Local tattoo artist from Koh Phangan Island arrested for murder of female German tourist
Thai police have arrested a local Thai man from Koh Phangan Island in connection with the murder of a female German tourist at the weekend during the aftermath of the world infamous Full Moon Party on the southern island of Koh Pha-Ngan.
Police officials said that the local Thai suspect, Tiwat Kasemchoke, had confessed to killing Astrid Al-Assaad Schachner, from Munich, on Saturday night because she had allegedly been stalking him.
“She had humiliated me. She often told other foreigners that I fell for her and tried to rape her several times, which is not true,” Tiwat claimed, “It’s she who wanted to be in a relationship”.
Police summoned Tiwat for questioning since Sunday’s night because the German tourist was last seen alive in his company.
“I’d planned to kill her. So, I invited her to a party at a shop where I’ve been working,” Tiwat said, “Then, I suggested that we walked to a beach together. That’s where I punched and strangled her”.
Tiwat Kasemchoke, 29, is now in police detention.
The body of the 46-year-old woman was discovered on Sunday morning on Pha Ngan Island after she headed to a beach late on Saturday for the party, local police Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Nhurod said.
The woman’s body, dressed in just a pair of shorts, was found on a beach near Ban Thongsala about 11am yesterday. Forensic officers said the victim was probably killed about eight hours before her body was found.
‘There were some bruises on her left cheek and right hands, but those marks are not likely the cause of death. There was also no sign of rape,’ Lt Col Somsak said.
‘We suspect she might have been murdered somewhere else because her top half was naked but there were no signs of fighting at the spot her body was found or of her clothes,’ he added.
Police named the victim as Astrid Al-Assaad Schachner but the German embassy in Bangkok was unable to confirm the identity of the woman or release any details of the case.
The German woman had come to Pha Ngan last month to take a course in tattoo art, Col Somsak said, adding that she was last seen at a party on Saturday night.
Somsak said the suspect – Tiwat Kasempoch – worked at a tattoo parlor where the victim was also seen on Saturday night.
Ms Al-Assaad-Schachner, 46, was a regular visitor to Thailand last year, sometimes staying for several weeks to join in the monthly parties to celebrate the arrival of the full moon.
Pha Ngan’s heady parties are famous among backpackers and tourists. Each month the 24-hour beach parties, known for their wild mixture of drink and drugs, attract as many as 10,000 people and are nearly always followed by reports of criminal activity, ranging from theft and drug abuse to rape and murder.
Despite its reputation as a holiday paradise, Koh Phangan Paradise Island has seen a series of tourist murders in recent years, including the killing of an Indian tourist in March 2008, the murder of the Israeli tourist in April 2007 and also the still missing British tourist Danny Hall, 36, who disappeared during April 2008 while staying on Koh Phangan Island.
Koh Phangan police chief Jaroon Uchupap said he was concerned this additional murder could seriously damage the reputation of Koh Phangan, a popular tourist spot, especially famous for the infamous Full Moon Parties at Hadrin Beach.
Another day another murder!! this stuff aint gonna stop. It has been going on for years but its only really starting to get noticed and reported as more and more people are going there!! shame as it was , is and always will be a great island. its now just full of too many fuck ups that are literally killing the island (no pun intended)!!
same day same sh.. since 21 years , kiteborder 30something is dead in chaloklamy , so what? sorry wrong time wrong place can happen everywhere,, so cool it ….
love mike
kpg is as safe as every other place in the world….
well to say the truth i knew astrid quite well, we had contact and planned a trip by car from germany to india together and im shocked to hear that she was murdered. i know one thing for sure, she would never ever start a relationship or try to start a relationship with a thai guy whatsoever. so the whole “she stalked me for a relationship”is some crappy explanation for the guys intentions why he killed her. them drugs do no good over there and especially that crappy yaa baa how they call it fucks you up big time. getting paranoied is just one of the symptoms. shes just a victim of another drug abuser, and i hope that he will never get out of bangkok hilton again (and so all of his so called collegues)
There happens to be some one murdered here, and I dont know how you were brought up but you have no class, manners, decorum or sensitivity. This poor woman’s friends and family will probably see this site and would be devastated to see what is written by SCUM. People like you have ruined this wonderful island and people. I am moritifed to see what has happened to what was paradise in the name of so called progression and modernisation shame on you and your disgusting tongue
i wonder if you have read what i wrote. i am a friend of astrid and im shocked what happened and that im in grief. and i also said that i KNOW she will never ever try to get arelationship with a thai I SAY THAT BECAUSE I KNOW HER QUITE WELL so further more i say that the explanation why the thai did kill her (BECAUSE SHE STALKED ME AND WANTED A RELATIONSHIP WITH ME) cannot be true. HOWEVER IM JUST SAYING THAT THERES MORE THAN JUST A MURDER BECAUSE OF RELATIONSHIPS.
