A 45-year-old Australian man, Simon Peter Carman, has been charged with murdering a 17-year-old Thai girl whose body was found in a suitcase near railway tracks in Pattaya on Saturday.
According to police, CCTV footage shows Carman and the victim, Thunchanok Donhomla, holding hands at his condo in Jomtien Beach on Thursday morning. Later that day, Carman left the condo with a large suitcase, which he returned without later that evening.
Police Colonel Anek Srathongyoo said there are similarities between this case and two unsolved cases in the region from the past two years, but no evidence of links has been found yet. The victims in those cases were also women who worked in the adult industry, and their bodies were found in suitcases with similar crime scenes.
Carman had rented a condo in Jomtien Beach for one year and entered Thailand on a tourist visa in December. He was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok attempting to leave the country on Friday.
The medical examiner's report suggests that Donhomla likely died from suffocation, with no signs of beating or trauma found on her body. Carman initially told police that Donhomla had left the condo while he slept, but later claimed they had an argument and he killed her in self-defense.
**Background**
Thunchanok Donhomla was a 17-year-old girl from Kalasin province who arrived in Pattaya just one week before her death to visit a friend. She met Carman on the beach at Jomtien with two other friends, and police are investigating whether one of those friends may have been involved in the sex industry.
Carman's visa status is being investigated by authorities, but there was no record of him overstaying his tourist visa or having a prior criminal record in Thailand.