Traces of cyanide found in Bangkok hotel room where 6 died, including 2 Americans
FILE-Police block media from entering the Grand Hyatt Erawan where 6 people were confirmed dead after an incident in central Bangkok on July 16, 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)
BANGKOK - Investigators found traces of cyanide in a Bangkok hotel room where six people, including two Americans, died.
The victims' bodies were found Tuesday in the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. Initial results from autopsies revealed that there was cyanide in the blood of all six people.
Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals, adding that they were three men and three women.
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Sangsawang said Tuesday that four bodies were in the living room and two in the bedroom, explaining that two of the people appeared to have tried to reach the door but collapsed before they could.
Noppasin Punsawat, Bangkok’s deputy police chief, told the Associated Press the victims' ages ranged from 37 to 56 and that the case appeared to be personal and would not impact the safety of tourists.
Police told the Associated Press that six people were last seen alive when food was delivered to the room Monday afternoon.
Noppasin also told the AP that a husband and wife among the dead had invested about 10 million baht ($278,000) with two of the others, and that could be a motive, citing information obtained from relatives.
According to the AP, the money was intended to build a hospital in Japan and the group may have been meeting to settle the matter. Authorities told the AP that one person killed the rest of the group but did not say which of the six was the suspect.
Citing Noppasin, the AP reported that a seventh person whose name was part of the hotel booking was a sibling of one of the six people. Authorities believe the seventh person had no involvement in the deaths.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.