00:00:09
[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
00:00:18
any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for
00:00:25
confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
00:00:31
episode on your app or on our website. This episode was originally released on Case Files Patreon, Apple Premium, and
00:00:40
Spotify Premium feeds as an early bonus for our paid subscribers. To receive these episodes early and adfree, you can
00:00:48
support Case File on your preferred platform. [Music] From a young age, Kirsty Jones was sure
00:00:57
of one thing. She wanted to see as much of the world as possible. At 14, she decided that after finishing
00:01:06
high school, she'd leave her family's 300 acre farm just outside the small Welsh village of Tromean and spend a
00:01:13
year traveling around Australia. In 1996, 18-year-old Kirsty did just that. She met her travel companion through a
00:01:23
classified ad in her local newspaper, and off they went. While Kirsty's parents, Sue and Glenn
00:01:30
Jones, were naturally worried, they supported their daughter's wonder last. Kirsty was a vibrant, smart, and
00:01:38
independent young woman who craved adventure and new experiences. They knew there was no point trying to
00:01:45
hold her back. The gap year in Australia was transformative for Kirsty. Her parents
00:01:53
remarked that she left Wales as a child and came home an adult. Her it rich scratched for the time being, Kirsty
00:02:01
spent the next couple of years at Liverpool University completing a double degree in English and media studies.
00:02:08
But her next adventure was never far from her mind. While studying, Kirsty spent her spare
00:02:15
time working two jobs to fund her next trip. This time, she'd set her sights on something bigger.
00:02:23
Kirsty planned to spend 2 years backpacking solo through Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South
00:02:30
America. She felt it was something she had to get out of her system. After that, she promised her parents
00:02:39
she'd settle down. While Sue and Glenn Jones had their reservations about Kirsty traveling
00:02:46
alone, they weren't as worried this time around. 23-year-old Kirsty was older, wiser, and
00:02:54
more experienced than when she'd left on her gap year, and they were proud of her
00:02:58
for following her dreams. They also knew she wouldn't be alone for long. Not only did she have plans to
00:03:06
meet up with her best friend and boyfriend along the way, but people were naturally drawn to the confident and
00:03:13
outgoing Kirsty, and it wouldn't be long before she'd connect with other backpackers.
00:03:19
Technology had also come a long way since Kirsty's gap year travels, and this time she'd be able to keep in touch
00:03:26
with her family via email and video calls. Kirsty set off for her trip in May 2000.
00:03:34
She ventured through Singapore and Malaysia for several weeks before reaching Thailand.
00:03:41
She'd been looking forward to this ever since she'd first visited the land of smiles on her way home from Australia a
00:03:47
few years earlier. Kirsty spent some time in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok before heading north
00:03:54
to Chiang Mai for a change of pace. Located 700 km north of Bangkok in the Thai Highlands, Chiang Mai is a favorite
00:04:04
among backpackers who were drawn by the laid-back lifestyle, Buddhist temples, thriving nightife, and affordability of
00:04:11
the mountain city. Following Thailand's economic collapse in 1997, Westerners could make their
00:04:19
money stretch a long way in Chiang Mai with as little as three British pounds affording you an authentic Thai meal and
00:04:26
beer at a restaurant with a view over the Ming River. Sue and Glenn Jones loved getting email
00:04:34
updates from Kirsty. After a week in Chiang Mai, she regailed them with stories about her 3-day trek in the
00:04:42
Machem Mountain region where she'd rode elephants and visited native hill tribes.
00:04:48
Kirsty had only been gone for 2 months, but already it was shaping up to be the adventure of a lifetime.
00:04:57
In August 2000, Sue and Glenn traveled to Spain with two of their friends to celebrate their 25-year wedding
00:05:04
anniversary. On the evening of Thursday, August 10, they were getting ready for dinner when
00:05:10
there was a knock at the door of their hotel room. Their friends were standing there
00:05:16
looking devastated. They told Sue and Glenn they'd just seen something shocking on the news.
00:05:35
[Music] It was around 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of Thursday, August 10, 2000, when
00:05:53
police scanners around Chiang Mai buzzed with the grim announcement. A cleaner at a local hostel had just
00:06:01
entered the room of 23-year-old Kirsty Jones only to discover a horrific scene. The young backpacker was lying face down
00:06:10
on the bed, naked from the waist down. A serong was tied tightly around her neck.
00:06:16
[Music] Police rushed to the crime scene, a two-story building called the AR guest
00:06:22
house and massage school. The AR was typical of the area. Located on one of downtown Chiang Mai's many
00:06:31
narrow laneways, it offered backpackers and budget travelers a no frills place to stay at the affordable rate of around
00:06:39
£1 a night for a single room. Guests of the nine room lodging could mingle in the small shady garden and
00:06:47
open air bar while the owners also ran a massage school from the second floor. Kirsty had chosen the AR as her home
00:06:57
base during her stay in Chiang Mai. Officers made their way down the hallway and into her bedroom on the first floor.
00:07:06
It was a basic room containing nothing more than a rickety double bed with an old wooden dresser and a tabletop fan.
00:07:14
A thin mattress adorned with a bright floral pattern sat at top the bed, while cheap floral curtains hung haphazardly
00:07:22
from the window that overlooked the hallway. By the time police entered the room,
00:07:28
they were not the first ones there. Tipped off by the local police scanner, an entire television crew had already
00:07:36
arrived and taken footage and photos of the scene, while curious onlookers peered in.
00:07:42
As police began assessing the room, they didn't stop to seal off the crime scene,
00:07:48
and reporters and photographers continued to trickle in. Local journalist Pim Kasinki was among
00:07:56
them. Writing for Chiang Mai publication City Life, she later recalled that around 20 people had entered Kirsty's
00:08:05
room before any forensic evidence had even been collected. Some reporters rummaged through Kirsty's
00:08:11
clothes and toiletry bag, one of them tutting in judgment as he held up a packet of condoms.
00:08:18
One camera operator even turned Kirsty's head from side to side to get the shot they wanted.
