Victims, suspect in Bangkok poisoning incident due to meet in court: police

On Wednesday they identified her as Sherine Chong, 56.

The other five were Dang Hung Van, 55, also carried a Vietnamese-American passport, and Vietnamese nationals Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, 47, Pham Hong Thanh, 49, Tran Dinh Phu, 37, and Nguyen Thi Phuong, 46.

The six bodies were found in a locked room on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Thai authorities attributed the deaths to cyanide poisoning.

Traces of the rapid-acting, deadly chemical were found during autopsies of the bodies and on glasses and a teapot in the room, Reuters quoted the police as saying.

Interviews with victims’ relatives revealed the six had had a dispute over debts related to an investment, according to the police, who are investigating how she obtained the cyanide.

General Noppasin Poolsawat, deputy chief of the Bangkok police, said the deceased had a dispute over a hospital construction project in Japan.

A Vietnamese couple in the group had given Chong around 10 million baht (US$278,000) to invest in the project. There were delays, leading the couple to suspect Chong of trying to deceive them and filed a lawsuit against her.

They “had planned to meet in court in Japan in two weeks,” Bangkok Post quoted Poolsawat as saying.

Sherine Chong is the suspected killer in the death of six Vietnamese and American nationals in a room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok. Photo courtesy of Thai police

While waiting, Chong arranged to meet the couple to negotiate. Initially, they planned to go to Japan,
but the plan was canceled due to visa issues. Consequently, they moved the meeting location to
Bangkok.

Chong had come to Bangkok with Vietnamese-American man Dang Hung Van and makeup artist Tran Dinh Phu from Vietnam.

The married couple had come with a Vietnamese companion.

The initial negotiations were unsuccessful, and the Vietnamese trio planned to leave on Monday when Chong invited all five to her room for one more meeting, Bangkok Post reported.

She ordered food and tea for everyone, it said.

Hotel staff reported that she was waiting alone in her room, and declined the waiter’s offer to enter the room and make the tea, saying she would make it herself.

Security cameras at the hotel showed the five carrying their luggage into her room, but no one leaving.

By Tuesday evening, service staff discovered six bodies inside the locked room and reported to the police.

Trirong Phiwpan, commander of the Thai police evidence office, said at a press conference at Chulalongkorn Hospital Wednesday: “The hotel employees brought a teapot, milk and two bottles of hot water to the room, and the suspect laced the tea with cyanide.”

Forensic experts found several pieces of evidence at the scene, including a tea bag suspected to contain a large quantity of cyanide, Khaosod English reported.

Normally tea leaves have a light brown color when brewed, but the leaves found at the scene were nearly black, making experts believe they had been laced with a large amount of cyanide.

Phiwpan said, as cited by Khaosod: “Cyanide dissolved in water is tasteless, and so the drinkers would have had no idea. The toxin can take effect in less than five minutes. It prevents red blood cells from exchanging oxygen, leading to death. The mouths of cyanide poisoning victims usually smell like almond.”