Russian women tourists shot dead on beach in ThailandIan MacKinnon in Bangkok and Luke Harding in Moscow
Tuesday February 27, 2007
The Guardian
Detectives were yesterday investigating the murder of two young Russian women tourists whose bodies were found slumped in deckchairs at a beach resort in Thailand.
The bodies of Tatiana Tsimfar, 30, and Liubov Svirkova, 25, were discovered at a beach in Pattaya, a few feet from the sea. Both had been shot dead. They had apparently been waiting to watch the sunrise.
Next to them was a two-thirds empty bottle of whisky, a can of Coke, cigarettes, and a pair of transparent flip-flops. The women's mobile phones lay untouched on a table - apparently ruling out the possibility their murder had been a robbery.
Yesterday's Russian newspapers printed photographs of the dead women. Diplomats described their killing as senseless. They said there was no obvious explanation why two Russian holidaymakers on a package tour should have been gunned down. "This is a strange and senseless crime," Vladimir Pronin, Russia's consul in Thailand said, adding: "We have nothing concrete yet as to who killed them."
Murder squad police yesterday said they suspected a gang of foreigners living in the area could be behind the slaying of the women, who were shot at close range with a 9mm pistol. Officers said they had examined photographs on the women's cameras but gave little away about the leads discovered there.
A reward of 100,000 Baht (£1,500) was offered for any information that could lead to the killer of the tourists, who were found on the popular Jomtien Beach at 5am on Saturday a few hundred metres from their hotel.
The pair arrived in Thailand on February 16, and were due to leave for home in two days' time.
Russians became the largest group visiting Pattaya last year, with 274,000 arriving there in the first six months, a jump of 38% on the previous year. The beach resort 90 miles south-east of Bangkok has a booming trade in sex tourism. But police Lieutenant General Assawin Kwanmuang who is heading the investigation dismissed earlier suggestions that the women were involved in the sex trade or that they were involved in any illegal business in Pattaya.
Russian women killed in Thailand supposedly by local gangRead it in Russian
A criminal, who killed two female tourists in Thailand, could be a member of a local gang. Investigators say they already know who the murderer was. However, no motives of the slain are known yet, Kuzbass FM Radio reports.
According to a police spokesman, one and the same people are fixed on photos shot during sightseeing tours and by CCTV cameras. The people are reportedly from the Butchers Gang that includes mostly foreigners.
Police announced no other data on the gang, saying only that they are checking all outcoming and incoming calls to the victims’ mobile phones. The women were using local SIM cards. Besides, police officers question everyone with whom the Russians communicated before death including local residents, Russian and other foreign tourists.
The police put on a wanted list two persons suspected in the murder. It is not ruled out that one of the suspects arrived in Thailand with the same flight that the girls.
As REGNUM reported earlier, bodies of two Russian female tourists, Tatiana Tsimfer, 30, and Liubov Svirkova, 25, were found at a hotel beach in Pattaya early in the morning on February 24. A gunman shot them four times and escaped. Last time the girls were seen earlier that morning in a bar of the resort.
Thanks to BC & prince_alfie for these two articles.
Here is a link to another Forum. Something which I normally would never do, but it has some very graahic pictures of the crime scene & some discussion on the topic. Pictures like that would never be permitted in western society. I urge you to think well before veiwing, they are not pretty & not for those with a weak stomach.
http://englishrussia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30Thanks to bobcat for the link.
