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Police in Laos have arrested three more staff members from a hostel believed to be the source of suspected methanol poisoning that killed Melbourne best friends Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones.
The new arrests came as the mother of British lawyer Simone White, who died along with three other tourists in the same series of suspected poisonings, spoke publicly for the first time.
She recounted the call that convinced her her daughter was going to die and the “horrific” moment she saw the 28-year-old in hospital.
9News understands that at least 11 employees from the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng have already been detained as part of investigations into potentially tainted drinks.
The bodies of Bowles and Jones, who died in a Thai hospital hours apart last month, have since been returned to Australia.
American James Lewis Hutson, 57, British lawyer Simon White, 28, and Danes Anne-Sophie Orkild Koiman, 20, and Frela Vennerwald Sørensen, 21, were named as the four other tourists who died.
A third Australian was later confirmed to have fallen ill but was last known to be recovering in hospital in a stable condition.
In an interview over the weekend, Sue White recounted the whole tragic experience when Simon fell ill after drinking six glasses of vodka with two friends at Nana’s and ended up dying nine days later.
She told Britain’s Sunday Times about the first message from Simone’s friends that they were all in hospital, until the “terrible, terrible trip” to Southeast Asia.
Sue said the three friends, one of whom lived in Australia, woke up with headaches but they got worse during the day.
They ended up taking a taxi to the government hospital in Vang Vieng and one of the friends sent Xu a message.
“I don’t want to worry you, but we’re all in hospital and they think it’s acidosis. Simone is the most affected of all of us, but she doesn’t feel too bad. I’ll keep you posted,” the message read, according to the Times.
Sue wasn’t “overly worried” at first, but a later phone call informing her that Simone was in a critical condition changed everything.
“I knew when I got that phone call — I don’t know what it was, call it a mother’s intuition — but I knew she was going to die,” she said.
Sue described the moment she saw her daughter, unconscious, with “beautiful” blonde hair shaved off, being transported from intensive care to an operating room at a better-equipped hospital in the Lao capital Vientiane as “absolutely terrifying”.
“Before I left, I got a call from the hospital to say he needed emergency brain surgery and I had to give my consent,” she said.
“I had to go through the whole flight thinking she was going through brain surgery. It was a terrible, terrible trip.’
The source of the deadly outbreak is believed to be a dilapidated factory outside Vientiane that produced Tiger Vodka and Tiger Whisky.
The factory was ordered to close and the owner was arrested.
Laos banned the sale and consumption of Tiger Vodka and Tiger Whiskey after the tourists’ deaths.
SmartTraveller warned Australians in Laos to avoid consuming the products due to “serious safety concerns”.
Investigations are ongoing.
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