Nepal has released a notorious convicted serial killer known as “The Serpent” after 19 years of imprisonment for killing an American backpacker, NBC News reported on Friday, December 23, 2022 (read story here). He also was convicted of killing her Canadian male companion.
His name is Charles Sobhraj (photo, left), and most Americans have never heard of him. But “Sobhraj, 78, a French national, is suspected of killing more than 20 Western backpackers on the ‘hippie trail’ through Asia,” NBC News says (see story here). His M.O. was to drug and rob the victims.
He’s also a suspect in murders of women in Thailand whose bikini-clad bodies were dumped on a beach. There, he’s known as “the bikini killer.” He’ll apparently return to France, even though Thailand has an outstanding arrest warrant for him. It would make more sense for Nepal to hand him over to Thai authorities. Just because he’s old now, doesn’t mean he’s harmless.
Sobhraj has been a subject of books and films; read his Wikipedia profile here, get a book here, and watch the Netflix series trailer below.