Police on Friday were seeking a 33-year-old mentally ill man accused of fatally attacking his sister and brother-in-law with an ax in Kompong Chhnang province, an official said.
Morn Ta Aun fled the scene after killing his older sister, Morn Chanthon, 35, and her husband, Sam Sao, 53, a Cambodian- Australian national at about 7:30 a.m. on Thursday at their home in Kompong Tralach district’s Longvek commune, said Loch Sovannara, the provincial police chief.
“It was a brutal hacking,” he said.
Mr. Ta Aun, who is mentally ill, struck his brother-in-law about the head, face and body, then attacked his sister from behind as she lifted her husband’s body from the ground after returning to the house, Mr. Sovannara said.
“The bodies were seen lying in the pool of blood next to each other,” he said.
Ms. Chanthon had run to her neighbors for help, at one point, but they had left for work, and one woman she met declined to help as she had just given birth, police said.
Mr. Tau Aun had been mentally ill for a long time, though it wasn’t certain that his illness played a part in the murders, Mr. Sovannara said.
After murdering his relatives, the suspect took bath and changed clothes, then fled the house on a motorbike taxi, he said.
The new mother who had met the victim called police, he said.
