A 28-year-old woman was stabbed and beaten to death in a rented room in Meanchey district’s Stung Meanchey III commune in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Seat Sorn was a garment worker from Mesang district’s Prey Romdeng commune in Prey Veng province.

The suspect is a 28-year-old construction worker who lived one floor below Sorn’s room, said commune police chief Em Pheary.

Police were first alerted to the area after receiving a report of a stolen motorbike. The suspect was detained for its theft before the victim was discovered.

Upon learning of the murder, Meanchey district police chief Meng Vimeandara immediately ordered his authorities to investigate the crime scene.

The police found knife wounds on the victim’s chest, back, throat, and head.

Pheary said the suspect arrived at Sorn’s door armed with a knife and threatened to rape her. When she resisted, he stabbed her and struck her in the head with a cutting board and a pot. He then stole a motorbike parked 500m away and escaped, he said.

“We gave the photo of the suspect for citizens to see and they said the suspect had escaped from the house nervously,” he said.

After he became a suspect for the murder, commune police sent him to the district police office for further questioning.

Sorn leaves behind a husband, a construction worker in Kampot province.