Australian suspect lived 'normal life' after Thai teen murder, police allege

An Australian man, identified as Simon Peter Carman, 45, allegedly lived a seemingly normal life after murdering a 17-year-old Thai girl and concealing her body in a suitcase. Police apprehended Carman at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday as he was about to board a flight back to Australia.

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After the girl [went] missing, … we suspected that something bad might happen.

The arrest followed a missing person report filed on Thursday by a friend of the victim, Tunchanok Donhomla. Authorities discovered the teenager's naked body in black luggage, hidden in waist-high grass near a railway line, approximately a ten-minute drive from Carman's apartment complex in Jomtien.

According to Pattaya City police Colonel Anek Srathongyoo, Carman allegedly picked up Ms. Tunchanok from the Beach Road vice strip in Pattaya early Thursday morning. CCTV footage shows the pair entering an elevator together at his building around 3:34 a.m. Ms. Tunchanok, known as "Cake" to friends, was reportedly last heard from when she told a friend she had met a "foreign man" before arriving at the building.

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He confessed that he killed her after they had an argument.

Carman, who previously resided in Western Australia, told police he had not known the girl prior to their meeting in Pattaya. He confessed to an argument over money in his room, stating the girl threatened him with a knife. He admitted to squeezing her neck until she lost consciousness and keeping her body in the bathroom until later that night. "After the incident happened, he just lived his normal life," Srathongyoo said, noting Carman went out, washed clothes, and spoke with neighbors without revealing his alleged crime.

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After the incident happened, he just lived his normal life.

Later that evening, around 9:25 p.m., CCTV captured Carman dragging a large suitcase from his room on a motorcycle. He disappeared from view for nine minutes along the railway tracks before returning to his accommodation around 10 p.m. Carman faces charges including murder, concealment of a body, and offenses related to moving or destroying a body, as well as taking a minor.

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Going out from the condo room, getting his clothes washed, chatting with surrounding people, no clue that he had done something bad.