Another tourist turns up dead on Koh Tao as family of Elise Dallemange doubts police account

POLICE say Elise Dallemange fled into the jungle and took her own life. Others say she was eaten by lizards. WARNING: Graphic.

WARNING: Graphic

THAI police have been forced to reinvestigate the case of a young Belgian backpacker who became the seventh tourist found dead on Thailand’s Koh Tao island in the last three years.

Elise Dallemange, 30, was found in the jungle on April 28 “partially eaten by animals, wrapped in T-shirts”, according to local reports.

It is believed she died after having been half-eaten by lizards — with police claiming she’d taken her own life.

The island of Koh Tao, otherwise known as Turtle Island, is a scuba diver’s dream, and thanks to Sairee Beach, on the west coast of this Thai island, tourism has flourished in recent years.

But behind the beauty lies a macabre secret where local mafia allegedly rule, backpackers flock to party and, according to one report, there are “enough deaths and suspicious disappearances to warrant the island its own CSI franchise”.

One local newspaper, The Samui Times, reported the island has been dubbed “Death Island” amid wild speculation regarding the cause of recent tourist deaths.

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 “murder island” following a spate of bizarre and gruesome deaths that families fear are being covered up by authorities.

Elise’s mum 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.”

Police say Elise fled into the jungle after her holiday hut burned down in April. Picture: Facebook

Elise’s mother says she does not believe her beautiful daughter took her own life. Picture: Facebook

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.”

Her body was cremated at the Belgian embassy in Bangkok in the “presence of embassy staff”, according to the Koh Tao police chief.

But after news of Elise’s death spread across social media, Deputy Surat Thani police chief Pol Col Preecha Kladsawad “directed investigators of Koh Tao police station to reopen the investigation”, according to the Bangkok Post.

The Post credited mainstream media outlets for its coverage in forcing police to reopen the case.

News.com.au has been in touch with locals and experts on the island.

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, who had a degree in medicine from the European Institute Of

‘DEATH ISLAND’: IS A SERIAL KILLER STALKING TOURISTS?

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. Police blame a candle that was likely in her room but did not collect any evidence after the fact because the owner of the resort would not file a complaint.

Elise fled 2.5km 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.

The young Belgian had been living at a yoga retreat on a neighbouring party island. Picture: Facebook

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 reportedly discovered Elise’s half-eaten body on May 27 among rocks behind the Tanote Family Bay Resort.

Police told Elise’s mother Michele that her daughter had committed suicide about three days before she was found and denied her body ever being eaten by animals or wrapped up.

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

Koh Tao police chief Pol Lt Col Chokchai Sutthimek on Thursday confirmed the tourist’s death but said Elise was “found with a rope tied to her neck from a tree in the jungle and evidence showed that she could have died between April 23-24”.

Michele said she had never been shown pictures of her daughter where police claim she was found — normal practice for officers and rescue workers to photograph the scene.

She is now working with a German investigator to trace locals who discovered Elise’s corpse to confirm exactly where her body was found.

Her body was reportedly sent to Surat Thani Hospital and the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Police General Hospital in Bangkok for an autopsy.

The coroner reported her cause of death was suffocation from lack of oxygen.

Koh Tao is breathtakingly beautiful, but reportedly controlled by a local mafia.

Michele is also looking for answers from the German cult guru Raaman Andreas, whom she claims left the island of Koh Phangan when she visited in May to retrace her daughter’s footsteps.

She added: “We were told by police in Koh Tao that they have no jurisdiction on the neighbouring island Koh Phangan, so a lot of questions have not been investigated.”

The island was plunged into the spotlight when the semi-naked bodies of backpackers Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found on a beach. Witheridge was raped before she was murdered.

Adventure seekers rejoice in its spectacular underwater worlds, clear turquoise water and lush jungles, located in the Gulf of Thailand near the party islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Samui.

If you or someone you know is in need of crisis or suicide prevention support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au/gethelp

At least three tourists have died there in recent years. The original version of this story originally appeared in The Sun and is republished with permission. The latest statistics of Australian overseas incidents