A Takeo man allegedly raped two sisters and then battered them to death with a hoe in a ricefield on Tuesday, police said.
Police arrested Korn Son, 24, on Wednesday after they found one of the badly mangled bodies at his hut while he was working in the rice field.
“The killer was very cruel; I have never seen anything like this before,” said Takeo Police Chief Nou Sangva, who suggested violent television programming has degraded society’s morals and may have inspired the killings.
Police said Korn Son confessed to killing the girls because he was worried they would complain to police after he raped them.
The killings occurred only days after a 15-year-old girl was raped and slashed to death in Kompong Thom province.
The sisters, named Oun Sok Leang, 20 and Oun Sida, 13, left home at 7 pm Tuesday night to catch baby frogs 2 km from their home, police said. They were planning to sell the frogs to supplement their family’s income. The parents of both girls are poor farmers who now have three surviving children.
Korn Son, who was staying at a hut in his rice field, saw the sisters’ lamp at about midnight and followed them. He tried to fondle one of the sisters but she screamed for help, so he beat both of them unconscious with a hoe, police said.
He dragged the older sister to a spot about 80 meters from his hut, where he raped her. He then dragged the other sister to another location just 50 meters from his hut and raped her as well, police said.
He killed both girls by hitting them in the face and head with a hoe, telling police later that he feared they would report his crimes. “Their face and head was completely destroyed,” Nou Sangva said.
More than 100 villagers watched as police unearthed one of the bodies shortly after it was discovered near Korn Son’s hut. Korn Son, meanwhile, pretended to be busy in his ricefield as the investigation pressed on, police said.
He was arrested and confessed after police found blood on his hoe. Police said they also have a witness, a 10-year-old girl, who heard cries for help from one of the sisters.
“We will not allow him to be free,” police said. “He should go to jail for at least 18 to 24 years, but we will see what the provincial court will do in a judgment,” he said.
