Thai officials heighten security after Swiss woman is found dead

BANGKOK —  Thai authorities have ordered heightened security measures on the resort island of Phuket after the discovery of the body of a 57-year-old Swiss tourist amid signs of foul play, officials said Friday.

The woman’s partially clad body was found face down in water in a rock crevice near a waterfall Thursday afternoon by an island resident, police said.

From the condition of the body, it appeared she had been dead for several days, Phuket regional police commander Kitirath Phanpetch told local MCOT television.

“From what we saw at the scene, the body was covered with a black sheet, which suggests it was done by someone and she did not die of natural causes,” he said.

At a news conference in Bangkok on Friday, Col. Kissana Phathanacharoen, a national police deputy spokesman, said investigators were still awaiting autopsy results to determine a cause of death.

Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed his condolences to the family of the woman, identified as Nicole Sauvain-Weisskopf, and urged police to devote all efforts to quickly solving the case.

“The prime minister ordered concerned agencies to expedite the investigation to identify and arrest the culprit,” he said.

He also ordered other government agencies to increase support for tourists in Phuket and to “tighten safety and public health measures.”

Swiss media reported that Sauvain-Weisskopf was a member of the country’s diplomatic service but Thai officials did not comment on her job.

Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry late Thursday said they had been contacted by Thai authorities about the death of an “apparent Swiss citizen” but refused to release any details about her on privacy grounds.

The incident casts a pall over Thailand’s so-called Phuket Sandbox scheme to try and bring fully vaccinated foreign tourists to the previously popular tourist destination, which has been struggling massively during the coronavirus pandemic.

From the start of the program at the beginning of July through the end of the month, 14,055 visitors traveled to Phuket through the program, generating an income of about $58 million, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. The top five nationalities of visitors were American, British, Israeli, German and French.