Sorry to see yet another incident on KPG… May the women killed R.I.P
To the people who say wrong place, wrong time… surely this is the case with all murders? is it not?
As for KPG, we’re not talking a place the size of a city here!!! Its a small island, especially if you concentrated all of the “habitable” – “live-in’able” areas down and took away all the mountains and inner KPG, your not left with a very big area at all, so taking this into account, even with the large’ish numbers in the FMP, A LOT DOES CERTAINLY GO ON IN SUCH A SMALL PLACE…
As for testimonies of the guy arrested… they may be true, but to be honest how the hell can you believe it as “we” all know the Police on KPG make a lot of stuff up… If the KPG police we’re PROPER police, some degree of fact could be got out of it and no doubt KPG would be a safer place and there wouldnt be so many unaswered questions in the minds of these poor friends/parents,familes of people getting caught up in these acts.
May everyone have a good new year and again my condolences to the friends and families of this women.
PATIHAN……….
Firstly, I am very sorry for Astrid and now her family and friends. God bless her. Secondly, I met and spoke with Astrid on more than one occasion this year. She told me that although she liked the tattoo artist she did not want to start a relationship with him because she thought it would only lead to problems. She did not make up stories about him abusing her. This conversation was held once and she certainly did not seem obssessed with him. Besides, whatever the interest from either party, this is no reason for her death. I hope her friends and family find a way though this tradegy.
You are full of crap…
Are you sure that you knew her so well?!?
Anyway, respecting the Thai Buddhist custom, I will not talk bad about the deceased, at least right now…
You know what? Astrid travelled the world most of the times alone, she did amazing travels by car from germany to india ALONE. she knew how people are and she knew all to well that farang-thai relationships are not to last so she never startet something like that. I just want to make sure that people also see the other side, not just that crappy cofession that guy made, however may she rest in peace and lets keep her in mind as the nice lady she was.
With thoughtless comments like yours I think you should read the page on KARMA in whatever book you’ve been reading on Buddhism…. What goes around comes around baby 🙂
Sort yourself out!
PATIHAN
what goes around comes around? for fucks sakes noone deserves to die like this. did you know her so well to be able to say something stupid like that?
You’ve taken my comment comletely the wrong way! read it again… I think all this thread should stop anyway, little out of hand considering the title and reason for the thread…. PATIHAN
because this is not the point……………………!
What is your intension writing or asking this???
grow up you bunch of self centered pricks, this is about yet another murder on the island and all you twats are going on about who has the best knowledge of what karma is and isnt!! well as it stands none of you have any karma as your deflecting the real issue here into your petty school boy squalbble!! jit men!!
righteous righteous
es gibt ja schon richtige ARSCHLOECHER,
Just FUCK YOU GUYS!!!
A good friend of mine is Dead, and some BRAINLES Idiots put such a chrap shit iside this site!
Astrid was a wounderfull full-power women!
and now ONE can wright something bad now about her!! This Thai-Bastard KIILLED her!!! So have RESPECT, and stop to put STUPID comments in here!!! SHES DEAD!!!
D.D
endlich sagt mal jemand was. ich hab schon die ganze zeit versucht deutlich zu machen das die nicht ganz dicht sind
(and for our multinational friends finally someone is saying something about it, i tried already to tell them that they are stupid)
erst mal mein beileid, ich kannte astrid auch, die frau war ueberall auf der welt zu hause, hat viele phantastische reisen gemacht und das dann auch allein, und dann kommt sie hier hin und wirde von so nem psychothai umgebracht der sich im nachhinein beim staat entschuldigt, fuer die image beule die er dem land zugefuegt hat und sich aber nicht entschuldigt bei der familie von astrid. was fuer ein arschloch!
( and a again: first my condoleances i knew astrid as well. she felt at home almost everywhere, travelled the whole globe, most of the times alone, and hen she comes here and gets killed by some psycho thai which says sorry to the country but not to the family of astrid, what an arsehole)
MAY HE ROT IN HELL
First my condolenes to famely and friends.
