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  • Thailand: Update-Canadian autopsy disputes Thai autopsy about DEET involvement - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

    Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel
    Bangkok, June 17, 2012 (AFP) -Two Canadian sisters found dead in their hotel room on a popular Thai resort island may have been the victims of "serious food poisoning", police said Sunday.
    The bodies of Audrey and Noemi Belanger, aged 20 and 26, were found Friday by hotel staff on Phi Phi island in the Andaman Sea, 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Bangkok, showings signs of having suffered an extreme toxic reaction.
    "Forensic officials found vomit in the room, blood on their lips and gums and their fingernails and toenails were blue," lieutenant colonel Rat Somboon of Krabi Provincial Police said, adding there were "signs of serious food poisoning."
    ...
    Last edited by Emily; October 16, 2012, 01:37 AM. Reason: Updated title.
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  • #2
    Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

    Une infirmi?re de l'h?pital o? les corps ont ?t? transport?s pour l'autopsie a d?clar? que les jeunes femmes ?taient mortes depuis 12 ? 20 heures lorsqu'elles ont ?t? trouv?es et que leur peau arborait des ? rougeurs ?tranges ?, rapporte de site tha?landais de nouvelles Phuketwan.com.

    Deux Québécoises de la région du Témiscouata ont été découvertes sans vie vendredi dans une chambre d'hôtel de l'île touristique thaïlandaise de Phi Phi.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

      Hmm. We seem to have had a similar incident in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last year that was never fully resolved:



      And more eerily, we had 4 cases, with 2 deaths, of undiagnosed illness in 2009 from Koh Phi Phi island (I can't find the FT thread), which might even be the same island, which, if I recall correctly, had bluish coloration of the skin as a symptom, as in the current case.

      The current investigation may solve either case.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

        Exactly what came to mind:



        UPDATE Phi Phi Deaths of Canadian Sisters Revive Riddle of Laleena Double Fatality
        By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian

        Saturday, June 16, 2012
        UPDATE: Phi Phi Photo Album Above
        Canadian sources have named the women as Audrey Belanger, 20, and her sister Noemi, 26. Officials offered condolences to family and friends and said Canadian envoys are working with Thai authorities on an investigation.


        .
        Original Report
        PHUKET: Two Canadian sisters aged 20 and 26 have been found dead in a room at a hotel on the popular holiday island of Phi Phi, reviving the riddle of two mysterious deaths of young women in 2009.

        At this stage the latest tourist deaths also remain a mystery, with a Phi Phi policeman telling Phuketwan there were no signs of violence.

        The bodies, found at the Phi Phi Palms Residence, are now at Krabi Hospital, a nurse told Phuketwan this afternoon. A team of pathologists is likely to autopsy them as soon as possible.

        Police believe the sisters may have been poisoned. As with a similar case on Phi Phi three years ago, a maid opened a door to find the sisters dead.

        The sisters - reported this evening to be from Quebec - checked in on Tuesday. Lieutenant Wisawa Senghar, who is based on Phi Phi, told Phuketwan ''The sisters initially planned to only stay one night but told a receptionist after staying on Tuesday that they would like to stay Wednesday night as well.''

        He said they stayed in a ground-floor room at the small resort.

        The maid knocked on Thursday to clean the room, but there was no response. Only yesterday was a master key used to open the door.

        As with the earlier deaths of an American woman and a Norwegian woman, there were signs of vomiting in the room.

        ''It really is difficult to speculate what may have killed them,'' Lieutenant Wisawa said. ''We are waiting for Canadian Embassy officials to come to check out the room.''

        Nurse Anangkana Choisrinal, at Krabi Hospital, said today: ''I have never seen a case like it. We have no idea as yet what killed the women.

        ''They had been dead between 12 and 20 hours when they were found. They both have a mysterious rash.''

        Nurse Anangkana said Krabi Hospital had yet to hear from the Canadian Embassy.

        Flamboyant spiky-haired Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, considered by many to be Thailand's leading pathologist, told Phuketwan today that she had yet to be contacted about the case.

        ''There must be a reason why they died,'' she said. ''I feel certain a cause will be found.''

