A 22-year-old drug user on Tuesday confessed to using a machete to hack to death a 13-year-old schoolboy in Tbong Khmum province on Monday over an ongoing feud between their mothers, police said on Tuesday.
Truck driver Na Noun was arrested at his house on Tuesday morning by district police in Memot district and confessed to killing the child, Vy Sokha, while he was high on methamphetamine, said deputy district police chief Chan Doul.
“He said he killed the victim because he was mad with the victim’s mother, as she used to have arguments with his mother,” said Mr. Doul. “He hacked the victim on the neck with a big machete…and then he went to the victim’s house and took a motorbike in order to make it look like a robbery.”
Mr. Doul said police had recovered the motorbike in neighboring Ponhea Krek district, at the house of Mr. Noun’s aunt.
At the time of the killing on Monday morning, Mr. Doul said Vy Sokha’s mother had been away planting cassava and his father—a soldier who is rarely at home—was at the house of his mistress. Because of this, it wasn’t until 4:45 p.m. that Vy Sokha’s body was found, only 50 meters from his house in Toanloung commune.
The body was found by Long Sophorn, who lives with the family together with her young son. She told police that her son had seen Mr. Noun, whom he remembered from previous visits, near the house in the morning of the murder.
In a separate incident, on Sunday evening the body of 17-year-old Sy Sin, his neck also slashed with a large blade, was found under Teuk Thla Bridge in Serei Saophoan City, Banteay Meanchey province, deputy provincial police chief Choeurng Mann Soeung said on Tuesday.
Mr. Mann Soeung said that Sy Sin, who had only moved to the city a month ago to begin studying automotive repair, was not believed to have been killed during a robbery, despite the fact that his mobile phone was missing from the scene. While there are still no suspects in the case, he said police had not ruled out premeditated murder.
