‘It’s true’: Alleged killer Simon Carman’s chilling final text to his elderly mother is revealed – she was convinced images of her son’s dramatic arrest for Thai teen’s murder were AI fakes

The mother of Australian truck driver Simon Carman thought her family had become the target of an elaborate online scam when she saw reports accusing her son of murdering a Thai teenager and dumping her body in a suitcase.

As videos of Carman’s arrest made international headlines, Wendy Carman, 68, was convinced the footage had been generated using AI as part of a sophisticated plot to extort money from the family.

By the time she saw the news, Carman, 45, had already been arrested over the death of Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, and was being questioned by detectives after her body was found inside a suitcase which had been dumped in long grass beside rail tracks. 

CCTV showed Carman riding a scooter nearby with a suitcase strapped to the back. Police arrested him at Bangkok airport with a Jetstar boarding pass for a flight to Perth.

He insisted he was simply returning to Australia to collect a replacement bank card after his had gone missing and planned to return to Thailand within days to ‘sort it all out’.

Carman’s bags, passport and mobile phone were seized during the arrest, but after hours of questioning, Thai police allowed him to use his phone briefly to contact his family.

Waiting for him was a frantic message from his mother in Albany, Western Australia, who had seen news of his airport arrest but struggled to believe it was real. 

Instead, she asked whether the family was being ‘scammed’.

She asked if widely shared videos of police escorting her son through the airport had been created using AI, convinced they were part of an elaborate extortion racket.

‘Because he was living in Thailand, she just thought it must be AI and all fake,’ a police source revealed.

‘There is a period of time after his arrest but before the first court appearance, when a judge decides whether a suspect gets bail or is moved to a detention centre,’ a police source said. 

‘During those hours, if it’s no longer needed as part of police evidence, you can use your phone.’

According to Daily Mail police sources, it was that message that finally broke Carman’s composure.

‘He broke down and said, “Even my mum’s heard about it,”‘ the source said.

‘He got very upset when he read that message from her and I think the reality of the situation finally sank in.

‘He had given his statement in a very matter-of-fact way before that. 

‘He was even calm when he explained he had folded her body into a suitcase and put it away in his bathroom.’ 

After composing himself, Carman replied to tell his devastated mother that everything she had seen was true and that he probably would not be seeing his family for a long time.

He later appeared in court, where a judge deemed him a flight risk and refused bail. 

Carman was remanded in custody for 84 days, which is the maximum time police can request before an indictment is filed.   

He was then transferred to Pattaya Remand Prison, where he is being held in the hospital wing, sharing a cell with five other inmates.

Carman is not permitted visit requests or phone calls for ten days, but according to Daily Mail sources, he hasn’t made any applications and has not retained legal representation.

While Australian consular officials have remained in contact with both Carman and Thai authorities, they have not visited him in person.

Police say he has been cooperating. 

Locals say Carman was a regular in Pattaya’s bars, buying young women drinks, showering them with gifts and repeatedly offering them massages.

Carman arrived in Thailand on a student visa in October 2025, though he had been making frequent trips there for years. 

He was well known among the Pattaya bars and cafés surrounding his modest apartment in the city’s south, where business owners greeted him almost every day.

‘Simon had beers and food here most nights,’ bar owner Kate told the Daily Mail.

‘The last time he came, one week before the alleged murder, he had seven beers, but when I gave him the bill he say only pay for four.’

Kate said she never discovered why Carman disputed the bill, choosing not to argue with him.

‘Simon is strong,’ she said. ‘He is a friendly guy. Buys drinks for people here but he is really strong. 

‘Even when I see him and he gives me a high five, my hand was red after. [He was] always lifting people or [giving them a] strong slap on back.’

According to Kate, Carman became a regular at the bar because he wanted to get close to her 20-year-old niece, who worked there as a waitress.

‘He always asked her out and he got her gifts and brought them here for her,’ she added. ‘Things from the market and food.’

Kate said her niece never agreed to go out with Carman and found his behaviour unsettling.

‘He always offered to massage the girls,’ Kate said. ‘Always touching and saying he can do a good massage and do the girls want one.’

According to his statement to detectives, Carman offered to give Ms Donhomla ฿500 when she decided to leave his apartment. 

He claimed to police that when he opened his wallet containing about ฿20,000 (AU$870), the teenager, who weighed just 40kg and was 150cm tall, pulled out a flick knife, held it to his throat and demanded all of the money.

Carman told police he panicked, grabbed her by the wrists and when she didn’t stop fighting him, he placed his hands around her neck.

Eventually, Ms Donhomla stopped struggling and collapsed to the floor, he said. Carman told detectives he hadn’t realised how tightly he had been holding her.

Sources close to the investigation told the Daily Mail he claims he forgot to take his medication for a nerve condition affecting his brain which can impair his judgement.

Photographs show a large, long-healed scar at the back of Carman’s skull.

When he realised Ms Donhomla was no longer moving, talking or breathing, he knew that she was dead, he told detectives.

He then allegedly placed the girl’s body into the 74cm suitcase before he put the knife on top of his fridge and went to bed.

Detectives say he kept the body in the suitcase in his bathroom for the next day, even as her friends arrived at his unit looking for her.

The night after her death, he allegedly loaded the suitcase onto the back of his motorbike and left it in long grass next to railway tracks near Pattaya’s night markets. 

The teenager’s friends reported her missing on Friday and detectives quickly arrested Carman at the airport before finding her body. 

‘As Thai people, we might say that something guided us somehow,’ Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyoo told reporters.

‘From the very beginning, the investigator who received the report did not ignore it.

‘He reported it to me first, and I also had a kind of instinct that something bad might have happened.’

Carman faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted. 

Ms Donhomla’s family on Sunday ruled out any blood money deal with Carman which could reduce his sentence to as little as seven years in jail. 

Her father Thongchai Donhomla said he wanted the ‘legal process to take its course’ as Carman faces the death penalty or life imprisonment over the alleged murder of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla. 

‘Even though I am poor, I will not trade my daughter’s dignity for money,’ he said. ‘I love my daughter so much.’