was merely asking Nanchanok if there was a mix up in identity, to which I received a very civil reply, and I actually "liked" his post, but I am afraid that your uncalled for aggressive baiting style does not warrant any reply from me - nor will you get one - goodbye.

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by sambum

[Gang Warily]

1 hour ago, onthesoi said:

@Andy

 

Can you provide a list?

Yes of course. My comment in bold  'Pitty Sing in italics

ID: 93   Posted November 27 · Report post
"I am a worker at the uni and from what I've seen, all was handled well there.  Yes, the cremation ceremony was short, but that was after a 2 hour memorial at the university in which students and faculty, including the rector, paid great tribute to the man.  And that was the second ceremony!  The first one was held the day that James was reported dead.  No mention of that in the article.  Also, our website newspaper published a very nice tribute.  

The article claims cover-up, but why no effort to contact the university?  what kind of journalism is that?

 

LIE 1 The University was contacted and quoted.

(And motive?  for the school?  I suppose they might have been interested in shielding the student body from reports that there is some killer loose, targeting beloved instructors...)
Had they done so, they probably would have gotten some answer that suggested that the school could not be responsible for trying to contact an employee who did not wish to be contacted, without violating his rights.

LIE 2.  This suggests that they did not try to contact James Hughes. But they did. Or so they told the police, long before term time.

 

Upon getting the autopsy, they immediately shared the final conclusion (though truly, not the details listed in the article; but why did the article not mention the final results?  or the accurate reporting of those final results to the staff and students by mass email?). 

Lies 3 and 4 and 5: The article did mention the final results. The University did not share the final conclusion because there never was one. What accurate reporting of the final results? There were no final results. The only result was that in the initial report the doctor said Hughes died because his heart stopped and he stopped breathing. That as I have pointed out IS death – not cause of death.

Is the implication that the school was able to influence the police?  And were the police trying to cover up or were they just trying to get home for dinner once they found that there was no robbery, and no forced entry and no immediate attribution of the bruises to the death (the hotel staff evidently had seen James actively coming and going for two days prior with those cuts and bruises).  

 

Lie 6: No member of staff told the police that two days earlier they saw James coming and going with those ‘cuts and bruises’. Its not been suggested there was a robbery but James had only 100 baht or so on him when he died.

"The cease and desist letter was an attempt to respect (ironically) the wishes the of the brother so that he would share (ironically again) the autopsy results so that those results could be shared with the school who was looking for closure and hoping that suicide was not the final determination."

Lie 7: The University asked people not to talk about the case or show the photographs on pain of being reported to the Embassy or Thai Police!  And this was done to please the brother? This is getting ridiculous. The only interest served was Webster University Cha-am campus.

The cease and desist letter was targeted at an individual who seemingly took some kind of pleasure in looking at and sharing these pictures which explained nothing but certainly were morbid, dark, ugly and unsettling.  Could you imagine a few hundred students roaming around campus with those after-images burned in their eyes, and talking about without having even an inkling of any of the circumstances (kind of like what I've seen here and on Facebook since the disappearance).

 
The above I won’t classify as lies but just ridiculous speculation. The students at the Uni are adults. They are entitled to speculate. The images burned in their eyes, oi vey!

And perhaps the school was happy to get back the autopsy report which allowed this whole thing to go away.  

Lie 8: The autopsy report did not allow this whole thing to go away. Even the head of police said he was concerned with the new information.

No student or friend there wanted to hear about suicide or some dark murder from which he was trying to escape for over a month, especially if there were was nothing from the police or autopsy to warrant such speculation.  

Lie 9. There clearly were many things in the autopsy to warrant speculation. Why did the students not want to hear? What gives a member of staff the power to decide what students should hear on or off campus?

And besides, who knows what happened?  the police and staff of the hotel say the room was locked from the inside

Lie 10. The police did not say the hotel room was locked from the inside. This is what the hotel staff said. The police were not present when the door was opened.

If he had gotten beaten, or fallen down, and died two days later, how do we know it wasn't all on him?  many who knew him knew that he could be belligerent when inebriated, and if in despair on top of that? And James did have some kind of history with depression, and had disappeared before in similar ways that made all close to him hope and pray for his eventual return.  

Lie 11. The author is obviosusly not very close to James Hughes as he claims. He further suggests suicide when not even police have suggested it.

 And if he was on a bender, looking for trouble?  You've heard of suicide by cop?  How about suicide by bar patron?  or by street thugs?  or by taxi driver?  

Thank you. That is what everyone wants to know.

 

I myself have had brushes with violence from Thai folk and Falang in my years here, which came out of the blue without any or much provocation on my part.  and why do we have to investigate every strange death?  Do they do so in the US?  In Russia?  In France.  No, no and no.  

