Canadian sisters found dead in Phi Phi hotel

[johnnyk]

JK - will the Canadian authorities perform their own tests on the girls? Especially In view of the previous incident at Phi-Phi and the more recent attempt of a cover-up at Chaing Mai.

caller, I don't know. Stay tuned, I guess.

[margaretcarnes]

The most recent report indicates that the autopsies will be done in Bangkok.
There is never an appropriate time or place to state what to many of us is the obvious - but which to the bereaved families in such tragic circumstances will probably seem to be a normal and acceptable procedure. Please please don't leave it entirely to the Thai authorities to determine cause of death.
I don't know what - if any - advice the various Embassies give to families faced with these situations. I would hope that they would say the same. But I suspect that protocol might prevent absolute honesty.
We would all like to believe that the Thai system is as thorough as in the West, and I wanted to believe that myself at first with the Chiang Mai cases
Unfortunately bereaved families are rarely in any fit state to even question whether autopsies could be anything less than professional and above board, and to be fair it can't only be in Thailand where doubts exist. So surely it is time for some kind of International investigation/review/advice system to be put in place which provides for automatic re-patriation and second autopsies to be done as a matter of course, unless the families specifically request that is not done.

[PeteC]

Autopsy result for Canadian sisters due next week
The Nation June 29, 2012 1:00 am

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 85113.html

Bangkok's Ramathibodhi Hospital director said the autopsy results for the two Canadian sisters who were found mysteriously dead on Phi Phi Island should be released next week.

Despite confirming that the tissue samples had already been tested and results submitted to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Police General Hospital, Dr Surasak Leelaudomlipi refused to elaborate because this is an ongoing case and the relatives of the deceased women wanted to keep to keep things confidential.

Audrey and Noemi Belanger, both in their 20s, were found dead at the Palm Residence Hotel on June 15.

[Nereus]

Erm, well maybe?
................................................................................
DEET in drinks killed sisters

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... or-sisters

The deaths of two Canadian sisters on Koh Phi Phi in June were caused by the insect repellent DEET in their drinks, according to Canadian media reports.
Results of the autopsy at a Bangkok hospital have not been publicly released, but they were shown to reporters for Radio-Canada, the French-language news network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

According to the report, 20-year-old Audrey Belanger and her sister Noemi, 25, had DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide) in their bodies.

Though the chemical is a potentially neurotoxic mosquito repellent, it is sometimes used as an ingredient to add an extra kick to a euphoria-inducing cocktail that is popular among young people in Thailand.

The cocktail known locally as 4x100 contains cough syrup, cola, ground-up kratom leaves, which are a mild narcotic, and ice.

It is thought that an overdose of DEET was accidentally mixed into the young women's drinks.

Large plastic buckets filled with different drink ingredients that are sipped through a straw are popular with Phi Phi partiers, who carry the buckets from place to place.

The sisters from Pohenegamook, Quebec had just arrived on Phi Phi and were last seen partying with two Brazilian friends in the early morning of June 13.

Forty-eight hours later, when staff at their hotel hadn't seen them emerge from their room, a receptionist called police.

The sisters were found dead in their room, and it was speculated that poisoning, probably accidental, played a role. Police said they found no signs of foul play.

However, officers did find a lot of vomit in the room and there was blood on the young women's faces, leading investigators to say early on that the women may have suffered some kind of toxic reaction.

Another autopsy is supposed to take place in Montreal, but final results from that are expected to take months.

In 2009, two young tourists, one from the United States and the other from Norway, who were staying at a nearby guest house on Phi Phi also died under mysterious circumstances.

Their deaths remain unsolved, but there was speculation the women had been poisoned.

[PeteC]

Often these days I feel like an alien from outer space stuck here observing some strange civilization that has gone completely mad! Pete

[Roel]

Phi Phi Party Island: take your pick. DEET on the house?

[PeteC]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 91656.html

Krabi police close sisters' case
The Nation October 4, 2012 1:00 am


Krabi police have closed the case on the deaths of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger and no more investigations are to be conducted.
Audrey, 20, and Noemi, 25, from Quebec, were found dead in their hotel room on Koh Phi Phi on June 15. Both had suffered a violent physical reaction to suspected poisoning.

Autopsies conducted by forensic police identified that both women had ingested an undisclosed amount of the insecticide Deet, possibly from a "party cocktail" known locally as "Four Times 100".

The regular form the "cocktail", however, does not contain Deet or any insecticide.

"We have been asked by the Canadian Embassy and the [Belanger] family to not reveal anything about the case. We are standing by that. The cause of death in the police report to the embassy is "unknown", Lt-Colonel Jongrak Pimthong of Krabi City Police told the Phuket Gazette yesterday.

All investigations into the case will cease, including any attempt to question the man last seen with the sisters before they were found dead.

