Canadian grandmother released from Hong Kong prison

W5: Prisoner 14000 Avery Haines speaks with romance scam victim Suzana Thayer about how she got caught up in a drug smuggling scheme that landed her in prison.

HONG KONG — A Canadian woman has been released from a Hong Kong prison after spending 270 days behind bars on cocaine smuggling charges.

Suzana Thayer, 65, from Barrie, Ont., was arrested at the Hong Kong airport last year after being found with cocaine hidden inside her suitcase. The sudden decision to release her was a shock to both the woman herself and legal watchers.

“I can’t get over it,” Thayer told W5’s Avery Haines in Hong Kong. “Why all of a sudden did they say I’m free?”

Hong Kong lawyer Michael Arthur, who has followed the case closely, says it’s highly unusual for drug charges to be dropped in cases like this, especially since she had been denied bail because the case was considered very strong.

“What I want to know is what changed between the time that the prosecution said the evidence against her was strong and the last Saturday when the case was dropped,” Arthur told Haines. “Something must have happened. All I can conclude -- and I really don’t know -- is that they watched your program. I think it put some pressure on them.”

In March, a W5 documentary told the story of how Thayer was tricked in a sophisticated romance scam -- not once, but twice. The first time she lost more than $200,000, sent to a man she fell in love with, who turned out to be fake. That incident prompted her to write a book about how she was duped. But in an ironic twist, while she was writing the book, she met another man online, who tricked her again.

The second man asked her for nothing and flew her to Ethiopia, ostensibly to meet him. He was a no-show for three weeks then told her he was going to fly her to meet him in Hong Kong. Hours before her flight, two men visited her with gifts: a suitcase filled with dresses.

Fourteen hours later, Thayer was arrested by Hong Kong customs officers. Those gifts -- the dresses inside the suitcase -- had 262 buttons filled with cocaine.

“I didn't even know there was buttons, let alone cocaine,” said Thayer. “I felt like I deserted my family. That I let them down. I felt so much remorse and pain because I knew they were in pain.”

W5 asked the Hong Kong justice department for an interview to explain the sudden about-face, which was denied. A spokesperson sent a statement.

“The Department of Justice does not comment on individual cases… A prosecution would only be commenced if there is sufficient admissible evidence to demonstrate a reasonable prospect of conviction.”

Thayer believes there may be a silver lining to her imprisonment.

“I really feel that someone would have killed me for that suitcase,” Thayer said. “Being imprisoned, even though I thought I might have been in there for life, saved my life… because I could have been killed.”

W5’s new documentary on Thayer’s ordeal, reveals questionable behaviour by Hong Kong customs officials caught on an interrogation video and traces her journey back to Canada. Prisoner 14000 airs October 6 at 10p/9c on CTV.