Six people were found dead at an upmarket Bangkok hotel on Tuesday night in what seems to have been a poison plot gone awry.
Two of the victims at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel have been confirmed as U.S. nationals. Reuters reports all six were Vietnamese and that the assumed perpetrator is among the dead.
The U.S. State Department said it is monitoring the situation, adding that local police are pursuing inquiries. Meanwhile the Vietnamese foreign ministry has also made contact with Thai authorities, with a spokesperson stating “we hope that the victim’s families soon overcome this great loss.”
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The New York Post has ID’d the two US nationals who were killed as 56-year-old Chong Sherine and 55-year-old Dang Hung Van, adding FBI officials are presently en-route to Thailand to help with the investigation.
Autopsies revealed all three women and three men had traces of cyanide in their bodies. It’s not clear at this stage how the fast-acting toxin was obtained, but police believe it was probably used to spike a tray of drinks the party had ordered to their room.
“After staff brought tea cups and two hot water bottles, milk and tea pots… one of the six introduced cyanide,” said Trirong Phiwpan, a local police commander.
Further toxicological tests are still being carried out, with results expected sometime on Friday. Based on interviews with relatives of those who died, police have a working theory the incident was likely related to a dispute over an investment debt.
