Six dead, including an Oakland resident, in apparent cyanide poisoning in Thai hotel

According to reports, six people, including a woman from California, died under mysterious circumstances on Monday in what appeared to be a massive cyanide poisoning at a Thai hotel.

Two of the dead were Americans, including an Oakland resident, while the other four were Vietnamese, police officials in Bangkok told the Washington Post.

The group was found dead in Room 502 of the Grand Hyatt Erawan, where a complete meal was left untouched on the table and police found empty cups with traces of cyanide in them, reports said.

Only the Oakland woman, Sherine Chong, was in the room that day when hotel staff brought tea and food to the room around 2 p.m. Monday, police said. The five others entered the room later.

In this photo released by the Royal Thai Police, uneaten meals are seen on a table in a room at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel where six people were found dead of unknown causes. Police said the dead were two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals, and speculated they may have died of poisoning.

(Royal Thai Police via Associated Press)

A housekeeper later found the bodies after they failed to check out on Tuesday. Two of the bodies were in a bedroom, the other four in a living room, police said.

In a photo of the scene, showing food on the table in the hotel room, one of the victim’s legs can be seen on the floor.

According to the Associated Press, the head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine said cyanide was found in the blood of all six.

A married couple who were among the dead, along with two others, had invested more than $250,000. According to Noppasin Punsawat, Bangkok’s deputy police chief, police are investigating this as a possible motive for the killings.