The prime suspect in the February rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sangke village was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday and handed over to the Cambodian National Police.

The victim, Choub Srey Pov, from Prey Veng town in Prey Veng province, had been visiting relatives in predominantly Vietnamese-inhabited Tuol Sangke for Lunar New Year celebrations when she went missing on February 7.

Later that evening her naked body was discovered nearby tangled in reeds on the bank of the Tonle Sap river as it passes Tuol Sangke.

The accused, Dang Yang Do, 21, a labourer from Tuol Sangke village, was delivered to Phnom Penh yesterday evening for questioning, said a press release from the National Police’s Child Protection Unit (CPU).

The arrest was the fruit of a cooperative effort between Cambodian and Vietnamese police as well as the CPU, the statement said.

CPU director James McCabe yesterday said Yang Do’s capture should serve as a warning to other would-be child abusers.

“The message now is, if you commit a crime against a child, wherever you go, we will find you,” said McCabe.

McCabe said it was thanks to the community in Tuol Sangke that authorities were able to identify Yang Do as a suspect early on.