When the search for the truth is bad for business

April 17, 2026 — 11:30am

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At the picturesque Laos town of Vang Vieng, local booze and foreign lives are cheap, which is why no one talks about the death of six tourists, poisoned by toxic backyard alcohol at a popular backpacker hotel.

At Nana Backpackers, business was booming post-COVID in 2024, and filled with young visitors, attracted by the cheap rates, clean rooms, outdoor pool and free nightly drinks.

Today it has been repainted, the pool is maintained, the gate is closed, but is not locked and occasionally tourists slip in for free games of pool.

It looks ready to open, but a sign at the front declares it remains closed, “Until problem is resolved and new orders.”

Shuttered Laos ‘distillery’ implicated in methanol deaths denies responsibility

Who would make such orders is not clear.

A planned reopening was cancelled when relatives of the poisoning victims went online to warn potential customers to stay away.

In November 2024, Victorian teenagers Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, checked into Nana Backpackers Hostel. They joined other guests for free whisky and vodka shots near the pool.

This time the drinks contained methanol. How and why remains a mystery.

Morton-Bowles, Jones, British lawyer Simone White, 28, Danish residents Anne Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, along with James Louis Hutson, 57, died after drinking the shots.

Despite continued lobbying through diplomatic channels the families of the Melbourne teenagers have few answers to their many questions.

The Laos government made all the right noises, expressing sorrow, and vowed to punish the offenders, declaring it was “conducting investigations to find causes of the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law”.

It ignored offers from the Australian Federal Police to provide specialist assistance, including forensic experts. The offer was refused because the Australian officers would........

© The Age