The pair urged Australians to \u201cremove this country from their bucket list\u201d, raising continued safety concerns for backpackers travelling through the region. <\/p>\n
Mark and Michelle Jones shared similar sentiments, remarking it \u201cappears these deaths of innocent young women may be forgotten, brushed aside and left unresolved\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must have justice. At the very least, they deserve that,\u201d they told the Herald Sun.<\/p>\n
The stalling follows confirmation earlier this year that Laos refused Australia\u2019s investigative help, despite multiple offers from the Australian Federal Police, according to ABC News.<\/p>\n
While several hostel workers were questioned initially, no charges have been pressed, and few updates have been provided as to the progression of the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the expectation of the Australian government that there be a thorough investigation into these events, this crime, and that the perpetrators be found, and that that is the expectation in the context of our relationship with Laos,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in February.<\/p>\n
Methanol poisoning is a widespread problem across Southeast Asia, where establishments in party hotspots like Vang Vieng offer cheap alcohol to backpackers on a budget.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC, a Western diplomat said the chemical is often \u201cused to create a stronger-seeming drink or make lower-quality alcohol drinks seem more potent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Morton-Bowles and Jones were only two of six people to die after consuming alcohol at Nana Backpackers.<\/p>\n
According to ABC News, deleted reviews of the hostel warned of illness following consumption of drinks from the bar, with several alluding to suspicions of methanol poisoning. <\/p>\n
But Nana Backpacker\u2019s called their feedback \u201cslander\u201d, denying any issues with the alcohol on offer.<\/p>\n
Owner Duong van Huan has continued to maintain the dead tourists were not poisoned by drinks from the hostel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pair urged Australians to \u201cremove this country from their bucket list\u201d, raising continued safety concerns for backpackers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[29893,88339,1970,3043,430,23552,15166,6179,156,5988,2082,4756,305,17709,6148,14348,6187,440,27612,123,6077,111,139,69,1118,1523,3766,88069,14649,1361,9182,2248],"class_list":["post-127305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-authorities","tag-backpackers","tag-believe","tag-call","tag-celebrities","tag-claimed","tag-deaths","tag-died","tag-entertainment","tag-families","tag-for","tag-foreign","tag-have","tag-investigating","tag-justice","tag-laos","tag-lives","tag-local","tag-mass","tag-melbourne","tag-methanol","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-over","tag-parents","tag-poisoning","tag-stopped","tag-that","tag-tourists","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}