00:08:26
None of the police officers present seemed even remotely concerned. Not only had the crime scene been
00:08:36
severely compromised, another problem for the police was that they couldn't find a forensic pathologist who was
00:08:43
available to come to the AR guest house to examine Kirsty's body. Instead, her body was eventually taken to the Chiang
00:08:51
Mai Hospital where an autopsy determined that she had died from asphixxiation. Severe internal bruising indicated she'd
00:08:59
been violently raped. Semen found in her body gave the police the confidence that
00:09:04
her killer would be promptly found and brought to justice. Straight off the bat, police were
00:09:12
convinced that Kirsty had been killed by someone she knew. Her room was located inside the guest
00:09:19
house and could be padlocked from both the inside and outside. There were no signs of forced entry,
00:09:26
which led the police to believe that Kirsty might have invited the perpetrator inside.
00:09:32
They were also convinced the killer had been a fang, the Thai word for a foreigner.
00:09:39
Kirsty had been sodomized, which they reasoned was a sexual act that Thai men didn't engage in.
00:09:48
The most obvious explanation for the police was that the killer had also been staying at the AR guest house.
00:09:55
While the cheap rates of the hostel drew in backpackers from all over the world,
00:10:00
it also attracted some dubious customers. Thailand has long been known as a destination for those looking to escape
00:10:08
their lives back home. And despite the country's strict anti-drug laws, elicit drugs were readily available in Chiang
00:10:16
Mai. One French backpacker told the Guardian, "You can get almost anything you want."
00:10:26
The year before Kirsty Jones was murdered, the AR guest house had been closed down for 6 months after one of
00:10:32
its guests died of a heroin overdose. Given this illreute, police were certain that they'd find Kirsty's killer among
00:10:41
DR's clientele. One by one, each of the guests were taken to the city's main police station
00:10:48
for questioning. 27-year-old Nathan Foley was an Australian backpacker who had stopped
00:10:58
over in Thailand on his way to visit relatives in the UK. He'd met Kirsty at the RE and the two
00:11:05
had got chatting. Both solo travelers, Nathan was thankful to have someone to talk to and the pair
00:11:12
had explored the city together. Nathan told the police that on the evening of Wednesday, August 9, the
00:11:20
night before Kirsty was killed, he'd gone out to dinner at a local restaurant with Kirsty and a British backpacker
00:11:26
named Sarah Wigot. Nathan claimed that he'd left Kirsty and Sarah at about 1000 p.m. and went back
00:11:34
to the RE where he' taken a couple of sleeping pills and gone straight to sleep.
00:11:40
Sarah Wigot wasn't staying at the RE, but at a different hostel nearby. Police tracked her down and brought her
00:11:49
in for questioning. Sarah was horrified to hear what had happened to Kirsty. The two had met on a 3-day trekking trip
00:11:58
which had ended just 2 days prior, and they'd bonded over their shared experiences as solo female travelers.
00:12:06
Sarah told the police that after Nathan Foley left the previous evening, she and
00:12:11
Kirsty visited the night markets, which were about a 25-minute walk from the RE.
00:12:18
They strolled around until about 11:00 p.m., by which point Sarah had had enough of shopping and was ready to go
00:12:25
back to her host. Kirsty stayed on, saying she had some more presents she wanted to buy.
00:12:34
Another long-term RE resident, Steven Trigg, told the police that at around 1:00 a.m., he'd heard a commotion coming
00:12:42
from Kirsty's room. It sounded like a woman was screaming, "Get out! Get out. Leave me alone.
00:12:50
Steven claimed he went to investigate, but the screaming stopped, so he went back to bed, assuming it had been
00:12:57
nothing more than a lover's tiff. Steven was a seasoned traveler who had been staying at the RE for several
00:13:05
months. He said it was common to overhear these types of arguments, and they didn't usually result in any
00:13:12
problems. The RE's tire manager, 47year-old Surin Chan Prrenette, lived upstairs and also
00:13:21
ran the massage school there. A known drug dealer, he had been arrested twice before for possession of heroin.
00:13:30
Surin told the police that he too had heard the screams coming from Kirsty's room.
00:13:36
Surin said he'd been in the shower at the time and had gone downstairs to Kirsty's room with Steven Trigg to
00:13:42
investigate. He pressed his ear to the door but heard nothing. Not wanting to invade a guest's privacy,
00:13:52
he went back to bed and told Steven to do the same. Kirsty's autopsy confirmed that she had
00:14:00
been killed around the same time the screams were heard coming from her room. With Sarah Wigot being the last person
00:14:08
to see her alive at 11 p.m., police deduced that Kirsty had likely returned to the guest house at around midnight
00:14:16
and was killed within an hour of returning. They didn't know if she had walked the
00:14:22
25-minute route home from the markets or caught a local taxi known as a touktouk.
00:14:30
A search of the RE's manager, Surin Champernet's room, revealed cannabis and amphetamines, and he was placed under
00:14:37
arrest for possession. Suspicion that Surin could have been involved in Kirsty's murder was raised
00:14:44
when a postcard was found in his room that featured a white woman tied up in bondage.
00:14:51
But Surin's girlfriend, Pantipa, who also lived at the AR, supported Surin's story.
00:14:58
She said that he'd been in their room all night except for when he heard the noise coming from Kirsty's room and went
00:15:05
downstairs to see what was going on. Police were also highly suspicious of 28-year-old Stuart Kryton, another
00:15:15
Australian man who had also been staying at the AI for several months. A known heroin user with a history of
00:15:23
street fighting, Stuart claimed to have no knowledge of Kirsty Jones's murder. Yet, a search of his room turned up
00:15:31
cannabis and heroin, prompting police to also place him under arrest for possession and hold him in custody.
00:15:38
Another long-term ARIE resident also proved to be a dubious figure after he claimed to be a former Mormon elder and
00:15:48
CIA spy who had come to Thailand to recover from a head injury. While none of the questioning resulted
00:15:59
in an arrest for Kirsty Jones's murder, the police remained convinced that she had known her killer.
00:16:07
They considered the possibility that Kirsty could have invited the perpetrator into her room where she'd
00:16:13
then refused his sexual advances. Feeling rejected, he could have turned violent and launched an attack.
00:16:22
The senior investigating officer put forward a controversial theory when he publicly suggested that Kirsty could
00:16:28
have engaged in consensual sex and had been strangled to death by accident. This comment not only deeply upset
00:16:37
Kirsty's already heartbroken family, but added further criticism to the investigation, which had been receiving
00:16:43
widespread media attention from the moment reporters arrived at the crime scene.
