"I just want him executed": family speaks out as Australian formally charged with murder of girl found in suitcase in Thailand

The stepmother of a 17-year-old Thai girl found dead inside a suitcase near a Pattaya railway line has demanded the death penalty for the Australian man now charged with her murder — saying she asked police if she could beat him herself.

"I just want him executed. I even asked the police if I could hit him, if I could beat him," Oradee Bussarakum told reporters after Simon Peter Carman, 46, from Ballarat, Victoria, was formally charged with four offences: murder, concealing a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor aged between 15 and 18 for sexual purposes. He denies all charges.

Tunchanok Donhomla — known by her nickname Cake — was an only child from Kalasin province, about 480 kilometres northeast of Pattaya. She had told her father and stepmother she was going on holiday with a friend, arriving in Pattaya on 16 June. She was 17 years old.

Her body was found in the early hours of Saturday stuffed naked into a black suitcase in undergrowth beside a railway line in Banglamung, Chonburi. Her face bore signs of severe assault — swollen, bruised, with blood from her mouth and nose. Police say she had been dead for at least two days.

"She said she wanted to see the sea"

Speaking to the ABC, Oradee said the family had tried but failed to reach Tunchanok after she left for Pattaya. "We never expected this. When they found her, we still hoped she was alive," she said.

Tunchanok had asked her grandmother for money before the trip. "She said she wanted to see the sea," Oradee recalled.

Despite her young age, Tunchanok helped support the family when she could. "She sometimes helped her father and me by selling garlands or fruits at intersections on the road, during Songkran. We did not force her to work," Oradee said. "She was still young, so sometimes we let her go out and gave her 50 to 100 baht."

Her father, Thongchai Donhomla, said in a tearful interview outside the Pattaya police station that he was "deeply saddened" by his daughter's death. "My daughter had no mother, so whenever she wanted anything, she would find a way herself, and she always helped me too."

"We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn't turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying," Oradee added.

What the CCTV showed

Pattaya City Police released a detailed timeline of the investigation. At 3.34am on 25 June, CCTV footage from a condo lobby on Jomtien Beach showed Carman and Tunchanok walking hand-in-hand into a lift. She was never seen leaving.

Between 9.25pm and 9.48pm that same evening, footage captured Carman dragging a large black suitcase out of his room and loading it onto a motorcycle, which he rode alongside the railway tracks. He disappeared from view for nine minutes before returning to the condo — without the suitcase.

On 26 June at 11.36am, a friend lodged a missing persons report, telling police she had last seen Tunchanok leave with a foreign man. That afternoon, at 2.26pm, Carman was seen on CCTV leaving his condo. During a subsequent inspection of his room, police found his passport.

At 1.15am on Saturday 27 June, officers from the Pattaya City Police Station and the Immigration Bureau arrested Carman at Suvarnabhumi Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Perth. Fifteen minutes later, at 1.30am, police located a suitcase near the railway tracks — about a 10-minute drive from his hotel — containing Tunchanok's body.

Officers say had the alert been raised five minutes later, his plane would have been gone.

Simon Peter Carman in police custody after being arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. (Photo: Pattaya City Police Station)

"The guy can say anything"

Carman claims he acted in self-defence. He told police he had agreed to pay Tunchanok 1,000 baht for sexual services but that an argument broke out when he offered only 500 baht.

He alleged she then produced a knife and threatened him, and that he grabbed her throat to defend himself. He admitted placing her body in the suitcase and dumping it near the railway line before returning to collect his belongings and leaving for Bangkok.

In a separate account given to police and reported by the ABC, Carman also claimed Tunchanok had "disappeared from the room" while he was asleep.

Colonel Anek Srathongyoo, Superintendent of Pattaya City Police Station, was dismissive. "She had no chance to speak. The guy can say anything; we cannot prove it."

Scratch marks covering Carman's arms and neck — which Colonel Anek said were "consistent with a struggle" — Carman attributed to a spider bite.

In a video recorded in custody, Carman addressed the family directly: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control. Um, I hope you — I know you'll be very sad, upset; same-same me. Um, it shouldn't happen and I hope you're OK. I know you're not, but I hope. Um, and please tell other girls to be not — just to be careful."

What happens next

Carman is currently held in Pattaya Prison. Police have 84 days to complete their investigation before a court date can be set. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in Thailand.

Murder in Thailand carries a maximum penalty of death, though no execution has been carried out in the country since 2018.