AN American man who had been stranded in Krabi since March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic was found dead in his hotel room today (Jan. 20) with alcohol poisoning suspected to have caused his death, Thai Rath newspaper reported this afternoon (Jan. 20, 2021).
Pol. Maj. Boonsong Longwaree, an investigator at Krabi police station, rushed to the hotel on Chao Fah road at noon today together with a doctor from Krabi Hospital and rescuers upon being notified of a foreign man being found dead in a room there.
When he opened the door of the hotel’s room number 113 he found the body of Mr. Paul James Thomas, 52, lying naked face down on the mattress. He had been dead for two to three days.
There was no sign of struggle or ransanking in the room with all the deceased man’s belongings, including suitcases, wallet and laptop computers, untouched.
Ms. Wassana Wongsawai, 36, the hotel staff member who found the body, said she had come to ask for the room’s rent, which he had taken on a monthly basis, after not seeing him around for two to three days. But upon opening the door she saw his already decomposing dead body so called the police.
She added that the American man could not return home because of the Covid-19 outbreak and had started to make friends in the neighbourhood and being a heavy drinker, drank with some of them.
Police initially suspect that alcohol poisoning could have led to his death but they are waiting for the result of a detailed autopsy while calling his friends in for questioning. The US embassy has been notified to inform his relatives.
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Top: Krabi’s beautiful Railay beach. Photo: VnGrijl (CC BY-SA 2.0)
