---
title: "Laos says it cannot determine cause of tourists' methanol deaths"
description: "More than a year after six young foreign tourists died from suspected methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng, Laos says it cannot conclusively establish the cause, even as it charges a distillery owner over the tainted alcohol. Australia and grieving families say the response falls far short of justice."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Daniel Morales"
published: 2026-07-18T10:22:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-18T10:22:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/laos-methanol-tourist-deaths-cause-undetermined
tags: ["laos", "methanol", "vang-vieng", "tourism", "public-safety"]
---
# Laos says it cannot determine cause of tourists' methanol deaths

More than a year after six young foreign tourists died from suspected methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng, Laos says it cannot conclusively establish the cause, even as it charges a distillery owner over the tainted alcohol. Australia and grieving families say the response falls far short of justice.

Laotian authorities have said they cannot conclusively determine what caused the deaths of six young foreign tourists in the backpacker town of Vang Vieng in late 2024, a conclusion that has angered the victims' families and the Australian government even as prosecutors move against a local distillery.

The six died in November 2024 after a night out in Vang Vieng, a riverside town popular with backpackers, in what was widely attributed to drinks contaminated with methanol, a toxic alcohol sometimes used illicitly as a cheap substitute for drinking alcohol. According to reporting on the case, Laos has now charged the owner of a distillery whose product was linked to the poisonings, but [with relatively minor offences rather than more serious charges](https://www.hngn.com/articles/272135/20260717/australia-bitterly-disappointed-laos-drops-serious-charges-methanol-poisoning-deaths.htm), while stating that it could not definitively establish the cause of the deaths.

## The victims

Those who died included two 19-year-old Australians, Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, close friends from Melbourne; a 28-year-old British lawyer, Simone White; two Danish citizens; and an American. Several other travellers were treated in hospital. The deaths, spread over several days as victims fell ill after the same night out, drew global attention to the dangers of methanol-tainted alcohol in parts of Southeast Asia.

## Charges and questions

In the aftermath, Laotian police detained a number of staff from the hostel where some of the group had been staying, and authorities said they had moved against the distillery believed to have produced the tainted spirits, [also restricting sales of the implicated liquor brands](https://www.lcanews.com/en/australia-protests-laos-charges-over-2024-methanol-deaths/). But the charges ultimately brought, centred on producing or selling harmful products and operating illegally rather than on causing the deaths, carry far lighter penalties than families had hoped for.

## Anger from abroad

The response has drawn a sharp reaction. Australia said it was [deeply frustrated and "bitterly disappointed"](https://www.internazionale.it/ultime-notizie-reuters/2026/07/17/australia-summons-laos-ambassador-calls-for-serious-charges-in-backpacker-methanol-deaths) that more serious charges were not being pursued, and its foreign ministry summoned Laos's ambassador to register its objections. Families of the dead have described the penalties as far too lenient given the scale of the loss.

Britain and Denmark, whose citizens were also among the dead, have engaged Laotian officials over the case, and Western governments have kept travel advice for the country under review.

## A wider warning

The case has become a grim reference point for the risks of unregulated alcohol in some tourist destinations, where cheap drinks can be adulterated with methanol that is indistinguishable by taste but can cause blindness, organ failure and death even in small amounts. For the families still seeking answers, Laos's statement that it cannot determine how their children died leaves the central question, and the accountability they have demanded, unresolved.