Fears of tourist murder cover-up after Belgian woman found half-eaten by lizards on Thai island

Elise Dallemange, 30, was found half-eaten by lizards on Koh Tao. Photo / via Facebook

A Belgian backpacker who visited New Zealand has become the latest tourist found dead on a notorious Thai island where seven others have died in the past three years.

Elise Dallemange, 30, was found half-eaten by lizards on Koh Tao back in April. Police claimed she hanged herself, the Daily Mail reported.

But mother Michele van Egten says she does not believe that version of events amid fears authorities are suppressing a series of grisly tourist murders.

In the most high-profile case, Britons Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were killed as they walked along a beach to their hotel rooms in 2014.

Of all the deaths, theirs were the only ones to be investigated as murder after a public outcry. Four others were ruled suicides, and a Russian woman has still not been found after vanishing in February.

Van Egten made the details of her daughter's death public while appealing for information, saying the case would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

She told magazine Der Farang that she had been promised an autopsy report by investigators that had failed to materialise.

"I do not believe what the police have told us. We fear somebody else was involved.

"We're more and more thinking that the police information is not the right explanation."

Van Egten revealed that Dallemange had been travelling around Asia for two years, and before her death had been living at a yoga and tantra retreat on Koh Phangan.

She was also part of the Sathya Sai Baba cult and lived with a self-proclaimed "guru". She left the island on April 17 to return to her native Belgium, van Egten said.

Koh Tao is a popular tourist destination. Photo / Supplied

But on April 28 she was found dead in the jungle in Koh Tao.

Phone records show that Dallemange called her mother on Skype on April 17 before leaving on a ferry April 19 - but it is not known why she alighted on Koh Tao instead of continuing on to the mainland.

Van Egten claims that Dallemange used a fake name of "Elise Dubuis" to check into the Triple B Bungalows next to Mae Head Pier on Koh Tao as she travelled via the island on a ferry bound for Chumphon province on her way back to capital Bangkok.

But an unexplained fire that evening burned down three bamboo huts - including the one Dallemange had been staying in.

Dallemange fled 2.5km to through the jungle to Tanote Bay and took a room at the Poseidon Resort where she booked another ticket for Bangkok leaving on April 24.

Eight days later locals living near the island's idyllic Tanote Bay found Dallemange's body after becoming suspicious of a monitor lizard going back and forth into the jungle.

They followed the animal and discovered that it had been feeding on Dallemange's remains, which were found among rocks behind the Tanote Family Bay Resort.

The backpacker had to be identified using dental records and X-rays.

Police told Dallemange's mother that her daughter had committed suicide about three days before she was found.

But no suicide note or message were recovered and van Egten is desperate for information about her daughter's mysterious death.

Dallemange's bags appear to have been loaded onto the ferry she was due to take, and arrived at Chumphon province where she should have caught a bus to the capital.

Van Egten says police told her that Dallemange had been wrapped in old T-shirts or cotton shawls and an empty fuel bottle was found next to her.

An autopsy was done in Surat Thani Hospital and later by the Institute of Forensic Medicine Police Hospital, Bangkok, and Dallemange was cremated 14 days later.

Van Egten said: "Too many things show us that someone is involved. Police told us that Elise hanged herself up in the jungle. I cannot accept why my daughter should have killed herself.

"She was normal in the last conversation and no signs of depression were visible.

"I don't know why she would have booked a transfer to Bangkok and then went into the jungle to commit suicide.

"I am devastated by events. I am still waiting for the final autopsy report. We just want more information.

"My daughter had been travelling for two and a half years in India, Australia and New Zealand and always back again to Thailand.

"She lived there for months with Guru Raaman Andreas from Germany and two female friends."

The death on Koh Tao is the latest in a number of cases involving foreigners.

In March Russian tourist Valentina Novozhyonova, 23, vanished from her hostel on Koh Tao and has still not been found.

Bricklayer Luke Miller from the Isle of Wight was found dead in a swimming pool on January 8, 2016. An inquest this month found "no evidence" he was murdered.

British holidaymaker Christina Annesley, 23, died on the island in January 2015 after apparently mixing antibiotics she was taking for a chest infection with alcohol.

But her parents slammed Thai police for failing to properly investigate the death.

Frenchman Dimitri Povse, 29, was found hanged in a bungalow on the island on New Year's Day 2015 and his death was ruled as suicide despite his hands being tied behind his back.

In the most high-profile case, Brits Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were murdered as they walked back to their hotel rooms in September 2014.

On New Year's Day 2014, 25-year-old Nick Pearson, from Derby, was found floating in the sea and his parents believe he was murdered - despite police claims he fell 15m and drowned.

- Daily Mail