The body of a 23-year-old man who was launched from the back seat of a motorbike that collided head on with a car in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district Wednesday night was discovered on the roof of a villa’s gatehouse Thursday morning.
The body had gone unnoticed by police, who said they assumed the motorbike’s 22-year-old driver to be the only victim of the crash.
Authorities at the scene of the accident, which occured on Kao Chenda Street in Chroy Changva commune at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, arrested the car’s driver, Huy Sothearith, 36, but were unable to save the motorbike’s driver, Roeun Chanthorn, who succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital, according to deputy commune police chief Yim Sokha.
At 7:30 Thursday morning, the owner of a villa on the street called police to report finding a body on the roof of the property’s gatehouse after noticing blood dripping through the ceiling, Mr. Sokha said.
“We examined the scene of the crash but saw nothing else, but this morning, we found another victim on top of a 3.5-meter [high] roof. We don’t know how he got up there,” he said.
The police chief identified the second victim as Sreng Borin and said the victims’ families confirmed that he was a close friend of the driver, having worked together at the Ta Sek I restaurant in Chroy Changva.
Sreng Borin’s aunt, Sreng Sokhon, said the two friends had gone out on the motorbike together on the evening of the accident. After hearing about the accident, she said, the family asked police to look for her nephew.
“We wondered why, when there were two boys on the motorbike, there was only one victim,” she said. “I never imagined they would find my nephew on the roof.”
The owner of the villa, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said her family heard sounds coming from the gatehouse in the night.
“At midnight, we heard groans from the roof but didn’t check it because we thought it was a cat or a ghost.”