00:16:51
This theory led suspicion to fall on Nathan Foley, the Australian man Kirsty had dinner with the night before she
00:16:58
died. Not only had they spent the most time together, but after Kirsty's body was
00:17:03
found, it had taken police a few hours to track Nathan down, leading them to wonder if he was trying to hide.
00:17:11
But Nathan Foley adamantly denied having anything to do with the crime or having
00:17:16
any romantic interest in Kirsty. With no evidence or witnesses to suggest otherwise, he was free to leave the
00:17:25
station. But the prospect of facing the overly zealous press was too daunting. The phone at the police station had been
00:17:34
ringing nonstop. Kirsty's travel buddy, Sarah Wigot, later recalled to Murder in Paradise
00:17:41
that while she was waiting to be interviewed, one officer had handed her the phone and said, "It's for you. It's
00:17:48
the press office wanting to find out what happened." Sarah was stunned. She hadn't even given
00:17:56
her account to law enforcement at that point, yet they were already encouraging her to speak to the media.
00:18:05
Aware of the attention the case was receiving already, Nathan Foley opted to remain in police custody where he
00:18:12
requested protection. He along with all of the AR's other male residents were required to provide DNA
00:18:20
samples for testing. While investigators waited for the results, immigration authorities were
00:18:27
alerted to stop any of the suspects from leaving the country. One investigator told the press that
00:18:34
while they didn't know exactly what happened, they were certain one of the AR guests or staff members were
00:18:41
responsible. Kirsty knew her killer. He stated, "We are confident we will make an arrest in
00:18:49
7 to 10 days. There was one resident of the AR guest house who was noticeably absent.
00:19:00
32-year-old Andy Gil was a British man who had been living in Thailand on and off for the past 12 years.
00:19:08
A well-known character among Chiang Mai's expat community. Andy had once been married to a Thai woman and the two
00:19:15
had a child together. Two years before Kirsty's murder, Andy had taken over ownership of the RE after
00:19:23
its tie owner moved overseas. Curiously, when Kirsty's body was discovered, Andy was nowhere to be
00:19:32
found. It took the police 2 days before they finally tracked Andy Gil down at a local
00:19:39
bar. He claimed that on the night of Kirsty's murder, he hadn't been at the guest
00:19:45
house. He'd been out with a Thai friend who could vouch for his whereabouts. But a quick background check on Andy
00:19:53
revealed that he was actually in Thailand illegally, having overstayed his visa by 2 years. For this offense,
00:20:01
he was promptly placed under arrest and given a small fine. With three of the ARI residents under
00:20:10
arrest for offenses unrelated to Kirsty's murder, the story quickly became a media sensation both in
00:20:17
Thailand and overseas. Not only did the case include a cast of colorful characters whose faces were
00:20:25
splashed across the news, but it touched on the worst fears of every parent whose
00:20:30
children were off backpacking in foreign lands. Dozens of journalists from major media
00:20:36
outlets converged in Chiang Mai, speaking to anyone who was willing to talk. Back in Wales, Kirsty's family struggled
00:20:46
to come to terms with it all. Her parents, Sue and Glenn, returned from their wedding anniversary trip to Spain
00:20:54
immediately after hearing the news. Utterly devastated, the pair remained under sedation at their family home.
00:21:03
Kirsty's 21-year-old brother, Gareth, had been out driving the tractor on the family farm when he heard the news about
00:21:10
Kirsty's murder on the radio. He told British newspaper, The Independent, "I just cannot believe what has
00:21:19
happened. At the moment, I'm just pretending Kirsty is still away on holiday and will eventually come back.
00:21:27
I just want to keep on working to take my mind off what has happened. I don't know what my parents will do. My
00:21:35
mother will not be able to cope. Kirsty's murder put Chiang Mai under the global spotlight for all the wrong
00:21:44
reasons. Like so much of Thailand, Chiang Mai's economy relied heavily on tourism, not
00:21:51
just from backpackers, but from travelers of all ages and backgrounds. With the intense scrutiny of the
00:21:59
international press highlighting every misstep of the investigation and criticizing the offensive theories
00:22:05
shared by the police chief, concerns were high about the negative impact the story would have on tourism.
00:22:14
The pressure was on for the police to solve the case fast. A few days into the investigation, they
00:22:25
got the breakthrough they'd been hoping for when the cleaner, who'd discovered Kirsty's body, came forward to change
00:22:32
her story. The cleaner had originally claimed that she'd found Kirsty's body at around 4:30
00:22:39
on the afternoon of Thursday, August 10. But this had been a lie. She admitted that the discovery had
00:22:48
actually been made at around 10:30 a.m. and not by her, but by the AR's owner, Andy Gil.
00:22:57
The cleaner told the police that Andy and the guest house manager, Surin Champet, had asked her to hold off
00:23:04
making the report for almost 5 hours while they dealt with some other issues. When questioned about this allegation,
00:23:14
Andy Gil admitted it was true. He claimed it was late on Thursday morning when Surin Champernet approached
00:23:22
him to say that there had been some commotion coming from Kirsty's room the night before.
00:23:28
Andy asked if anyone had seen Kirsty yet. Surin told him no, adding that her room was padlocked from the outside.
00:23:37
According to Andy, his first thought was that Kirsty might have gotten in a fight
00:23:42
with someone and had run away. He wasn't worried that something bad might have happened to her. He was more
00:23:50
worried that she had run off without paying her bill. Andy had a spare key for the padlock, so
00:23:58
he went and unlocked Kirsty's room, only to find her lying face down on the bed inside.
00:24:05
He could tell straight away that she'd been raped. Andy claimed he got out of there as
00:24:11
quickly as he could. He went upstairs to fetch Surin and brought him back down to
00:24:17
see the scene for himself. Andy's first thought was to call the police, but he knew they'd discover he
00:24:25
had overstayed his visa, and this would put him in big trouble. Also, if word got out that someone had
00:24:32
died in the guest house, he knew the bad publicity would be detrimental for his business.
00:24:39
Instead, Andy took off trying to get hold of someone in immigration who could sort out a new visa for him before they
00:24:47
alerted the police. Surin Chan Prrenette supported Andy's story, but he also added something else.
00:24:57
Surin claimed that after showing him a Kirsty's body, Andy took the padlock from her door and washed it. When he was
00:25:06
sure any fingerprint evidence had been destroyed, he put it back on its hinge. The police were very interested in this
00:25:14
detail. It not only suggested that Andy had a level of knowledge about crime scene
00:25:20
investigations, but it also raised the question of why he would think to destroy this evidence.
