Police in Kompong Thom province were on Friday staking out a cassava plantation where they believed a farmer was hiding after hacking his wife and mother-in-law to death at the home they shared on the plantation grounds, local police said.
The suspect, Hon Buntheang, 27, a laborer on the plantation, became enraged after he returned home on Thursday evening after a full day of drinking and found that his wife had not prepared dinner for him, according to deputy provincial police chief Ke Khannara.
“Because he had too much to drink and was hungry and angry, and because his wife and his mother-in-law were reproaching him, the suspect, the husband, took an ax to hack his wife and mother-in-law,” he said.
The suspect then fled into a heavily wooded area inside the plantation, leaving Chhen Sreytum, 25, and Yim Saroeun, 58, to die, according to deputy Sandan district police chief Chea Peurn.
After hearing the victims’ cries for help, neighbors rushed to the scene and found them on the ground covered in blood, he said.
“Our police rushed to save the victims, but it was too late because both were too badly injured,” he said.
“We surrounded the cassava plantation and are looking for the suspect there because we know the suspect was too drunk” to go far, he added.
“The suspect is a worker on the cassava plantation and knows the local geography better than police.”
