Thai island horror: 7 tourists killed, body eaten by lizards

(AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

A young Belgium backpacker has become the seventh tourist found dead in Thailand’s Koh Tao in the last three years.

Elise Dallemange, 30, was found in the jungle on April 28 having been half-eaten by lizards – with police claiming she had hanged herself.

Elise’s devastated mother Michele van Egten has now revealed she does not believe the police account of events – as Elise is the seventh tourist death in three years on the tiny island now dubbed as “murder island”.

Michele said: “I do not believe what the police have told us. We fear somebody else was involved.

“We’re more and more thinking that the police information is not the right explanation.”

The devastated mum told Der Farang magazine that she has still not been delivered an autopsy report which she was promised.

An officer from Koh Tao police said there were no questions to answer regarding Elise’s death.

The policeman, who would not elaborate, said: ”This news is so old already, it has been misunderstood. There is no more to say.”

Elise had been living at a yoga and tantra retreat on neighbouring full-moon party island Koh Phangan in between travelling around Asia for the last two years.

Phone records show that Elise, had a degree in medicine from the European Institute Of Medicine Natural in Brussels, called her mother on Skype on April 17 and was planning to return to Belgium.

She left on a Ferry April 19 – but it is not known why she alighted on Koh Tao instead of continuing on to the mainland.

Michele has claimed her daughter used a fake name of ”Elise Dubuis” to check into the Triple B Bungalows next to Mae Head Pier on Koh Tao as she travelled via the island on a ferry bound for Chumphon province on her route back to capital Bangkok.

An unexplained fire that evening burned down three bamboo huts – including the one Elise had been staying in.

Elise fled 2.5km to through the jungle to Tanote Bay and took a room at the Poseidon Resort where she booked another ticket for Bangkok leaving on April 24.

Eight days later when locals living near the island’s idyllic Tanote Bay became suspicious of a monitor lizard going back and fourth into the jungle they discovered Elise’s half-eaten body among rocks behind the Tanote Family Bay Resort.

Police told Elise’s mother Michele that her daughter had committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree around three days before she was found.

However no suicide note or message were recovered and Michele is desperate for information surrounding the mysterious death.

Click for more from The Sun.