Aussie kickboxer Jayson Tonkin ghosts back into Australia after horror drug overdose kills Muay Thai fighter Joshua Goldstone in Pattaya hotel

Australian kickboxer Jayson Tonkin has quietly returned home after watching his young boxing buddy die in front of his eyes near a stash of drugs in a Thai hotel room.

Joshua Goldstone, a 21-year-old Brit who trained at Tonkin, was found dead on the floor of their hotel room in the Thai resort of Pattaya six weeks ago.

The two men were partying after training for Muay Thai fights in Hua Hin, a sleepy Thai village across the water that stands in stark contrast to the seedy, all-night partying allure of Pattaya.

But in the early hours of October 30, Thai police were called to room 2412 at the Vogue Hotel in Pattaya, where they found a man lying dead on the floor.

Confusion at the crime scene initially led Pattaya city police to believe it was the Australian who had died, until it was confirmed hours later that it was Goldstone.

The alarm was raised after staff rushed to the top floor of the hotel at around 12.10pm when they ‘heard a commotion’ and found a man who was reportedly “in a state of severe intoxication.”

It was said he “panicked and screamed” because the second man was face up on the ground and not moving.

Thai police released a media statement, along with photos from the hotel room of a body on the floor.

The police statement said an Australian: ‘Mr Jayson Peter Tonkin, aged 27, was found face up, shirtless, wearing black shorts, with tattoos on his body and wearing a fanny pack.

“Upon inspection of the room, no signs of a struggle were found, but ketamine and marijuana medications, as well as drug paraphernalia, were found on the table.

“The police officers have collected all the evidence.”

Police also revealed that the dead man’s friend had been taken to hospital under the influence of drugs and was possibly in a coma..

It took a day for Pattaya police to acknowledge the mistake, but not before Tonkin’s friends posted alarmed messages on social media about the death of the Australian, nicknamed ‘The Dingo’.

The alarm went off to relieved messages of “I’m praying for you, bro,” but for Goldstone’s family in England, the pain and devastation was just beginning.

Goldstone, who turned 21 six months earlier, had traveled several times to Thailand, where he had embraced Buddhism while training with various Muay Thai masters.

Before his sudden death from a suspected drug overdose, he had built a reputation as a fierce fighter and a rising young star in his sport.

His British kickboxing mentor Steve Gladstone said he was a “strong, good-hearted and fearless boy” who was just starting out and “the story wasn’t finished yet.”

Australian boyfriend Tonkin, on the other hand, is a 27-year-old veteran fighter who had recently admitted to being addicted to methamphetamine, cannabis and other drugs.

The ABC reported that Thai police had seized white powder and a small glass tube, along with cannabis, from the table in the hotel room where Goldstone and Tonkin had booked for one night, and were awaiting laboratory results.

Drug possession carries stiff penalties in Thailand, with ketamine classified as a Schedule 2 drug carrying a possible sentence of between one and five years in one of the country’s notorious prisons.

A photo posted to his Instagram page just four days before his death shows Josh shirtless in a market carrying a tray of narcotic plants.

Cannabis has been decriminalized in Thailand. In a video posted on the same day as his death, Goldstone sits behind Tonkin on a bicycle with the tray of plants, laughing as they ride through the streets of Pattaya at night.

Thai police were reportedly embarrassed by mixing up the identities of dead and living men in the Pattaya hotel room.

No charges have been laid over alleged drugs, and Daily Mail Australia has been unable to confirm the investigation is ongoing.

Tonkin left Thailand in the wake of the tragedy and is reportedly relieved the ordeal is over, but realized he was lucky to survive and escape possible charges.

He set his Facebook page to private and posted a tribute to Goldstone that read, “Rest in peace my little brother Joshy,” with a heart and white dove emoji.

One of his associates described Tonkin’s experience to Daily Mail Australia as a major “wake-up call.”

A Muay Thai staff member said Tonkin was currently on the Gold Coast but was not contacting others in the kickboxing world at this time.

In a searing confession in March this year, Tonkin admitted he used prostitutes, was addicted to methamphetamine and other drugs, and was on the run from police.

In a dramatic story about being “hard on meth,” he described feeling paralyzed and in pain for hours, as if someone were stomping on his head with steel boots and the voice of a “demonic” woman was whispering in his ear.

The middleweight Muay Thai fighter opened up about his struggles in the podcast @TidesTalkabout mental health and addiction.

He said he moved with his father to Bangkok, the “crazy sex capital of the world,” at the age of 15 and “lost my virginity” when “a prostitute in a club” was chosen for him.

“In Thailand you have Russian prostitutes, Indian prostitutes and all kinds of prostitutes,” he added. ‘You have everything, but especially Thai.’

He was 17 when he smoked “my first joint” and soon he was “smoking 10 to 15 joints a day,” taking cocaine, and “sometimes smoking weed before my fights.”

In Australia during Covid he lived in a house with ‘a drug dealer, he sold coke, MDMA, then I started learning what a bender was, two days without sleep.

“People I attract because of who I am as a fighter are actually gangsters,” he told podcasters Kahika Beckett, his cousin, and Chandu Grant.

“Partying with The Dingo, take this line, take this pill, I was pretty much a guinea pig so I moved back to Thailand and fell down the rabbit hole.”

But in Bangkok ‘I came into contact with meth for the first time.

‘It started bothering me, there was one night… I got sleep paralysis.

‘I can’t move, I have this enormous pressure and weight on me and it feels like someone is stomping on my head, boom, boom, boom, like they had steel boots on… and then there was another demonic woman’s voice in my ear.’

When Tonkin returned to Thailand in September to prepare for a big fight, he admitted: ‘I’m not really allowed to live here, I get too lost in the madness.

‘I live in Hua Hin, which is very quiet and good to concentrate on my training.’

Tonkin was scheduled to fight WBC Muay Thai middleweight champion Tengnueng Sitjaesairoong on October 20, who he said he was ready to beat with a knockout victory.

But the fight was postponed due to the monsoon rains on that day, and rescheduled for November.

Meanwhile, Tonkin, Goldstone and other fighters had left the peace of Hua Hin for the bright lights of Pattaya.

After Goldstone’s body was flown back to Britain, his devastated family held a funeral near their home in southern England on December 14.

With Tonkin’s big rematch fight canceled and his uneventful return to Australia, it remains to be seen what lies ahead for Tonkin’s future.