Thai police investigate if Australian man charged over 17-year-old girl’s murder linked to other unsolved cases

Thai police are investigating whether an Australian man charged with murdering a 17-year-old girl could be linked to two unsolved cases in the region. Police colonel Anek Srathongyoo, a superintendent of Pattaya City police station, told the Guardian on Tuesday that although there was no evidence linking Simon Peter Carman to the cases in neighbouring regions, they were investigating the possibility given similarities between the cases. Carman, 45, was charged over the weekend with the alleged murder of Thunchanok Donhomla , whose body was found in a suitcase near railway tracks in Pattaya, on Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast, in the early hours of Saturday. Police said her belongings were also found in the suitcase. Carman has denied the charges. Thunchanok Donhomla. Photograph: Pattaya City Police CCTV footage, seen by the Guardian and verified by police, allegedly showed Donhomla holding hands with Carman in the lobby of the condo he rented in the suburb of Jomtien Beach in the early hours of Thursday morning. Footage later that day showed Carman leaving the condo to get food but Donhomla was never seen leaving, Srathongyoo said. Carman was later seen on the CCTV footage leaving the condo with a large suitcase, which he took on a motorbike. He returned to the condo without it, Srathongyoo said.