An Australian man has been arrested over the alleged murder of a teenage girl in Thailand after her naked body was found stuffed in a suitcase.
Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, was last seen entering a hotel in Pattaya, a coastal city on Thailand’s Gulf coast, just after 3.30am on Thursday, local media reports.
CCTV footage seen by Thai publication, Buzzin Pattaya, shows the teenager, from Thailand’s Kalasin province, holding hands with a man believed to be 46-year-old Simon Carman from Ballarat, Victoria.
Police allege he picked up Ms Tunchanok from the town’s Beach Road vice strip in the early hours of Thursday.
Her friends said they did not hear from her again and reported her missing on Friday at 5pm local time.
Police told Viral Press there had been blood on the floor in the hotel room when they searched it.
Carman was arrested while attempting to board a plane at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on Friday night.
His arms and neck were allegedly covered in scratch marks, Viral Press reports.
A 46-year-old Victorian man, Simon Carman, has been arrested over the alleged murder of a teenage girl in Thailand
It is alleged Carman, from Ballarat, picked up the teenager from the town’s Beach Road vice strip in the early hours of Thursday morning. Her friends said they did not hear from her again
Carman has denied the allegation of murder
In a shocking discovery, Ms Tunchanok’s naked body was found in a 26-inch black suitcase beside a railway line about 10 minutes from the hotel at 11pm on Friday.
‘The suspect has initially been charged with taking a minor for the purpose of committing an indecent act,’ Superintendent of the Pattaya City Police Station Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyu told Viral Press.
‘We believe he (allegedly) killed her, and he is being questioned on suspicion of murder.
‘He has fingernail scratches across his body that are consistent with a struggle, but he denies killing her.
‘He said that she disappeared from the room while [he] was asleep and unaware of anything.’
Police also say CCTV appears to show Carman leaving the hotel at 9.34pm on Thursday with a black suitcase similar to the one Ms Tunchanok was found in.
Separate surveillance footage allegedly shows him on a motorcycle with the suitcase strapped to the back.
In video filmed during the man’s arrest by local media, a reporter is heard asking the Australian how Ms Tunchanok died, to which the tourist replies: ‘I don’t know how, no.’
CCTV shows Ms Tunchanok holding hands with a man and entering a hotel before she disappeared
A man believed to be Carman is seen wheeling a suitcase
In a shocking discovery, Ms Tunchanok’s naked body was found in a 26-inch black suitcase beside a railway line about 10 minutes from the hotel at 11pm on Friday
Emergency services are seen at the scene of where the girl’s body was found near train tracks
Carman was also asked about the scratches.
‘I have the same on the other side, I think it’s a spider, they always get in here,’ he said.
If convicted, the maximum penalty for murder is death, although such sentences are rare.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.
