Local authorities yesterday said they will continue to investigate the case of a dead couple in Kratie’s Chhlong district that locals and relatives suspect to be a murder-suicide.

Forty-two-year-old Um Chanthina’s charred body was found after a fire consumed her home in Damrei Phung commune on Thursday morning, while her husband El Khorn, 49, was found hanged to death some 300 metres away the next day, district police chief Duong Sothy said.

According to Sothy, authorities have concluded that the fire originated from a wood stove, and that there is not yet evidence to suspect a murder.

Upon examination of Khorn’s body authorities reportedly found forensic evidence that experts said suggested “the husband took his own life by hanging”, Sothy said.

Chanthina’s mother, Sothy continued, had claimed that for the last four years Khorn had regularly beat Chanthina.

For this reason, three children from Chanthina’s previous marriage lived with their grandmother.

“We will continue to investigate the case until the truth is revealed,” he said.