Police in Koh Kong province have arrested a man who they say confessed to raping and strangling a 14-year-old neighbor with her underwear after the missing girl’s body was found in jungle yesterday. The girl had left her uncle’s house at 1 p.m. on Tuesday to tend to the family’s cows, but when she had not returned by 5 p.m. her uncle alerted villagers who began to search for her, commune chief Chhorn Mon said.
Mr. Mon said the victim’s body was found yesterday morning, naked except for a pair of underwear tied around her neck. “This is a rape and murder case because the body was found undressed and she had injured genitals,” he said. Brigadier General Somkhit Vien, provincial police chief, said the victim’s neighbor, Khun Sinh, 30, was summoned to the district police station where he confessed during questioning yesterday afternoon. “We suspected this perpetrator because he led another villager to find the body,” he said, adding that the suspect had been detained ahead of further questioning today.
