The latest Koh Tao death attracting worldwide attention, that of Belgian backpacker Elise Dallemagne, has prompted cops in the seaside Thai province of Surat Thani to create a task force to perform a thorough investigation.
Included in their work will be probes in the the 30-year-old woman’s mental health—some reports say that she had tried to end her life before—and her connections to the local ashram for spiritual sect Sathya Sai Baba on neighboring Koh Phangan.
Dallemagne’s mother, as well as some media outlets, have voiced their doubt about the suicide, which police treated as an open-and-closed suicide case after her body was discovered on April 27. The case never even made it to local media on the islands, reported Bangkok Post.
So far, police have not found evidence of foul play and stand by their original assertion that the woman was found in the jungle with a rope around her neck and died of suffocation at her own hand.
Deputy Police Spokesman Pol. Col, Kritsana Phatthanacharoen also noted that the autopsy report stated that there were no signs of assault, trauma or a struggle on her body.
Special investigators, including those from the Crime Suppression Division, hope to wrap the reopened case up as soon as possible.
