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Maya Beach, where the film 'The Beach' was set, a key Phi Phi attraction
Photo by phuketwan.com

Latest: Phi Phi 'Poisoning' Kills Two Tourists

By Chutima Sidasathian and Shanya Phattrasaya
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Phuketwan Updating News

THE CAUSE of poisoning that killed two tourists on Phi Phi over the weekend is being investigated, the Governor of Krabi, Siwa Sirisaowalak, said today.

The tourists, both young women, were from the US and Norway. They had been staying at the same small local guesthouse.

A blog posted online by a companion who was travelling with one of the victims suggests that the air conditioning may have been the cause.

But a doctor on the island this afternoon said investigations were focussing on what the two women, and a third who survived, had had to drink.

Consumption of alcohol mixed with fruit juice was common to all three cases, the doctor said.

A Bangkok specialist epidemiologist is already on Phil Phi, seeking to find the reason behind the mysterious fatalities.

Thailand's top forensic scientist, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, is expected to be involved in autopsies to determine what killed the women.

A spokeswoman at Vachira Hospital on Phuket confirmed the bodies of two women had been received from Phi Phi and sent on to Bangkok for forensic tests.

A third tourist, a woman, aged 19, from Norway, was treated at Phi Phi Hospital and has been discharged.

Phuketwan has had conflicting reports about the precise circumstances of the deaths.

Police Lieutenant Pantanan Sangtong, who investigated the deaths, said the Norwegian woman died around 8am on Sunday at Phi Phi Hospital.

She had been staying with her boyfriend at a local guesthouse, the officer said.

On Monday, two Americans from the same guesthouse fell sick. One, a woman aged 26, died, Lieutenant Pantanan said.

Other reports said the American woman was the first to fall ill and die.

The Norwegian embassy in Bangkok confirmed that a Norwegian citizen had died.

The 23-year-old woman will have an autopsy performed to determine the precise cause of her death, along with the other woman victim.

It is understood all three victims because ill suddenly on Phi Phi at the weekend, at different times.

Dr Buncha Khakong, of the Public Health Department in Krabi, told Phuketwan that the first woman victim arrived at the hospital at 7.20am on Sunday.

She was vomiting, feeling weak and had low blood pressure, he said. By 8am, she was dead.

She told nurses that she had been vomiting since 7pm the previous evening, Dr Buncha said. The patient thought at first that her illness might be a hangover from a drinking session.

Dr Buncha said a rudimentary autopsy performed at Phi Phi Hospital showed no obvious cause of death.

The second woman presented at the hospital at 9.30pm on Sunday, having fallen ill at 9.30am. She was dead by 11pm, he said.

No autopsy was done on Phi Phi on the second woman. Both bodies were sent to Phuket together, he said.

A spokeswoman for Sea Angel ferries, one of several companies that ply between Phuket and Phi Phi, said today that tourist arrival and departure numbers were normal.

Scandasia.com reported that according to the Foreign Ministry in Oslo, Thai police has started an investigation into the cause of the death of the Norwegian woman.

Scandasia named the dead American woman as Jill St. Onge from Seattle, who was staying at the same guest house as the Norwegian woman, along with her boyfriend.

A spokeswoman at the American Embassy in Bangkok said this afternoon she could supply no information.

Phi Phi, part of Krabi province, is about an hour and 45 minutes by ferry from Thailand's main holiday island, Phuket.

It consists of two main islands and has recovered its popularity with backpackers since about 850 people died there during the 2004 tsunami.

The regular full moon parties on Phi Phi are notorious for drugs.


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To get the Thais to admit to malpractice in a water treatment centre will be hard.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

No evidence of poisoning in Phi Phi tourist deaths

Phi phi tourist deaths Laleena guesthouse
Laleena Guesthouse on Phi Phi, where two tourists stayed before dying from mystery illnesses.



Phi phi tourist deaths
The area behind Laleena guesthouse

KRABI: Following the mysterious deaths on Phi Phi Island of three foreign tourists in just over a month, Krabi police and doctors are still unable to explain how the American and two Norwegians became fatally ill.

