Man Arrested for Torture, Rape and Murder

Police on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old man for the alleged torture, rape and murder of his girlfriend, whose battered body was found floating in the Tonle Sap river last week, police said.

Police found the body of Song Davin, 20—a first-year accounting student at Phnom Penh’s Vanda Institute who also worked part time at a money exchange—on October 7 near the riverbank in Chroy Changva district.

Police said the body was covered in bruises, and concluded that the victim had been tortured.

The suspected killer, Hong Kalidin, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home on Street 430 in Chamkar Mon district’s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune, according to Tey Visal, deputy municipal penal police chief.

Mr. Visal said Tuesday an autopsy revealed that Song Davin had also been raped.

“The results of the victim’s body examination show that she was raped and murdered,” he said.

Brigadier General Loek Vannak, deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s penal department, who led the investigation, said that when police went to Mr. Kalidin’s house to arrest him Tuesday, they found a Glock pistol and two silencers inside his new Toyota Tundra, adding that the suspect was being questioned at the penal department headquarters.

Brig Gen. Vannak said Mr. Kalidin passed a police officer’s exam earlier this year, but refused to say which department he had been accepted to.

“We are still questioning the suspect and investigating further,” he said. “We cannot tell you more.”

Mr. Visal said investigators established that Mr. Kalidin had been Song Davin’s boyfriend after searching the victim’s apartment in Chamkar Mon’s Boeng Trabek commune.

“We were searching the victim’s apartment and found the suspect’s phone number in the received calls list of the victim’s phone,” Mr. Visal said, adding that neighbors interviewed by police confirmed that the two had been in a relationship.

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