A woman who allegedly confessed last week to killing 19-year-old Spy Wine Cooler model Lim Srey Pich was charged in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday with murder and kidnapping, a senior police official said yesterday.

Chuon Narin, deputy chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police, said Sun Kimheng, 23, of Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, had been sent to Prey Sar prison, where she will remain until her trial.

“We believe she killed the victim before asking for ransom money from the victim’s family,” Narin said.

“We arrested her after she sent a text message from the victim’s mobile phone to her family demanding $50,000 in exchange for her release.”

Srey Pich, also known as Lim Yurimey, was the daughter of a well-known car dealer in Phnom Penh.

Her profile increased after she won Spy Wine Cooler’s inaugural beauty prize a month ago.

The 19-year-old disappeared after meeting a woman at a shopping centre last Tuesday who had befriended her on social-networking site Facebook, police have said.

Garment workers found Srey Pich’s body early the next day dumped in a canal in Kampong Speu province’s Kong Pisei district, about 35 kilometres from Phnom Penh. She had been strangled.

Kimheng, who lives in Boeung Trabek commune, was one of four arrested last week over the murder.

Three men, whom police had suspected of being involved in at least transporting Srey Pich’s body from a house in Phnom Penh to Kampong Speu province, were later released without charge.

Srey Pich’s family declined to comment to the Post yesterday. Kimheng, her defence lawyer and court deputy prosecutor Ly Sophanna could not be reached for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]