The results of an autopsy and a crime scene report authored by a team of French investigators regarding the death of a French expatriate in Kompong Speu province in 2012 has been in the hands of Cambodian judicial officials for two weeks and is awaiting translation, a judge confirmed on Thursday.
Laurent Vallier, 42, and his four children aged 2 to 9 were found dead in a car submerged in a pond near their Chbar Mon district home in January 2012. Police initially called it a murder-suicide.
However, in March 2013, a team of 10 French investigators and forensic specialists visited Cambodia and spent two weeks interviewing people close to Laurent Vallier and studying the crime scene. The French team immediately ruled out suicide.
The remains of Laurent Vallier and his children, as well as some other pieces of evidence, were then sent to France to be analyzed.
A 300-plus-page report outlining the findings of the French investigation and autopsy has been in the hands of Chhim Rithy, the Kompong Speu provincial court investigating judge handling the case, for two weeks now.
“We will have to wait and see what the autopsy leads us to… [and] what the document says,” Judge Rithy said, when asked if there were any new leads in the murder of the Vallier family.
“I’ve received the document about two weeks ago,” he said. “I don’t know when the translation will be done.”
Judge Rithy said that a copy of the report had also been delivered to the French Embassy in Phnom Penh.
Nicolas Baudouin, first secretary at the French Embassy, could not confirm on Thursday if the embassy had the autopsy report.
“I am not aware of that. Maybe the consular section would have that information,” Mr. Baudouin said.
The consular section did not respond to emails in time for publication.
