Police near the notorious Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in northwestern Laos are investigating the cause of death for a 24-year-old woman whose body was discovered five days after surveillance video showed her climbing into a car in front of a nightclub.
The video also showed an unidentified man getting into the car on Dec. 23, according to an official in Bokeo Province’s Ton Pheung District, who like all other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons.
The body of Phanadda Inmaytha was found floating in the Mekong River several kilometers away on Dec. 28, the official said.
“We now know only that the woman must’ve been drunk at a bar there,” the Ton Pheung District official told Radio Free Asia. “Then, a large man took her into a car.”
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, or SEZ, is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens that has been described as a lawless, de-facto Chinese colony where Lao police have virtually no control.
It has become a haven for criminal activities, including prostitution, online scamming, money laundering, drug trafficking and human and wildlife trafficking by organized criminal networks.
Similar case from 2022
Authorities took the body from the river to the SEZ, and relatives arrived later to claim it, a member of Bokeo Province’s rescue team said. They haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the woman’s death, he said.
A Bokeo provincial police officer said the case is still under investigation and no other information was available.
A lawyer in Bokeo province told RFA that Phanadda Inmaytha’s case reminds him of the 2022 discovery of a suitcase in the Mekong River that contained the dismembered body of a 36-year-old businesswoman.
Viphaphone Kongsy was a dual citizen of Laos and China and had been missing for more than two weeks. Soon after, the Lao Ministry of Public Security set up a special committee to investigate, but has never released any statements or information about evidence.
“It’s been quiet since then,” the lawyer said. “The authorities swept that case under the rug, and they shouldn’t sweep the new case under the rug either.”
A close friend of Phanadda Inmaytha said she had lived and worked in Vientiane until recently.
“I’m calling on the Lao authorities to arrest the suspect as soon as possible,” the friend said. “This murder is the talk of the town and is affecting family and many friends of hers.”
Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.