Anger as Laos hostel to reopen after deaths
Shaun Bowles told 2GB's Ben Fordham on Tuesday morning it was 'unfathomable' to hear news of the hostel's plan to reopen under a new name.
'The potential of this happening to someone else is very real because obviously they haven't changed their ways,' Mr Bowles said.
'We're gonna put our heads together with some people and we're gonna do everything we can to make sure that place doesn't reopen because it's just not right,' he said.
'To have no justice and to find out that they're going to reopen the backpackers … it's just the worst news.'
Nana Backpacker hostel became the centre of international attention in November 2024 after six backpackers, including two 19-year-old Australian women, died after a suspected methanol poisoning.
Mr Bowles' daughter Holly and her friend Bianca Jones had been drinking at the venue, which plans to reopen later this year under the name 'Vang Vieng Central Backpackers Hostel'.
One English backpacker who recovered from the suspected poisoning told the BBC it was 'unbelievable' to hear of the hostel's reopening.
Bethany Clarke and her friend Simone White fell ill one day after drinking free vodka shots at Nana Backpackers, and while Bethany was able to recover, Simone would succumb to her illness several days later.
'I'm shocked. If it's the same management or ownership involved, I wouldn't trust them,' Ms Clarke said.
'It's just unbelievable because we know that was where we were poisoned.'
Mr Bowles believes the Laotian government is not taking the deaths seriously.
'They tell us that it's sitting with the prosecutors but … we can't even get a meeting with the Laos ambassador to Australia in Canberra to ask some questions and to find out some answers,' he told Fordham.
'We remember (Holly) so fondly … someone needs to be held accountable,' he said.
The hostel now appears on TripAdvisor under the newly proposed name, however bookings cannot be made through the site.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hudson corrections officer gets 50 years in death of 2 women, including Randolph girlfriend
A former Hudson County corrections officer was sentenced to 50 years in prison for allegedly killing his girlfriend and her friend in Newark, announced the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. On Feb. 16, 2017, John Menendez, 27, of West New York, picked up his girlfriend Anna Shpilberg, 40, of Randolph and her friend Luiza Shinkarevskaya, 40, of Newark, at Newark Liberty International Airport. Menendez is accused of driving both women to a parking lot near the airport where he shot and killed them, said the HCPO. Authorities said Mendez turned himself in and admitted to shooting both women. The former officer claimed "he was taking large amounts of anabolic steroids, and that made him unable to plan or intend to kill." Police said past text messages between him and Shpilberg revealed "he was angry and jealous about their trip to Mexico without him," according to the press release from the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. On March 4, Menendez pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree aggravated manslaughter. He was sentenced on July 22. He will serve his sentence in New Jersey State Prison. This article originally appeared on 50 years for corrections officer in death of Randolph woman and friend


New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
After Maxwell Interview, Concerns Mount Over Possibility of Pardon
The yellowjacket buzz of a plane circling above the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday roused the perspiring platoon of reporters staking out a meeting between a top Justice Department official and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is imprisoned on charges of sex trafficking. The plane's banner read, 'Trump and Bondi are protecting predators.' The accusation summed up concerns on the ground as Todd Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi's top deputy, concluded a second extraordinary day of interviews with Ms. Maxwell, who once served as a fixer for the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Her lawyer said that she spent the morning answering questions about 100 people, though it was unclear whether they included victims, associates or others implicated in her sex-trafficking case. Ms. Maxwell has made it clear she wants her 20-year sentence thrown out or reduced or a pardon. President Trump, asked whether he would consider pardoning her, said, 'I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I haven't thought about.' He made the remarks before he headed off to Scotland, wishing her well. Pressed for details of the interview with Ms. Maxwell after he landed in Scotland, he added, 'I don't know anything about the conversation.' He continued, 'Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons.' Mr. Blanche has described his trip as a neutral fact-finding mission, saying he would share details of the discussion 'at the appropriate time' — yet he has also declared that the federal criminal investigation into targets beyond Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein remains closed. By that standard, new interviews would appear to serve a function beyond the purposes of traditional law enforcement, unless new evidence of criminality has been discovered, current and former officials said. The department offered Ms. Maxwell conditional immunity to discuss the case, but the protection did not apply if she lied in her interviews, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss details of the case publicly. In total, the interview lasted about eight to 10 hours. The Blanche-Maxwell discussion has stoked concerns from critics of Mr. Trump, a onetime friend of Mr. Epstein's, that he may grant Ms. Maxwell a reprieve. Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, accused Mr. Blanche, without evidence, of offering Ms. Maxwell 'some kind of a corrupt deal so that she can exonerate Donald Trump.' Teresa Helm, who was abused by Mr. Epstein and testified against Ms. Maxwell, was blunt about the consequences of such a deal in an interview with MSNBC on Friday. 'It would mean the complete crumbling of this justice system that should first and foremost stand for, fight for and protect survivors,' she said, adding that the government had accused Ms. Maxwell of perjury on top of other charges. 'She should stay in prison,' said Lisa Lloyd, 65, the lone protester at the courthouse. 'This is wrong. Anyone who is concerned with justice should be appalled by this.' A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Some conservative news outlets friendly to Mr. Trump have begun to soften their tone about Ms. Maxwell — whom they previously described as a child sex predator — suggesting she might now be trusted to tell the truth about the case. This week, a host on Newsmax who has praised Mr. Trump went so far as to suggest that Ms. Maxwell 'just might be a victim' who was not given a fair legal hearing. The Friday session with Ms. Maxwell began around 9 a.m. and ended in the early afternoon when one of her lawyers, David Markus, approached reporters to declare that she had honestly 'answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half.' Mr. Markus, who has a friendly relationship with Mr. Blanche, said Justice Department officials 'asked about every possible thing imaginable.' Ms. Maxwell was pressed about 'maybe a hundred different people,' he added, without saying who. 'She didn't hold anything back.' No offers of clemency have been made, and Mr. Markus said that he was not asking for a quid pro quo for his client's answering the questions. 'We haven't spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet,' Mr. Markus said. 'The president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power.' Ms. Maxwell has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that she should not have been charged in the sex trafficking case because of a nonprosecution agreement that federal attorneys in Florida reached in 2007. The agreement promised that potential co-conspirators would not be prosecuted, but Ms. Maxwell argues it should have also protected her from prosecution in New York. Congress has subpoenaed her to testify in August. Ms. Maxwell has not decided whether she will participate, Mr. Markus said. In a post on social media late Thursday, Mr. Blanche said that the department would 'share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.' In May, Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche, both of whom previously served as lawyers for Mr. Trump, informed Mr. Trump that his name was among those of high-profile figures that appeared in the Epstein files, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. It was part of a broader briefing on the re-examination of the Epstein case by F.B.I. agents and prosecutors. In Scotland, Mr. Trump denied those reports, saying, 'No, I was never, never briefed.' It is not clear how significant the references to Mr. Trump were. But the briefing sheds light on private West Wing discussions at a moment when the president's team is desperately trying to quell the rebellion of Trump supporters who feel that he and some of his senior appointees led them astray with campaign claims that they would make the files available. Mr. Trump's top two F.B.I. appointees were among those who were adamant before taking on their government roles that there was more to uncover in the files. And earlier this year, Ms. Bondi described the files as significant material to wade through. Mr. Trump already appeared in documents related to the investigation that have been made public. He was a friend of Mr. Epstein's until they had what Mr. Trump has described as a falling-out in the early 2000s. At the White House in February, Ms. Bondi distributed a series of binders about the Epstein files that included the phone numbers of some of the president's family members, including his daughter. 'As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,' Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche wrote in a statement in response to questions about the briefing, which took place in May. 'Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.'


CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
To former prosecutors, everything about the Justice Dept. interview with Ghislaine Maxwell looked unorthodox
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met for a second day with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, without offering more than a broad rationale for his hours of questioning. Multiple former federal prosecutors told CBS News they were bewildered by his decision to launch into such talks and described the unfolding events as both unorthodox and concerning. "She's somebody who has been sentenced by a court to 20 years in prison, and she is likely also desperate to get out from under that sentence," said Elizabeth Oyer, a former Justice Department pardon attorney and federal public defender. "It's hard to really believe that the Justice Department would rely on anything that she might have to say." Oyer suggested that Maxwell was speaking with Blanche "in the hope that she might be able to cut a deal that will benefit her, and that raises fundamental questions about the credibility of any information she could possibly provide." Maxwell's defense lawyer, David Markus, said after the meeting that she answered everything asked of her "and she didn't hold anything back." Asked whether Maxwell is seeking a pardon, Markus said, "We haven't spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet," adding, "We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way." "It's unprecedented for the deputy attorney general to be directly involved in interviewing someone who's been convicted of a crime and may be interested in cooperating to get leniency," one former senior Justice Department official told CBS News on the condition he not be identified. "It strikes me simply as an effort to address a political concern, which is not what the Justice Department does." Blanche is a senior Justice Department official who previously served as a personal attorney to President Trump. He is also a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. He announced his decision to travel to Florida to meet with Maxwell after days of public attention swirled around the administration's mixed messaging about the possible release of files on Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in the trafficking ring. Several aspects of the Blanche decision appear to break with longstanding Justice Department practices. Among the most concerning, former officials said, is having Blanche conduct the interviews, rather than the line prosecutors who helped win a conviction in the Maxwell case, and who are continuing to combat her efforts to appeal the outcome. Adding to the complication is that the prosecutor who led the Maxwell case, Maurene Comey, was fired by the Trump administration a week ago. One former prosecutor said a key reason for having a line prosecutor handle such an interview is their comprehensive knowledge of both Maxwell and the facts of the case against her. Otherwise, this attorney said, it could be very hard to determine whether Maxwell is being truthful — especially since there were already past questions about her willingness to be fully candid about the misconduct that led to her arrest, and Epstein's. "The best way to determine that is to ask questions you already know the answers to," the former prosecutor said. "Todd Blanche is in no position to assess the truth if he doesn't know all the facts." Because Blanche's meetings were occurring behind closed doors, it is unclear if he was accompanied by other Justice Department officials or FBI agents. The Justice Department has not responded to a request for comment. Experts told CBS News that meetings of this nature almost always include an FBI agent who can memorialize the discussion in formal interview notes that could later have evidentiary value, if needed. "If Blanche was meeting with Maxwell alone, that's obscene malpractice," another former federal prosecutor, who had decades of experience, told CBS News. "He can't testify and become a witness, nor can he write a report of their meeting." Prosecutors are not permitted to write up interview reports and are not sworn law enforcement officers with training to document an interview of this kind. "It would be a mess," the former official said. "The first rule of a meeting with a witness is to have an agent present." As another former prosecutor put it: "This is not typical." "It's not the most effective way" to work if the goal is to gather additional evidence or identify potential targets for future prosecution, this person said. Mr. Trump has never been accused of misconduct in connection with Epstein's criminal activity, and he has consistently said he cut ties with Epstein before Epstein's first arrest in 2006 for his conduct with underage girls. Mr. Trump has sought to push past the crush of attention on the topic, even referring to it as "the Jeffrey Epstein hoax." Blanche explained his decision to meet with Maxwell by saying he would "pursue justice wherever the facts may lead." "If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche said. Like Oyer, many former federal prosecutors saw the meeting as a political move intended to dampen growing mistrust about the decision not to make public the files connected with Epstein's case. Multiple former prosecutors spoke with CBS News about the matter, but asked not to be identified because they feared retribution against them or their current employers.