German found hanged in Phuket room

PHUKET: A 40-year-old German expatriate, Ralf Burghardt, was found hanged in his rented room on Nanai Rd in Patong on Friday (May 18).

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Paritta Wangkiat

Monday 21 May 2012, 03:07PM

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He is thought to have died three days before his body was discovered. He was found with an electric cable tied around his neck and attached to a shelf above. No violence was apparent.

Police, who found three beer bottles and a liquor bottle, all empty, in the room, believe he killed himself because of depression over his broken relationship with a Thai woman.

They said Mr Burghardt had been with the woman for seven months before she left him.

Before killing himself he had discovered that she had sold a bar that he had bought for her. This was apparently the last straw.