American commits suicide in Chalong

CHALONG: According to a business card left at the hotel where he took his own life, a man found hanged in his rented room in Chalong on Monday was American dive instructor Adrian Martin.

On Monday evening, staff at Ao Chalong Mansion reported to police that the guest in room 206, on the third-floor of the small shophouse hotel, had used an electrical cord to hang himself from a clothesline in his room.

Found by a room maid, Mr Martin’s body was naked at the time of discovery.

The business card, given to the Gazette by the hotel management today, described Mr Martin as the proprietor of the Marina Del Rey Dive Service, with 25 years of experience in the dive industry.

A female staffer at the hotel said she believed Mr Martin, 50, was a dual-national, having been born in Mexico and later naturalized as a US citizen.

She said Mr Martin drank more or less continually from the time he checked in until he died.

Upon checking in on Saturday, however, he told her he had no cash with him and that he would pay her “after my friend gets back from the exchange”.

On Sunday, she asked him again to pay for his room. His reply was that he still had no money, but she needn’t worry because he would settle everything as he would be “leaving soon”.

A report in a local Thai-language newspaper quoted police as saying there were no signs of foul play in the room.

The woman said she thought Mr Martin had been staying elsewhere in the area before checking in.