An Australian man has been charged with murder in Thailand after the naked body of a 17-year-old girl was discovered stuffed inside a suitcase near a railway track in the coastal city of Pattaya. Simon Peter Carman, 46, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport — some 150 kilometres north of Pattaya — in the early hours of Saturday morning, as police said he was preparing to flee the country. Authorities identified the victim as Tunchanok Donhomla, known by the nickname Cake, whose body was found approximately 15 minutes after Carman's arrest following a police tip-off during his questioning.

CCTV footage reviewed and verified by Pattaya City Police allegedly shows Carman and Donhomla entering a condominium together, holding hands in a lobby as they waited for an elevator, at around 3:30am on Thursday. Later that evening, between 9:25pm and 9:48pm, footage allegedly shows Carman dragging a large suitcase out of the building, loading it onto a motorbike, and heading toward a nearby railway line. He is then seen returning without the suitcase roughly 20 minutes later. The teenager had been reported missing by Friday afternoon. In addition to murder, Carman faces charges of concealing a corpse to hide the cause of death, and abducting a minor over 15 but under 18 years of age for indecent purposes. He has denied all three charges.

In video footage recorded while in custody, Carman addressed the victim's family directly: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control." He claimed the events were the result of self-defence, and also told police at one point that Donhomla had "disappeared from the room" while he was asleep — accounts that appear contradictory. Thai media reported that a dispute over payment for sexual services lay at the heart of the alleged altercation: Carman had reportedly agreed to pay 1,000 baht (approximately £23 or US$30) but offered only half that amount, triggering a struggle. When asked about visible scratch marks on his arms and neck — which the police superintendent noted were "consistent with a struggle" — Carman told officers he believed they were spider bites.

Pattaya is a major tourist destination on Thailand's eastern Gulf coast, long associated with a prominent sex tourism industry. The case has drawn intense attention both in Thailand and Australia. Donhomla was an only child from the northeastern province of Kalasin, about 480 kilometres from Pattaya, who lived with her father and step-mother. She had told her parents she was travelling to Pattaya on holiday with a friend. Her father, Thongchai Donhomla, 46, said he was "deeply saddened," describing a daughter who had coped without her mother and who always found ways to support the family. Her step-mother, Oradee Bussarakum, said the family had feared the worst: "Now our eyes are swollen from crying. I just want him executed."

Carman remained in custody at Pattaya City Court on Sunday and is expected to appear in court at a date yet to be set. Under Thailand's criminal code, a murder conviction can carry the death penalty or a prison sentence of between 15 and 20 years.