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Aussie woman stabbed in heart in Thai bag-snatch tragedy

An Australian woman has been stabbed to death in a suspected bag-snatch gone wrong on the popular holiday island of Phuket in Thailand.

The woman was walking with a friend near their hotel complex in Kata Noi Bay, on Phuket's west coast, about 10.30pm last night when they were attacked by two men who approached them on a motorbike.

The men attempted to steal the handbags of the women and lashed out with a knife when they couldn't grab them.

Ms Yone, a supervisor at the five-star Katathani Phuket Beach Resort where the women were staying, said this morning that one of the women was stabbed in the heart and died soon after.

The other woman suffered a slash wound to her arm and was taken to hospital in Phuket.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Thai police had launched an investigation into the woman’s death.

"We are aware of the death of an Australian woman in Thailand and are providing consular assistance to her family and to the other woman involved in the incident," she said.

"It would not be appropriate to discuss the case further while a police investigation is in progress."

The two women were part of a group of 10 travel agents from Perth who arrived in Thailand on Monday.

"They were attacked by the men on the street," Ms Yone said.

"One woman had a cut on her arm and she went to the hospital. She is already back from the hospital.

"She is OK. There is nothing to concern about her life situation.

"Unfortunately the situation with [the second woman], she got attacked right on her heart and she passed away."

The men escaped from the narrow street outside the hotel on a motorbike.

The woman told local media she and the victim had been hassled and pushed in the street by the men but didn't realise they had been stabbed until the men had fled.

"We were walking single-file along the road, coming back from dinner. These guys had gone past a couple of times, and that started to bother us," the woman said.

"Then I heard a noise behind me and I turned to see what I thought was my friend being pushed in the chest. I tried to help her. The men rode off, empty-handed. We started walking again, and only then did we realise we'd both been slashed."

"Grainy" security camera footage recorded the men but their motorbike number plate was indistinguishable.

The parents of an Australian man who Phuket police say was in a motorbike accident believe he did not crash but was beaten and left for dead.

Muay Thai fighter Daniel Ketley, 21, suffered life-threatening injuries and needed 45 stitches in his head after an incident near Soi Saiyuan in Naiharn in the early hours of June 8, 2012.

His story has emerged following reports an Australian woman was stabbed to death on the Thai holiday island last night.

Mr Ketley, who was raised on the Gold Coast and now lives in Phuket with his parents, left a friend's house and was heading to another friend's house when he was allegedly attacked.

His last memory is seeing a petrol station in the Soi Saiyuan area and thinks he may have been assaulted while stopping for fuel.

Local police are treating Mr Ketley as a motorbike crash victim despite his family, friends and family doctor disputing the claims.

His father believe he was savagely beaten, robbed of his wallet and phone and left for dead.

Mr Ketley was picked up by an ambulance at 2am and was admitted to hospital sober, with no grazes, a fractured skull and haemorrhaging and compression on the brain.

He also had a shattered eye socket, a broken jaw, four lost teeth, a fractured vertebra, nerve damage to his neck and shoulder and a fracture in the skull between his nose and upper lip.

His parents were phoned at 8am the next morning and were told he had been in a bike accident yet his clothes were not dirty or ripped and his bike had no scrapes although it was damaged at the front and the rear mirrors were smashed.

Police say they cannot investigate any further until Mr Ketley regains his memory of the night but the fighter is sure he did not crash his bike.

"I know I can't have crashed. I know the roads very well, and the damage to my body … if I had crashed I would have put my hands down for sure but they aren't grazed," said Mr Ketley.

Mr Ketley has lived in Phuket for three years and is a full-time Muay Thai boxer. His mother has speculated he may have been targeted because he is a high-profile fighter.

The Ketleys have launched a Facebook page to try and raise money to help pay for Mr Ketley's care. They are also campaigning about the dangers of riding alone at night in Phuket.

Mr Ketley has been fitted with a plate in his right cheek and jaw and has no feeling in his right arm.

He is currently being looked after at his parents' home in Phuket and has regular check-ups by doctors.

Last night, a female travel agent from Perth died after being stabbed in the heart by two men who drove past on a motorbike and tried to steal her bag.

The killers left empty-handed and the woman, who was walking with a group of 10 travel agents, did not realise she had been stabbed until the men drove away.

Another woman was also slashed on the arm and she later recounted events to police.

