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New similarities have emerged between the Thai teenager whose body was found in a suitcase and two cold case murders involving women who suffered the same fate.
Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, was allegedly beaten and strangled before her body was hidden in the black 74cm suitcase dumped near railtracks on the outskirts of Pattaya, eastern Thailand, last Friday.
Simon Carman, 45, was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Friday as he tried to board a Perth flight back to Australia. He has been charged with murder and remains in police custody.
Police are still waiting for the autopsy report, but investigations suggest Ms Donhomla had facial injuries consistent with strangulation, including swelling, bruising and blood around her mouth and nose.
Ms Donhomla is the third woman allegedly killed and concealed inside luggage over the last 18 months. All three bodies were found within a 70km radius of Pattaya.
The first two women – who both had breast implants and facial plastic surgery – were found in waterways in Rayong and Chonburi on February 7 and September 3, 2025.
Like Ms Donhomla, the second victim had tattoos and suffered similar facial injuries, with evidence suggesting she too was strangled.
The identity of the two other women remains unknown to detectives.
Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, (pictured) was allegedly murdered by Australian truck driver Simon Peter Carman
A man alleged to be Simon Carman is pictured wheeling a suitcase
Simon Carman, 45, is alleged to have picked up Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, from the Beach Road strip in Pattaya before travelling back to his hotel on Thursday
Daily Mail is not suggesting Carman is responsible for the two previous suitcase murders, only that there are similarities between all three cases.
The first woman was found by a fisherman who told authorities about a foul-smelling suitcase in a pond near a golf course.
When police opened the bag, they found the body of a woman in her 30s with dyed reddish-brown hair and black roots.
The suitcase had been weighed down with two 10kg iron plates.
She had undergone nose and breast surgery, her fingernails were painted with maroon polish but she didn’t have tattoos.
Like Ms Donhomla, the woman was about 150cm tall.
Police suspect she was killed elsewhere before being stuffed into the bag, but it’s unclear when and how she died.
Authorities eventually offered ฿50,000 (about AU$2,100) for information identifying her or leading to an arrest. No one came forward.
Pictured: A black suitcase containing the body of a woman, found in Rayong in February 2025
Pictured: Police uncovering a black suitcase containing the body of a woman in Rayong in February 2025
Pictured: A suitcase containing the body of a woman, found in September 2025. The killer put weights in the bag to submerge it
A member of the Thai national rowing team saw a suitcase in Chonburi in September 2025 (pictured)
Seven months later, in September, the body of another woman was found in a reservoir by a member of the Thai national rowing team.
The woman was wearing cream-coloured drawstring pants when she was hidden inside a King Safari suitcase which had been weighed down with nine dumbbell plates that weighed 15.75kg.
Zip ties, a padlock manufactured in China and two iron chains were found with her in the bag.
Like Ms Donhomla, police believe her cause of death was asphyxiation.
She was described by police as aged 30-35, Asian, fair-skinned, and about 162cm tall with tattoos.
She had plastic surgery to her nose and chin, along with breast augmentation.
Her fingerprints did not match any on Thailand’s civil registry, which means she may have been foreign.
Ms Donhomla’s body was allegedly forced into a suitcase like the other two cases, but was not weighed down with iron plates or submerged in a body of water.
CCTV allegedly showed the pair holding hands as they walked into an elevator
Ms Donhomla was found stuffed inside a suitcase alongside a railway line, just ten minutes’ drive from Carman’s apartment block
She allegedly met Carman on Beach Road early last Thursday morning, which is lined with bars and strip joints.
They allegedly went back to his condo with an agreed price of ฿1,000 (AU$43.45), but an argument broke out when he offered ฿500 (AU$21.72) instead.
On Wednesday, Pattaya Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyoo told media that Carman had described the argument to authorities.
‘[Carman alleged] he may have strangled her, causing her to lose consciousness and eventually die,’ the officer said.
‘After that, he panicked and didn’t know what to do, so he put the victim’s body into a suitcase.
‘He kept her in the bathroom for about a day and later that evening, he loaded the suitcase onto the back of his motorcycle and dumped it.’
Colonel Sarathongyoo said police acted on her missing persons report from the moment they received it.
Friends first raised the alarm when she failed to return to their shared rental apartment.
Her stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, said Ms Donhomla had asked her grandmother for money because she wanted to take a trip to the sea.
Carman, 45, was arrested by police in Thailand last Friday
The family said Ms Donhomla had not been to Pattaya previously, but in the months before her death, she posted photos to social media and tagged bars in the area.
Three days before her alleged murder, she shared videos of herself walking along the beach while lip-syncing.
Ms Donhomla was a child when her mother died, and she was raised by her father and stepmother.
Both made the ten-hour journey to Pattaya to help search for her, but were told police had found her body before they arrived.