Contrary to initial media reports of possible cyanide poisoning as the cause of the deaths, Krabi police told the Gazette that no evidence has been found to indicate poisoning in any of the three victims and that the initial media report was false. That report was the result of a misunderstanding between the police and the reporter, police said, adding that the reporter responsible has since returned to the police station to apologize for the mistake.

Since the deaths, Krabi Public Health Authority officers have inspected the guesthouses and rooms previously occupied by the victims. According to police, the health officers could not find anything to indicate that any hazardous substances had contaminated the guesthouses’ air-conditioning units, water supply or food. Both guesthouses remain open for business.

In attempts to gather more clues as to the mystery deaths, a team of police officers yesterday inspected bars in the tourist area and took samples of the drinks on sale to be sent for laboratory tests, as two of the victims had reportedly visited a number of bars the night they fell ill. Police are still waiting for the test results.

One of the bar owners who spoke with Gazette reporters said that the deaths were a mystery to everyone and that nothing of this nature had happened before.

Norwegian tourist Erik Liuhagen, 48, died on April 1 at 8am after being admitted to hospital with severe diarrhea. He had been staying in room 119 at the beach-front guesthouse Phi Phi Villa. His body was sent to Bangkok the next day for an autopsy, the results of which have not yet been released, Krabi police told the Gazette.

Just over one month later, on May 3, 26-year-old American tourists Ryan Kells and Jill St. Onge both became ill and were admitted to Krabi Hospital. The pair had been vomiting for some time before going to hospital. Ms St. Onge died later that day. Mr Kells survived the illness.

According to police, the pair were engaged to be married and had been staying at Laleena Guesthouse, which is about 1.5km from where Mr Liuhagen had stayed.

On May 4, Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim – who had also been staying at Laleena guesthouse in the room adjacent to Ryan Kells’ & Ms St. Onge’s room – died after becoming mysteriously ill with severe vomiting. She died in hospital while talking to police, a short while after being admitted.

Investigations continue.

– Khunakorn Terdkiatkhachorn

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Phuket, Thailand
21:19 local time (GMT +7)
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Jill St Onge and Ryan Kells: he says they were in love and seldom argued
Dead Tourist 'Pushed off Phi Phi': Boyfriend

phuketwan.com
By Alan Morison
Thursday, May 7, 2009
CONFLICTING accounts surfaced today about what happened in the final hours before two women tourists died on the holiday island of Phi Phi over the weekend.

American Ryan Kells said he was bundled off the island in a speed boat with the body of his fiancee after her sudden death.

He spoke to Phuketwan by telephone from Bangkok a couple of hours before the body of his girlfriend, Jill Sheree St Onge, 27, was due to be cremated.

''I felt like they were trying to brush us off,'' he said of the trip that cost him $250, with Miss St Onge's body in a bodybag in the bottom of the boat. ''They wanted it all to go away.''

Miss St Onge fell sick at a local guest house and died within hours. In the next room, a Norwegian woman, Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22, also fell sick and died in similar fashion.

The cause of both deaths remains a mystery.

Locals at Laleena Guesthouse today were suggesting that the American couple had argued on Saturday night, not long before Miss St Onge fell sick.

But Mr Kells said: ''Absolutely not.''

''We spent the whole day having a great time. They must have seen some other couple arguing.

''We had a pizza for dinner on the beach and a conversation about what we were going to do together with the next two years of our lives.

''Jill was talking about coming to teach in Thailand.

''Jill and I hardly ever argued. We'd been together for five years and just two months ago, on our trip, I proposed to her.''

Mr Kells said Miss St Onge had been feeling unwell and had had no alcohol to drink before her death.

A doctor on the island had suggested that a popular ''Bucket'' drink, alcohol and fruit juice mixed with Red Bull, might be the common denominator in the two deaths, and the illness of a third woman who was with the dead Norwegian.

The doctor's opinion was ''based on hearsay,'' he said.

''Jill hated Red Bull and we are 27, not 19 and out for drinking fun,'' Mr Kells added.

He was unimpressed with the standard of treatment Miss St Onge received at the local hospital, where she died, and he remains keen to find out precisely what caused his fiancee's death.

''They did not appear to know how to perform cpr,'' he said. Mr Kells published his own account of events on an online blog soon after the death of Miss St Onge.

