Two Britons found murdered on Koh Tao

crime

Police have sealed off Koh Tao of Surat Thani province in the hunt for the killer of two British tourists found battered to death on a beach early yesterday.

Rescue workers help remove the bodies of the two British tourists who were found battered to death on Sairee beach of Koh Tao in Surat Thani province yesterday.Supapong Chaolan

Pol Maj Gen Kiettiphong Khaowsam-ang, commander of Surat Thani's provincial police station, said he ordered officers to place all boat jetties under surveillance and ban all vessels from leaving the island while the manhunt was underway.

Police said they believed the murderer was still on the island because bad weather prevented most vessels from putting to sea.

Local police said they were alerted to the brutal murder about an hour before noon yesterday. A combined team of police, forensic experts and relief workers who went to the scene by helicopter found the bodies of a man and woman on Sairee beach on Koh Tao, located near Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand.

The team identified the male victim as David William Miller, 24, a British national. He was found naked with a fractured skull and a deep cut to his neck, believed to have been inflicted with a sharp weapon, police said. The body of the female victim, also naked and identified as British national Hannah Victoria Witheridge, 24, was found about 20 metres away.

Police say her face was disfigured and she was probably hit with a heavy object.

Police said they also found thongs, a pair of black trousers, a T-shirt, a pair of underpants and a used condom at the crime scene. Investigators also found traces of a struggle which indicated possible fighting near the murder scene, police said. A bloodstained hoe and a fertiliser sack were found nearby.

On Sunday, police said, foreign tourists attended a party on Sairee beach in front of Ocean View Bungalow, about 30m from where the bodies were found. The bodies of the two victims were found yesterday morning by Myanmar workers while they cleaned the beach.

Pol Maj Gen Kiettiphong said police believe the murder was committed between 3am and 5am yesterday. Pol Maj Gen Kiettiphong said Miller and some male friends arrived in Thailand on Aug 23, while Witheridge and four female friends arrived on Aug 27.

The two groups of tourists did not know one another before the trip, police said. They checked in at the Ocean View Bungalow and had joined the party in front of the hotel before the murder, according to police.

The victims' bodies were sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok for further examination yesterday.