Workers from Laos bar where Aussie teenagers Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones died of methanol poisoning flee country to new jobs
Two workers employed at the Laos bar where two Australian travellers died of methanol poisoning have fled the country.
They had been working at the Nana Backpackers Hostel when the 19-year-old Melbourne women, Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, became two of six international victims that died after drinking the tainted alcohol in the establishment.
The Herald Sun revealed on Friday that the two men, employed as a bartender and a hostel manager at the time of the incident in November last year, have found new jobs in Vietnam.
After they fled the Laos tourist town of Vang Vieng, the outlet reports that the former hostel manager, known as Pikachu, was employed at a new hostel in his home country of Vietnam, and that the former bartender was now employed at a hotel there.
The two men were among those detained after the incident.
Hotel staff and management were among at least eight people taken into police custody.
The Laotian government vowed to 'bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law'.
But no charges have been filed, and officials in Laos have released almost no details in the mass poisoning case since November.
Alongside the Melbourne teens, an American man, two Danish women and a British woman died of methanol poisoning at the hostel.
Jones and Bowles had joined other guests for free shots of alcohol offered by the hostel before going out for the night, but after becoming ill, did not leave their room for 24 hours and failed to check out as scheduled.
They were taken to a hospital in Laos before being transferred to Thailand, where they were treated in two separate Bangkok hospitals after their parents raced to be by their bedsides.
Jones' father Mark, upon learning of the whereabouts of the bartender and hostel manager, told the Herald Sun: 'We want the Australian Government to apply as much pressure as they can to bring justice to all those involved in the methanol poisoning of our girls.'
Methanol is a form of alcohol commonly used in cleaning and industrial products, but it is toxic for humans and drinking as little as 30ml can be lethal.
Outbreaks of methanol poisoning occur when the chemical is added to alcoholic drinks, either inadvertently through traditional brewing methods or deliberately — usually in the pursuit of profit.
Thousands of people suffer from methanol poisoning every year, with most cases reported in Asia from people drinking bootlegged liquor or homemade alcohol. Many Southeast Asian nations have low safety standards, patchy regulatory enforcement and high levels of police corruption.
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