The Thai police have confirmed that the six people who were found dead in the luxury suite of a Bangkok hotel had been poisoned. According to the police, one of the victims had laced the tea of all the tourists with cyanide, reported British news website BBC. 


Housekeepers discovered the bodies late on Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok. Investigators believe the victims had been dead for about 24 hours by the time the bodies were found.


Bangkok Hotel Deaths A Murder-Suicide?


According to the BBC, an investigation by the Thailand police has revealed that two of the victims had lent "tens of millions of Thai baht", to another victim for investment. Ten million baht equates to roughly $2,80,000 (£215,000).


Initially, local reports speculated about a possible shooting, but police quickly dismissed these claims. On Wednesday, Deputy Bangkok police chief Gen Noppassin Poonsawat clarified that the tourists in the group had checked into the hotel separately and were allocated five rooms — four on the seventh floor and one on the fifth floor.


All of them met in the fifth-floor room on Monday. The victims included American citizens Sherine Chong (56), Dang Hung Van (55), Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong (46), her husband Hong Pham Thanh (49), Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan (47), and Dinh Tran Phu (37).


Food and tea were ordered to the room around 2 PM local time. The orders were received by Chong. According to the deputy police chief, a waiter had offered to prepare the tea, but Chong declined. The waiter noted that she “spoke very little and was visibly under stress". The waiter then left the room. No one else is believed to have entered the room after that. There were no indications of a struggle or robbery. 


The bodies were found foaming at the mouth, news agency AP reported earlier. During the course of their investigation, the police found cyanide traces in all six tea cups.


Mounting Debt Burden


Relatives informed the police that Thi Nguyen Phuong and Hong Pham Thanh, who owned a road construction business, had invested in a hospital building project in Japan through Chong. Authorities suspect Dinh, a make-up artist from Da Nang, Vietnam, was also “duped" into investing.


Dinh's mother told the BBC he had travelled to Thailand on Friday and contacted his family on Sunday, saying he needed to extend his stay. That was the last they heard from him.