A 36-year-old woman was raped and murdered in Takeo province’s Tram Kak district on Tuesday morning after she rejected the advances of a neighbor, officials said on Wednesday.
Luy Na, a divorced mother of two, was severely beaten by her neighbor, Prach Meng, 42, just after midnight on Tuesday in Ta Phem commune, according to deputy district police chief Sok Sochea. She later died from her injuries at the provincial hospital.
“Meng confessed that he lured her to have sex, but the victim rejected him and then he beat her unconscious and raped her, but at that point the villagers heard the victim yell for help. There was chaos as they chased the suspect to try and arrest him,” Mr. Sochea said.
The suspect, who Mr. Sochea said confessed to the crime, was captured by locals and handed over to commune police at about 12:30 a.m. Mr Sochea said the victim died at 11 a.m. the same morning.
Mr. Meng, who had recently returned from working in Thailand, was separated from his wife after she could not put up with his demands to have sex with her “five to seven times a night,” the police chief said.
Mr. Sochea said that this was the fourth reported rape in Tram Kak this year.
“This is the fourth rape case for early 2015, but this case was a rape and killing; the other three previous rape cases were only underage victims and there was no killing,” he said.
Sam Nan, a doctor at Takeo referral hospital, said that despite medics’ best efforts, the victim could not be saved due to the severity of her injuries.
“The victim was so critically injured that our doctors couldn’t save her life—her neck was broken,” Mr. Nan said.
Suon Phan, deputy provincial police chief, said that the provincial court had charged the suspect with rape and murder and ordered that he be sent to the Takeo provincial prison for provisional detention.
