A 26-year-old man has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, whose body was found in a pile of trash in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, national and military police said on Friday.
Yen Panha, a drug addict in debt, killed his girlfriend so he could pawn her motorbike, according to a report posted to the National Police website on Friday.
On Wednesday, Mr. Panha had asked his girlfriend, Keo Kanha, 19, to meet him with $30 so they could retrieve his telephone from a pawn shop, police said.
When she arrived, he led her to a friend’s house, strangled her with electrical wire, wrapped her body in a blanket, tied it with string, put it in a large plastic bag and carried it on his motorbike to the trash pile, police said.
After he pawned off his girlfriend’s motorbike, Mr. Panha went into hiding at his grandmother’s house, police said.
Touch Ynan, deputy commander of the Kandal provincial military police, said that after a two-day investigation, military police arrested Mr. Panha on Thursday in Koh Thom district.
