The dead man was identified as Pol Lt Col Chokchai Jarujaree, 59, former deputy superintendent of police at Tambon Sooksamran in Ranong province.
No marks or evidence of foul play were found on the corpse, although the floor showed that before he died, Col Chokchai had experienced a period of vomiting.
Officers estimated the time of death as about five days before, and said it had probably resulted either “from heart attack or a chronic disease”.
Investigators were told by hotel staff that Lt Col Chokchai checked into the hotel “regularly, two or three times per month”.
The last time he was seen, police were told, was on July 13. He left the hotel about 4pm and returned about 2am. Since then no one had seen him.
Police said that the hotel’s CCTV system showed no one had entered or left the dead man’s room until the 18th when the room maid, finding the door locked, called in other staff. Together they pried open the lock and found Col Chokchai dead beside the bed.
His body was transferred to Wachira hospital for autopsy. – Source: Siang Tai