World News
Tunchanok Donhomla’s family lays Thai teen’s ashes to rest and demands death penalty for alleged murder
The body of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was found inside a suitcase last week, discarded near railway tracks in the coastal city of Pattaya. Thai police allege 45-year-old Simon Peter Carman murdered her after picking her up from the Beach Road vice strip in the early hours of June 25.
CCTV vision shows Mr Carman and Ms Tunchanok arriving at the building where he was living, and almost 18 hours later it captures him leaving with a large suitcase.
A friend of the 17-year-old, affectionately known as “Cake”, lodged a missing person’s report, and visited Mr Carman’s house looking for her, photos obtained by the ABC show. But by then, the teenager was already dead. Police allege he strangled her and kept her body in the bathroom before taking it out in the suitcase.
Her great aunt, Mee Boonsert, helped raise her, and wept as she recalled their final moments together before the teenager left for Pattaya. The 75-year-old said she wished she was able to give her own life in place of Ms Tunchanok’s, and she wants the killer to face the death penalty if found guilty.