Do Not Disturb

0:00Today's story has a very surprising ending, and I do sort of tip off what actually happens early-ish on in the story, but I'd be very surprised if people actually pick up on it and put it together before I reveal what actually happened at the end of the story. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays. So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to make the follow button a nice fresh bowl of oatmeal.

0:32Except don't use milk, use glue. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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1:49Early on the evening of June 12, 2012, a 25-year-old woman named Noemi Belanger opened up the door to her hotel room on Phi Phi Island, which is a major tourist destination in Thailand. Once the door was unlocked, Noemi pushed it open, and she held it for her little sister, 20-year-old Audrey, who came in wheeling all their suitcases. Noemi and Audrey were both from Quebec, Canada, and they were also both college students, and they were on this big, month-long vacation to celebrate the end of the school year. They had been in Vietnam for the past three weeks, and today they had arrived in Thailand, and their plan was to stay here for a bit before finally heading back to Quebec.

2:26But for right now, Noemi in particular was feeling really exhausted. I mean, there was a lot of travel getting here today, and, you know, the past three weeks had been loads of travel, and Noemi was kind of hitting a wall. And so as soon as she got into the room, all she really wanted to do was just flop down on the bed and just lay there for a little while. But she had also become a fairly experienced traveler by this point, and she knew before she did that, she just wanted to make sure that, you know, the bed was cleanly, you know? I mean, make sure there were no bed bugs or, you know, unclean sheets or something.

2:56and so she went over and pulled the sheets back and checked, and the sheets were pristine. It was beautiful. The room felt super nice. And so she just flopped down to the bed and just enjoyed the air conditioning. And at the same time that she was doing this, Andre, who very likely was also feeling all the, you know, the symptoms of travel over so many weeks, I mean, she likely was very, very tired, but she, instead of laying down, went right into the bathroom and started getting ready for the night. And Noemi sort of understood why. So while the girls were in Vietnam, they had met these two really nice guys who were from Brazil, and they had kind of hit it off.

3:31And, you know, they had left today to go to Thailand. And wouldn't you know it, it turned out those guys, their itinerary included them coming to Thailand today. And so it was kind of like this revelation at the end of their time in Vietnam that they would not have to say goodbye basically forever. But instead, you know, the good times could keep on rolling in Thailand. And so the plan was, that night, they would meet up with these two guys, these Brazilian guys, out on the beach, and basically party with them and just have a fun night. Now, Noemi was looking forward to this night out with these two guys, but she also had a little bit of apprehension about it.

4:05I mean, these guys were perfectly nice, and she and her sister had spent time with them in Vietnam, and really, things had been fine. But, you know, Noemi felt like Audrey was a little bit more naive and sort of, like, easier to be taken advantage of than she was. I mean, she was younger than her by five years. And also, when the sisters had gone on this trip, their parents had been really apprehensive about, you know, two young women traveling alone together all over the world. I mean, they were sort of vulnerable. And so the way Noemi had sort of played it to her parents is, you know, don't worry, I'm the big sister.

4:36I'll keep my eye on Audrey. She'll be fine. And Audrey kind of played the role of younger sister and was like, yep, I'll do what my big sister says. And so Noemi sort of felt like she had a responsibility to keep Audrey safe. And so she was feeling a bit apprehensive about whatever they were going to do that night with these guys. It just sort of seemed like things were sort of moving quickly with these two guys, you know. They should have maybe just stopped in Vietnam, but they're here. And so who knows what was going to happen. And so Noemi, as she's laying there and Andre's getting ready, Noemi decides to just give her parents a call.

5:05Because one of the things Noemi had been doing over the past several weeks they'd been on this big vacation is sort of constantly updating her parents to assuage their concerns that anything was wrong, you know, with their two kids. you know, Noemi wanted her parents to see that she was doing everything she could, you know, to keep her and her sister safe. And so she pulled out her phone and she was about to call her parents when suddenly Audrey appeared from the bathroom and said, stop. And she told her like, hey, remember it's evening for us, but back home in Canada, it's the middle of the night.

5:35So you're going to be waking them up and they're going to have loads of questions. Like, why are you calling in the middle of the night? And probably you're going to have to tell them about, you know, how we're going out tonight with these two guys. And they're going to worry, like, don't do that. spare them. We will talk to them tomorrow. They don't need to know what we're doing tonight. Everything is fine. And Noemi was thinking, you know what? She's right. This is a bad time to call. Noemi actually forgot, you know, the time change was so significant. And she also, you know, wasn't sure what she would say to her parents about, you know, going out with these two guys because it would raise some red flags.