        [snip]

        About 80 or 90 minutes from Phuket by ferry, Phi Phi was also the scene of the still unexplained deaths of two young women in May, 2009, at a guesthouse.

        The mystery of what killed the women - who died after falling sick in adjoining rooms - has never been solved.

        American Jill St Onge, 27, was in one room with her boyfriend Ryan Kells, while Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22, and her friend ''Karina'' signed in for the room next door.

        Within hours, St Onge and Bergheim were dead, and Kells and ''Karina'' narrowly avoided the same fate.

        The Laleena guesthouse has since changed its name but the mystery lives on.

        Despite pathologists and chemists in Norway and the US trying to solve the mystery, no cause of the Laleena deaths has ever been determined.

        Although the latest tragedy is still unfolding, the fact that the 2009 deaths remain unsolved and that the victims were also young women is likely to lead to intense media coverage.

        Last year in Thailand, there was yet another riddle - the mystery of what killed 23-year-old New Zealand woman Sarah Carter and several other tourists in Chiang Mai and the city's Downtown Inn.

        The cause of those deaths has never been fully resolved. The demolition of the Downtown Inn has since been ordered.

        [snip]

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

          Yeah, it's the same island. Here's an eyewitness account of the current investigation:

          Latest A trip to Phi Phi assaults the eyes with beauty and the nose with stenches. Restoring Phi Phi's reputation means solving the mysterious deaths of two Canadian sisters.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

            At least it's not the same hotel:

            All the latest top stories and breaking news. Thailand’s most credible source of Thai and international developments. In-depth business and political news, leading Lifestyle trends, broad international sports coverage, plus English language learning


            Police still baffled over death of sisters
            Published: 18/06/2012 at 01:35 AM Newspaper section: News 0
            Share
            Krabi police are struggling to find clues about the mysterious death of two Canadian sisters at their hotel room on Koh Phi Phi.

            The tourists' corpses will be sent for further autopsies at a better-equipped hospital in Songkhla or Bangkok.

            Muang Krabi police chief Thaksin Pochakorn said there were no signs of a struggle in their rooms or on their bodies, and investigators were looking for other possible causes of the deaths.

            "We are waiting for the post-mortem examination of the victims' inner organs to see if there are any traces of toxic substances," Pol Col Thaksin said.

            The bodies of Noemi Belanger, 26 and Audrey Belanger, 20, were found in their hotel room on Koh Phi Phi off Krabi province on Friday.

            The holidaying sisters checked in at Phi Phi Palms Residence in tambon Ao Nang of Muang district last Tuesday.

            Witnesses said the women went out and returned to the room late at night and did not come out in the morning. Concerned hotel staff used a master key to enter the ground-floor room.

            Police said large amounts of vomit were found in the room and the women had bleeding gums and bleeding under the skin. Their nails appeared to be blackened.

            Krabi hospital director Komgrib Phukittayakamee yesterday said the women's bodies, which were being kept at his hospital, will be sent for a post-mortem examination at either the Police General Hospital in Bangkok or at Songklanagarind Hospital.

            Dr Komgrib said he and Phi Phi hospital director Duangporn Paothong had jointly examined the dead bodies of the tourists and found they had suffered no physical injuries. It was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the deaths, he said, adding that bleeding gums and bleeding under the skin were not always linked to poisoning.

            Such symptoms are usually found on diseased people, the doctor said.

            Canadian embassy officials had arrived at the hospital to talk to the authorities about the pathology tests, he said.

            Dr Komgrib said health authorities would not issue any health advisory to tourists and residents until they received more information from the autopsy and pathology testing results, expected in the next few days.

            Phi Phi Palms Residence, where the women stayed, opened in 2009 [i.e. too late to have been involved in the prior incident - alert].

