Oakland woman suspected in Thai hotel deaths
Six people died under mysterious circumstances Monday in what appears to be a mass cyanide poisoning in a Thai hotel — and authorities said an Oakland woman among the dead is believed to be the culprit, according to reports.
Two of the dead were Americans, including Oakland resident Sherine Chong, while the four others were Vietnamese, police officials in Bangkok said, according to the Washington Post.
The group was found dead in Room 502 of the Grand Hyatt Erawan, where a full meal was laid out untouched on the table and police found empty cups with traces of cyanide in them, according to the reports.
Only Chong was in the room that day when hotel workers delivered tea and food to the room around 2 p.m. on Monday, police said. The five others entered the room after.
Police believe Chong poisoned the tea with cyanide in order to kill herself and the five others over a financial dispute, the Bangkok Post reported.
A housekeeper later found the bodies after the guests failed to check out on Tuesday.
Two of the bodies were in a bedroom while the four others were in a living room, according to police.
In one photo of the scene that shows food on the hotel room table, one victim’s legs are visible on the ground.
The head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University’s medical school said that there was cyanide in the blood of all six, according to the Associated Press.
Police said that Chong had recruited the other five to invest more than $250,000 in construction work, reportedly including a hospital project in Japan.
Some of the others had taken legal action against Chong when there was no progress on the projects, the Bangkok Post reported.
With the six facing a court date in two weeks, Chong invited the group to meet for negotiations. They met in Bangkok and stayed at different rooms in the hotel. They all were in Chong’s room when they died, according to the Bangkok Post.
The Bangkok Post identified the other victims as Dang Hung Van, 55; Tran Dinh Phu, 37; Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, 47; and a couple: Nguyen Thi Phuong, 46; and Pham Hong Thanh, 49.