The bloated, half-naked corpse of an army sergeant was found in the forest about 3 km from his base in Oddar Meanchey province on Saturday, five days after he wandered into the woods in a drunken stupor, police said on Monday.
Suoy Nhanh, a 35-year-old member of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ Battalion 412 stationed in Trapaing Prasat district, left his barracks at about 1 a.m. on April 25 and never returned, according to deputy district police chief Kong Sambat.
“He went missing…after they turned off the generator and everyone went to bed,” he said.
His disappearance prompted a multi-day manhunt carried out by his comrades, but it was a group of children hunting squirrels on Saturday afternoon who eventually found his body in the forest some 3 km north of his base in Bak Anloung commune, Mr. Sambat said.
District police went to the site on Sunday morning and determined that Suoy Nhanh had died of dehydration, he said, adding that the sergeant had stripped down to his boxer shorts before his death.
“His superior said he had been very depressed lately because his wife left him and went to Thailand,” he said. “He started drinking a lot and wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing.”
