THREE suspects have been arrested in connection with this week’s murder of a 69-year-old woman and her 43-year-old daughter, whose bodies were found on Monday after having apparently been hacked with an axe in Kampong Chhnang province, officials said.

Choem Bunthoeun, provincial penal police chief, said police arrested two of the suspects on Wednesday in Samaki Meachey district’s Peam commune, and that a third was arrested while on the run in Oddar Meanchey province.

He said he was “preparing the documents” required to send the suspects – a 49-year-old woman, her 15-year-old daughter and her 20-year-old son-in-law – to Kampong Chhnang provincial court today “because they are accused of homicide”.

Police say the two victims were killed while cutting firewood near their home on Monday, and that their bodies were found in a pool of blood. Heng Touch, a neighbour, said the mother’s head and the daughter’s arms had been chopped off.