Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found in a well just after midnight on Sunday in Kampong Cham province’s Cheung Prey district officials said. Her family had been trying to contact her for two days.

Heng Vuthy, Cheung Prey district police chief, said yesterday that the victim, Thai Huy, was the owner of the cashew plantation where her body was found. The suspects are believed to be onetime employees. On September 11, Huy went to her cashew farm, and hadn’t been heard from since.

Vuthy said the husband reported Huy missing to police, and they searched until nearly 1am on Sunday until they found her in the 10-metre well.

“According to the examination of the experts, the body was beaten, the throat was cut, and it was thrown into the well,” he said, adding that the farmhouse was also broken into, and a motorbike and $1,000 were stolen.

There were a total of three workers hired by the victim’s family to guard the plantation, and all were missing from the site, until two of them were arrested yesterday, though their names were not released.

Vuthy said the victim was the owner lived in Chaktomuk commune in the capital's Daun Penh district.

The victim’s body was taken out of the well for the traditional funeral and buried in Phnom Penh, according to Kaing Kimhoy, the brother-in-law of the victim.