It has over 100 hotels and resorts and was deemed the busiest diving centre in Southeast Asia in 2014. True Crime: In September of 2014, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found on Koh Tao's famous Sairee beach, dead. Thailand backpacker murders: David Miller and Hannah Witheridge - two lives cut short The two young tourists were killed in the early hours of 15 September, 2014, after which their relatives. The Koh Tao murders involved the death of two British tourists in Thailand in 2014. Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, a seaside town on the English east coast, had been raped and killed by blows to the head. On Sept. 15, one of the occupants of that same room A5, Hannah Witheridge, was found bludgeoned to death in their midst alongside fellow British tourist David Miller, just a short stumble from her door. What Have Happened to Hannah Witheridge and David Miller? Where Have Officials deny claims of torture and reports that men accused of killing Hannah Witheridge and David Miller withdrew confessions Jamie Doward Sat 11 Oct 2014 07.15 EDT Last modified on Sat 2 Dec . Thai beach murders: Hannah Witheridge's sister Laura dies in hospital She was a real natural with them.. Read about our approach to external linking. [95] The mayor of the island, Chaiyan Turasakul, announced a new police station and staffed it with 40 full-time officers, compared to five previously. Two Burmese workers were sentenced to death in 2015, after being found guilty of killing David Miller, 24, of Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, of Norfolk. They still maintain their innocence, as they did throughout the trial. Their sentences have been reviewed to commemorate King Vajiralongkorn's birthday and to show his "clemency". One belonged to David, and one belonged to an unknown Asian male. Sister of murdered backpacker Hannah Witheridge was pregnant when she Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? David worked as an intern in the St Helier offices of the Australian mining company Consolidated Minerals. Sean McAnna, a terrified friend of murdered David Miller, flees Koh Tao Credit: British Foreign Office That's when the killers pounced. [61], On July 10, the court ordered the DNA to be retested. Most are running guesthouses, eateries and scuba-diving operations or working as diving instructors. Case 220: Hannah Witheridge & David Miller : r/Casefile - Reddit [51] The defence provided a separate explanation for the events on the night. [87][88] The protests angered Thailand's prime minister, who believed the demonstrations were a plot "instigated" to hurt the government. [42][43] Early police reports said Miller's mobile phone was also found in Zaw Lin's home,[44][45] although the media had previously reported the phone was handed to police by a friend of the victim. DNA was collected from these three areas and sent to a police forensics lab for analysis. A mute Burmese beach cleaner stumbled upon the bodies shortly after dawn the following morning on Sairee Beach, near Hannahs room A5 at Ocean View Bungalows. Their senseless deaths sparked international outrage and raised questions about justice on Koh Tao. 2040 / 2557", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Koh_Tao_murders&oldid=1150069590, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 05:03. Case over Hannah Witheridge and David Miller's deaths on Thai island In fact, says Sean Turnell, a professor and expert on Burmese economics at Australias Macquarie University, The economic circumstances of Myanmars majority rural population are now marginally worse than before the reforms were launched.. Two Burmese workers were sentenced to death in 2015, after being found guilty of killing David Miller, 24, of Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, of Norfolk. Zaw and Wai were each indicted on five charges, including premeditated murder, killing to conceal a criminal offense, rape, illegal entry into Thailand, and staying in the country without permission. However, a lawyer for Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo told the BBC that the pair had not admitted their guilt when their death sentences were commuted. [4][11][14] Their bodies were discovered on Sairee Beach a few hours later, between 4 and 5am, by a mute Burmese beach cleaner. Mau Mau claimed he left on his motorcycle and returned home later to find his co-riders asleep. Both men, in their early 30s, are presumed to be serving their sentence in some Thailand prison. The investigators claimed the semen sample retrieved from Hannahs body and the forensic evidence found on the murder weapons and cigarette butts matched their DNA samples. Both were. They also pointed out several mistakes the incompetent investigators committed during the probe and alleged the officers restored to torture to make the defendants admit to the crime. The families of Miller and Witheridge even put out a statement saying the evidence against Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo was powerful and convincing. This assertion was facilitated by the U.K. Foreign Office despite being prejudicial toward the possibility of a fair trial. [5][6] Both were students who were backpacking in Thailand.