Bangkok hotel poisoning CCTV shows final moments of victims

CCTV shows the final moments of six Vietnamese tourists as they entered a hotel room in Bangkok where they were poisoned.

The group, which included two with American passports, are seen in the footage checking into a luxury room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan in the centre of the Thai capital on July 15.

They were found dead the next day from Cyanide poisoning.

The dead were named as Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37. Additionally, two Vietnamese who were American citizens were also among the deceased. They were Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van, 55.

Police and even the Prime Minister scrambled to solve the case amid fears it would harm the country's lucrative tourism industry.

Officials claim that one of the holidaymakers found dead poisoned the others and then committed suicide.

Police Major General Theeradet Thumsuthee, investigative commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, stated on July 17 that police had questioned the daughter of one of the victims and other witnesses.

He said: 'The case likely stems from a debt problem. There are no other possibilities. The culprit is among the six because they were the only people who entered the room.'

Police Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwpan, commander of the Police Forensic Science, reported that a poisonous substance resembling black coffee was found in two flasks in the room where the deaths occurred.

Officers suspect Chong too used a lethal mixture of cyanide and tea to kill the others. They claim he had invited the other five people to invest in construction projects, including a couple who had invested around 10 million Baht in a hospital project in Japan.

When there was no progress in the projects, legal action was taken. Scheduled to meet in court in two weeks, Chong invited the other victims for out-of-court negotiations.

Police Major General Nopasilp Poonsawat, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said that hotel staff reported she had been waiting alone in room 502 on the fifth floor when her alleged victims arrived.

Earlier, she had ordered food and tea from room service but declined the room attendant's offer to brew the tea, opting to prepare it herself.

Security camera footage showed the five other Vietnamese individuals arriving at the room with their luggage at 2.17 PM, and no one left the room before the bodies were discovered the next day by a maid.

Initial checks on blood samples conducted by the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University confirmed cyanide as the cause of death.

Associate Professor Dr Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the faculty's Department of Forensic Medicine, said: The victims' lips and nails had turned dark purple, indicating a lack of oxygen, while their internal organs exhibited a blood red appearance, another characteristic sign of cyanide poisoning.'