Police searched yesterday for the suspected killer of a 21-year-old British woman whose beaten body was found in the sea near a popular resort island.
A jet skier on Monday morning discovered the body of Katherine Horton, 21, still wearing an evening dress, in the sea near Lamai beach on the southeast coast of Koh Samui.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Dr Pattana Kitkailart, who performed the autopsy on Horton's body in Bangkok, said she drowned and had been hit on the head and body.
"We hope to get the killer very soon," said police Lieutenant Colonel Thanongsak Aksornsom of the Koh Samui police station.
He said there was no evidence of rape as had earlier been speculated and it appeared that a single person killed Horton, of Cardiff, Wales. She was strolling alone on the beach when she disappeared, he said.
Thanongsak said police have interviewed a dozen Thai men and foreigners, but so far have not issued any arrest warrants.
"The national and local police are launching an all-out effort to conclude the case and get the killer in this important case as soon as possible," said police Major Warawej Winitnetayanonda, chief of Surat Thani provincial police where Koh Samui is located.
Meanwhile, police were also searching yesterday for a missing Brazilian model separated from her friends two days ago and reportedly last seen boarding a ferry to Koh Samui with unidentified Thai men.
The Brazilian model, 22-year-old Talipa Rosini, was returning to Bangkok on Tuesday with a group of friends after visiting the island of Phanang in the Gulf of Thailand, police said.
They had stopped for a meal in the southern town of Surat Thani when Rosini went missing and her friends notified police.
"She disappeared on the night of Jan. 3 after she separated from her friends and went to a convenience store," Surat Thani provincial police commander Colonel Prasit Sriwattanapong said.
"She never returned, but witnesses said they saw her she get into a pickup truck with two Thai men without being forced," he said.
"She's very friendly and easy to talk to and makes friends with people. She was last seen taking a ferry to Samui, and she said that she wanted to visit a friend there," Prasit said.
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