A 29-year-old man allegedly killed his wife and 2-year-old daughter with a machete in Kompong Speu province’s Oral district on Friday, after suspecting that his wife was having an affair with someone from his village, district police chief Dors Sim said yesterday.
Mr Sim alleged that Thon Phoeun struck three blows with a machete to kill his 22-year-old wife, Ngoy Mesopheap, at around 5 pm in their home in Oral district’s Trapaing Chor commune, while his daughter was killed with two strikes.
“First, the offender chopped his wife and then he chopped and killed his daughter…but his son was saved by villagers who were relatives,” Mr Sim said, adding that police believed Mr Phoeun was drunk at the time of the attack.
“We arrested the man in the village about 30 minutes later, because he was still drunk and could not run to escape from our district policemen. The man confessed that he was jealous of his wife and killed for personal revenge.”
Mr Sim said it was the first time a man had his their wife and daughter in his district. But “it is stranger to me that the man confessed he killed his wife because of jealousy,” he added.
Provincial police chief Keo Pisey said yesterday that police would seek premeditated murder charges against Mr Phoeun.
“The suspect is still in our Kompong Speu provincial police custody and tomorrow we will send him to court and ask for him to be charged with the premeditated murder of his wife and daughter,” Mr Pisey said.
Roth Thavy, Kompong Speu provincial monitor for the human rights group Adhoc, said Friday’s incident was the third domestic murder case they had recorded in Trapaing Chor commune this year.
“Previously, there were two cases where wives killed their husbands and now there is this case where the husband killed his wife and daughter,” Mr Thavy said.
“In Trapaing Chor commune, the villagers are lower educated…so they dare to commit crimes.”
