SEAToday.com, Bangkok – Four Vietnam citizens and two U.S. citizens who were found dead in a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, have been suspected to drink tea and coffee cups poisoned with cyanide, Thai police said Wednesday (07/17/2024).

The dead was identified by Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang and Bangkok deputy police chief, Noppasin Punsawat, to be three men and three women with the age range from 37 to 56.

The autopsies of six bodies, performed at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn Hospital, were shared later Wednesday (07/17/2024). The head of the forensic medicine department at the Chulalongkorn University’s medical school, Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, stated that there was cyanide in the blood of all six and no signs of trauma is shown from the CAT test. This strengthen the fact that they are poisoned.

The six were seen alive last when food delivered to the room Monday afternoon (07/15/2024), where one woman receive the food, and the security video showed the rest arriving one by one shortly after.

The five-star Grand Hyatt Erawan found out the deceased after the late guests missed check out by more than 24 hours on Tuesday (07/16/2024).

Before entering the room, hotel staff found that food ordered from the previous day was left untouched, while teacups next to two thermos bottles seemed to have been used.

When police arrived at the scene, they suspected that the door was locked from the inside, while the backdoor was left unlocked.

The question police are now trying to answer is whether they were murdered or chose to take their lives.

So far, Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Noppasin Poonsawat told reporters they believe one of the members might have poisoned the five other, including oneself.

Moreover, Noppasin found out from his interview with hotel staff that one of the members of the group was alone in the room, looking “stressed”, and was later joined by several others, one by one.

Additionally, he added that the incident was likely to be “personal matter” and not related to any organized crime after the interviews with the relatives of the dead indicated a dispute over debt around 10 million baht by a husband and a wife.

Both Vietnamese and United States embassies have been contacted over the deaths, and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin have reassured them.

“This wasn’t an act of terrorism or a breach in security. Everything is fine,” he said. 

The Grand Hyatt is located in a busy touristy area of foreigners in Bangkok.

Next to Grand Hyatt hotel, a famous landmark Erawan shrine resides and was also a target of a bombing in 2015 that killed at least 20 people.

Last year, a Thai woman, Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, who was arrested on suspicion of murdering her friend with cyanide in a separate poisoning case.

Writer: Patricia Febi