{"id":288610,"date":"2025-11-16T16:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T16:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288610\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T16:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T16:38:14","slug":"allegation-of-cover-up-in-laos-methanol-poisoning-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288610\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegation of cover-up in Laos methanol poisoning investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been one year since Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles tragically died from methanol poisoning during a backpacking holiday in Laos, but for their families, dealing with the grief hasn’t gotten any easier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December 2024, Mark and Michelle Jones and Samantha and Shaun Bowles were forced to bury their 19-year-old daughters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The best friends had been living their dream, backpacking through Laos in South East Asia, where they were served drinks laced with deadly methanol.<\/p>\n

It’s been one year since Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles tragically died from methanol poisoning during a backpacking holiday in Laos (60 Minutes)<\/p>\n

The young Australians were among six people who died from a tainted batch of bad booze – a death toll that should have sparked immediate action, but hasn’t.<\/p>\n

“There’s been no evidence to suggest that there is an investigation going on,” Shaun told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

“I believe it’s all been swept under the carpet, pushed to the side and forgotten about.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Laotian police recommended charges against 13 people from the Nana Hostel – the site of the poisonings, and Tiger Distillery – the suspected producer of the contaminated spirits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there are claims that, right from the beginning, the incident was deliberately covered up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bianca and Holly’s parents have learned, through a confidential contact in Laos, that police warned those potentially responsible for the girl’s deaths to flee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One year on, the grief is still fresh for the families of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles. (60 Minutes)<\/p>\n

“Our understanding is, police authorities told staff at Nana’s effectively to get out of town,” Mark told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

“There is obviously someone, somewhere \u2026 covering something up, that’s obviously coming from quite high up in government and\/or the police force.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full episode of 60 Minutes on 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been one year since Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles tragically died from methanol poisoning during a backpacking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-288610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}