Lies 12-14.  Yes. Yes. Yes.  By now I think the only London the author knows is London, Ontario. I am sure he is was clubbed to death in on of his 'brushes' his family would want to know the truth.

Turns out that weird deaths are often enough swept under the carpet in countries all over the world.  And so what?  does the investigation (and spending of time and money and resources really allow justice?  not too often, I'm afraid).  Somehow, people who live here forget that inept or sloppy policing occurs (all over the globe) at least as often as high level cover ups.  Maybe even more?  Who was it on this forum invoked Occam?  

Turns out? Speculation, false comparison and no justification provided for lack of investigation

Now why James' brother and his so-called friend are so interested in all of this is anybody's guess.  I've never spoken to him, but all the reports I've heard suggest he's a disturbed and obsessive individual who cannot respect the rights and peace of his brother or his brother's colleagues.  

(unsubstantiated malice. Earlier he says Uni was trying to respect David Hughes)

James was a nice dude with problems.  That's true.  Let's give the guy a break and us, and just let this go away.  For myself, I've been robbed of grieving by vampires and photo hounds -- all infantile egos bent on getting themselves off at the expense of having to deal with real feelings about their own guilt or worthlessness.
(just drivel)
 

Edited December 3, 2016 by Gang Warily

[Pitty Sing]

When I wrote that post, I was emotionally upset, was unable to sleep, and wrote what I wrote in a fatigued and heart broken place.  I'm truly not in the habit of contributing to such banter, but the rhetoric since this all began has been so ugly, and all the misinformation was unfortunate, and everybody has a theory...

I have my own theories too.  But I admit that I don't know if James was killed or died by accident or by suicide.  I used to want to know, but now I feel that it is more respectful to move on, and especially not try to hurt others and the reputation of a small but respectable chapter of a university through half-truths and innuendo and brazen speculation.  However, now i can admit, now that my head is cleared from this latest round of sensationalistic "journalism", that you all have the right to speak out and question and stir the pot and fan the flames as you deem it appropriate to do so.

For my part, I apologize for not having read the article clearly before I commented on it, for not being clear myself on points that I don't know the whole truth of, and for casting aspersions at others, whether it be people on the inside who, for reasons all their own, are doing what they're doing because it feels right for them to do that or people on the outside who, for their own reasons, feel like it's better to know the "truth" or who just like to participate in such discussions.   I don't think that truth is knowable at this point, but hey, I don't want to vote for censorship either, so I encourage all who feel moved to do so, do what they may to find James' killer if there is one, or find out whatever can be found out, and perhaps, someday, James and his friends, students and colleagues can get peace and closure on all of this nasty business.

They say that when you point a finger out, three come back at you, and I feel the force of that now.  Guilty?  Yes I feel guilty, though I'd be hard pressed to know why,  Because I didn't help or couldn't?  Certainly Because I let my emotions override my sensibility to stay out of this kind of dialogue and so I did not keep my opinions and judgment to myself, and because I judged when it really wasn't right or fair for me to do so.  (In my defense, that having been my first post here, I thought it might work like facebook, and I had regret not long after I posted it, but then it was too late.  I could not delete. : (
Do I also feel worthless?  Sure.  At times, as I imagine is common enough for those of us who are enduring the hardships of this life, sometimes with more success and sometimes with less.  So it is the height of hypocrisy to call other out on that, and everybody grieves in their own way.  Some rage into the dying of the night.

I hope nobody was too offended or annoyed by my brash words.  I really did hope to stop or slow the tide of glee and excitement that people seem to have when they smell scandal.  For the record, when and if I am murdered here or anywhere else, I really don't give two f*cks if anybody finds out who dunnit, and would hope that my own family and friends could just let my friends have peace instead of going on witchhunts to schools and police and embassies and all that.  I beleive that justice is not a corporeal entity, but a karmic one.  We all get to learn from our mistakes, and so whether or not the guilty are found, we all must pay the piper and continue paying until we figure it all out.

But insofar as everybody's gonna do what they're gonna do, then I just hope that we can all (me before any of you) keep in mind that these are real people whose lives are affected by such deaths, and lets all try to keep a little sensitivity for them and respect for each other and forgive and love.  That's closer to what I  wished I had written the first time, and so now I feel I've set the record straight and contributed to this blog in a positive way. 

Respectfully and apologetically...

[Gang Warily]

2 hours ago, Pitty Sing said:

When I wrote that post, I was emotionally upset, was unable to sleep, and wrote what I wrote in a fatigued and heart broken place.  I'm truly not in the habit of contributing to such banter, but the rhetoric since this all began has been so ugly, and all the misinformation was unfortunate, and everybody has a theory...

