{"id":39883,"date":"2026-06-28T03:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39883\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T03:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:21:14","slug":"australian-accused-of-thai-teens-murder-tells-her-family-death-was-out-of-my-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39883\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian accused of Thai teen’s murder tells her family death was ‘out of my control’"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Australian man charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Thailand has told her family her death was “out of my control”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simon Peter Carman was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport<\/a> overnight on Friday.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, police found a large suitcase near railway tracks, which contained a naked body identified as that of Tunchanok Donhomla.<\/p>\n

Police retraced her last moments to a Pattaya hotel room she entered with Mr Carman in the early hours of Friday morning.<\/p>\n

He has been charged with four offences: murder, concealment of a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor aged between 15 and 18 for sexual purposes.<\/p>\n

Police told the ABC Mr Carman denied all charges, and that he said she “disappeared from the room while I was asleep”.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Mr Carman reportedly also told authorities he acted in self-defence, alleging Ms Tunchanok threatened him with a knife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Thai media<\/a>, he said he had not known Ms Tunchanok before they met in Pattaya and went to his condo, and that they initially agreed on a payment of 1,000 baht ($43), but they argued after he offered 500 baht instead.<\/p>\n

Police did not confirm this report to the ABC.<\/p>\n

In a video recorded while he was in custody, Mr Carman told Ms Tunchanok’s family he felt bad for “what happened to your daughter”.<\/p>\n

“It was out of my control,” he said. “Um, I hope you \u2014 I know you’ll be very sad, upset; same-same me.”<\/p>\n

“Um, it shouldn’t happen and I hope you’re OK. I know you’re not, but I hope. Um, and please tell other girls to be not \u2014 just to be careful, and not \u2014 I don’t wanna talk [unintelligible].”<\/p>\n

\"Carman<\/p>\n

Simon Peter Carman was taken into police custody after Tunchanok Donhomla was reported missing. (Supplied: Pattaya City Police Station)<\/p>\n

The ABC understands Mr Carman is now in detention in Pattaya Prison.<\/p>\n

“We believe he killed her, and he is being questioned on suspicion of murder,” said Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyu, Superintendent of the Pattaya City Police Station.<\/p>\n

“He has fingernail scratches across his body that are consistent with a struggle, but he denies killing her.”<\/p>\n

In a video taken after his arrest, Mr Carmen was asked about scratches on his neck.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s a spider; they always get in here,” he said.<\/p>\n

Police release timeline<\/p>\n

The Pattaya City Police Station outlined how its investigation unfolded in an AI infographic posted on social media.<\/p>\n

June 25, 3:34am: CCTV footage from a condo lobby shows Mr Carman and Ms Tunchanok walking hand-in-hand and entering an elevator.June 25, 9:25pm to 9:48pm: CCTV captures Mr Carman dragging a large suitcase out of his room and leaving the condo on a motorcycle with the suitcase strapped to the back. He then sped alongside the railway tracks, disappearing from view for nine minutes.June 25, 9:57pm to 10:06pm: CCTV footage shows Mr Carman returning to the accommodation.June 26, 11:36am: A friend lodged a missing person report for Ms Tunchanok, telling police they had last seen her with a foreign man.June 26, 2:26pm: Mr Carman is seen leaving his condo.June 26, no time provided: Police gather evidence to request an arrest warrant from the Pattaya Court. Officers find Mr Carman’s passport during the inspection of a hotel room.June 27, 1:15am: Investigative teams from the Pattaya City Police Station and the Immigration Bureau arrest Mr Carman at Suvarnabhumi Airport.June 27, 1:30am: Police discover a suitcase near railway tracks about a 10-minute drive from Mr Carman’s hotel, which contains Ms Tunchanok’s body.<\/p>\n

The exact timings are unclear, as this timeline contains some discrepancies from previous reports.<\/p>\n

A court date will not be announced until police have completed their investigation, which they have 84 days to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement to the ABC that it was providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian man charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Thailand has told her family her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,990,21,2770,32099,32302,32301,23838,32303,5766],"class_list":["post-39883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australian","tag-austrlia","tag-murder","tag-pattaya","tag-simon-carman","tag-simon-peter-carman","tag-suitcase","tag-suitcase-murder","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}