BREAKING NEWS Family of lawyer found dead in Thailand break their silence after 'incredibly painful' tragedy
Christopher Saines, 43, was found unresponsive at Siam Touch Massage parlour on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui about 6am on Monday.
Police believe Mr Saines had left his $4,000-a-night hotel, Villa Mia, where he was staying with his wife Chantho and their young son and daughter, around midnight.
On Tuesday, his heartbroken family remembered Mr Saines as 'deeply loved'.
'Christopher was a remarkable person whose presence brought light to us,' a statement issued by his law firm said.
'Christopher leaves behind his loving wife and two young children. He was a dedicated family man and a remarkable father.
'He will be remembered by us as a warm, loving, and caring person.'
His wife is a manager at Brisbane GLG Legal where Mr Saines was the chief executive. It's understood Mr Saines' brother is a senior employee at the firm.
'At just 43, Christopher had already made a profound impact through his professional achievements and his unwavering commitment to the people and causes he cared about most,' the family added.
'He lived with purpose, passion and drive.'
It's understood Mr and Mrs Saines were in Thailand ahead of his 44th birthday on July 18.
Police told local media he had paid 400baht, AUD$19, for a one-hour traditional oil massage.
Emergency services were called to the shop in Bo Phut about 7am after workers discovered the lawyer wasn't breathing.
Initial inquiries suggest the 43-year-old died of heart failure.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Phumaret Inkong said officers found a ziplock bag containing a white powder, suspected to be cocaine, in Mr Saines' trouser pocket.
'But we can't confirm it yet, it needs to be sent for lab analysis,' he said.
'From initial field testing using police reagents, it's presumed to be an illegal drug, but we're not sure if it's actually cocaine.'
Masseuse Premyupa, 47, told local outlet Thaiger that Mr Saines had arrived at the parlour alone and was walking barefoot.
'After we finished, he said he wanted to lie down and rest. I left him for a while, and when I came back, he was still snoring,' she said.
'It wasn't until much later I realised he wasn't breathing.'
Premyupa last heard Mr Saines 'snoring' at about 4am and claimed when she returned to wake him two hours later, he was cold and unconscious.
Police and medics from Koh Samui Hospital found him on a narrow bed inside one of the shop's private upstairs rooms.
The lawyer was lying horizontally across the bed with his legs dangling over the side. No foam was found around his mouth.
Lieutenant Colonel Inkong said police are not treating Mr Saines' death as suspicious.
'There were no signs of physical struggle. The masseuse had no injuries either. The massage proceeded normally,' he said.
'Right now we are waiting for the results of the drug test and the autopsy report, which may take several days depending on the case, but we will try to expedite it as quickly as possible.'
While there were no CCTV cameras inside the massage parlour, which offers sexual services, police found footage outside the shop which showed Mr Saines arriving barefoot and carrying a can of beer.
Mr Saines' wife was informed of his death at 3pm on Tuesday.
