The parents of two Australian teenagers who died in Laos last year have begged for Australians to remove the island destination from their bucket lists.
Ahead of the anniversary of their daughters’ deaths, Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones’ parents slammed the Laos government as “corrupt” in an interview with the Herald Sun.
They also claimed there’s no evidence police have investigated the tragedy.
Best friends Holly and Bianca, both 19, were on the trip of a lifetime in the tourist town of Vang Vieng in November last year when they accidentally consumed methanol.
The pair died alongside four other tourists staying at the Nana Backpackers hostel.
The colorless, odorless poison, can cause serious illness and can be fatal if just 25mL is consumed.
Shaun Bowles and Samantha Morton said they were disappointed in the investigation so far, saying: “We recognise how corrupt and unhelpful the Laos Government (is), there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest there is any type of investigation going on.
“(Our) hope is that Australians remove this county from their bucket list, your life is worth nothing over there and we have seen this first-hand as well as other families that have been involved in this tragedy.”
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan acknowledged that the parents’ frustrations were “very real” due to the lack of “change happening at the end of the Laotian investigation”.
Meanwhile, Mark and Michelle Jones said “to date, no individual or organisation has been held accountable” and noted that it “appears these deaths of innocent young women may be forgotten, brushed aside and left unresolved”.
Chatoulong Bouasisavath, the Laos ambassador to Australia, did not respond to questions from the Herald Sun.
‘We’ve heard nothing’
The families’ search for answers has been a long one, and the silence from Laos has been deafening.
In February it was revealed that the Laos government had refused to meet with the families of those who were killed in the mass methanol poisoning event.
In an interview with 60 Minutes journalist Tara Brown, Mark and Michelle Jones alongside Sam and Shaun Bowles said the Laos government has refused to meet with them since the teenagers’ deaths.
“We’ve heard nothing,” Mr Jones said in the interview, which aired on Sunday night.
“I cannot have my daughter’s passing not mean anything.”
Following the tragic deaths of Ms Jones and Ms Bowles, an outpouring of sympathy came in from around Australia and the world including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while hundreds attended a vigil held in the women’s honour in Melbourne in November last year.
Ms Jones was farewelled at a funeral service on December 6 at her old school, Mentone Girls’ Gramma.
Days later, friends and family farewelled Ms Bowles at Beaumaris Secondary College, in Melbourne’s southeast.
Following the deaths of Ms Jones and Ms Bowles, the families of the teenagers created a crowd-funding page to assist with covering out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the tragedy. The funds would also be put towards support awareness, education and prevention initiatives around methanol poisoning.
60 Minutes’ Brown said attempts to talk to authorities in Laos have been unsuccessful: “Last November, in a letter to our Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the Lao Government did express its ‘profound sadness’ over the deaths. And it said it ‘was investigating the cause of the incident to bring the perpetrators to justice’.
“But so far despite those words there’s been very little action. When we tried to go to Laos to find out why we were denied access to the country because they claimed the case is still being worked on.
“More significantly, and cruelly, no Lao officials will meet with the devastated families, not even in private.”
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