Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing a news report that has gone heavily viral. The scheduling, sort of our timing in how we make these videos, I do a large tranche of these at the beginning, usually of the week on Sundays and then as the week goes on, or something comes up and I have time, we will go ahead and make other videos. As I have noted in many other videos in the past, I do have a day job and this obviously has promotional elements for the firm, but it's not my main occupation. 

This came up in the news cycle; if you have been watching our videos for the last couple of days it hasn't mentioned anything having to do with this, that is just because it sort of came up at sort of the end of the week and we didn't have an ability to go ahead and make a video on it so I'm making it now. I have received emails as well as comments on some of the other videos and things that we have seen and people have been asking me, "oh, are you going to make a Foreigners Behaving Badly video?" Look, I started making that type of content, I won't say it was necessarily about humorous nature but it has a kind of, I tried to make sure it had a kind of light-hearted element to it. Again it was content that pertained to foreign nationals here in Thailand. Look, this video is not of that ilk; this is a tragic situation. This is beyond sort of getting into the talking points of how foreigners act in Thailand etc. We are talking about a situation involving, really the death of a young lady that - well let me let me just jump into it. 

I actually initially thought of making this video after finding some postings on X which I will go to here in a moment, but quickly getting into Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Australian held after teen girl's body found in suitcase. Quoting directly: "A 46-year-old Australian man was taken into custody at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday night after being accused of killing a 17-year-old-girl, whose body was found in a suitcase dumped by a railway track in Pattaya. The suspect reportedly confessed to the crime but claimed he was acting in self-defence. Pol Col Anek Srathongyu, Chief of the Pattaya City Police Station, was informed on Friday evening about the missing victim, identified only as Thanchanok, a native of Kalasin Province."

And then again, as I have mentioned and I like to give credit where credit is due, I initially found this via two posts - pretty much simultaneously on Twitter - one is from the Pattaya News Thailand, that is @The_PattayaNews on X, quoting directly: "A 46-year-old man, Simon Peter Carman has now admitted to killing a 17-year-old Thai girl in Pattaya and stuffing her in a suitcase which he later dumped in a field and then tried to flee the country. He claims it was self-defense and that the disposal was because he panicked. He faces multiple major legal charges and remains in custody as Thai netizens demand he be punished to the fullest extent of the law." And then going over here to Pure Guava, that is @pureguava10300, and that is on X, quoting directly: "The body of a 17-year-old "Nong  Cake" - (that apparently was her nickname) - "has been found after she was allegedly murdered and stuffed into a suitcase, which was then dumped in a wooded area beside a railway line. Police in Pattaya coordinated with Immigration Bureau officers to arrest an Australian man at the airport before he could flee the country." You can see that in the thumbnail above. Quoting further: "Read the full story in the comments." 

I urge those who are watching this, check out any or all of these sources or others. This is all over the news here in Thailand at the moment. It's pretty shocking stuff. I'm not going to get into some of the ramifications that I think may come from this; I am going to do that in a separate video I am making contemporaneously with this one because I think there will be fall out for the Expat Community with regard to this, so I'll get to that in another video; I just don't think it's right to make it in this video. 

But long story short, yeah this is a tragic situation. It is making international headlines. I am sure there will be further press cover to this as it proceeds. Apparently, this person has in fact confessed, but they are citing that they were acting in self-defence. I don't know the underlying facts in this situation; remember folks are innocent until proven guilty here in Thailand, although reports of a confession would certainly seem to change the analysis of where this thing stands in terms of its legal posture. But that said, until there is a full adjudication, it is probably best for everyone to keep their minds open, at least to some reasonable extent, but it sounds like a pretty heinous crime. Again apparently, this young lady, her body was stuffed into a suitcase and then this person, there is apparently, I have seen the footage of this person - allegedly this person - on a motorbike with the suitcase on the back and then returns to the same place without the suitcase. So hard to say. It sounds pretty open and shut to me but not being on the ground and having all the facts at hand, I'm not going to jump to any conclusions. 

We will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.