BANGKOK: Thai police said they carried out a DNA test late yesterday on a speedboat driver arrested for a drug offence, as they extended their hunt for the killer of two British holidaymakers on a resort island.
The battered bodies of David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were found on a beach on Koh Tao island nearly a week ago. The investigation into the grisly double murder has so far drawn a blank, with police under increasing pressure to find the assailants.
A 23-year-old Thai man was arrested Sunday for an unspecified drug offence, according to Kiattipong Khawsamang of Surat Thani provincial police.
“We are waiting for the (result) of his DNA test... It is not clear if he is a suspect yet” in the murder case, Kiattipong said, adding that the man drives a speedboat between Koh Tao and the nearby island of Koh Samui. Police are also searching for two friends of the driver, Kiattipong said, without giving further details.
Deputy National Police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said that the man was being questioned but had not been arrested or charged over the murders.
Earlier Somyot said the DNA of two Asian men was found at the crime scene and had been sent to Singapore for advanced analysis.
Forensic experts in Bangkok discovered traces of semen at the scene but could not find a DNA match with the 12 people they have questioned so far over the case.
Those questioned included two of Miller’s British friends and several migrant workers from Myanmar.
Thailand’s most senior police officers have descended on Koh Tao amid accusations — led by the British media — of a bungled investigation.
Critics have said police chased the wrong leads, failed to lock down the island and poorly secured the crime scene in the hours after the badly beaten bodies were found early last Monday.
Witheridge’s family, who travelled to Bangkok to retrieve their daughter’s body, issued a statement requesting privacy. “We have now returned to the UK with our beautiful Hannah,” said the statement, which was released on their behalf by the British Foreign Office.
AFP