00:25:29
It also didn't explain why Surin Champet hadn't alerted the authorities. if it was so he could get rid of any
00:25:38
elicit drugs he had. The discovery of cannabis and amphetamines in his room suggested he hadn't done a very good
00:25:45
job. Curiously, Surin had also been the one who told the other guests to go back to
00:25:51
bed after hearing the commotion coming from Kirsty's room. For the police, all of this suspicious
00:25:59
behavior had them wondering, "What were these two men trying to hide? Andy Gil and Surin Chan Prinette quickly
00:26:14
rose from persons of interest to suspects and remained in custody due to their respective visa and drug charges.
00:26:22
The results of the DNA tests were expected on Saturday, August 19, 9 days into the investigation. But when that
00:26:30
highly anticipated day came, the police announced there had been an unexpected delay.
00:26:38
During an unrelated press conference, a 34year-old man named Nong Pojana Tamron Pong walked into the police station
00:26:46
wanting to file a complaint. Nong was a member of the Karan Hill tribe, an ethnic minority in northern
00:26:54
Thailand. He worked full-time as a tour guide and had guided the 3-day trek through the
00:27:01
Maym district that Kirsty Jones had been a part of in the days before her death.
00:27:07
While Nong remembered Kirsty, she had been just one of his many clients, and the two hadn't spent any one-on-one time
00:27:15
together or had any notable interactions. According to Nong's official complaint,
00:27:22
he'd been walking down the road when a van suddenly pulled up next to him and a handful of men jumped out. They grabbed
00:27:31
Nong and threw him face first into the back of their van, blindfolding him and forcing him to take a sip of an unknown
00:27:38
substance. The next thing Nong remembered was waking up in what looked like a cheap
00:27:44
motel room. He was surrounded by men in plain clothes who he assumed to be police
00:27:51
officers. The men urged Nong to confess to Kirsty Jones's murder. They reasoned that he was a secondclass
00:28:02
citizen and should help his country by helping to close the case, which had already gone on too long.
00:28:09
The men said that a confession would get him a prison sentence. Refusing to confess would result in an execution.
00:28:19
Non claimed that over several hours the men stripped him naked, beat him, and stood on his chest and stomach while
00:28:27
ordering him to confess. They plucked and burned off some of his pubic hair. One of the men then ordered
00:28:35
Nong to masturbate to the point of ejaculation. When he refused to do so, the man
00:28:42
attempted to do it for him, only giving up when it was obvious he wasn't going to get the desired outcome.
00:28:49
The men allegedly told Nong that if his DNA didn't match the sample found at the
00:28:54
scene of Kirsty's murder, they would make it match. Nong was terrified. Still, he refused to confess, telling
00:29:05
himself that God would protect him, as he'd done nothing wrong. Eventually, Nong passed out, and when he
00:29:14
came to, he was in a police station in the outskirts of Chiang Mai with no idea of how he got there.
00:29:22
Without explanation, he was free to leave. Nong was a member of the Chiang Mai Guide Association, a group that supports
00:29:32
licensed tour guides in Chiang Mai. He went straight to the headquarters and told them what had happened.
00:29:40
Fearing that Nong could be framed and used as a scapegoat, an employee of the association encouraged him to take his
00:29:47
story to the media before filing a complaint with the police. Nong arranged to speak to local
00:29:55
journalist Pim Kasinki, who had been covering the Jones case from the outset, and Andrew Drummond, an independent
00:30:02
British journalist living in Thailand. Telling them about his ordeal, he pulled up his shirt, revealing a badly bruised
00:30:11
torso. His story was published by the international and Thai media, prompting the Chiang Mai Guide Association to
00:30:20
protest in the streets. The police denied having any knowledge of the attack on Nong Pojana Tamron
00:30:27
Pong. They claimed whoever had kidnapped him had been part of a rogue unit and said
00:30:34
that Nong's claims would be investigated fairly. The truth about who was behind the
00:30:41
kidnapping was never revealed. But as Pim Kamasinki later wrote, "Like many ethnic minorities in Thailand who have
00:30:50
been used as police and society's scapegoats, Narong knew he was in an extremely dangerous situation.
00:30:58
The fact is he is lucky to have escaped without a forced signed confession, let alone his life.
00:31:09
Regardless of who was behind the attack, Nong's story added yet another source of
00:31:15
humiliation for the Chiang Mai police as they entered day 10 of the investigation
00:31:20
with no arrests. When the results of the DNA tests were finally in, police were hopeful that it
00:31:27
would put an end to the media circus once and for all. But the results of the test were not
00:31:34
what anyone was expecting. The DNA found on Kirsty's body didn't match any of the AR guest house
00:31:42
residents or its owner. It also didn't belong to a ferang. The DNA proved without doubt that
00:31:52
Kirsty's killer had been a Southeast Asian male. Regardless, the police remained
00:32:00
convinced that a foreigner had been involved in the crime. They told the press that despite the
00:32:06
AR's foreign clientele being cleared by DNA, they weren't ruling out the possibility that one of them could have
00:32:13
been complicit or acted as an accomplice in Kirsty's murder. A fresh set of blood tests and hair
00:32:21
samples were taken from each of the AR residents for a second set of testing. Even though the AR's manager, Surin
00:32:30
Champet's DNA didn't match that found on Kirsty, he became the prime suspect. Police detained three of his tire
00:32:40
associates as well as one of his French friends and obtained a DNA sample from each of them. They also called for any
00:32:48
touktouk drivers who may have given Kirsty a ride home from the markets on the night of her murder to come forward.
00:32:56
The senior investigating officer continued to come under criticism after he made some bizarre comments in the
00:33:02
press about the extent of Kirsty's injuries, leading him to believe that her killer had been wellendowed.
00:33:10
He also said that Surin Champernette had an unusually large penis because he'd injected it with olive oil to increase
00:33:17
its size. Fed up by the lack of progress and the media backlash his controversial
00:33:25
statements were attracting, the senior investigating officer was removed from what the international press had
00:33:32
scathingly dubbed a shambolic investigation. A reward of 30,000 Thai Bart, the equivalent of roughly 500 British pounds
00:33:42
at the time, was offered to anyone who had information that could solve the case.
