A woman whose body was discovered in a patch of tall grass along a road in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district on Tuesday had been murdered, police said on Wednesday, likely bludgeoned to death with a wooden stick found nearby.
A truck driver transporting firewood to the capital from Kompong Cham province found the corpse at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday after stopping to urinate, according to Prek Tasek commune police chief Meng Sarath.
“He smelled something stinky,” Mr. Sarath said. “He thought it was the dead body of a rat or dog, so he tried to look for it. Then he found the body of the woman lying face down.”
The woman, who has not been identified, was wearing black pants and a white T-shirt; eyeglasses, a pair of shoes and an empty red purse were found near the body.
She had been struck on the back of the head and her skull was broken, Mr. Sarath said, adding that the body was being kept at a local pagoda.
