Police have arrested three suspects connected with the kidnapping and brutal murder of a US Embassy security guard’s 8-year-old son, officials said yesterday.

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Kong Rasy waited through the night on Saturday for kidnappers to return his young son after he paid the US$3,500 demanded of him, only to hear late on Sunday night that a villager had found his son’s beaten and bloody body inside a stupa at Champos Ka-ek pagoda. 

“My son went missing after he left English school on Saturday, and then I was contacted by a man at about 5pm who told me I would have to pay $100,000 if I wanted my son back,” Kong Rasy said yesterday from his home, where many family and friends had gathered for a funeral ceremony.

“The kidnapper said if I did not pay the money, they would cut my son’s fingers off one by one,” the 42-year-old father said through tears. “I begged them and told them I was just a security guard and did not have much money, so they discounted down to $30,000, then turned off the phone.”

Kong Rasy then contacted police at the Ministry of Interior to help him negotiate the ransom down to $3,500 and then went to meet the kidnappers at a place designated by them at 8pm on Saturday night.

After stashing the ransom cash under a nearby parked car, as demanded by the kidnappers, Kong Rasy waited for his son, Kong Rathy Sathya, nicknamed Ay Ty, to be returned to him.

At his son’s funeral ceremony yesterday, Kong Rasy showed the marks of hundreds of mosquito bites from waiting more than five hours for kidnappers to return his sons.

“After waiting so long and no sign of my son, I went to check the ransom money and it was gone,” Kong Rasy said.

Late on Sunday night, a villager in Meanchey district’s Prek Thmey commune made the gruesome discovery of Kong Rathy Sathya’s body, stuffed into a stupa at Champos Ka-ek pagoda, beaten so badly his skull had come apart in places.

Ministry of Interior officials yesterday arrested three suspects for questioning in connection with the kidnapping and murder.