However, Krabi police will continue to check the drinks being served at night entertainment venues.

"If we find anything suspicious, we will report it to Krabi Public Health Office," Jongrak said.

[caller]

Ah well, when the forces of law and order are a law unto themselves.....

[johnnyk]

Quebec autopsy results not yet released, authorities said it would take a couple or three months. Stay tuned.

[PeteC]

IMO, the distrust on the part of the parents concerning a Thailand autopsy/investigation comes shining through in the above article. Pete

[Roel]

Quebec autopsy results not yet released, authorities said it would take a couple or three months. Stay tuned.

Where did you read that johnnyk?

From Phuket media I understand that the Canadian autopsy results are known but are withheld by Canadian authorities following a request of the sister's father.
One online newspaper printed this interview on 28 September last:

With no official information revealed about the Bangkok autopsy or a second autopsy that took place when the sisters' bodies were returned to Canada, Phuketwan put a series of questions to Canadian government authorities more than a week ago.

Responses arrived via email today:

Q1 Will the results of the autopsy on the Belanger sisters conducted in Canada ever be released? If so, when?

Q2 If reports are correct that the father of the two young women claims a ''cover-up'' has taken place in Thailand concerning the cause of their deaths, will Canadian authorities explain at some point the known facts about these deaths?

Q3 Is there a concern that the Canadian government, by citing the privacy of the family as a reason for not releasing information about this case, could wrongly be perceived to be part of a so-called cover-up?

A1-3 Due to federal privacy laws, further details on this case cannot be released.

Q4 Under what circumstances does the Canadian government place public interest above the right to privacy in puzzling deaths of this kind, especially overseas?

Q5 If enough Canadians seek an answer to these questions, is it likely that the Canadian government will at some point place public interest and their citizens' right to know above individual right to privacy?

A Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada abides by the rules and regulations governed by the Privacy Act. You can find additional information on the Privacy Act here: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-21/index.html

Should you have any further questions relating to the Privacy Act specifically, we recommend you communicate with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (http://www.priv.gc.ca/index_e.asp).

Q6 How many Canadians travelled to Thailand last year?

A6 Please refer to Statistics Canada for information on the number of Canadian travellers to Thailand last year. You will find their contact details at the following site: http://www42.statcan.gc.ca/smr01/smr01_000-eng.htm

Q7 If the deaths of these two young women continue to go unexplained privately or publicly, at what point will a warning be issued to protect Canadians (and other nations' citizens) from suffering a similar fate?

A7 The Government of Canada closely monitors safety and security conditions in foreign countries and updates Travel Reports accordingly. On August 31st, the Travel Report for Thailand was updated to note that: ''some media reports indicate that there have been recent cases of poisoning allegedly linked to the consumption of a Thai beverage containing DEET.''

The Government of Canada recommends that Canadians never accept food or drinks from strangers and never leave food or drinks unattended, particularly in bars. Cases of drugging followed by robbery and sexual assault have occurred. Drugs may be administered through drinks, food, aerosols, cigarettes, gum, or in powder form. Canadians who suspect they have been drugged should seek immediate medical attention.

[johnnyk]

Quebec autopsy results not yet released, authorities said it would take a couple or three months. Stay tuned.

Where did you read that johnnyk?

It was on the CBC national tv newscast a few weeks ago. Interview with the father as well in the same story. He has no faith in the local authorities and is waiting for the Cdn result like the rest of us.

[GLCQuantum]

Deet was NOT the cause of death.

KRABI: -- In June this year, two Canadian sisters Noémi Bélanger, (25), and Audrey Bélanger, (20) travelled to Thailand and to a resort on Phi Phi Island.

After a night out on the beaches, the two girls were not seen again until a hotel maid used her pass key to access their room and found them both dead.

Thai authorities took the matter quickly into hand and, working together with the Canadian Embassy, investigated the deaths thoroughly and completed a series of forensic exams to establish the cause of death before the sisters were returned to their homeland.

At that time and subsequently, authorities have honoured the reported wishes of both the Canadian Embassy and the family of the deceased by not revealing the contents of their reports.

However a pair of “keen” Canadian reporters claimed to have gained unique access to the reports and went on to report that the girls had been killed asa result of ingesting DEET, a chemical compound usually applied to the skin to dissuade Mosquitoes from biting.

The story made world headlines despite Local reports that any information the journalists might have gained could well have been misinterpreted in translation .

Even when eminent toxicologists pointed out that the amount a person would have to digest for them to die from Deet poisoning was massive, they were sidelined.

Now Canadian Pathologists have confirmed, in a coroner’s report, that the levels of Deet, a pesticide,, found in the bodies of two dead sisters was NOT the cause of their death...

Full Story http://www.pattaya103.com/deet-did-not- ... n-sisters/

[Dr Mike]

I am visiting Toronto.
This was a BIG item on the National TV news last night.
If the Thai authorities hope that it will just go away-they are going to be disappointed

[Roel]

More speculation (source: Phuket Wan)

Is a Holiday Island Killer on the Loose? Canada's Envoys Stay Silent

By Alan Morison
Monday, October 22, 2012
News Analysis

PHUKET: Poisons expert Deborah Blum now speculates that a serial killer could be responsible for the mysterious deaths of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger on Phi Phi.

Will this alarming conclusion suddenly make Canadian diplomats and Thai authorities wake up to their responsibility to reveal everything they know about the sisters' deaths?

Not likely, unfortunately. The Canadian envoys are obliged to say nothing, and for their own reasons, the Thai authorities are content to join them under the Cone of Silence.

Like journalists at Phuketwan, Blum has become a keen student of the Belanger case, involving as it does mysterious deaths, an enchanted tropical holiday island, confusing information, and two tragic young victims who had the rest of their lives ahead of them.

When one important group of people involved (the Canadian envoys) are obliged by law to say nothing and another important group (the police) are content to go along with that, conjecture and confusion become inevitable.

The author of 'The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York,' Blum is also a Pulitzer prize winning science writer.

As a kind of modern-day Ms Marples, Blum is on the Phi Phi case and keen to see it through. In her latest article for Wired.com on the Belangers, Blum says:

''As I wrote in a second post, ''Poisoning the (Female) Tourist in Asia,'' neither have authorities offered up any clear explanation of what appears to be a whole series of female tourist deaths - many linked to symptoms of poison - in both Thailand and Vietnam during the past several years.

''And as I said Saturday, during an interview on the Weekend edition of NPR's All Things Considered, [on radio] there's a troubling pattern here.

''There's official stone-walling despite evidence of toxic exposure found by both Asian and independent laboratories. This suggests a cover up. '

''And there's a trail of dead women, which suggests that one possibility being covered up is murder, even possibly serial murder.''

Comparisons are being struck with the deaths in Vietnam of American Kari Bowerman, 27, and Canadian Canadian Cathy Huynh, 26, in July and August, of New Zealander Sarah Carter, 23, and others in Chiang Mai earlier, and of American Jill St Onge, 27, and Norwegian Julie Bergheim, 22, on Phi Phi in 2009.

Pressure from envoys and families in the case of Sarah Carter brought a response from Thai authorities who, because of the threat to tourism in Thailand, released detailed updates as they investigated the causes of the deaths at the Downtown Inn.

There have now been four unexplained deaths of young women on Phi Phi.

At least, four that we know of - news of the mysterious fatalities in Chiang Mai grew over time as more deaths were linked to the mystery.

Despite the danger of tourists turning off Phi Phi, the authorities have revealed nothing and used the request of the Canadian envoys for privacy as an excuse.

It seems likely that insecticide was found in the bodies of 20-year-old Audrey Belanger and her 26-year-old sister. That much the local police in Krabi, the province that oversees Phi Phi, have been able to confirm.

But the officers have also said their final report to the Canadian embassy notes that their investigation into the sisters' demise failed to establish a cause of death.

While the future safety of tourists travelling around South east Asia is important, what clearly troubles Phuketwan and Blum is the intransigence of the authorities in this case.

The snuffing out of two young lives in a tropical paradise that has become a rite-of-passage visit for 20-somethings should be deeply troubling to Thai officials and to the Canadian government.

If it is, they ain't saying. How tragic then that more young people appear to now be at risk simply because of a Thailand-sanctioned Canadian coverup.

There is no transparency in this troubling case which, as Blum now says, could well be a double murder.

Some hope remains that advanced technology from the second autopsy that took place in Canada on the Belangers may turn up fresh clues.

But the more time passes, the less that seems likely. And if some clues were uncovered, the Canadians may not feel obliged to tell us anyway.

For what it's worth, we think it's disgraceful that the Thai authorities have not taken control of this case and bucked the Canadian diplomats' request for privacy.

When tourists travel, the laws of their home countries don't usually travel with them. In this case, it just happens to suit the Thai authorities to adhere to the Canadian request for privacy.

Caving in to the Canadians indicates the theories about a coverup are probably correct.

For the sake of the families and friends of these young women as well as for the safety of future travellers, we hope that at some point soon, commonsense and common decency prevail.

Listen to Deborah Blum

Tourist Deaths Raise Poison Expert's Suspicions
POISONS expert Deborah Blum now thinks the deaths of Canada's Belanger sisters on Phi Phi may have been deliberate.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/163303716/touri ... uspicions/

Deborah Blum's Latest Article

Poison, Tourism, and Still Unanswered Questions in SE Asia
DEBORAH Blum seeks ''clear and consistent answers. Honesty would be good too.''
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/elemental//