Police are seeking to arrest a man suspected of robbing, raping and murdering a 22-year-old garment worker found dead on the side of National Road 61 in Kandal province on Saturday, police said Monday.
Sam Ol Mony, 30, is suspected of murdering Sann Asros, 22, an employee at Tak Sun Enterprise in Phnom Penh, whose body was found 3 meters from National Road 61 in Ponhea Leu district’s Koh Chin commune on Saturday, said Chao Vuthy, deputy chief of the provincial serious crimes police bureau.
“The body was found because a man who came to urinate on the side of the road smelled something bad and reported it to the police,” Mr. Vuthy said. “The suspect could have raped and killed her because the body of the victim was naked.”
He said $1,500 in cash was missing from the victim’s rental room in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district, as well as her 2013 Honda motorbike, two smartphones and jewelry worth more than $4,000.
Mr. Mony was the victim’s neighbor and is believed to have fled after committing the crimes.
Sann Asros was last heard from at 8 p.m. on February 20, according to her father, Ly Sann.
“We lost contact with her on the night of February 20 because her phone was off,” he said. “My daughter never turns off the phone like that so we wondered why, and the next morning we traveled to Phnom Penh and we still could not find her.”
On February 23, the family received news from Mr. Mony’s wife.
“The wife of the suspect told us that her husband, who remains at large, called back home and told her that he killed my daughter and abandoned the body in Kandal province,” Mr. Sann said.
After receiving this information, the family called police and searched in the area Mr. Mony said he left the body, but did not find anything, Mr. Sann said.
Mr. Vuthy, the police official, said police had not acted on the tip from Mr. Mony’s wife because Sann Asros’ body had not yet been found.
“Before the body was found, we did not know if it was a murder or not; the complaint was about a missing woman,” he explained.
“After we found the body, we needed time to investigate.”
