Here’s What Simon Carman Did For 17 Hours As Thai Teen’s Body Lay In A Suitcase In His Bathroom

Aussie national Simon Carman, 46, remains behind bars after being charged with the murder of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla in Pattaya, Thailand, with Thai police working to piece together the hours between the teen’s death and Carman’s arrest at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

For the most part, it sounds like Carman went about his day ‘as normal’ after murdering the teenager over a 500 baht dispute (they had agreed 1,000 baht for her time).

Carman told investigators he spent the rest of the night sleeping just metres from the suitcase containing the teenager’s body, which he left in the bathroom of his tiny unit in Jomtien.

A police source told MailOnline: ‘When he woke several hours later, he stripped his bedding, gathered up his laundry and left the apartment, leaving Ms Donhomla. He said he “put her away”. Then he went about his day as though nothing had happened.’ 

He had a casual WhatsApp conversation with another local sex worker, in which he told her he was tired and thinking about going for a swim.

He then dropped off his washing at a nearby launderette, before stopping for a chat with neighbours and his landlady.

Carman then says he received a call from a friend who had been storing his belongings at Carman’s apartment. The friend had been due to return to Pattaya but was now delayed.

The source added: ‘When he got back, he booked his flight to Australia and then decided what he was going to do with the body.’

Later that night, CCTV captured Carman dragging the suitcase from his apartment at about 9.25pm, strapping it to the back of his red scooter and riding towards nearby railway tracks, where he dumped Tunchanok’s body in long grass before returning home.

The next morning, he packed his bags – ready to fly back to Austraia.

However, later that same day, a group of Tunchanok’s friends turned up to Carman’s apartment looking for their friend.

They had been present when Carman picked up Tunchanok on the beachfront the previous evening, and she had texted them his address when arriving at his condo, alongside the message: ‘his room is messy’.

Carman allowed the group into his condo, where they had a look around and took photos of him.

At about 5pm, Tunchanok’s friends reported Carman to the police.

By then, Carman was already on his way to Bangkok to catch his flight to Perth. Fortunately, he never made it onto the plane because police turned up and arrested him moments before his departure.

When they asked why he was flying back to Australia, Carman initially claimed he had lost his bank card and was heading back to replace it.

The source said: ‘He told police he lost his debit card and was only heading back to get a new one. He also said he was going to come back after a couple of days and hand himself in and take accountability.’

Well obviously they weren’t going to allow that to happen, and so Carman has been behind bars ever since and is now looking at a life sentence or, if he’s lucky, the death penalty.

As per Thai law, Carman would have had the opportunity to agree financial compensation with Tunchanok’s family in return for a reduced sentence, but the teenager’s father shot that down immediately.

Thongchai Donhomla told ABC: “Even though I am poor, I will not trade my daughter’s dignity for money. I love my daughter so much.”

What a man. Sounds like Simon Carman will have the book thrown at him and will have to endure a long, brutal spell in Thai prison whether he ends up with the death penalty or not. Which is no less than what he deserves.

RIP Tunchanok and thoughts with her friends and family.