Tith Somalen, the sole survivor of last week’s brutal double murder that left her 11-month-old son and her 30-year-old sister dead, said Thursday she knows the perpetrator behind the killings.
“In one week, I believe that police will arrest the ringleader and I have cooperated with the police to work on it. I am personally working on it to find evidence to prove that the woman really killed my family,” Ms. Somalen said.
“I have never had any enemies with anyone but only one woman hates me and I believe that she’s the one who planned to shoot my family,” she said, declining to reveal more.
Ms. Somalen’s sister, Tith Theara, was shot 14 times in front of her house on April 8 after arriving home from work at 5:30 p.m. in Pur Senchey district’s Choam Chao commune. Witnesses said the gunman then crossed the street and went into Ms. Somalen’s house, where he shot both Ms. Somalen, 35, and her 11-month-old son, Loy Yuth Thara. The child died, and Ms. Somalen was wounded in the thigh and chest.
Police said they are investigating whether Ms. Somalen’s relationship with the father of her deceased child—a married man from Stung Treng province—had provoked the triple shooting.
In a bizarre twist, a 21-year-old man, Vann Chetra, was beaten to death the night after the shooting in Stung Treng City by three men, and police officials believe the dead man may have been the gunman.
In Bora, penal police chief at the Ministry of Interior, said several suspects have been identified, but no one has yet been arrested.
“We are still searching for them. We are working with the [Stung Treng] provincial police on this.”
Ms. Somalen said that the shooter had targeted her infant son for execution.
“The shooter came inside my house and I ran to the toilet and he shot me there with my son. He shot my son first in the head then he shot me, once in the thigh and under my right breast,” she said.
Ms. Somalen also said that her partner, Si Laloy, 38—whom she referred to as her husband, though they are not legally married—had been separated from his wife for seven years.
“I didn’t steal anyone’s husband,” Ms. Somalen said, adding that her husband used to work as an adviser for CPP Senate President Chea Sim but currently owns a hotel in Ratanakkiri province and is heavily in debt. She also said that his debtors had been seeking money from her.
Ms. Somalen claimed that she has not seen Mr. Laloy since late February.
Neighbors said they were still fearful that a gunman might return, and that Ms. Somalen, as well as the husband of her slain sister, Tith Theara, had moved away right after the funeral late last week.
“Now I dare not keep my doors open like I used to; I just keep my doors locked,” Thuong Channy, her nextdoor neighbor, said.