00:33:48
While not a significant amount by UK standards, the average monthly wage for a worker in Chiang Mai was around 8,000
00:33:56
BART or 130, giving any locals who had information an attractive incentive to come forward.
00:34:05
While the police waited for the results of the second lot of DNA tests, they maintained that the case wasn't a
00:34:12
difficult one to solve, and it wouldn't be long before they detained those responsible.
00:34:21
Meanwhile, Kirsty Jones's body was flown back to Wales where over 800 mourners gathered at a church near her family's
00:34:29
farm to attend her funeral. Among them were the parents of other backpackers who had died while traveling
00:34:36
overseas. While it was a hugely painful day for Kirsty's parents, they felt so proud of
00:34:43
their daughter that so many people from all walks of life had taken the time to pay their respects to her.
00:34:50
After the service, they had a family friend read a statement on their behalf which said,
00:34:56
"The circumstances of Kirsty's death make coming to terms with her loss all the more difficult and we hope and pray
00:35:03
for a swift conclusion to the investigation in Thailand. Kirsty was a wonderful daughter and we
00:35:10
miss her terribly. But she loved to travel and she made friends all over the world. Her zest for
00:35:18
life and her love will always live with us. [Music] Kirsty's murder raised hot debate over
00:35:26
the dangers of women traveling alone and called into question the overall safety
00:35:31
of Thailand as a tourist destination. British journalist Image and Tilden had traveled solo through Thailand at a
00:35:39
similar age to Kirsty and remembered the trip fondly. She wrote an article for the Guardian
00:35:46
arguing that Kirsty's tragic death shouldn't deter other young women from visiting the country, stating that while
00:35:53
it was understandable that people would feel cautious, this was an isolated tragic incident and it didn't mean that
00:36:00
an evil murderer was now lurking in every hostel preying on young women. Imagigen went on to explain,
00:36:09
"An integral part of the delight of being in Southeast Asia is that the hostels don't have alarms and infrared
00:36:16
security systems, nor front doors with British standard five-bolt locks. Travelers and locals alike are relaxed
00:36:25
and friendly, and there is nothing of the barely suppressed aggression that seems to lurk in so many British cities.
00:36:33
In fact, I feel more threatened on my nightly walk home from the tube in South London.
00:36:41
Imagin said the experience of traveling alone was one of the best things she'd ever done, as it gave her an enormous
00:36:48
amount of confidence and courage. I urge every woman to try it themselves and not succumb to what seems
00:36:55
essentially a misogynist hysteria, she wrote. If a young man had been found murdered,
00:37:02
there would be no comment on his traveling companions or lack of them. Back in Chiang Mai, the police were
00:37:14
called to the AR guest house after Surin Champernat's girlfriend, Pantipa, threatened to take her own life unless
00:37:21
Surin was released from custody. Pantipa had been insistent that Surin had nothing to do with Kirsty's death.
00:37:31
She claimed that he'd injured his back several years earlier and it impacted his ability to have sex.
00:37:38
With Surin in jail and the array empty of guests and massage students, Pantipa was struggling.
00:37:46
She already suffered from the detrimental effects of a brain injury she'd sustained years prior, and now she
00:37:53
had no income and no partner. She wasn't even allowed to visit Surin in jail. Her friends had also deserted her in a
00:38:02
bid to distance themselves from the case and the prying reporters. By the time police arrived at the RA,
00:38:12
Pantipa had locked herself in her room and was crying hysterically. Through the door, she said she couldn't
00:38:19
take it anymore. Suddenly, all the lights went off in the building. Police broke down the door and found
00:38:27
Pantipa hanging by the neck from a nylon rope. She was released and rushed to hospital
00:38:33
where she made a quick recovery. A few days later, Pantipa spoke to journalist Pim Keasinki about the
00:38:42
hardships she'd faced in the wake of Kirsty's death. "It would be nice if people cared for the living as much as
00:38:49
they do for the dead," she said. On Thursday, August 31, the results of the second set of DNA tests were in.
00:39:01
Again, there were no matches. For the first time since the investigation commenced 21 days earlier,
00:39:09
the police were forced to admit that the case might not be as easy to solve as they initially thought. One by one, each
00:39:17
of the AR suspects were officially ruled out and given their passports back. All
00:39:22
except manager Surin Champet. Even though his DNA didn't match that found on Kirsty's body, police theorized
00:39:31
that he could have been complicit in the crime, perhaps working in cahoots with members of a foreign mafia gang that had
00:39:38
reportedly been operating out of the night market. Then came another highly controversial
00:39:46
theory. According to the Chiang Mai police, it was possible that whoever had raped Kirsty had purchased semen from
00:39:55
someone else and planted it at the scene to detract attention from themsel. Apparently, this was something they'd
00:40:03
seen done before. As the chief of police explained on the documentary Murder in Paradise,
00:40:11
investigators tested this theory by going out and seeing if it was possible to buy Seaman. He confirmed, quote, "It
00:40:20
was available, there are people that will sell sperm, maybe a laborer or someone who needed cash fast or a
00:40:28
prostitute who had saved some from a previous client." Rumors quickly began circulating that on
00:40:36
the night of Kirsty's murder, a foreign man had paid a tuk tuk driver for his seaman.
00:40:42
The press quickly picked up on the story and newspapers ran wild with outrageous
00:40:47
claims. Journalists Pim Kinki and Andrew Drummond visited the professor of forensic medicine who had been working
00:40:55
on Kirsty's case and asked him if the planted semen theory was plausible. The professor immediately dismissed the
00:41:03
idea. He explained that the deep penetration of the offender's DNA confirmed without
00:41:10
a doubt that whoever had raped Kirsty had also killed her. According to the professor, the evidence
00:41:17
also indicated that only one person had been involved in the crime and that person had undoubtedly been an Asian
00:41:25
man. With suspicion still on Surin Champernet 5 weeks into the investigation, he came
00:41:36
forward with a confession. On the night of Kirsty's murder, Surin claimed that he'd seen a light on in her
00:41:44
room. Through twitching curtains, he caught a glimpse of a man's legs and face. He thought he recognized the man, but it
00:41:54
wasn't until Surin saw him leave the room that he knew for sure. It was the ARI guest house owner, Andy
00:42:02
Gil. Police weren't sure what to make of Surin's claims as he had a reputation for running his mouth,
00:42:12
but it gained credibility when Surin's girlfriend, Pantipa, began supporting his story.