His body has been taken to Surat Thani Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Domestic violence case management not ‘core business' of police, Queensland's top cop says
Domestic violence case management is not the 'core business' of policing, and other agencies should take on greater roles in this, Queensland's acting police commissioner says. The Queensland police service on Tuesday released a 100-day review of its operations and structure, finding that the police have been the victim of 'significant mission creep', with officers increasingly tasked with non-core functions such as mental health response, domestic and family violence case management, and prisoner transport. At a press conference on Tuesday morning – before the report was made public – the acting police commissioner, Shane Chelepy, said the state had seen the 'fundamental role of policing changing to [addressing] societal issues'. 'If you look at domestic and family violence and mental health issues and other social issues, our role of policing has expanded into those societal and social issues. What this report says is that's very important, but police are not the ones who are trained to do that,' he said. Chelepy said the police force needed to better define where its role starts and stops. Asked if parts of the response to domestic violence or mental health crises were outside 'core business', he said that police would still attend callouts, but would seek a clearer referral process to other agencies 'once we've done our job and kept the community safe'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email He said there should be a greater role for 'wraparound services to reduce that repeat calls for service that we see'. 'The reality is, police are there to do policing. We're there to keep the community safe … there's a time in that response where the best support to be provided to the member of the public is through a specialist of another organisation, not a police officer.' The police minister, Dan Purdie, a former cop, said shifting resources back to crime detection and prevention would help QPS 'refocus on their core priorities of fighting crime'. 'I look forward to working with the other ministers and those departments through cabinet, and likewise, to build better systems to help our police refocus their attention on fighting crime,' he said. 'We need to build that capacity.' Purdie said the government was already making investments in other agencies to pick up the slack. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'Whether it's child safety issues or mental health issues our police cannot arrest their way out of that problem,' he said. The government recently introduced legislation into parliament to reduce the paperwork burden on police responding to domestic violence incidents – which are widely understood to represent a large proportion of their time on duty. If passed the laws would permit police to issue an on-the-spot order to an alleged domestic violence offender, a proposal that some experts fear could put vulnerable women at greater risk of harm. Queensland police commissioned officers union president, Kerry Johnson, and Queensland police union president, Shane Prior, welcomed the findings of the report, at the Tuesday morning press conference. 'I want to see places like child safety actually doing a 24/7 roster, much like police do,' Prior said. 'I want the Department of Health to actually start dealing with this mental health issue that we've got in society and not be left at the feet of police. Things have got to change.' The report makes 65 recommendations. Chelepy said they include reducing the size of the police executive leadership team from 44 to 26 and a reduction of the senior executive. No jobs would be lost in the change, he said. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Mental health support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. Other international helplines can be found via
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Man found stabbed to death outside luxury home he shared with skincare mogul partner in Queensland
A man has been found dead with multiple stab wounds outside the $2.5million home of a skincare brand founder on the Sunshine Coast. Emergency services were called to Napalle Street in Warana, Queensland around 7.35pm on Monday after a neighbour found a man unresponsive in his front yard. Police said they found the 53-year-old homeowner with multiple stab wounds to his abdomen and he was dead at the scene. The home, according to property records, is owned by Zdravko Bilic and the founder of skincare clinic HUD Skin and Body, Gry Susann Tomte. Ms Tomte is not accused of any wrongdoing and it is not known whether she was at home during the alleged incident. A crime scene was declared and investigations into the circumstances of his death are ongoing. Anyone with information or CCTV vision of the area between 11pm on July 13 and 7.35pm on July 14 has been urged to contact police. More to come.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Horrific twist after baby is found dead in a park lake in Queensland
A police investigation into the tragic drowning of a seven-month-old baby boy at a popular camping spot has been rocked by allegations that he was thrown into the water. Emergency responders raced to the scene at Chatsworth Park near Gympie, Queensland at about 10.30am on Saturday following multiple triple-0 calls about a baby found unresponsive in a nearby lake. The boy's mother made the grim discovery and pulled him out of the water, which was just 40 metres from the campsite. She and fellow holidaymakers performed CPR on the baby, who was rushed to Gympie Hospital, where he later died. The baby and his parents had camped overnight at the park on their way home in North Queensland. Police investigating the circumstances of the baby's 'unexplained' death have urged anyone who was at the lake an hour before and after the tragedy to come forward. The public appeal sparked several posts on the Queensland Police Facebook page claiming alleged witnesses saw the baby thrown into the water by a man. Police responded to the posts by urging the posters to contact Policelink. No arrests or charges have been laid. A section of the campsite remained cordoned off as a crime scene on Monday. Officers from the Child Trauma Unit and the Homicide Investigation Team are assisting with the investigation. A post-mortem was carried out on Monday morning. 'We're treating it as unexplained, that's probably the best term I can use at this point in time,' Wide Bay Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield told reporters. 'We're trying to work out the mechanisms of how that occurred. 'We have part of the picture, we just want to complete that full picture before we decide on where that investigation leads us.' Chatsworth Park is a popular free camping and stopover spot off the Bruce Highway. It's also a common spot for the homeless, police confirmed. 'We have information that other vehicles were parked up in the rest stop area,' Insp Mansfield said. 'They either left just prior or during - we just don't know until we speak to them. 'There were a couple of vehicles that left the scene who may or may not have seen or heard anything, but we just need to track them down in case they did.' No arrests or charges have been laid.
