Is the Australian shooting of Lynda Cody really a Hoax?
I reported the other day about the shooting of Australian Teacher Lynda Cody in Chiang Mai is full of holes. Firstly it was reported by the Age newspaper, yet there are no real accounts by any journalist in Thailand, I havn't seen any real news from Thai newspapers.
I did some of my own investigation and contacted the local Tourist police who are always the first people to get called about any problem with a foriegner in Thailand. What is troubling for me is that I asked a number of the Tourist police here in Chiang Mai and they were baffled, they havn't even heard of a shooting of an Australian woman teacher in Chiang Mai in the past week.
If you look at the article from the Age who first reported it, you won't see any information about who reported the shooting, when exactly the shooting occured, nor do you see any pictures of the vehicle, so what, the teachers just drove off, went to the hospital then went down to bangkok and told the australians? Why weren't the people in Chiang Mai and the police in Chiang Mai, why don't they know anything about it. Smells very fishy.
Even the age article is incorrect, it says they just left the night market at the Khum Kan Tok in Chiang Mai, there is no Khum Kan Tok in Chiang Mai so what are they talking about? Khum Kan Tok is a sit down dinner nowhere near the night market!
The facts are nowhere to be seen, and any investigative journalist would have those facts. You might say all you want about Thailand and how 3rd world it is, but at least in Thai newspapers they will say the facts, the dates the times, who, what, when, where, and how. I'd love for anyone to tell me exactly where it happened, when, because as far as I've learned the incident didn't even occur.
Chris,
An interesting story, no doubt about that! I am also based in Chiang Mai, I have been here for about the same amount of time as you, after living a decade in Phuket previous to arriving here. I hear what you are saying, however I don’t find it hard to believe that Thai Tourist Police, local media and everyone else around would cover up the shooting of a tourist. I am not as familiar with the case as you are, however I do remember almost exactly the same thing happening 3-4 years earlier. When you compare this with what happened at the Downtown Inn, it really palls in comparison.
Not so sure if cover it up, or if it is not on their radar (the amount of thai people, and expats for that matter, who have no idea about local news continues to astound me)
Hey Chris,
I was interested in this story when I read it the other day, so I decided to do a little research on it. It turns out that the shooting was reported by Chiang Rai Times, and they have an eye witness account from a respected professor of more than 24 years, and there will also be hospital records for Mrs. Cody receiving treatment.
I have also gone through the archives and found that there was a similar shooting back in 2008, with almost exactly the same circumstance in the same location, resulting in far more serious injuries to a Canadian doctor.
I did write a report on it .. check it out if you are interested :
http://travelinasia.hubpages.com/hub/Chiangmai-Shooting