00:42:18
A month into the investigation, Andy Gil was arrested and charged with conspiracy
00:42:24
to rape and murder Kirsty Jones. It was the first time such a charge had ever been made under Tai law. But given
00:42:33
that none of Andy's DNA was found on Kirsty's body, police didn't have enough evidence for an outright murder charge.
00:42:42
Instead, they theorized that Andy could have acted with a tie accomplice. Alternatively, they considered whether
00:42:50
Andy could have watched Kirsty have sex with another man and then slipped into her room and tried to make a move on her
00:42:57
himself. When she resisted his advances, he launched a violent attack and strangled
00:43:03
her to death. [Music] Andy Gil was transported to a prison in Bangkok. Under Thai law, police had just 60 days
00:43:14
to find his alleged co-conspirator. After that, they either had to commit him to trial or let him go.
00:43:24
Regardless of this looming deadline, a spokesperson for the Chiang Mai police said, "We are confident we are on the
00:43:31
right track. There is no mystery anymore." The stakes were high for Randy Gil. If
00:43:43
the charges against him proceeded to trial, a guilty verdict could result in a possible death sentence.
00:43:51
With the wheels of justice turning very slowly in Thailand, it could mean years in one of Bangkok's notoriously harsh
00:43:58
prisons before the trial even went ahead. From behind bars, Andy Gil vehemently denied having anything to do with
00:44:07
Kirsty's rape or murder and remained steadfast that the only reason he'd fled after finding her body was that he
00:44:14
panicked about his expired visa. Those who knew Andy were shocked to discover that he'd been accused of the
00:44:22
crime. A friend of Andy's told the press, "This is unbelievable. There is no way
00:44:30
Andy did this. This whole investigation has been a joke. I know Andy well, and he is just not capable of doing it.
00:44:42
As the 60-day deadline loomed, the police failed to uncover any physical evidence to place Andy Gil or an alleged
00:44:50
co-conspirator at the scene of Kirsty's murder. Then on Thursday, November 30, 12 days
00:44:57
before the deadline, the charges against Andy were suddenly dropped and he was released from prison.
00:45:05
The acting district attorney explained that the testimony provided by Surin Champernet and his girlfriend Pantipa
00:45:12
couldn't be relied on. But journalist Andrew Drummond had been secretly following correspondents sent
00:45:20
between Andy Gil and his father in the south of France. He discovered that while Andy had been
00:45:27
in prison, his father had sent four payments through to Andy's ex-wife in Chiang Mai totaling $14,000.
00:45:36
One fax from Andy's dad to Andy's ex-wife said, "Here is the transmission note for the
00:45:43
remainder of the money. Hope it arrives soon and Andy will be out of their clutches sometime next week.
00:45:52
Andrew Drummond came to the conclusion that the £14,000 had been paid off to someone in the Chiang Mai court system
00:46:00
to secure Andy Gill's freedom. Although according to Andrew, this wasn't a sign of guilt.
00:46:08
He told the documentary Murder in Paradise, "From my experience covering foreign
00:46:15
cases, there is a demand for payment from one direction or another. I've seen 20 British men charged with
00:46:23
offenses against young children in the last 5 years, but I've only seen one case get to court. They've all got out
00:46:31
and they've all paid money. They've paid money to get off a charge they could have been jailed for.
00:46:39
I don't see this in the case of Andy Gil. You can't say, "Well, that man's guilty because he's greasing palms."
00:46:47
He's doing it because he doesn't want to be in jail for 5 years on a charge in which he's not guilty.
00:46:56
Andy Gil admitted that the money had been used to get the charges against him dropped, but he claimed it had nothing
00:47:02
to do with him being guilty. He said he'd simply presented the prosecutor with his side of the story
00:47:09
and let him come to his own conclusion. Given that the courts had no evidence to
00:47:15
uphold the charges anyway, they'd let Andy go. Everything in Asia works through greasing the wheels, he explained.
00:47:32
With the charges against Andy Gil dropped and all other suspects being cleared by DNA, the investigation into
00:47:39
Kirsty's murder was back to square one. As the weeks turned into months, it looked less and less likely that the
00:47:46
case would be solved. Eventually, the one-year anniversary of the crime came and went with no
00:47:53
breakthroughs. In Wales, the Jones family tried to spend the day remembering Kirsty as she
00:48:00
was when she was still alive rather than focus on the tragic circumstances of her
00:48:05
death. Still, finding whoever was responsible remained paramount. In a public statement, the Jones family
00:48:15
said, "One day, we hope to see justice done for the safety of other backpackers, but
00:48:21
most importantly for Kirsty. Someone somewhere should pay the price for robbing us and Kirsty of what should
00:48:29
have been a wonderful happy life. With no progress in the case by its 1-year anniversary, investigators from
00:48:38
Wales traveled to Chiang Mai to meet with the Thai authorities only to be told that Kirsty's case had been closed.
00:48:47
After a quote considerable amount of negotiation, the attorney general agreed to reopen the case with assistance from
00:48:54
the Welsh police. The original team of Thai investigators were removed from the case and replaced
00:49:01
by a new group of detectives. Months later, in January 2002, the case was back in the headlines after it was
00:49:11
revealed that two witnesses had come forward claiming that on the night of Kirsty's murder, they saw two men
00:49:17
hanging around outside of the AR guest house. One of them was a high-ranking officer
00:49:24
within the tourist police force dressed in civilian clothing. Unsubstantiated reports began appearing
00:49:33
in Thai newspapers claiming that DNA supported the theory that Kirsty had been killed by a Thai policeman.
00:49:41
Some claimed that the initial investigation had been deliberately botched to protect the real offender as
00:49:48
the truth would have a detrimental effect on the reputation of the Thai police force and subsequently the
00:49:54
tourism industry. At a press conference in Bangkok, the Welsh detectives refused to comment on
00:50:02
this theory with one remarking instead. Despite the setbacks, I want to make the
00:50:08
point that there are some very good policemen in Thailand who want to pursue the case properly and seem very willing
00:50:15
to do so. A Welsh reporter for the Western Mail newspaper said that it didn't matter
00:50:23
whether or not the killer was a policeman because quote, "The new allegation muddies the waters of an
00:50:30
investigation already tar black with intrigue and tension. It also adds almost intolerable pressure
00:50:37
on the Royal Thai police to gain a conviction at any price. A number of exhibits taken from the
00:50:49
crime scene were flown to the United Kingdom to be examined using the advanced technology available at the
00:50:55
Forensic Science Service Laboratory. At this stage, the DNA sample simply proved that Kirsty's killer had been a
00:51:03
Southeast Asian male. The UK forensic experts re-examined the sarong that had been used to strangle
00:51:11
Kirsty and detected semen and skin cells that allowed them to provide a full DNA
00:51:16
profile. At the time, there was no centralized DNA database in Thailand for the authorities to test the profile against.