6:04And so Noemi put her phone down and decided, you know what? Tonight's going to be just fine. I just got to let things go. And so she actually climbed off the bed and she joined her sister in the bathroom and began also getting ready for their big night out. A little bit later, Noemi and Andre left their hotel room and they headed out to the beach. And sure enough, there right outside of a beachfront bar were the two Brazilian guys they were meeting up with that night. And as the two girls approached, they saw that each of these guys were holding these big buckets. They almost looked like, you know, a toy that a child would use on the sand, you know, to fill it up and make a sandcastle with.

6:38Like a big, you know, beach bucket. And, you know, the girls, as they're walking over, they're wondering what these buckets were for. and they thought it was maybe like some joke these guys were going to play or they didn't know what. But as they got closer, they realized that these buckets these guys were holding were filled to the brim with ice and liquid. There was some sort of drink in these buckets. And so the girls walked up to them and they said hello. And very quickly, the conversation turned to these big drinks they were holding. And Noemi and Andre were like, what are those? And the guys told them, these are like these amazing cocktails that you can only get in this part of the world.

7:12The girls asked, you know, like, well, what is it? What's inside of the drink? What makes it so special? And the guys kind of looked at each other and laughed, and they're like, I don't know, just try it. It's really good. It'll make you feel great. Now, Noemi, being the sort of more responsible one, did not immediately begin drinking either of these drinks. Instead, she sort of paused and thought about it, but Audrey, on the other hand, was totally sold. She reached forward, grabbed one of the buckets, and just began chugging this drink. And so Noemi's looking at her like, come on, like, you can't just jump into this.

7:41We don't know what this stuff is. But, you know, after a couple of chugs, Audrey lowered the bucket and looked at her sister and she just grinned and she handed it back to her guy. And then she told Noemi, like, these taste great. This is awesome. Like, you got to try it. Loosen up. And so at this point, Noemi, you know, she's considering the situation. You know, they were in Vietnam with these guys and these guys were out partying with them. They were drinking with them and, you know, they seemed perfectly trustworthy and they were clearly drinking from these buckets and it didn't seem nefarious.

8:09And also, Noemi looked around the beach and suddenly realized that basically everybody had these big buckets, you know? This was not just these two guys. Everybody's drinking this thing. And so Noemi's thinking, okay, well, if they think it's okay and it's sort of normal, you know, in this part of the world, then it's got to be okay. And so she reached forward, grabbed the other bucket from the other guy, and took a big sip.

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12:14The End

12:33a great time. You know, by this point, they had jumped in the ocean and gone swimming. They had eaten a ton of local food. And Noemi had lost count of how many of these big bucket drinks they had all consumed together. But they were really just having a blast. I mean, Noemi's vision was a bit blurry and she was kind of stumbling and she'd look over at Audrey and she was kind of in the same state, you know, as were the two guys they were with. I mean, they're buzzed. They're having a great time. And so the two girls and their guys are just out there dancing, doing their thing. It's about 1 a.m.

13:02at this point. And Noemi's guy says to her, hey, do you want to head back to the hotel room together? And Noemi's like, yeah, let's go back. But hold on. I want to talk to my sister first. And so Noemi kind of stumbles her way over to Audrey, who's in the middle of this big dance routine with her guy. And she stops Audrey and she whips around. And Audrey's all smiles too. And Noemi's like, hey, do you want to go back to the hotel room? We're going back now. Do you want to come? And Audrey's like, no, I want to stay here. I'm having too much fun. This is awesome. We're just going to keep on dancing.

13:31You guys should stay too. But Noemi was like, no, I got to go. You know, we're going to go back. So you sure you want to stay? And Andre was like, yeah, we'll stay. We'll see you at the hotel soon. Now, typically Noemi and her sister really rarely separated, especially when they were out drinking and partying, you know, because of all the inherent risks of being alone at night, potentially intoxicated. And so, you know, this was kind of a rare thing for her to break away from her sister and separate. But it just seemed like this was okay. It was safe. And you know, these guys they were with, they really seemed like stand-up guys.

14:03And again, they were just having a blast here. And Noemi didn't really want to stop her from having a good time. And so ultimately, she did say bye to her sister and said she'd see her soon. Noemi turned. And with her guy, she headed back to the hotel. And Audrey kept on dancing with her guy in front of the beach bar.

14:22Three days later, on the evening of June 15th, a member of the housekeeping staff at the hotel where Noemi and Audrey were staying walked up to the girl's room and they knocked. And like it had been the past two days, they didn't get a response. Because over the past couple of days, the housekeeping staff had not seen anybody come in or out of this room. And now it had gotten to the point where they really had to get in there to clean the room. And basically, if they didn't get a response, this staff member was going to have to unlock the door and just go in there. And so one more time, they knocked on the door and called out, you know, housekeeping, you know, just in case somebody was in there.

14:57But again, there was silence. So the staff member put their card into the door. They unlocked it. They opened it up and stepped inside. And seconds later, that staff member was literally running out of the hotel room, screaming for help. At 9 p.m. that night, a team of police officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Rat Sombun, arrived at the hotel room. Sam Boon was an experienced police officer, and he'd already been briefed on what was found inside the hotel room. So when he and his team walked inside and saw it for themselves, he wasn't shocked. When they got in there, they found two women inside.

