Police are investigating a gruesome double murder after the bodies of a mother and her six-year-old daughter were found in a black plastic bag on a roadside in Kampong Speu province’s Pich Nil valley.

Villagers in the Phnom Sruoch district made the discovery on Saturday and reported it to police.

In Bora, director of the Ministry of Interior’s criminal department, said police were investigating the case.

“We are [investigating] … but we cannot give many details yet,” he stated.

Sam Sak, director of the provincial crime office, identified the victims as Va Davy, 30, and her daughter Kem Thavy Chhorda, six.

The two were from Kampong Cham province, but had been living in Phnom Penh for several years, he added.

Authorities, Sak continued, had examined the bodies, and believed the victims had been dead for at least 15 days. It was difficult to establish a cause of death, but they believed they could have been strangled.

According to Som Bora, Kampong Speu provincial deputy police chief, the bodies have already been given to the victims’ family.

The Pich Nil area is host to a number of shrines popular with tourists travelling the road to Sihanoukville.