Skip to footer

Two men from Myanmar admit killing British tourists in Thailand

The news followed weeks of pressure on police to solve a case that has threatened to damage the country's tourism industry, which has been struggling to recover since the army staged a coup and imposed martial law in May.

|
AP
Workers from Myanmar, Saw, left, and Win, sit together, escorted by a Thai police officer, during a press conference in Koh Tao island, Surat Thani province. Thailand, Oct. 3. Thai police have arrested the two Myanmar workers they say confessed to killing a pair of British tourists on a beach in the southern Thailand last month.
  • By Thanyrat Doksone Associated Press

| BANGKOK

Two workers from Myanmar have confessed to killing a pair of British tourists whose battered bodies were found on a beach in southern Thailand last month, and police said Friday that the suspects' DNA matched that collected from one of the victims.

The news followed weeks of pressure on police to solve a case that has threatened to damage the country's tourism industry, which has been struggling to recover since the army staged a coup and imposed martial law in May.

Police Maj. Gen. Kiattipong Khawsamang said that three Myanmar workers were detained and questioned by police, and two of them had admitted murdering Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24. He said the other worker denied involvement in the attack on the island ofKoh Tao, which is renowned for its quiet beaches and popular diving sites.

"We are interrogating them. So far, accounts from the two men matched and they confessed they killed the tourists," Kiattipong said by telephone on Thursday.

Police have so far declined to provide details on the identities of the migrants, but 2.5 million people from Myanmar work in this Southeast Asian country, most as domestic servants or in low-skilled manual labor industries like construction, fisheries or the garment sector.

On Friday, regional police commissioner Maj. Gen. Decha Budnampetch told AP that DNA samples collected from the two suspects matched evidence taken from Witheridge's body. Both men are in custody and a court is expected to issue formal arrest warrants before charges are issued.

"Together with other evidence and (testimony from witnesses) that we have collected thoroughly throughout the investigation, we are convinced that these two migrant workers were the killers," Decha said.

The bodies of the two tourists were discovered on Sept. 15 in a rocky alcove along the shore close to the hotel where both were staying. Autopsies showed that Witheridge died from head wounds while Miller suffered severe blows to the head and drowned in the surf.

It is still unclear what prompted the killings.

Thai police had searched for clues and collected DNA samples from more than 100 men on the island in the Gulf of Thailand.

Two of the Myanmar workers were detained on Koh Tao and the other in mainland Surat Thani province.

Koh Tao, about 410 kilometers (250 miles) south of Bangkok, is a quiet, small island a short boat ride from Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. The latter is known for raucous "full moon" parties that attract young foreigners and Thais.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Two men from Myanmar admit killing British tourists in Thailand
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/Two-men-from-Myanmar-admit-killing-British-tourists-in-Thailand
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe