Traces of cyanide found alongside 6 victims found dead in Bangkok hotel room, Thai police say

BANGKOK — The head of Thailand’s police forensics division said Wednesday that police had found traces of cyanide in the cups of six people found dead at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok.

The bodies were found Tuesday at Bangkok’s Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the city center. After checking hotel records and security footage, there were no other visitors in the room apart from the six people found, police said.

Lt. Gen. Trairong Piwpan, head of the Thai police’s forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in cups and thermoses police found in the room, but initial results from an autopsy are expected Thursday.

Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the victims as two Vietnamese-Americans and four Vietnamese nationals, and said they were three men and three women. Their ages ranged from 37 to 56, according to Noppasin Punsawat, deputy chief of Bangkok police. He said the case appeared to be personal and would not impact the safety of tourists.

The Vietnamese and US embassies have been contacted about the deaths, and the US FBI is on its way, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said.

A couple among the victims had invested money with two other victims, suggesting that money could be a motive, Noppasin said, citing information obtained from the victims’ relatives. The investment was intended to build a hospital in Japan and the group may have been meeting to settle the case.

The six people were last seen alive when food was delivered to their room Monday afternoon. Staff saw one woman receiving the food, and security footage showed the others arriving one by one in the room shortly afterward. No one was seen leaving, and the door was locked from the inside. A hotel maid found them Tuesday afternoon when they had not left the room.

Noppasin said Wednesday that a seventh person whose name appeared on the hotel reservation had been identified by police as a sibling of one of the six victims, who left the country on July 10. Police believe the seventh person had no involvement in the deaths.

Asked whether such news could be reported at a conference with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev, which would be held at the hotel on Wednesday, Srettha said it was unlikely. “It was not an act of terrorism or a security breach, everything is fine.”

Trairong also said a mass suicide was unlikely because some of the victims had arranged things for the future of their trip, such as guides and drivers. He added that the bodies were not grouped in the same place – some were in the bedroom, others in the living room – suggesting they had not knowingly consumed poison and waited to die together.

In 2023, the country was rocked by reports of a serial killer who poisoned 15 people with cyanide over the course of several years. Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, or “Am Cyanide” as she later became known, killed at least 14 people she owed money to and became the country’s first female serial killer. One person survived.