00:51:27
They compared it to the samples taken from the persons of interest in Kirsty's case, including the tourism police
00:51:34
officer witnessed outside the RE. There were no matches to any of them, except one.
00:51:43
While tour guide Narang Pojana Tamron Pong had been cleared from the investigation, the DNA profile resembled
00:51:50
his strongly enough to indicate that the killer could be one of his relatives, a
00:51:56
member of the Karan Hill tribes. Welsh police recommended that mass DNA screening be carried out within certain
00:52:04
parameters in Chiang Mai. With the regional police declining to do so, members of the press tried to track
00:52:12
down any members of Nong's family who could possibly fit the profile of Kirsty's killer.
00:52:19
This line of inquiry seemingly fizzled out. Then in April 2002, a year and a half
00:52:27
after Kirsty's murder, came another twist. Stories started circulating in the press
00:52:34
that two trans women had come forward claiming that Surin Champet, the ARI guest house manager, had paid them to
00:52:42
plant seammen at the scene of the crime. Thai investigators dismissed the claims
00:52:48
as wild speculation. While Welsh detectives said the information was being received with caution,
00:52:56
they reiterated that the fluids found on Kirsty's body could only have come from
00:53:00
the person who killed her. By the third anniversary of Kirsty's murder, her family's heartache was as
00:53:10
raw as ever. "We will never get over losing Kirsty," the Joneses said in a public statement.
00:53:18
We are trying to live without her and get on with our lives as best we can. Some days this is easier said than done.
00:53:27
A young, beautiful, vibrant life has been lost and she is very much missed by so many.
00:53:34
Knowing there is someone somewhere responsible for Kirsty's death is never far from our minds.
00:53:41
Things in Thailand tend to move incredibly slowly, so we have to be patient. We shall never give up hope of catching
00:53:50
her killer. This is the very least that Kirsty deserves. Welsh detectives remained actively
00:53:59
involved in the case and were confident that Kirsty's killer would be identified.
00:54:05
We have a piece of the killer and will always have that. One detective said, "We have the DNA profile of the person
00:54:13
believed to be the offender, and we are confident someone will match that profile and be brought to justice."
00:54:22
But the team was hindered by a lack of action from the Thai police. As the years continued to pass without
00:54:30
an arrest, it seemed like the Thai authorities only acted when pressure was placed on them by the UK police or
00:54:37
foreign office. Welsh police suggested several lines of inquiry that Thai investigators didn't
00:54:44
follow up on, including the mass DNA screening in Chiang Mai, as well as reintering key witnesses.
00:54:52
Given that the Thai police remained in charge of the investigation, Welsh police felt as though their hands were
00:54:59
tied. In 2007, Welsh politician Roger Williams took the issue to Parliament, voicing
00:55:06
the deep frustration that Kirsty Jones's family felt at the botched investigation
00:55:11
and slow progress of the Thai authorities. He stated, "The family and police do not
00:55:18
have unrealistic expectations of the Thai authorities. All they ask is for a methodical and professional
00:55:25
investigation of what is a very detectable crime." I ask the minister to use all the
00:55:32
facilities at the disposal of the foreign office to encourage the Thai authorities not to give up on this case
00:55:38
for the sake of the family and the safety of young people traveling in Thailand.
00:55:46
Sue Jones described her family's experience of dealing with foreign law enforcement to Wales online.
00:55:53
Unless you are in this situation, you don't realize what it is like, she said. You automatically think that someone
00:56:00
will be holding your hand, but that is not the case. You have to work it out as you go along.
00:56:07
It is extremely frustrating for us because we fire questions at the Thai authorities through the foreign office
00:56:14
and anything they don't want to answer, they will just avoid. Their way of doing things is completely
00:56:20
different and we have to understand that. But it is hard to be patient. [Music] The investigation seemingly went nowhere
00:56:32
until over a decade later in 2011 when a mysterious video popped up on video sharing website YouTube from an
00:56:40
Australian retiree living in Chiang Mai. Identifying himself only by the username
00:56:47
Mr. AJP Allen. The man claimed he knew the identity of the second man who had been seen loitering around outside the
00:56:55
AR guest house with the tourist police officer on the night of Kirsty Jones's murder.
00:57:02
According to Mr. AJP Allen, it was a tire professor who worked at Changai University and also happened to be the
00:57:10
younger brother of the police officer. Speaking to the camera in a deliberately clear and slow manner, Allan said, "The
00:57:20
Department of Special Investigations has all the details, but will not act just in case I am wrong. I won't be taking
00:57:28
this off the internet until the British Embassy overseas a DNA test on this lecturer from the university."
00:57:37
When the Jones family were made aware of this allegation, all they could do was hope that the professor in question
00:57:43
would be subject to a DNA test. Obviously, if it is him, that will be a good thing, Sue Jones told BBC News. If
00:57:53
it isn't, it eliminates him from the investigation. A detective from the Welsh police told
00:58:01
Wales online that while the YouTube video wasn't evidence itself, it was still a viable line of inquiry and they
00:58:08
felt it was important to rule it out. It is not about solving it for us. He said it is about solving it for the
00:58:17
Jones family and for Kirsty. She is the one who deserves to have the truth and we will leave no stone
00:58:24
unturned until every line of inquiry is exhausted. When no breakthroughs came by August
00:58:33
2012, Sue Jones flew to Thailand ahead of the 12-year anniversary of Kirsty's death to announce a £10,000 reward for
00:58:41
information that led to an arrest. For the first time, she also visited the ARE guest house and saw the room in
00:58:50
which her daughter was murdered. At an emotional press conference, Sue said, "I am convinced there is someone who has
00:58:59
information that could lead to the arrest of the person who took away my daughter's life. With the passing of
00:59:06
time, people's loyalties change and relationships end, which may remove any previous reluctance to come forward.
