The father of a 17-year-old Thai girl whose body was found folded inside a suitcase has rejected any financial settlement from her accused killer, a 45-year-old Australian man now facing murder charges in Pattaya, Thailand. "Even though I am poor, I will not trade my daughter's dignity for money," Thongchai Donhomla told Australia's ABC, adding simply: "I love my daughter so much."
That statement carries weight in the Thai legal system, where defendants who pay victims' families as a show of remorse can sometimes receive significantly reduced sentences, even in murder cases. By publicly refusing compensation, Thongchai Donhomla is closing a door that could have softened the consequences for Simon Peter Carman, the Ballarat-born man charged with killing Tunchanok Donhomla on June 26.
Carman faces three charges: murder, concealing and moving a body, and abducting a minor for indecent purposes. A conviction on the murder charge alone can carry life imprisonment or death by lethal injection under Thai law. He denies the charges and claims he acted in self-defense after an alleged dispute over 500 baht, roughly $23.
Pattaya City Police have pieced together the night's events largely through CCTV footage. At approximately 3 a.m. on June 26, Carman had been rejected by another sex worker before approaching Donhomla and her friends near the Pattaya beachfront, a well-known area frequented by sex workers. By roughly 3:30 a.m., cameras captured Carman and the teenager walking together from the beachfront and entering the foyer of his accommodation near the Jomtien Condominium apartment complex.
Police confirmed Donhomla was killed at approximately 4 a.m., roughly 30 minutes after she walked through the door.
The girl had texted friends upon arriving at the apartment. Pattaya City Police Colonel Anek Srathongyu said the message indicated she had arrived so her friends did not have to worry. In her own words, Donhomla wrote: "I've arrived at [his] apartment. The room is so messy."
Nearly 17 hours later, at around 9 p.m., cameras allegedly captured Carman leaving the building alone, hauling a large black suitcase that he loaded onto a motorbike. Police allege he had folded Donhomla's body into the 29-inch bag and dumped it in long grass beside railway tracks approximately 2.6 miles from his apartment.
As AP News reported, Carman was arrested at a Bangkok airport while attempting to board a flight to Perth, Australia. He was caught moments before takeoff.
Along with Donhomla's body, police recovered white Onitsuka trainers, jeans, underwear, a mobile phone case, a wallet, and her gold bracelet and necklace. Tattoos on her back, arms, chest, and left leg matched images from her social media accounts.
Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyu described the scene in stark terms. The New York Post's initial reporting quoted him saying the victim "was completely naked, her face showed signs of severe assault, with swelling and bruising covering the entire face, and blood was flowing from her mouth and nose." He added: "The cameras show that nobody else entered the room. There were signs of a struggle inside."
Carman, for his part, offered investigators a different account. "I was holding her down because she got crazy," he told them. He also claimed: "I had my wallet open to get the money out, and next thing there's a knife to my face."
Those statements sit uneasily beside the physical evidence police have described, and beside what Carman was doing in the hours after the killing.
An unnamed sex worker told 7News that she was exchanging messages with Carman during the period when Donhomla's body was allegedly still inside his bathroom. Carman's texts to her were casual. "I'm so tired," he wrote. "I'm going to go for a swim today." The woman said she panicked when she later learned Carman had been arrested after a body was found in a suitcase.
The gap between those breezy messages and the horror police allege was unfolding in Carman's apartment tells its own story. A man who claims self-defense does not typically text about swimming plans while a teenager's body lies nearby.
The killing did not occur in a vacuum. Multiple women have come forward to describe troubling encounters with Carman in the weeks before Donhomla's death.
On June 5, just three weeks before the killing, Carman was involved in a motorbike accident outside the Jomtien Condominium apartment complex with Khanittha Thongsuknmag, a 53-year-old Thai woman. What followed was not a civil exchange of insurance information. Thongsuknmag told the Australian Associated Press that Carman was "angry, angry." She described him as "King Kong."
Carman then sent her threatening WhatsApp messages, demanding she buy him a wheelchair and warning he would "make sure big trouble" if she refused. In one message, he wrote: "I have to see specialist in Pattaya. I need taxi!! you can pay, you evil b***h." Police eventually intervened, and Thongsuknmag paid Carman 2,000 baht, about $87. She blocked his number.
The violence that communities face when dangerous individuals go unchecked is a recurring theme, whether in American cities dealing with youth violence or in overseas tourist destinations where law enforcement struggles to track transient foreigners.
Then there was Tang Chai, a 43-year-old Thai mother of two who had moved to Pattaya from the same rural province as Donhomla. Carman approached her at a 7-Eleven near his condo, asked for her number, and invited her to his apartment the same day via WhatsApp. "Simon said hello at 7-Eleven and asked for my number," she told the Daily Mail. "He sent me messages on WhatsApp [that] same day and ask me out for a date."
When Tang Chai visited the apartment, she found it repulsive. "The room was so stinky, smelled musty. It was very strong and messy everywhere," she said. Carman paid her 3,500 baht, about $150. When she later texted offering to see him again, Carman replied: "No, 3,500 is a scam."
After Carman's arrest made the news, Tang Chai's reaction was visceral. "I could not sleep for three days thinking about what happened to the girl. I feel sick and worry it [could have] happened to me."
Carman was paying just $100 a week in rent at his Pattaya apartment. Sources told The Daily Telegraph that he "regularly" brought Thai women back to his room. One unnamed source said of Donhomla: "She was the youngest, but they were all young." The same source noted that Carman sometimes paid women 2,000 baht, roughly $86, simply to clean his room and give him a massage.
That picture, a middle-aged foreigner living cheaply in a Thai resort city, cycling through young local women, and growing increasingly aggressive in his interactions, is the backdrop against which police allege a 17-year-old girl was killed within 30 minutes of entering his apartment.
Luca Bernardinetti, chairman and managing partner of the Mahnakorn Partners Group legal firm, explained the stakes to news.com.au. "Under Thai law, intentional killing is very serious," he said. He acknowledged that Thai courts may weigh mitigating factors, "a confession, co-operation, remorse, voluntary surrender or steps taken to reduce harm", but added bluntly: "You cannot erase murder with a donation."
Bernardinetti also flagged the practical difficulties Carman faces. "It's a very expensive case, and costs vary significantly on language requirements, forensic evidence, trial length, prison visits, and the seniority of their representation," he said. Legal fees could run upward of $130,000 or several million baht, news.com.au previously reported. The Australian Embassy, Bernardinetti noted, does not pay for or provide legal counsel to citizens accused of crimes abroad.
"Most court appointed lawyers have a poor understanding of the English language, it's a big problem."
That observation from Bernardinetti suggests Carman may face a language barrier on top of everything else if he cannot afford private counsel.
Against all of this, Thongchai Donhomla's statement stands out for its clarity. In a system where financial settlements can soften sentences, a grieving father chose principle over money. He said he would let the legal system take its course.
His daughter was 17. She texted her friends to say she had arrived safely. She was dead within half an hour. Her body was stuffed into luggage and discarded beside train tracks. Her accused killer tried to board a plane home.
Thongchai Donhomla does not want a check. He wants accountability. In a world where too many institutions treat justice as negotiable, that is worth noting.
