Suspects confess to killing two Russians who disappeared in Thailand
Thai police have detained suspects believed to be connected to the disappearance of two Russian citizens — 22-year-old Diana Nazimova and her 17-year-old brother, Roman, the Thairath newspaper reported. Local media said the suspects confessed to killing the two Russians.
Their mother, Zarina Nazimova, reported them missing on July 26. “My children went missing in Pattaya last night: my daughter Diana, 22, and my son Roman, 17. Cameras last recorded them leaving on a motorcycle at around 4 a.m. After that, all contact with them was lost; their phones are off,” she wrote on Instagram.
The Telegram channel Baza cited acquaintances of Diana and Roman in reporting that the family had moved from Russia to Thailand five years earlier. The day before she vanished, Diana told her mother that her iPhone had flagged an unknown Bluetooth tracking device nearby and that she felt like someone was following her.
Zarina Nazimova wrote on social media on July 29 that searchers had found the motorcycle her children had ridden away on. Thairath reported that it had been dismantled and buried on cemetery grounds.
Thai police announced on July 30 that they had detained two men, Hoi and Phang, on suspicion of helping the abductors. Both denied any wrongdoing, and police released them a few hours later.
The following day, police detained two more suspects, 43-year-old Thanu and 39-year-old Thongchai, who confessed during questioning to killing the Russians, according to the Thai news outlet Khaosod. The men claimed they had tried to steal the motorcycle Diana and Roman were riding and, when the siblings resisted, fatally shot Roman and beat Diana, who died afterward. They said they then took the bodies away and buried them in the mountains of Chonburi province.
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