00:59:15
Something small, which may seem irrelevant at the time, could now be significant and add new pieces to the
00:59:22
jigsaw that the police already have. [Music] That same year, the DNA profile of Kirsty's killer was run through
00:59:31
Thailand's National DNA database. Established in 2004, it contained profiles from around 80,000 individuals,
00:59:41
including victims of the devastating Boxing Day tsunami that had killed over 5,000 people in Thailand.
00:59:49
There were no matches. In turn, Sue Jones made a freedom of information request to the foreign
00:59:56
office seeking all of the documents they had in relation to Kirsty's death. She was told they couldn't release any
01:00:04
material that could jeopardize or hurt their relations with Thailand. While it was their job to help any
01:00:11
family concerned about a death overseas, they weren't allowed to interfere with any criminal investigations that took
01:00:18
place outside of the UK. In the documents they did provide, many of the names had been deleted.
01:00:27
Convinced that the officials had consistently prioritized foreign relations over her quest for answers,
01:00:34
Sue told Wales Online, "I'm pretty sure somebody knows what happened. They're probably too afraid to
01:00:42
say anything or it's somebody in authority, but I'm 99% sure somebody knows." In 2014, Thailand's police force was
01:00:55
back under international scrutiny after British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found murdered on
01:01:02
the island of Katau. As covered in episode 220 of Case File, the investigation into Hannah and
01:01:09
David's death sparked major allegations of police corruption and cover-ups after
01:01:14
the two prime suspects, both Burmese migrants, claimed police had tortured them into making false confessions.
01:01:23
In the years that followed, several other cases emerged involving foreigners who died under mysterious circumstances
01:01:30
on the island. While most of the deaths were declared accidents or suicides by the Thai
01:01:37
authorities, it put the Jones family onto a growing list of grieving families who called into question the way Thai
01:01:44
police handled serious crimes against tourists. For Kirsty's family, each year that
01:01:54
passed without a breakthrough in the case wasn't just painful and frustrating. It was a race against the
01:02:00
clock. In Thailand, a 20-year statute of limitations exists on murder convictions.
01:02:08
This meant that if Kirsty's case wasn't solved within that time frame, a prosecution wouldn't be possible, even
01:02:16
if new evidence became available. As this deadline approached, Kirsty's family did everything they could think
01:02:24
of to try and keep the Thai authorities interested in Kirsty's case. Despite all the hurdles they'd faced
01:02:31
over the years, they'd always remained positive that something good would come out of the investigation eventually and
01:02:38
someone would be punished for Kirsty's murder. As Sue explained to Wales online,
01:02:46
you have to remain positive because if you don't, you might as well give up. But that positivity became difficult to
01:02:55
maintain as the 20-year statute loomed. In 2017, Welsh politician Chris Davies asked then Prime Minister Theresa May to
01:03:05
step in and help the Jones family. He urged, "I ask the prime minister to push the Thai authorities to use recently
01:03:15
improved DNA techniques to bring the killer to justice. to endeavor to provide more support for
01:03:22
families who have lost loved ones abroad and finally to ensure that Kirsty's personal effects at last returned back
01:03:31
home to her parents from Thailand. The prime minister offered her condolences to the Jones family, but
01:03:39
said it was not the place for the British government to interfere with police investigations that take place in
01:03:45
another country. [Music] Kirsty's case was due to be closed on Monday, August 10, 2020.
01:03:55
her loved ones, as well as those who had been following the case since the beginning, could do little but hope that
01:04:01
a new witness or some DNA evidence unexpectedly came to light. Welsh television presenter Jonathan Hill
01:04:09
had traveled to Thailand with Sue Jones back in 2012 when they announced the £10,000 reward for information.
01:04:19
He'd been deeply impacted by the determination the Jones family had to seek justice for their daughter.
01:04:27
Jonathan told ITV News, "Be in no doubt that this case is solvable. A targeted DNA screening of local man in
01:04:37
Chiang Mai would probably have revealed the killer's identity, but the case was always uncomfortable for the Thai
01:04:44
authorities. And no doubt there will be those who would rather it be consigned to history. Case closed.
01:04:53
What is striking about the last two decades is how Sue Jones has conducted herself with such a dignity.
01:05:00
She never wavered from her promise to get justice for Kirsty. And there can be no better demonstration of a mother's
01:05:07
love for her daughter. Crushingly, the 20-year statute of limitations came with none of the
01:05:16
answers Kirsty's family so desperately sought. Sue told BBC News, "Kirsty has gone from our lives, whilst
01:05:27
her killer remains at large. Had they been brought to justice, the sadness and emptiness would remain the same, but it
01:05:36
may have brought us some closure. I hope we have done her proud in trying to get justice.
01:05:44
[Music] While Kirsty's case may have closed without answers, she is never far from
01:05:51
Sue's mind. Staying in contact with Kirsty's friends via social media, it cut Sue up inside
01:05:59
to see them all grow up, get married, and have kids of their own. She couldn't help but wonder what
01:06:06
Kirsty's future would have been like if her life hadn't been so tragically cut short.
01:06:12
"You think, would she be married now?" Sue pondered to Wales Online. "Would she have kids? Would she be on the other
01:06:20
side of the world working or traveling?" Despite all the horrors her family had endured in the wake of Kirsty's murder,
01:06:30
there was one thing Sue was certain of. When she traveled to Thailand for the first time, she could see why Kirsty had
01:06:38
fallen in love with the place. "It really is paradise," she told the Daily Mirror. "The people were lovely. They
01:06:47
couldn't do enough for us. You can't ride off an entire country because of something bad that once happened there."
01:06:56
The last thing Sue wanted was for Kirsty's death to deter any other young people from traveling.
01:07:04
Travel made Kirsty streetwise, confident, and ready for the challenges life could throw at her. She said, "I'd
01:07:12
hate to think her death would stop anyone fulfilling their dreams of seeing the world.
01:07:20
It was a sentiment she'd felt strongly about since the very beginning. As Sue told the BBC after Kirsty's body
01:07:28
was found, she had every doubt in the world about her daughter traveling the world on her own.
01:07:35
Regardless, Sue said she never would have stopped her. It's what she wanted to do. Sue stated
01:07:44
she wouldn't have been happy doing anything else. Our children are like grains of sand.
01:07:50
The tighter we try to hold on to them, the faster they run. [Music]