5th April, 2019
Cambodian police are investigating the “horrific” beheading of a 6-year old girl and her grandmother, whose headless bodies were found in a forest on Wednesday, authorities said on Friday.
The victims were discovered in the central province of Kampong Cham on Wednesday after they had been reported missing from their home about 24 hours prior.
This is, according to Cambodia’s Child Protection Unit (CPU), a police unit supported by the nongovernmental Cambodian Children’s Fund.
No suspects had been arrested as of Friday but four individuals were answering questions from a task force comprised of the CPU, national and local police officers and a visiting Australian forensic pathologist, James McCabe, CPU’s operations director, told dpa.
“We will be continuing to interview all persons of relevance over the next few days” and seek witnesses, McCabe said.
It was still too early in the investigation to share a suspected motive for the murders, he said.
In the last three days, McCabe added that over 100 officers had been at the crime scene in Prey Chhor district, about 100 kilometres outside the capital Phnom Penh.
The bodies of the 65-year-old woman and her granddaughter were found in a forest about 350 metres south of their home, district police chief Keo Senghorn told the Phnom Penh Post.
“Although authorities have not found the heads of the two victims and have not identified the murderer, they have concluded that the perpetrator of this very brutal murder may have known the victims well and may have resided in the same village,” Senghorn said.