Police are hunting for the two men who attacked her.

very sad about 900 tourist a year died in Thailand. Come visit Laos its safer.

Two men arrested in Phuket for murder

Two men have been arrested in Thailand over the stabbing murder of Australian travel agent Michelle Smith on the holiday island of Phuket last week, according to reports.

The men are being questioned over the murder of Mrs Smith, 60, who was stabbed in the heart in a suspected botched bag snatch on Phuket's west coast.

The two men in custody in Chumphon province, in southern Thailand, and are expected to be returned to Phuket later today.

Phuket governor Tri Augkaradacha announced the arrests today during a meeting with local officials and tourism industry representatives to discuss tourist safety issues in Phuket.

Local police are expected to release further details about the identity of the two men and how police tracked them down at a press conference later today.

Mrs Smith, from Butler in Perth's northern suburbs, was part of a group of 10 Perth travel agents who arrived in Phuket a week ago to review new tourist sites.

The mother-of-two had been out to dinner with a travel agent colleague, Tammee Lynn, 42, before the pair decided to walk back to to the five-star Katathani Phuket Beach Resort where they were staying in Kata Noi Bay.

They were attacked by two men who approached them on a motorcycle about 10.30pm.

The men attempted to grab Mrs Smith's bag before stabbing her in the chest, piercing her lung and heart. As they tried to escape they also slashed Ms Lynn's arm.

At first the shocked women attempted to walk back to the hotel before Mrs Smith collapsed. She died on the street.

Thai bag-snatch killers have confessed

Arrested ... Surasak Suwannachote.

Two men arrested in Thailand over the stabbing murder of Perth travel agent Michelle Smith last week have allegedly confessed to the crime, Phuket police say.

Surasak Suwannachote, 26, and Surin Tadthong, 37, were arrested yesterday morning and are being taken to Phuket for questioning over the death of Mrs Smith, 60, near Kata Beach last Wednesday.

The mother-of-two, who was on a trip to Phuket with a group of 10 Perth travel agents, was stabbed in the heart and lung as she walked home from dinner about 10.30pm. She died at the scene.

Police major general Chanasit Vatanavarangoon told the Chiangrai Times that the men had been charged with Mrs Smith's murder.

"They were both charged with robbery and murder and they both confessed," he said.

He said the men were filmed by a security camera during the attack before they fled to the mainland.

A purple motorbike thought to have been used in the attack was recovered at a shop in Phuket where one of the men worked.

Officers at Phuket Provincial Police headquarters said that Suwannachote, originally from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, allegedly stabbed Mrs Smith during a botched bag snatch while Tadthong allegedly drove the motorbike.

Suwannachote was arrested yesterday morning in Chumphon province in southern Thailand while heading to Samut Sakhon province, near Bangkok, to see his relatives, one officer told the Phuket Gazette.

Tadthong was arrested in his home town of Samut Sakhon.

One police officer said: "The two men confessed that after stabbing Mrs Smith, they left their motorbike at the Phuket Bypass Garn Yang [car tyre dealership] on the morning of [Thursday] June 21."

Both men were being taken to Phuket to face charges, but had not arrived on the island late last night.

Mrs Smith's murder and a number of other recent thefts and drownings have sparked a review of security and safety on the popular holiday island, according to local media.

All of the island's resorts are being urged to improve security camera coverage.

Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation official Paiboon Upatising told a tourism news website: "We will arrange talks between resorts and police as soon as possible to spread Phuket's network of security cameras to the streets so that criminals know they cannot commit crimes and escape."

Crowd fury as Thai suspects re-enact murder

Thai suspect Surasak Suwannachot, 26, holds a mock knife during a police
re-enactment in Phuket of the attempted robbery that killed Michelle Smith.

An angry crowd of Australian and other foreign tourists, along with Thai locals, had to be held back from attacking two Thai men accused of murdering 60-year-old Perth mother-of-three Michelle Smith.

The two men, Surasak "Boy" Suwannachot, 26, and alleged accomplice Surin Taptong, 34, had been brought to the upmarket Kata Noi Beach where Mrs Smith was murdered to re-enact the brutal killing under police direction.

When she was attacked, Mrs Smith had been returning to the Katathani Phuket Beach Resort after dinner with companion Tammee Lynn, 42. Both were in Thailand with a group of Perth travel agents.

