Brit lawyer’s heartbreaking final textual content to mum days earlier than consuming lethal pictures
Simone White had been having the time of her life backpacking with her best friend in Laos – but neither would have ever known about the danger awaiting them – and several other victims
A heartbroken mum has shared her daughter’s devastating final moments after a trip of a lifetime ended in tragedy.
Simone White had messaged her mum telling her she was “having the best time.” Days later, she would be dead after unknowingly drinking methanol-laced shots in Laos.
An alarming number of backpackers have tragically died in Southeast Asia after allegedly being given free shots.
Lawyer, Simone, 28 wasn’t the only tourist to pay with her life. Best friends, Holly Morton-Bowles, 19 and Bianca Jones, 19 from Australia also both died in similar circumstances along with pals, Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20 and Freja Sorensen, 21 from Denmark, and James Hutson, 57, from the US.
They had all been staying at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng, where they were served the drinks.
Miraculously, Simone’s friend, Bethany Clark survived the horror ordeal after also falling ill.
In a new interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Simone’s mother, Sue White from Kent recalled the moment she was told her daughter needed emergency brain surgery and made the frantic trip from the UK to be at her bedside.
Sue revealed the last message she received from Simone, sent just a day before she consumed the fatal shots, showing that Simone was unaware of the horror that awaited her. “I’m just having the best time it’s an absolutely fantastic holiday,” the text read.
“She messaged me as it was all happening but that was the final message I got from her,” Sue recalled.
As Simone was rushed to hospital, Sue arrived just in time to see her unconscious daughter being wheeled into brain surgery.
Simone was put on life support, but the doctors, bound by their religious beliefs, were unable to turn it off.
Sue said: “I just literally kept her on the ventilator, and it was only when I said, ‘I can’t do this any longer emotionally’—it had taken its toll—that they came back about an hour later and said, ‘Okay, well, if you want to, you can turn the ventilator off yourself.'”
It was an agonising decision that Sue described as “absolutely terrible” and “so traumatic” as she had to remove the tube from Simone’s mouth herself.
Simone’s friend, Bethany suffered severe symptoms after drinking the same amount of shots, but miraculously made a full physical recovery. Speaking to 60 Minutes, Bethany revealed that she had travelled to Laos, completely unaware that methanol poisoning was a danger.
“I just knew that you could get bad alcohol that could make you get a bad hangover, that’s as far as it went really,” she said.
The programme showed CCTV footage that captured Bethany and Simone at their hostel, blissfully unaware of the horror that was to await them, as they sat sipping drinks by the pool.
Bethany described how her condition worsened as she began to feel increasingly unwell.
She described the experience as feeling almost paralysed—unable to move properly, though she could still walk.
“Everything became so much harder than usual,” she explained.
The main symptoms she faced were overwhelming fatigue and nausea, with the situation becoming so severe that she even fainted. Bethany has since returned to Britain to come to terms with the devastating loss of her friend.
Methanol is a toxic alcohol, commonly used in industrial applications like antifreeze and windshield washer fluid. It is deadly because when ingested, the body metabolizes it into formic acid, a highly toxic substance that has proved fatal.
60 Minutes also highlighted the devastating fate of 19-year-olds Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones, two best friends from Australia who also died after drinking shots offered at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Laos.
Holly’s father, Mark recalled his last conversation with her, saying: “I asked her to take a selfie, and she told me, ‘Bugger off, Dad.’ That’s the last thing I said to her.”
He added: “I keep thinking she’ll come to the door and say, ‘Hello, I was just away.'”
United in grief, all the victims’ parents are joining forces to raise awareness of the dangers of drinking spirits abroad.
Anne-Sofie’s mum said: “Now our girl will never be more than 20. Her life has stopped because of a situation that could easily have been avoided and should not have happened.”
