Thai police are preparing to arrest a British man over the brutal murder of his close friend and another female backpacker on an island beach popular with tourists.
Christopher Alan Ware was stopped at Bangkok’s main airport with his brother James on Wednesday for more questioning on the slayings of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge at Koh Tao — a day after being told by police he could leave the island.
Initial forensic tests were carried out on the victims late today, pointing to a more complicated struggle before they were hacked to death with a garden hoe, typically used by beachside bars to dig holes for fires.
In a further complication, the local police chief suggested there may be a bisexual element to the relationships and crime.
There is evidence both victims had sex either before or after they died, although it is not known with whom and if it was consensual.
Officers today swept the Ocean View resort where the Ware brothers and Miller were sharing a room overlooking the beach — and the eventual murder scene — for fresh material to test for DNA, including some dried blood.
“In my experience this looks like a crime of passion,” said police Col. Prachum Ruangthong, superintendent of the Koh Pha Ngan police district that includes Koh Tao.
Thai police said the British Embassy was cooperating with them as they sought more information from Ware, who had previously been quizzed over the killings but was allowed to leave the island.
This now appears to have been a mistake.
“We have questioned Christopher — we now want to ask him a whole lot more questions,” Prachum said.
The police chief said that fragments of hair belonging to a foreigner had been found by Bangkok forensics experts in the hand of Witheridge, 23, who was murdered on Monday morning, along with Miller, 24. Ware has blond hair and Miller had brown hair.
He did not explain how the police knew that the hair was from a foreigner, and from the potential killer, rather than from Miller or one of Witheridge’s other companions. Since the bodies were discovered on a rocky beach, questions have arisen about the competence of the police.
The police said Tuesday that they had DNA samples from two Englishmen — including Christopher Ware.
It is the third time in three days that the focus of the investigation, which was initially on one of Miller’s companions, has shifted. On Tuesday the police said the two main suspects were Burmese men, one captured on CCTV footage and one a local guitar player.
Yet police had also said Tuesday that they were convinced that it was crime of jealously, passion or anger due to the extent of the injures to Witheridge and lack of any other motives including robbery.