I have my own theories too.  But I admit that I don't know if James was killed or died by accident or by suicide.  I used to want to know, but now I feel that it is more respectful to move on, and especially not try to hurt others and the reputation of a small but respectable chapter of a university through half-truths and innuendo and brazen speculation.  However, now i can admit, now that my head is cleared from this latest round of sensationalistic "journalism", that you all have the right to speak out and question and stir the pot and fan the flames as you deem it appropriate to do so.

For my part, I apologize for not having read the article clearly before I commented on it, for not being clear myself on points that I don't know the whole truth of, and for casting aspersions at others, whether it be people on the inside who, for reasons all their own, are doing what they're doing because it feels right for them to do that or people on the outside who, for their own reasons, feel like it's better to know the "truth" or who just like to participate in such discussions.   I don't think that truth is knowable at this point, but hey, I don't want to vote for censorship either, so I encourage all who feel moved to do so, do what they may to find James' killer if there is one, or find out whatever can be found out, and perhaps, someday, James and his friends, students and colleagues can get peace and closure on all of this nasty business.

They say that when you point a finger out, three come back at you, and I feel the force of that now.  Guilty?  Yes I feel guilty, though I'd be hard pressed to know why,  Because I didn't help or couldn't?  Certainly Because I let my emotions override my sensibility to stay out of this kind of dialogue and so I did not keep my opinions and judgment to myself, and because I judged when it really wasn't right or fair for me to do so.  (In my defense, that having been my first post here, I thought it might work like facebook, and I had regret not long after I posted it, but then it was too late.  I could not delete. : (
Do I also feel worthless?  Sure.  At times, as I imagine is common enough for those of us who are enduring the hardships of this life, sometimes with more success and sometimes with less.  So it is the height of hypocrisy to call other out on that, and everybody grieves in their own way.  Some rage into the dying of the night.

I hope nobody was too offended or annoyed by my brash words.  I really did hope to stop or slow the tide of glee and excitement that people seem to have when they smell scandal.  For the record, when and if I am murdered here or anywhere else, I really don't give two f*cks if anybody finds out who dunnit, and would hope that my own family and friends could just let my friends have peace instead of going on witchhunts to schools and police and embassies and all that.  I beleive that justice is not a corporeal entity, but a karmic one.  We all get to learn from our mistakes, and so whether or not the guilty are found, we all must pay the piper and continue paying until we figure it all out.

But insofar as everybody's gonna do what they're gonna do, then I just hope that we can all (me before any of you) keep in mind that these are real people whose lives are affected by such deaths, and lets all try to keep a little sensitivity for them and respect for each other and forgive and love.  That's closer to what I  wished I had written the first time, and so now I feel I've set the record straight and contributed to this blog in a positive way. 

Respectfully and apologetically...

A moving reply. Thank you. But in all the suspicous, and unsuspicious deaths I have been involved with in Thailand 100 per cent of the next of kin wanted closure. That is to find exactly what happened and who, if anybody, was responsible.

[Stevemercer]

Good post spoken from your heart (maybe not the wisest thing to do On ThaiVisa). Best wishes. I hope you can move on and keep alive the good things you remember about James.

[Lex Talionis]

On 11/27/2016 at 11:05 AM, rooster59 said:

At the time, a friend told how he had seen Mr Hughes the day before he went missing and described the American as being “very much not himself”.

 

There is absolutely no "news" in this entire article. It's merely a rehash of stuff that has already been published.

 

And again with the quote from his friend that he was "very much not himself" <deleted> is that supposed to mean? It can mean almost anything. Was he sick, acting crazy, drug addled, etc., etc. You mean to tell me that no journalist re-interviewed this man and got to the bottom of what he meant exactly by "very much not himself?? "

 

 Astoundingly shoddy journalism !!  If you can even call it that. 

[metisdead]

A post containing a link to Bangkok Post has been removed as well as a reply:

 

26) The Bangkok Post and Phuketwan do not allow quotes from their news articles or other material to appear on Thaivisa.com. Neither do they allow links to their publications. Posts from members containing quotes from or links to Bangkok Post or Phuketwan publications will be deleted from the forum.
 

[Shoho]

St Louis has hired a replacement director for Keith Welsh. Supposed to start in June.

 

As far as we can tell it was another budget hire; out of what we understand was a fairly qualified applicant pool. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Shoho

[observer90210]

Call Deputy Tourist Police Commander Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal, and expose the rogue cops !!....But be sure you are abroad when you do such !!!!