A 17-year-old girl and her parents were brutally killed yesterday in their ransacked apartment in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district, according to police.
Police said the victims were all stabbed repeatedly and that the mother and daughter, who died at the scene, also had their throats slashed. The father, who was stabbed and beaten, died of his wounds at a nearby hospital.
An officer at the scene said police suspected the attack occurred at approximately 11 am.
Authorities identified the father as Ry Sarun, 52, the mother as Ne Sovannary, 48, and their daughter as Ry Nalin, 17.
“This case is robbery, and they killed the victims to close their mouths. Now our Chamkar Mon district police are investigating,” said Ouch Sokhon, district police chief.
Pol Davy, Phnom Penh deputy military penal police chief, said authorities were still searching for suspects but believed that at least two people carried out the attack. Because they murdered the couple’s daughter, who apparently stumbled upon the scene after returning from school, he said they likely knew the family.
“Now our military police are working together to investigate this case because this case is not revenge,” he said.
Ry Mam, a sister of the murdered father, said the victims were discovered by another of the family’s four children at about noon.
“The victims were scavengers who owned a shop, and they ran their business for many years,” Ms Mam said yesterday outside the family’s home. “They have no enemies. My brother is gentle.”
Ry Kolap, one of the family’s other surviving children, was also in the crowd gathered outside the home.
“The killers killed my father and tied his arms together. I now have only two siblings,” she said through tears. “My younger sister went to school but she arrived [home], and she was killed, too.”
In another recent and yet-unsolved triple murder, police in Kandal province found three women murdered execution-style inside their Takhmau City home on Oct 9. The trio, including a mother and daughter and their maid, was found lying dead on a mattress with $10,000 tucked underneath. The mother had run a Chinese noodle shop out of the first floor of their home.
Police at the time said they had no suspects or motives but found no sign of a forced entry and suspected the involvement of at least two gunmen. Forensic evidence indicated that the victims had been shot within the past 20 hours.
Contacted yesterday, Kandal provincial police chief Iv Chamroeun said authorities still had no suspects and had yet to narrow in on a motive.
