There Was a Murder at Shou Sugi Ban House, a Hamptons Spa

Photo: James Carbone/Newsday via Getty Images

Earlier this week, Brooklyn resident and artist Sabina Rosas, 33 years old, was found dead inside her room at the coveted wellness sanctuary Shou Sugi Ban House. Here is what we know.

What Is Shou Sugi Ban House?

You’ve probably seen the luxury hotel on social media. It’s an intimate wellness hub in Water Mill, Southampton. The gated hotel has just 13 “private guest studios,” which are 400-square-foot rooms with private entrances and garden patios.

A healing-arts retreat beloved by celebrities, with an award-winning spa full of luxury Tata Harper products, is the last location you would expect a nightmare like this. It’s ironic that a murder would occur at a place centered on holistic health and well-being.

Who Was Sabina Rosas?

The 33-year-old Brooklyn-based artist was the founder of Ruyò Journal, a “platform fostering critical discourse in the arts, film, and theory in Central Asia.” Her family, who identified her as “Sabina Khorramdel,” read in a statement, “As the eldest of three daughters, Sabina brought excitement, adventure, joy, and love to our family.” They asked for privacy during this time.

What Happened to Rosas?

A hotel staff member found her body, and investigators determined immediately that Rosas had been a “victim of violence.” Her specific reason for visiting the resort is unclear. Town residents are shocked by the murder because it’s normally an area without many issues, especially not homicides. “I drove by earlier and saw these news trucks and thought, Uh oh, what did Justin Timberlake do this time?, because the only thing newsworthy that happens here has to do with celebrities,” one resident told the New York Post.

Suffolk County police labeled Thomas Gannon, 56, as a suspect in the murder. He was last seen leaving the spa on Monday morning without Rosas. On Wednesday, his body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Who Was Thomas Gannon to Rosas?

The police confirmed the two knew each other and said their relationship was “domestic in nature.” A Daily Mail reporter who claims she led police to Gannon after riding in the Uber he had used to leave Southampton spoke to Rosas’s “grief-stricken partner,” Ryder Itawa. Itawa told the reporter that Gannon “helped fund her artistic endeavors.” He added, “She was like his muse of sorts. He was head over heels for her but also very possessive … Once he told me that Sabina did not love him and told me that he believes Sabina was using him for his money.”

A medical examiner is performing an autopsy on Rosas to determine how she was killed. The Daily Mail reported that Shou Sugi Ban House will be closed for two weeks. The Cut has reached out to the property for comment as well as to Tata Harper, the official spa sponsor, but neither has responded.