{"id":780568,"date":"2026-07-05T12:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780568\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:38:16","slug":"the-lingering-scent-of-tragedy-a-family-grieves-for-cake-the-teen-killed-in-alleged-pattaya-suitcase-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780568\/","title":{"rendered":"The lingering scent of tragedy: a family grieves for Cake, the teen killed in alleged Pattaya suitcase murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ban Bo, Thailand: In the evenings when he\u2019s back from work, Thongchai Donhomla still catches hints of his daughter\u2019s perfume. It drifts from her room as a comfort, he says, reminding him her spirit might still be nearby.<\/p>\n

But now she needs to go, and to be at peace, he says from his sparse home in the small town of Ban Bo, in north-east Thailand\u2019s Kalasin province. \u201cThe spirit can\u2019t have grudges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The living, though, need not be so forgiving.<\/p>\n

Donhomla and the other grieving family members of 17-year-old Thanchanok Donhomla in Ban Bo want her alleged killer, Australian Simon Peter Carman, to face justice fairly and, if found guilty, dealt with to the fullest extent Thai law still allows: execution.<\/p>\n

\"ThongchaiThongchai Donhomla, father of Tunchanok Donhomla.Chanakarn Laosarakham<\/p>\n

\u201cA life for a life,\u201d says 75-year-old Mee Boonsert, one of two great aunts who played central roles raising Thanchanok when her biological mother left when she was just a baby.<\/p>\n

Carman, 45, is accused of murdering Thanchanok, or Cake, as she was known, in the early hours of June 25 near the tourist and expat hub of Pattaya, about 600 kilometres from her hometown.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianAustralian Simon Peter Carman, 45, after his arrest in Thailand.TPBS via AP<\/p>\n

Family members raced to Pattaya when told she was missing, only to learn on the way that her body had been found jammed inside a suitcase and discarded in the long grass by railway tracks.<\/p>\n

Her aunt, Miruntree Thanachai, went to the alleged crime scene \u2013 Carman\u2019s squalid $330 per month unit \u2013 to help with a ritual to prompt the spirit home.<\/p>\n

She noticed piles of filthy dishes and clothes. \u201cHe was a dirty man,\u201d she says. Most curious, however, was the \u201cthree or four\u201d women\u2019s handbags and other items of what appeared to be women\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

The pair allegedly met at 3am, and \u201cboth parties agreed to engage in sexual services\u201d, according to the official police report, seen by this masthead. Cake\u2019s family are troubled by this detail. She had never been a sex worker, \u201cand what father would allow his daughter to do that work?\u201d Donhomla says. Neither did she take drugs, he says, and when at school she had been a bright student. As far as they knew, she went to Pattaya for what was supposed to be a \u201cshort\u201d holiday.<\/p>\n

\"ThanchanokThanchanok \u201cCake\u201d Donhomla, whose body was found in a suitcase near Pattaya.Pattaya Police<\/p>\n

\u201cCake had a transgender friend [from a neighbouring district] come and stay with her at my house, and she asked her if she wanted to go to Pattaya,\u201d Donhomla says. \u201cShe [Cake] wanted to go. She said she wanted to see the beach. She asked us for some money and, though we didn\u2019t have much, we gave her what we could.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Like many fathers, Donhomla found it hard to disappoint his daughter. But he explains this was compounded by the shame and guilt he felt stemming from a four-year stint in prison from 2019 for drug offences. The time away left Cake, and the other members of the family who relied on his meagre income, destitute.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe father of 17-year-old Thanchanok Donhomla.Chanakarn Laosarakham<\/p>\n

With her father in prison and biological mother gone from her life, Cake was teased and bullied, prompting her to drop out of the regular curriculum and replace much of her learning with other school-approved activities, the family says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be there for Cake, so when I came back from prison I wanted to give everything to her that I could,\u201d Donhomla says.<\/p>\n

He works as a farmhand, earning, on average, the equivalent of about $250 per month, far below the Thai minimum wage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes she would ask for a new phone, but these are expensive and I couldn\u2019t afford it. I felt bad I couldn\u2019t provide for her,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily of 17-year-old Thanchanok Donhomla attend a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Kalasin.Chanakarn Laosarakham<\/p>\n

Armed with the equivalent of about $40 from her father and $80 from her great aunts, Cake went with her friend on a bus to the neon lights of party-town Pattaya on June 16. She promised to bring back clothes for her six-month-old cousin Wayu.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Thailand<\/a><\/p>\n

Donhomla says she called him a couple of times, including to ask for top-ups of money, but not at all in the four or five days before she went missing, which he says was unusual.<\/p>\n

Once in Pattaya, Cake met up with another friend, a transgender woman whom Donhomla had never met or seen before. He says this is the person who appears in photos confronting the Australian at his squalid condominium unit on June 26 when Cake had failed to return. By that time, she had already been dumped by the railway tracks in a suitcase.<\/p>\n

Donhomla raced to Pattaya when told his daughter was missing. During the journey, he got the devastating news she had been found dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked, I couldn\u2019t accept it,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. I couldn\u2019t eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family has not only been robbed of Cake, but a sense of security about the future. Who will care for her father and great-aunts when they can no longer care for themselves? Little Wayu is now the extended family\u2019s only future provider.<\/p>\n

\"MeeMee Boonsert and Pud Boonsert, great aunts of the murdered teen, at their home in Kalasin. Chanakarn Laosarakham<\/p>\n

Police in Pattaya say Carman has claimed self-defence, that she came at him with a knife in a fight over money.<\/p>\n

Cake\u2019s family brought her home to Ban Bo on Monday night last week inside a police van. She was cremated on Tuesday morning and her remains interred in a small gold urn placed in the base of Buddhist temple\u2019s perimeter wall.<\/p>\n

Her room is now bare but for a miniature dresser, sepia-coloured old photos of family, and a social media ring light kit, which her father says she barely used. Most of her other possessions were cremated alongside her body, in line with the family\u2019s beliefs. One day, the smell of perfume will be gone too.<\/p>\n

\"ThanchanokThanchanok Donhomla\u2019s great aunt Mee Boonsert in her home, where the teen often stayed. Chanakarn Laosarakham<\/p>\n

A date has not yet been fixed for Carman\u2019s first court appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-780568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780568","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=780568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}