DEADLY BREW: Cyanide-Laced Tea Kills Six People in Luxury Hotel in Bangkok – Two of the Poisoned Have US Citizenship

Six people have been found dead in a room of a 5-star hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, including two with US citizenship, in a mysterious story that appears to have been solved.

The deaths at the Grand Hyatt Erawan are surrounded by confusing reports, which initially stated that the deaths were caused by a shooting – but it soon became clear that there was no sign of violence, and the authorities were looking at poisoning as the cause of the deaths.

Initially, Thai police were looking for a possible seventh person – a poisoner – in connection with the incident.

Reuters reported:

“All six, who were of Vietnamese descent, with two carrying U.S. passports, checked into Bangkok’s Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel at two separate times after arriving on Saturday and Sunday, police official Thiti Saengsawang told reporters.

The group – three men and three women – checked into different rooms but their bodies were found in one room, which did not show any signs of struggle, he said.”

The police found the bodies after hotel staff contacted them at around 5.30 p.m.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited the hotel and ordered a swift investigation into the matter.

And swiftly it did seem to evolve, indeed, as BBC reported a shocking twist in the story:

“Six people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Thailand were poisoned by drinks laced with cyanide, police have said.

Police suspect that one of the dead was behind the poisoning and was driven by crushing debt.”

It turns out that – according to Thai police – two of the poisoned people had loaned the equivalent of $280,000 to the suspected poisoner for investment purposes.

Among the deceased are two American citizens, the suspected poisoner, Sherine Chong, and Dang Hung Van.

The group ordered food and tea, delivered to the room around 14:00 local time, and received by Ms Chong.

“According to the deputy police chief, a waiter offered to make tea for the guests but Ms Chong refused this. The waiter recalled that she ‘spoke very little and was visibly under stress’, authorities said.

The waiter later left the room – no one else is believed to have entered the room apart from the six inside. Police say there were no signs of a struggle or a robbery.”

Police found traces of cyanide in all six tea cups.

Relatives of the victims said Thi Nguyen Phuong and Hong Pham Thanh – a married couple – owned a road construction business and had given money to Chong to invest in a hospital building project in Japan.