Holly Bowles, 19, died in a Bangkok hospital after more than a week on life support, her family said on Friday. She is the second Australian teenager and the sixth foreign tourist to die in the suspected mass poisoning in Vang Vieng, Laos.
“We are so sad to say that our beautiful girl Holly is now at peace,” the family said in a statement to Australian media. They added that she had brought “so much joy and happiness to so many people.” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said all Australians would be heartbroken and offered her deepest sympathies to the family.
A night out that ended in hospital
Bowles and her friend Bianca Jones, also 19, fell ill on November 13 after drinking with a group. They never checked out of the Nana Backpacker Hostel as planned, and staff found them sick in their room. Both were taken to Thailand for emergency treatment.
Australia’s prime minister announced on Thursday that Jones had died in a Thai hospital. Thai authorities said the cause was brain swelling from high levels of methanol in her system.
The other victims are Simone White, a 28-year-old British lawyer from south-east London, an American, and two Danish women aged 19 and 20. The British Foreign Office confirmed White’s death. Her family said they were “devastated by the loss of our beautiful, kind and loving daughter Simone.” Her employer, Squire Patton Boggs, called her “a talented colleague with a bright future ahead of her.” New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said one of its citizens was also sickened and might be a methanol victim.
What police and the hostel have said
Duong Duc Toan, the hostel manager, told the Associated Press that the two women had taken free shots of Laotian vodka with other guests before going out and coming back in the early hours. Another account put the giveaway at about 100 guests the previous evening. Hostelworld has removed the hostel from its platform.
An officer at the Vang Vieng tourism police office, who would not give his name, said a “number of people” had been detained but nobody had been charged. Staff at the hostel confirmed that the manager and the owner were among those taken in for questioning. The hostel was still operating but not taking new guests.
Beyond that, Laotian officials have said almost nothing. The country is a one-party state that keeps tight control over information. The Foreign Ministry declined to comment, and the town’s health officials said they lacked permission to speak.
Why methanol
Methanol is sometimes mixed into drinks at disreputable bars because it costs less than ethanol, and it can also end up in poorly distilled homebrew. Doctors say as little as 25 millilitres can kill. Christer Hogstrand, a professor at King’s College London, told the BBC it looks and smells like the alcohol in drinks, “but its impact on humans can be deadly.” Symptoms can take up to 24 hours to appear.
The U.S. State Department issued a health alert for travellers to Laos, and other governments did the same. Natasha Moore, a 22-year-old backpacker from Manchester, cancelled her booking at the hostel. “The general consensus is we’re all just really scared,” she told the BBC, and she now drinks only from sealed bottles.
Neil Farmiloe, a New Zealander who has lived in Vang Vieng for 20 years and runs a restaurant there, said he hoped it was a one-off: “I think it’s never happened before.” Many of his customers, he said, were very worried.
Sources
- Holly Bowles sixth to die of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos
- 6 tourists in Laos have died after drinking tainted alcohol