            The two-storey lodging is about a two-minute walk from the famous Loh Dalum beach on the island.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

              En mai 2009, une Am?ricaine de 27 ans et une Norv?gienne de 22 ans sont mortes dans des circonstances similaires, alors qu'elles se trouvaient dans des chambres adjacentes, dans un autre h?tel de la m?me ?le. La cause des d?c?s n'a jamais ?t? d?termin?e.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                Originally posted by Diane Morin View Post
                En mai 2009, une Am?ricaine de 27 ans et une Norv?gienne de 22 ans sont mortes dans des circonstances similaires, alors qu'elles se trouvaient dans des chambres adjacentes, dans un autre h?tel de la m?me ?le. La cause des d?c?s n'a jamais ?t? d?termin?e.

                http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/act...s-sous-peu.php
                Translated into English:

                In May 2009, an American and a Norwegian 27 years 22 years died in similar circumstances, while they were in adjacent rooms in another hotel of the same island. The cause of death was never determined.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                  They would have died on Thursday after a first full night spent in the room

                  Elles seraient morte le jeudi après un première nuit complète passée dans la chambre



                  Extract

                  Police determined they were dead for about 24 hours prior to that and only found a lot of vomit in the room,” he said. The vomit, along with traces of blood on the women’s face, could be signs of a toxic reaction, police said.

                  /.../

                  The Thai police officer said the hotel, where the women checked in on Tuesday, was located in an upscale area of the island, which is known for partying and as the location where the movie “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed.

                  Thai media earlier quoted another officer, police Lt. Siwa Saneha, as saying the two women went out to socialize on the night of their arrival. He said a hotel maid came to clean their room on Wednesday and Thursday, but did not enter because she believed they were inside.

                  On Friday, “the maid wanted to check if they wanted to stay at the hotel for another night but didn’t hear any response, so the hotel used a spare key to access the room,” said Jongrak.

                  Jongrak recalled a similar incident on Phi Phi Island in May 2009 when two women from the United States and Norway died after suddenly falling ill at a guesthouse, but refused to comment if the two cases shared the same cause of death.

                  In that case, the victims suffered severe vomiting and stomach pains before being rushed to hospital. Doctors determined the proximate cause of death as dehydration and shock, but it was not known what caused their sudden illness. Two other people with the same symptoms survived.

                  Another spate of mysterious tourist deaths occurred last year in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, involving several visitors from different countries staying at the same hotel in January and February.

                  The cause of death was not established, though some evidence suggested the use of the chemical spray chlorpyrifos, used to kill bedbugs, may have been responsible.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                    Extract:

                    In 2009, two other young women, Jill St Onge, 27, an American, and Julie Bergheim, 22, a Norwegian, died on Phi Phi in similarly mysterious circumstances.

                    Phuketwan covered that case fully and is mystified, like everybody else, as to the cause of the deaths then, and the cause of two more now.

                    PHOTO ALBUM This report is being typed from the scene of the mysterious deaths of two Canadian sisters on Phi Phi, one of the world's most beautiful - and troubled - islands.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                      Extract:


                      Kind of mysterious deaths in May last year, has occurred in a hotel in Chiang Mai, two Britons, a Thai woman 1 Mingniuxilan woman died mysteriously in the hotel room, and the New Zealand woman accompanied by two other The woman escaped Fortunately, after the rescue.  Although the Thai police speculated that the cause of death was food poisoning, but then the British police investigation pointed out that four of the deceased may have died hotel spraying highly toxic pesticides.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                        How can they possibly know this at this point?

                        Read the latest breaking news in Canada and the rest of the world. We bring all of today's top headlines and stories to your fingertips.


                        Quebec sisters may have died from accidental poisoning: Thai police
                        Jeff Heinrich and Paul Delean, Postmedia News Jun 17, 2012 ? 6:40 PM ET

                        MONTREAL ? The two Quebec women found dead Thursday night in a hotel room on Phi Phi Island in southern Thailand do not appear to have been murdered, police said Sunday.

                        Instead, accidental poisoning may have caused the death of Noemi Belanger, 26, and her sister Audrey Belanger, 20, at the Phi Phi Palm Residence Hotel.

                        An analysis of their stomach contents will help determine the true cause.

                        The sisters were well known and popular in their hometown Pohenegamook, Que., a rural community of about 3,000 near the border with Maine, the local mayor said.

                        [snip]

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                          Phuket News UPDATE Family of Phi Phi victims hit at media guesswork; Phuket City mayoral race over; Phuket FC wins 2-1; Rohingya cause ignites; Euro 2012 latest; Phuket events.