At the exact location yesterday, Surasak, who Thai authorities say admits the stabbing during an attempted bag-snatch, was given a wooden replica of a 10-centimetre knife.

One Australian had to be restrained by Thai police from one of the accused men.

"I was just so angry," Tony Clarke, 52, a tall, strongly built man, told Fairfax Media at the scene yesterday where Mrs Smith was stabbed through the heart last Wednesday.

"Most Thais are beautiful people, but you also have a bad element."

As other tourists, including many from Australia, swam in rolling surf nearby, Mr Clarke and his partner, Deborah Lewis, 50, were in no mood to relax.

Instead, they watched in fury as the two men under police direction re-enacted the killing.

Surasak got off the back of the purple motorcycle Surin Taptong was controlling and stabbed Mrs Smith when she resisted having her handbag taken.

Ms Lynn was slashed and required stitches.

Two young Thai women yesterday played the parts of the victims as an angry crowd looked on.

As a sign of the seriousness with which Thailand regards this latest case, there has been direct involvement by the country's Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. And the Commissioner General of the Royal Thai Police came to Phuket from Bangkok in the wake of the arrests of Surasak and Surin. They were both arrested on Monday on the mainland after fleeing Phuket.

Mr Clarke said of Mrs Smith: "She was the life and soul of the party. She would have fought. I was so close to hitting him [Surasak] because of what he did to her. I was going to punch him in the head."

"The Thai people here are mostly so good. I have a friend, Bob, whose mother was a best friend of Michelle Smith. They knew each other since their youth. I was moving to belt him [accused murderer Surasak] but the police held me back. I really wanted to punch him. The local people were with me and other Australians here. They were saying, 'Get him, get him'."

Another Australian, Philip Ennis, a surveyor from Sutherland in Sydney, clenched his right fist and said he was infuriated by the way the two accused men looked "so calm" when re-enacting the murder.

Local websites have reported claims that the two accused told investigators they sought to snatch Mrs Smith's bag in a bid to obtain at least 300 baht - nearly $10 - to pay a bill at a nearby bar.

Mr. Clarke said Australians and other foreigners he had spoken to on Phuket were taking extra precautions, such as carrying the purses of female family members and "sort of keeping guard".

Australian consular officials have been discussing with Thai police and government representatives measures to beef up security on Phuket, the holiday island in Andaman Sea which has more than 700,000 visitors a year.

Tourist stabbed for refusing to stop singing

Bobby Ray Carter Jr., 51, died of a stab wound.

An American tourist was allegedly stabbed to death by three Thai musicians after he refused to stop singing at a bar in a popular tourist resort, police say.

Bobby Ray Carter, 51, died after he was stabbed twice in the chest while his son Adam, 27, suffered a stab wound to his arm, during a fight with members of the house band from the Longhorn Saloon early on 31st July, 2013 at Ao Nang beach in Krabi.

Police said the three musicians were arrested at the scene and confessed to stabbing the Americans with sharpened metal poles.

Carter had joined the musicians on stage for a singalong, but a row broke out when he refused to stop singing as the band took a break.

On its website, the Longhorn Saloon advertises "jam with the band" as one of its attractions, along with "good music, funfunfun and friendly staff".

"He and his son quarrelled with all three musicians because he wouldn't stop singing despite the musicians taking a break," said Lieutenant Colonel Attapong Seanjaiwuth of Krabi tourist police.

"He then demanded the money he had already given as a tip back. But the real fight broke out outside of that pub. He was stabbed twice and died while on the way to local hospital."

Thailand has come under scrutiny in recent months over its treatment of foreign tourists, who are a mainstay of the economy.

Tourists have registered a series of complaints with authorities over their treatment ranging from jet ski scams, drink spiking, robbery and assault to even police extortion.

A dozen European ambassadors recently raised the issue with local authorities on a visit to the resort island of Phuket, where a 60-year-old Australian woman was killed in June 2012 in a robbery.

Earlier in July an American man was slashed to death by a taxi driver in Bangkok after an apparent argument over the fare.

Crime scene: The father and son were stabbed outside this saloon bar.

I saw that on the news the other day.Man that's crazy

Lao Pride Forum
http://www.laopride.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.cgi General Category >> General Lao Board >> Aussie woman stabbed in heart in Thai bag-snatch tragedy http://www.laopride.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.cgi?num=1340259350 Message started by Admin Saovaluck on 21^st Jun, 2012 at 6:15am