Detention Extended for Rape, Double Murder Suspect

As the investigation continues into a grisly rape and double murder in Kompong Cham province, police said yesterday the provincial court had allowed them to extend the detention of a suspect who has not yet been charged.

On Tuesday police arrested Doek Sung, 35, in the rape and murder of Moung Sreyroth, 18, and the murder of her friend Thy Phen, 20, who was beaten to death and thrown down a well, said Chan Hor, said deputy chief of Kompong Cham’s judicial police. Police discovered Mr Phen’s body Monday and then on Tuesday discovered the body of Ms Sreyroth, who was raped, strangled then hanged from a tree in a cashew orchard in Memot district’s Dar commune.

“Because the suspect did not confess his act, we still need to conduct more questioning and investigating, so the suspect needs to be detained in provincial police custody,” the police chief said.

Khut Dien, Dambe district police chief, said the murders could have been an attempt to silence the pair due to their possible knowledge of an earlier rape attack on a 15-year-old girl, of which the late Mr Phen appears to have been involved.

“There are a lot of secrets in this case,” Mr Dien said. “Maybe it involves a revenge killing.”

Two men, whose faces were masked by kramas, raped the girl on May 27 after Mr Phen took her to a secluded area and then fled when the two men appeared, Mr Dien said. The teenager was Mr Phen girlfriend at the time, police said.

“Police suspect that Thy Phen arranged the rape of his girlfriend because he did not love her anymore, instead loving the [late Ms Sreyroth],” he said.

The whereabouts of the 15-year-old, who reportedly vanished the day after being attacked, remain unknown, he said.

“She could be alive or murdered and the body was thrown someplace,” Mr Dien said. Hout Vuthy, the provincial prosecutor, declined to comment on case yesterday.

 

 

Related Stories

Latest News