                          [snip]

                          The small Quebec town of Pohenegamook is in mourning after two young residents were found dead on Phi Phi in southern Thailand. Uncle Eric Belanger said: ''We're still waiting to hear back from a specialist who was sent to analyze the bodies - and (the media) are already telling us they were poisoned.''

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                            Originally posted by alert View Post
                            Hmm. We seem to have had a similar incident in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last year that was never fully resolved:



                            And more eerily, we had 4 cases, with 2 deaths, of undiagnosed illness in 2009 from Koh Phi Phi island (I can't find the FT thread), which might even be the same island, which, if I recall correctly, had bluish coloration of the skin as a symptom, as in the current case.

                            The current investigation may solve either case.
                            I can't find a thread covering the 2009 Koh Phi island deaths, either, but the Chiang Mai thread has a reference to this Seattle Times article about those cases.

                            Family seeks answers in Seattle artist's death in Thailand
                            Originally published May 8, 2009 at 12:00 AM | Page modified May 8, 2009 at 10:18 AM

                            On Saturday, a Seattle man got word that his sister, Jill St. Onge, a 27-year-old Seattle artist, died mysteriously in Thailand.

                            By Maureen O'Hagan Seattle Times staff reporter
                            [snip]
                            With only days before they were to head home, they decided to "splurge" on a room with air conditioning on the island of Koh Phi Phi. That evening, Jill started feeling sick, and they chalked it up to food poisoning. Within a few hours, it was clear she needed to be hospitalized.

                            "I ran outside and found a kinda shopping-cart thing, brought it back, scooped Jill up and put her in," according to a blog post Kells later wrote. "I then started running toward the hospital screaming for help. ... They did CPR for about an hour to no avail."

                            Kells also was vomiting that night, but has recovered, St. Onge said. He remains in Thailand, where his parents have joined him, waiting to bring Jill's remains back home.

                            Here's the kicker: Two Norwegian tourists staying in the same guesthouse were also sickened that night, according to The Associated Press. One of them died, and the other was in intensive care.
                            Here's the KING5 story with a bit more detail:
                            by By OWEN LEI / KING 5 News
                            Posted on August 15, 2009 at 3:01 PM
                            Updated Friday, Sep 18 at 1:09 PM
                            [snip]
                            "After that we met some friends, but the whole time Jill was saying her stomach wasn't feeling that great," wrote Kells. "So around maybe midnight she said she was going to go lie down. But I should stay out a bit. So I did, I went back to the room around 2 a.m., Jill was looking real bad, vomiting, I laid down with her to try to make her feel better still thinking it was the burger that was making her feel bad."

                            Despite officials initially saying it was food poisoning, Kells said, Kells believed there was something toxic in the air.

                            Then the local Thai newspaper, the Andaman Times, reported a Norwegian tourist dying within hours of Jill in the same bungalow. Norwegian news outlet Nettavisen reports traces of cyanide found in that woman and suggests a nearby water treatment plant as the cause.
                            Last edited by Emily; June 18, 2012, 12:21 AM. Reason: Added link.
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                            • #15
                              Re: Sisters Died Of 'Food Poisoning' In Thailand Hotel

                              Latest Thailand's top toxicologists are believed to be involved now to investigate the mysterious deaths of young Canadian sisters on Phi Phi island.


                              PHI PHI DEATHS RIDDLE Room Where the Sisters Died: First Photo
                              By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison

                              Monday, June 18, 2012
                              PHUKET: Some of Thailand's top toxicologists were working today to determine what caused the mysterious deaths of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger on Phi Phi island.

                              For the first time, Dr Duangporn Paothong of Phi Phi Hospital talked publicly about what she found when she was called to the room at the Palms Residence Phi Phi immediately after a maid discovered the bodies on Friday.


                              .
                              The photographs in the album above show the room, from the resort next door, from where a young English law student said he also saw the bodies.

                              Dr Duangporn told Phuketwan today that she had ''never seen a case like it.''

                              ''Both bodies had the same characteristics,'' she said. ''There was a lot of vomit in a wastepaper basket.

                              ''There was blood under their skin, under their tongues and under their eyes. Their fingernails had turned green or purple
                              .

                              ''As for the cause of death, it's impossible to know at this stage,'' she said. ''There just isn't enough information.''

                              [snip]

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