Missing Russian Siblings Found Murdered — And A Thai Family In A Second Grave

The two men were arrested in Wang Sombun district, Sa Kaeo province, close to the Cambodian border, in an operation led by Pol Lt Gen Chatchai. They were named as Thana Kerdthong, 43, known as "Pong", and Thongchai Srinil, 39, known as "Thong".

Police had received reports that two men dressed to resemble police officers rode a motorcycle through a checkpoint in Chanthaburi and continued towards Sa Kaeo. Provincial Police Region 2 ordered stations across the region to set up checkpoints and search passenger vehicles near the border.

According to investigators, Thana described his escape plan in detail: through the Chanthaburi checkpoint, then into a longan orchard where he parked the motorcycle and hid through daylight hours, intending to cross into Cambodia by a natural border route after dark. Officers found both men before he could.

Police said Thana then stopped denying involvement. Investigators quoted him as saying "I'm done — let me speak frankly," before admitting he shot Roman and fatally assaulted Diana after she fought back. He denied sexually assaulting her. Thongchai told detectives he had not killed anyone and blamed Thana, but acknowledged helping to bury the bodies and offered to lead officers to the site.

Pol Lt Gen Chatchai said police are checking whether the suspects are connected to any other unsolved cases, noting that the main suspect had been released from prison only around two months before the siblings disappeared. Thai media have reported that he had previous convictions relating to child abduction and illegal firearm possession; ThaiThuk has not independently verified those records.

Pattaya has a long-established Russian-speaking community, and Huai Yai in particular has filled up over the past decade with families who moved for the cost of living, the schools and the weather rather than the nightlife. The Nazimovs were not tourists. They were residents — the ordinary, unremarkable version of living in Thailand that rarely makes the news.

That is a large part of why the case travelled so far. It does not fit the usual template of a Pattaya Thailand crime story. There is no bar bill, no late-night dispute, no viral clip of a fight. There is a convenience-store run at four in the morning and a young woman texting that she thinks someone is behind them.

The scale still deserves honesty. Chonburi is home to well over a million residents and receives millions of visitors a year, and predatory crime of this kind is genuinely rare — which is precisely why five victims attributed to one small group in one subdistrict is so shocking. Nothing established so far changes the practical things to do in Pattaya, the answer to the best time to visit Thailand, or how Thailand visa rules work for anyone planning a trip. What it does change is the assumption that the quiet inland sois are automatically safer than the busy ones.

The detail with the longest tail is the alleged impersonation of police. If the account investigators have given holds up in court, a group was able to knock on doors in Bang Lamung, announce a search, and walk residents out of their homes in handcuffs. Thai officers can and do ask to see identification; members of the public are equally entitled to ask for a warrant card, note the officer's name and station, and call the local station or 191 to verify before opening the door.

Very little of the standard advice is relevant to a case like this, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. But a few details in the reporting are worth carrying with you anywhere, whether you are on a budget travel Thailand trip or ten years into living here.

The first is location sharing. Diana's message that she thought they were being followed was, for six days, the only real-time information investigators had from either sibling. Live location sharing with one family member costs nothing and would have given police a map instead of a sentence.

The second is the phone alert. During the search, Thai outlets reported that Diana's phone had flagged an unrecognised Bluetooth tracking device nearby. Police have not confirmed that detail and it should be treated as unverified — but the underlying advice stands. Both iOS and Android surface unknown-tracker warnings automatically, and the alert is worth taking seriously, particularly late at night on a quiet road.

The third is the door. Verify anyone presenting themselves as an official before you let them in, and do it by calling the station rather than a number they hand you.

Beyond that: tell someone where you are going, even at 4am, even for five minutes. Photograph rental vehicles with their plates before you ride off. And if someone you are responsible for does not come back, report it immediately — the CCTV that carried this investigation only exists because officers requested it while it was still on the servers.