I do not want do disrespect this woman, but to all of you who wright that she woud never do this and do that.
I was at that party at the tattoo shop that night with my Thai wife and my english friend.
Esept from Astrid we were the only farang there, so dont tell me that she dident know the pepol there.
My wife was talking to Astrid fore to first time, we seen her before but never got to talk to her, she lovede the partys here, and one thing is fore shure, she knew thise gues very well, she knew every body at the shop she was there a lot.
May she rest in peace
of course she knew the tattoo shop guys she wanted to work there
of course?
she didn’t know the guys at the tattoo shop.
She is gone.
my condolences to the family & friends
She did know them you moron.She was learning how to bambo Tattoo from them so she could open a shop back home.Better you stick your head back up your arse.FUCKING MORon
maybe he is using a oxymoron,you can read it,but with your very polite comment you show that you have no idea.
take care & cu
Why are you all being arseholes to each other!!!!!!! You want to chill the fuck out!
PATIHAN
so many was happening > very quiet
now a german lady was killed > very buisy!
the germans are different?
where is the difference?
writing a polite comment > or do something different!
just krauts, u know?
Another lost life, another sad story from Koh Phangan.
I fell in love with this little island over ten years ago now and the natural beauty, the memory of first seeing the mountains, the tree’s, Bottle Beach in its virgin years, still acts as a driving force in my everyday life in the UK.
Some say once you have spent time on KPG a little piece of your heart will remain. Unfortunately it seems that more recently more and more people are losing their life there or it’s simply finally coming to the attention of the world.
Any life lost is sad and this just becomes another statistic on the island but a harsh reality for another family far far away who probably can’t conceive their baby is never coming home!!
What’s the answer? Stay away from all drugs? Stay away from the thai’s??
It seems back in the late 90’s the weed smoking community of the the ‘long termers’ as they were known did little to disrupt island life, didn’t have cash to flash or appear to have cash for the Thai’s to crave.
Westernisation and the dream of an enriched life seems to have prevailed here…
Stay in bungalows that are big and have lots of other people staying there?
Stay away from Hadrin?
I don’t know the answers, I wish I did.
I know that I have spent some good times with Thai friends in homes on KPG. I have also been sat in a room with Kilo’s of green around me wondering what the hell I was doing there at that time…
Life is short enough, this thread is long enough, maybe I only wanted to say I was sorry for this young woman Astrid….x
i met astrid in bangkok and she struck me as a beautiful person with a passion for travel and life. We had a long conversation about mixed culture relationships (i am married to a indian man) she told me that she never got involved with locals and i believe her. I have just heard this terrible news and feel so sad that her life has been cut short when she had so much to look forward to. Even though we only met for two days, i will never forget Astrid. R.I.P
thanks for these words. she made this impression in anyone who met her and was interested enough to listen. about the relationship theory i still dont believe it and maybe well never hear the truth, but i hope that even if this means trouble for the touristindustry, she will not be forgotten or worse , criminalized as seen so often
someone should just go out and kill those fucking tatoo guys. we all know that these guys are drugies. that’s what they deserve!!
I agre the tattoo guys aren’t a good crowd of people….
From interaction with some of them over the years i would say farang are vulnerable to the bad Thai folk on KPG that can speak such good English.
Lets face it there are many many Thais on KPG that are part of the beauty of KPG, some interact with Farangs freely others are shy or just can’t hold the conversation that the ‘bad’ thai’s have learnt to speak….
R.I.P astrid terrible news! A kpg local would never do something like this! As tourism grows on the island you will see more other thai’s relocating to try and find work as has happened on samui! And im sure we will see a rise in violent crime, says on here these guys from phuket where violent crime a lot more common place!
Does anybody know something about the autopsy in “Capital Bangkok”?.
I would like to know, but maybe already toooo… old stuff!
Life is going too fast! >>>> “Let’s party….”
Zuerst das Geschaeft…. >>>>>>>>…..
nothing heard so far
das geschaeft laeuft also
I can’t find a decent picture of Tiwat Kasemchoke, can anyone tell me, does this guy have a tattoo of a heart with wings on his neck. Because I knew a guy with that tattoo who worked at the tattoo club, and I’m just hoping it’s not him, although it kind of looks like him in the photos I’ve seen. Thanks for any help