Police are searching for suspects in the kidnap and murder of an 8-year-old Vietnamese girl whose decomposing body was discovered in Svay Rieng province last week.

Keung Khhorn, provincial chief of police, said the authorities believe the girl was killed in Vietnam and her body dumped on the Cambodian side of the border after the child’s mother could not come up with a $300 ransom.

“The girl was at school in Ho Chi Minh City and her mother came to work at a casino on the Cambodian border,” he said. “We have exchanged information with the Vietnamese authorities and they are trying to locate her family.”

A joint task force, called Task Force Juliet, has been established to coordinate the investigation, James McCabe, operations manager at the Child Protection Unit.

“All possible resources will be mobilised to solve this case,” he said, adding that the girl had been reported missing on January 20,

Khhorn said that police considered the crime a murder-kidnapping as the mother reported receiving calls demanding $300 in cash around the time her daughter went missing.