When 23-year-old Sarah Carter died in Chiang Mai in Thailand, it was initially thought her death was a terrible case of food poisoning. That was until six other tourists died in the city, including three in the same hotel.
Most had very similar symptoms, including myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart.
Thai authorities have maintained the deaths were coincidence, but tonight, 60 Minutes has credible evidence that Sarah Carter died due to insecticide poisoning.
60 Minutes travelled to Chiang Mai and took samples from the bedroom Sarah stayed in at the Downtown Inn, while posing as a hotel guest interested in renting a room.
When she got there the entire fifth floor, the floor where Sarah and her friends stayed, was being pulled apart and cleaned.
It is understood health authorities were due to visit the hotel the next day.
Before leaving for Chiang Mai, 60 Minutes spoke to a New Zealand scientist who suspected insecticide poisoning.
Thai police were also thinking along the same lines and according to an inspector in the local force had raided the company in charge of eradicating insects at the hotel.
We managed to glean from an inspector, the police had raided the company in charge of eradicating insects at the hotel.
Chiang Mai’s Head of Public Health Dr Surasing was also investigating this theory.
“I’m not the specialist,” he said. “But it’s possible that they mixed together the wrong chemicals.”
But Dr Surasing was not able to mention the chemicals that were used in the hotel or the company contracted to use them.
The idea that some Thai hotels could be using unsafe chemicals first came to light two years ago when American Jill St Onge and Norwegian Julie Bergheim died at a Thai resort after they began violently vomiting.
American investigators suspected chemical poisoning but the Thai authorities lost all the samples.
However, 60 Minutes’ samples were being looked after carefully and were taken back to New Zealand for testing by an independent laboratory. Read More
