Two Myanmar migrant workers arrested for murder of two Britons, DNA samples match female victim

SURAT THANI, THAILAND, October 3 (TNA) - Thai police have arrested and detained two Myanmar migrant workers for killing two British tourists, one man and one woman, on Koh Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand off Surat Thani Province in the Thai South on September 15, as their DNA samples match those found in the body of the female victim. New National Police Chief Police General Somyos Pumpanmuang took the two Myanmar suspects to announce their arrest at a press conference on Friday. The two Myanmar suspects, both have already confessed to committing the crime, were then taken for an reenactment at the crime scene on Koh Tao. More than 200 anti-riot and plainclothes police officers were deployed during the reenactment. Police said the third suspected Myanmar migrant worker, believed to be a close friend of those two suspects, was asked to stand as a witness because he did not join in the rape of the female victim and then murder of both the Britons. The two British tourists, 23-year-old Hannah Victoris Witheridge and 24-year-old David William Miller, were brutally murdered on a beach of Koh Tao before dawn on September 15. Results of DNA tests on semen found on Witheridge matched with the two Myanmar detainees. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan confirmed that evidence obtained by police showed the two Myanmar detainees involved in the murder. Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha told journalists he has been informed of positive progress of the case with the arrest of the three Myanmar migrant workers by police. (TNA)