A 19-month-old girl critically injured when her mother was stabbed to death in their Phnom Penh home last month has died in a Bangkok hospital, a Dutch Embassy official confirmed Thursday.
“I can confirm this,” said an official at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangkok, who did not give his name because of the sensitivity of the matter.
He said the embassy is providing support to Dana Beerdsen’s family.
Dana Beerdsen, having suffered serious head trauma and stab wounds to her body, was found lying bloodied near her dead mother, 31-year-old Dutch national Daphna Beerdsen, on the morning of April 28.
Dana Beerdsen was taken to the Kantha Bopha children’s hospital before being airlifted to Bangkok General Hospital that night, accompanied by her father, Joris Oele.
Both Daphna Beerdsen and her husband, Mr. Oele, were employed by the U.N. in Cambodia.
Rabbi Bentzion Butman, who leads the Chabad Jewish Center in Phnom Penh and on Sunday visited Mr. Oele and his daughter in Bangkok, said in an email to the Jewish community that “little Dana did not survive the brutal attack.”
“Dana has returned her soul to its Creator at a hospital in Bangkok at 21:45 last night,” the email message says.
He said Daphna Beerdsen’s body will be taken to the airport on Friday morning, while her daughter’s body will leave from Bangkok. Both mother and daughter are to be buried together at the Jewish Cemetery in Amsterdam, the Rabbi said.
On Saturday, 35-year-old vagrant Chea Pin was charged with Daphna Beerdsen’s murder by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and sent to Prey Sar prison.
Mom Sitha, the municipal foreign police chief, said that once he received confirmation of Dana Beerdsen’s death, “we will place more punishment on the suspect in this court case.”
(Additional reporting by Saing Soenthrith)
