Natalie Dundas
Warning: The following content describes missing persons, death, crime scenes, and murder.
The island of Koh Tao, Thailand, has been known for its luscious greenery and turquoise waters. However recently, mysterious missing persons cases have come about, many resulting in misunderstood murders. Oftentimes, these cases involve European tourists, who have died or gone missing there since 2014.
The island of Koh Tao (just off the coast of Thailand) has faced troubles, arguably since human inhabitants first arrived. Prior to 1943, Koh Tao was uninhabited. Between the years of 1943 and 1944, the island was used as a prison camp for prisoners of the Borawadesh Uprising -a Thai rebellion led by royalist Prince Boworade in reaction to the conflicts between the previous royalist regime. This prison was used for 104 inmates and 15 wardens, living amongst malaria and starvation. Over the next forty years or so, Koh Tao became more and more inhabited, especially when people began to travel to the island. In 1984, the first resort on Koh Tao was established, and a room cost roughly 30 Baht, the equivalent of about one American dollar. Now, Koh Tao is a decently popular travel destination, presumably because of its tropical climate and appeal to divers and explorers.
However, people have been speculating on the recent crimes committed on the island, making the island rather infamous.
Since the year 2012, an influx in tourists deaths has occured on the island, making the number at least eleven. In these cases, evidence appears to be questionable, and suspects unclear. Below are two of the most popular cases of Death Island.
Hannah Witheridge and David Miller
The young pair (Hannah: 23 years old, David: 24 years old) were walking back to their hotel room, late at night on September 15th, 2014. The two were bludgeoned to death with a wooden hoe, both suffering head wounds. Hannah was most likely raped in the attack as well, as her autopsy revealed that she had sexual contact. David was found to have water in his lungs, meaning that he most likely drowned. Thai police might suspect that a gangster the pair allegedly argued with at a bar had some sort of involvement in the pairs’ death. However, Thai police did not properly secure the scene, making it possible for the evidence to have been tampered with. This (to many) invalidates the DNA evidence found at the scene. The hospital where DNA evidence was taken has been accused of manipulating the evidence to frame in order to convict two Burmese workers, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo. However, a friend of David Miller- Sean McKenna, claims to have been pulled aside by the Thai mafia when they overheard him conversing about the homicides. McKenna claims that the men threatened his life, and that they could easily frame his demise as a suicide.
Elise Dallemagne
Elise was a 30 year old backpacker from Belgium. Elise had been travelling Asia for two years at the time of her death after completing a degree in Medicine. Elise had been a member of a religion known as Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya was the religious leader of the group, and claimed that he was divinity in human form. Sathya Sai Baba claimed that he was clairvoyant and omnipresent, and his following believed that he held other worldly powers. This attracted many tourists, and people frequently came and left. However, people have recently started equating the religion to a cult, and Sathya Sai Baba has been accused (for decades) of abusing young males. It was within this community that Elise was living. Elize chose to leave the community to go back home to Belgium. After leaving Elise checked herself into a Koh Tao bungalow, where she used a fake name (according to her mother) and refused to give her passport number.
This builds on the theory that Elise was running from something within the suspected cult. However, following her arrival at the hotel, a fire started, most likely burning down this piece of evidence, along with Elise’s bungalow. Elise then travelled 1.5 miles through the jungle to Tanote Bay and booked another room at the Poseidon Resort. She booked a second ticket to Bangkok, for April 24th. Eight days later, locals found Elise’s body after discovering that a monitor Lizard had been consuming her remains. Elise’s body was identified using dental records and previous x-rays. The director of the institute of Forensic Science at Police General Hospital in Bangkok, stated that “There were wounds around the neck due to the hanging and some non-fatal bruises in the head and no drugs were found in the body.” This claim is consistent with the Thai police who claim that Elise had hung herself three days before she was discovered. The Thai police also claim that Elise was found with an empty fuel bottle next to her, pointing to the fires that occurred at her previous hotel. Police ruled her death a suiceide, despite the fact that those around her reported no indication that she was apt to harm herself, there was no suicide note, and Elise’s bags appeared on the ferry she was supposed to be on (though she never made it). Conversely, Police Lieutenant Colonel Chojchai Sutthimek claims that Elise had previously tried to end her own life at a railway station on April 4th, where she allegedly attempted to jump in front of a moving train. There is no evidence to confirm this, though. Additionally, Elise’s mother had been promised to see the autopsy report that was averred to be conducted at the Surat Thani Hospital. Michelle, Elise’s mother, says that she has never seen it. Elise's body was cremated 14 days after the autopsy. Michelle also says that she has never seen any photographic evidence of her daughter hanging herself in the woods, regardless of the fact that it is standard practice for Police to photograph a scene.
While many say that tourists ran their own risks of harm when venturing to a place dubbed “Death island”, it is undeniable that there is a lack of proper practice by Thai police in order to organize cases based primarily on evidence rather than just speculation. It seems that police state whatever seems to be the most convenient of explanations. Thai journalists have also revealed that they have faced pressure to hide stories of tourists' deaths. In conjunction with suspicious police behavior that include quick disposal of bodies without properly recording evidence, there is a lot of room for suspicion against police.
View sources below to read more about the suspicious tourist murders of Kah Toa, many of which simply do not add up.
Sources:
Paddock (C.P) and Suhartono (M.S), 11/3/18, Thai Paradise Gains Reputation as ‘Death Island’, New York Times,(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/world/asia/thailand-koh-tao-death-island.html
10/8/20, Woman Mysteriously Dies, Then CCTV Footage Reveals CHILLING Clues: DEATH ISLAND, Documentary Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238iw1zU4q8&t=1584s
11/14/20, The mysterious Koh Tao - Death Island in Paradise, https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/true-crime-in-the-outdoors/tag/Elise+Dallemagne+koh+tao
Image 1,https://www.gooddive.com/diving-thailand/koh-tao-map.htm
Boworadet Rebellion, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Boworadet_Rebellion
KOH TAO HISTORY, Koh Tao Surat Thani 84360 THAILAND, https://www.kohtaocompleteguide.com/fact/koh-tao-history/
Image 2: Day, (F.D), 8/17/20, Thailand beach murder: David Miller 'died a hero' stopping Hannah Witheridge from being raped, https://closeronline.co.uk/real-life/news/father-murdered-backpacker-hero-son-died-trying-stop-attack/
Image 3: Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238iw1zU4q8&t=1584s
Image 4: Michael (T.M), 7/4/2017, DEATH ISLAND CLUE Backpacker Elise Dallemagne ‘used fake name’ in days before her death on Koh Tao where she was found hanged and eaten by lizards, London,https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3940563/backpacker-elise-dallemagne-fake-name-death-koh-tao-hanged-eaten-lizards/