A woman was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend while she was working in Kompong Speu province’s Odong Market on Sunday, according Odong district police chief Khim Samon, who said the suspect was angry because the victim refused to marry him.
Sim Touch, 32, repeatedly stabbed Nem Chantou, 24, in the back, neck and stomach at about 8:50 a.m. at the dressmaking stall she owned, Mr. Samon said.
He then turned the knife on himself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt, stabbing himself in the ribs twice and stomach once, he said.
The victim later died from her wounds at the district referral hospital, while the suspect is under police guard at Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital, he added.
“The girl refused to marry him because the man has a wife,” Mr. Samon said. “That’s why he got mad—he wanted to kill both himself and the victim.”
The police chief said he was astonished that nobody intervened.
“There were thousands of people at the market, not just a few…but they don’t help each other,” he said. “If they did, there would have been no fatal incident.”
