This island is known by many to be considered "murder island." It is famous for being supposedly owned and operated by mob families and any wrongdoings that happen there are covered up by the police and other authorities and the global population including most Thais and myself tend to not believe the explanations that the police come up with. The most famous of which was when two Burmese migrant workers were tried and convicted of the rape and murder of a young couple even though the information that the authorities was coming up with as proof was kind of sketchy at best.
The duo originally confessed to the crime but it was later discovered that they were tortured and coerced into signing the confession. Human rights' groups from around the world have called out this trial as a miscarriage of justice. They are still on death row at the moment and this is a rarity for Thailand who has the death penalty in its legal system, but rarely uses it.
I have avoided going to Koh Tao and the closest I ever made it was it was on a day trip to a small island near Koh Tao that I have since forgotten the name of. You could see Koh Tao from this small island and that is as close as I wanted to get to it.
The most recent suspicious deaths are not of pretty young backpackers though, but instead it is extremely wealthy Thai / Indian business magnates who are the victims of suspicious deaths.
These deaths at the moment are both being claimed as drownings and maybe I am being a bit biased here because of what I know about this island, but I don't buy it. For one thing, it is known by many friends of the family that both of them were very strong swimmers and according to witnesses there was nothing wrong with the pool either. No strangers to pools, their "accidental drownings" also happened while their younger son was away on a solo kayaking trip.
According to staff, screams were heard in the direction of one of the resort's pools and 10 minutes later staff arrived to find the young son of the couple pleading for help. His father was lying on the steps on his back. They later discovered his mother at the bottom of the pool on the other end on the bottom.
It is worth noting that upon arriving at the hotel Mom and Dad ordered room service and their 34 year old son, did not but instead decided to go kayaking. To me this sounds like if two people who regularly swim and likely have their own pool at their own homes suddenly drown at the same time in a pool that they were either attacked or were poisoned with their take away. Further backing up this theory (which is not an official theory at this time) is the fact that Dad was still alive and breathing when doctors arrived but he later died at a hospital. When has that ever happened in a drowning incident?
At the moment a full autopsy is being performed on the couple in a leading Bangkok hospital but I wouldn't get your hopes up on any sort of revealing information coming from all of this. In the past other deaths had just been explained away, some patsy fall-guys were found, or the whole thing would just get swept under the rug.
Closed-circuit television cameras at the hotel had not been working for several months due to lack of maintenance.
Seems rather convenient, doesn't it? I once had CCTV's on a house that I lived in. I never maintained them and they still worked.
Of course in the past the suspicious deaths on the island have always been younger backpackers who were not wealthy so perhaps the immense wealth and influence of this family will encourage an actual investigation. It will be interesting to see but this is just another case and point as to why "murder island" in Thailand should be avoided.