''I want people to know what happened,'' he said.

Mr Kells said he was struck by the chemical smell when he and Miss St Onge checked in and went to their room on Saturday.

''It was our first air-conditioned room for about a month,'' he said. ''I felt that whatever that smell was, it was some kind of gas.''

He went in and out of the room to an Internet cafe and for food while Miss Onge stayed in the room, and fell sick.

''I feel that whatever was in the room was what she succumbed to,'' Mr Kells said.

''I find it highly coincidentally that the woman in the next room died in the same way. We were in Room 4, they were in Room 5.''

Mr Kells' parents have joined him in Bangkok. After this afternoon's cremation, he plans to take Miss St Onge's ashes back to her family in the US.

The couple lived in Seattle, on the west coast, although both grew up in California.

Mr Kells wants people to know what happened, and to have the cause of the two deaths revealed as soon as possible.

''They (the island authorities) wanted to get us away from the island as fast as possible,'' he said.

He said the speedboat broke down during the nightmare trip back to Phuket and it took 45 minutes to repair.

Transporting he and the body to Bangkok, the autopsy, which took place yesterday, and today's cremation have cost him US$2500.

''Two deaths in one day . . . it shouldn't happen to anyone,'' he said. ''I want to make sure it does not happen again.''

Phi Phi Deaths: No Word on What Killed Women
Latest Inquiries were continuing today into the mysterious deaths of two women who occupied adjoining rooms at the same Phi Phi guesthouse. Several rumors have been discounted.
Phi Phi Deaths: No Word on What Killed Women

Phi Phi Deaths: No Word on What Killed Women

By Shanya Phattrasaya
Thursday, May 7, 2009
THE MYSTERIOUS deaths of two tourists on Phi Phi led to several processes of investigation and widening ripples of interest around the world today.

The bodies of Norwegian Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22, from Drammen, and American Jill Sheree St. Onge, 27, from Seattle, are now in Bangkok where autopsies are to be conducted at Siriraj Hospital.

However, police told Phuketwan today that results from the tests could take up to a month.

The women occupied adjoining rooms at the same Phi Phi bungalow guesthouse.

Until it is known what caused the deaths, the tourist industry on and around Phi Phi will be kept in suspense.

Speculation about what killed the two young women at the weekend continued to be the main item of conversation among locals on the island today, as tourists took day-trips and went diving as usual.

Phuketwan reporter Chutima Sidasathian caught a ferry to the island this morning from Phuket and hopes to find out more about the deaths.

As well as the Bangkok investigation, a specialist epidemiologist is believed to be trying to find out on Phi Phi exactly what killed the women.

But as talk about the tragedy develops its own momentum in the online world, rumors are springing up.

Phuketwan today spoke to a doctor who discounted any link between the death on Phi Phi last month of a 46-year-old Norwegian man and the deaths of the two women.

Dr Buncha Khakong, of the Public Health Department in Krabi, said the man died of food poisoning and was already ill when he arrived on Phi Phi from Phuket last month.

The man was not staying in the same guesthouse, as the rumor had it, Dr Buncha said.

As for the deaths of the two women, Dr Buncha said that separate to the autopsies, he had sent the contents of one victim's stomach to mainland Krabi where the sample will be studied by specialist doctors.

He discounted two theories about the deaths, saying that no cyanide had been found in either the bodies to date, adding that if something in the air conditioning had killed the women, their symptoms would have been different.

Dr Buncha is still inclined to believe that something the women drank probably was the cause of their deaths.

Phuketwan was told yesterday that the Norwegian woman was the first victim but we have now established that, according to nurses at the local hospital, Miss St Onge suffered a vomiting attack and died suddenly at 8.40am on Sunday morning.

Miss Bergheim also fell ill on Sunday with similar symptoms, and died at 1.30am on Monday, a spokesperson at Phi Phi Hospital told our reporter today.

A 19-year-old Norwegian woman travelling with Miss Bergheim suffered similar symptoms.

She was treated on Phi Phi, and then briefly at BangkokHospital Phuket, then discharged.

Tourists were catching the ferries to Phi Phi from Phuket as usual this morning.