15:35It was Noemi and Audrey Ballanger. And both of them were lying in their respective beds, tucked up in their sheets, lying perfectly still, and each of them was completely surrounded by vomit. Sombun estimated that these two women had been dead for between 12 and 20 hours, and his first theory as to what might have killed them was alcohol poisoning. I mean, that would explain the vomit, this was also a big tourist destination, and clearly these people were tourists, and so maybe they were out partying, and they died from alcohol poisoning. However, when Sombun looked more closely at the bodies, he noticed a confounding detail.

16:10There was all this dried blood on the girls' gums and also under their fingernails, And so that was not consistent with alcohol poisoning. And so Sam Boon thought, okay, well, you know, maybe the reason they have blood in these parts of their body is because those are defensive injuries. You know, maybe somebody attacked these girls and that's how they've been killed. But after doing a cursory check around the hotel room, there was no sign of a struggle or any sort of break-in or anything like that. And so, you know, if there had been some sort of lethal struggle in here, it certainly didn't show.

16:42And so, Sambun and his team really didn't have any idea what had happened here. I mean, they had some ideas, but clearly, they needed more information. Specifically, they needed to do an autopsy and a full toxicology report on both women. That would be the only way to really see what happened here. But that would take time. And so while they waited for those results to come in, Sambun decided that what he would focus on instead is trying to figure out what these girls were doing in the hours before they died. You know, where were they? What did they eat? what did they drink, and who were they with.

17:16Over the next couple of days, Sam Boon and his team interviewed several of the hotel staff. And from those interviews, they learned that Audrey and Noemi were visiting Thailand from Canada. And on the first night they were here, the two women went out early in the evening, and then one of them came back with some guy, some unidentified man, at 1 a.m. They came back to the hotel. And then at 4 a.m., the other girl came back to the hotel, also with an unidentified man. And so there are Noemi and Audrey and these two unidentified men that are in the hotel room presumably from 4am until 6am when both of these unidentified men left the hotel room together and the two girls were presumably left inside the hotel room.

17:58Lieutenant Sombun reviewed some security footage from the hotel which confirmed this entire timeline was correct, which meant Sombun really needed to speak to these two unidentified men because they clearly were the last ones to see these girls alive. And so the police department put out an announcement about Noemi and Andre's deaths, as well as a public call for help in identifying these two unidentified men. And shortly after making this announcement, the police learned that these two men were Brazilian, and unfortunately, they had already left Thailand on their way back to Brazil. And so obviously Brazil is outside of its jurisdiction, and so he had to appeal to Interpol, which is an international police organization, and appeal to them to find these two Brazilian men and interview them.

18:44About a week later, Sambun finally got a call from Interpol. They had found these two men and they had interviewed them. And they told Sambun that when they informed these two guys that Noemi and Audrey had died, the two men seemed genuinely shocked. And then when they were asked, why were you so quickly on a flight out of Thailand back to Brazil, they said, no, no, no, no, no. There's nothing suspicious about it. We already had booked those tickets way in advance. We just got on the flight and left. There's nothing more to it. And so Interpol said they continued to press these guys and asked them, you know, hey, you were the last ones who were with these girls before they died.

19:18Tell us about their condition. Tell us how you left them when you left the hotel at 6 a.m. And the two guys, they said, look, like, they did seem like maybe they were already hungover or sort of sick from, you know, partying the night before. They definitely did seem a little bit down, but they were basically fine. However, Interpol said it was fairly interesting that the two men did admit that following their night out with Noemi and Andre, that the next two days, they were stuck in bed themselves, totally sick, vomiting, ill. They didn't know what from, but they said they were very, very sick following their encounter with these two girls.

19:53Sambun thanked the Interpol officer and then hung up. And even though Son Boon couldn't help but feel still pretty suspicious of these two Brazilian guys, he now was thinking, okay, well, if they said they got really sick after, you know, spending time with Noemi and Audrey, maybe what happened here is, you know, all four of them got sick with something, some illness, and the guys survived it and the girls didn't. And so Son Boon began to think of, you know, what type of illnesses could they have contracted? And the first thing that Sanbun began to think about that could have been an illness that all four of these tourists could have contracted was food poisoning.

20:28You know, tourists come to Thailand and try the local food, and sometimes it makes them really, really sick. In particular, there were two types of food in Thailand that were sort of notorious for giving tourists the worst food poisoning. One of them was a particular type of mushroom, and another was blowfish. And these two items, if your body reacted badly enough to them, it could be lethal. However, when Som Boon got back the autopsy reports and the toxicology reports, he realized his theory about food poisoning was definitely wrong.

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