After two young Brits were found brutally murdered on Koh Tao’s Sairee beach the night between Sunday and Monday, the expatriate community on the island is holding its breath while the police is trying to solve the murder case.
ScandAsia spoke with Jonas Ninlagan Majvig a Danish expatriate who has lived on the island for 10 years. He is manager at a dive equipment store and lives 5 kilometers from the crime scene. Jonas heard about the murder few hours after the bodies were found.
“First I was shocked, that such a terrible thing had happened on Koh Tao, then my thoughts went to the families of the victims,” Jonas says and adds that people on the Island are afraid that Koh Tao’s peaceful reputation will be hurt in a time where the number of tourists is already affected by the military coup.
“Whether the murder will have an impact on tourism or not depends on who is behind the murder. If it is a jealousy drama between foreigners, it could have happened anywhere and I do not think people will be scared to visit, but if the murderer is a local, then Koh Tao’s reputation might suffer,” he says.
At this point different police officers have given different statements to different news sites, while some suspect migrant workers the British newspaper The Guardian reports that a nationwide manhunt, to find a third British national, is underway.
According to Jonas Ninlagan Majvig the mood on the island have not changed much, even though everyone is talking about the murder, expatriates, locals are waiting to get some closure and the tourist are not flocking at pier to get away.
“It is terrible when things like this happen in your own backyard, but in my 10 years on Koh Tao I have never heard of anything like this, and I still feel that Koh Tao is the safest island in Thailand,” Jonas says.
