Kandal provincial police chief Iv Chamroeun yesterday said one of two men arrested Sunday for a triple murder last month was a cousin of one of the victims and was also wanted for three other murders.
Phnom Penh police arrested Sok Seng, 44, and Ton Sarum, 30, over the weekend in connection with the murder before handing the pair over to Kandal province authorities. Sok Koeu, 48, her 24-year-old daughter, Seng Muoy Kea, and their 15-year-old servant, Pach Sreynia, were found dead on Oct 9 with a single gunshot wound to the backs of each of their heads. All three were found lying on a mattress in a room above the family’s Chinese noodle shop in Kandal’s Takhmau City.
Yesterday, the provincial police chief identified Mr Seng as a cousin of Ms Koeu and claimed that he had confessed to killing all three women just before 6 pm on Oct 8 with a handgun borrowed from Mr Sarum, an RCAF captain.
Mr Chamroeun said the police had settled on robbery as the motive of the attack and that the suspects had made away with a combined $5,350 worth in Cambodian riel, US dollars and jewelry. An additional $10,000 in cash was found under the mattress at the scene of the crime, initially seeming to rule out robbery as a motive.
According to the provincial police chief, Mr Seng had been released from Prey Sar prison in February after serving 12 years for robbing a gold shop in Phnom Penh in 1998, and he is suspected of committing another triple murder in Kompong Speu province since his release.
Mr Chamroeun said police were also searching for a third suspect, Bun Vutha, 27, believed to be hiding under an assumed name in Kompong Speu, where he had recently visited his parents.
“Our Kandal provincial policemen spent 26 days investigating to find the triple-murder killers, but one suspect is still at large,” he said. “Now we are hunting to arrest him.”
He said Mr Seng and Mr Sarum would be sent to provincial court this morning and that a warrant would be sought for Mr Vutha’s arrest.
