A Chinese national was arrested on Tuesday for killing his pregnant girlfriend and burning her body. POLICE
A Chinese national who killed his pregnant girlfriend and burned her body will be sent to court on Wednesday, Ministry of Interior’s Criminal Police Department head Ngeng Chou said on Tuesday.
“He [the suspect] confessed that he had indeed killed his girlfriend,” Chou said, adding that police had arrested and charged him with homicide.
A post on the department’s Facebook page said the 28-year-old suspect burned his girlfriend’s body near Prek Pnov bridge in Chroy Chongvar district’s Bak Kheng commune in Phnom Penh on June 29.
He was arrested on Monday at mixed-use development project The Parkway in Russey Keo district’s Tuol Sangke I commune.
The post said according to the suspect’s confession, he came to Cambodia in 2016 through Phnom Penh International Airport and found work at The Parkway. Last year, he met the victim and began a relationship with her.
It said that on June 29, he told her – currently one month pregnant – to have an abortion. She refused. They then argued. He pushed her against the floor, knocking her unconscious. He then strangled her to death with a towel.
“The suspect went to buy a suitcase at the Central Market, which cost $80, and put her body in it,” the post said.
“At about 8pm [on June 29], he transported the suitcase containing the body [in an SUV] . . . and bought a bottle of petrol. He drove the vehicle to a plot of land owned by tycoon Ly Yong Phat. Following the murder, he fled to China on July 6.”
On June 30, Bak Kheng commune chief Kong Bunly said a group of workers at a sand dredging company saw a fire at around 9pm on June 29.
Thinking that someone was burning company property, he said, the workers went to investigate. The workers said they saw an SUV leaving the scene and then discovered the corpse engulfed in flames.
They immediately reported the find to their employer and local police, Bunly said, adding that police promptly arrived at the scene, found the body still on fire and extinguished the flames.
However, it was burned “beyond recognition” from the head to the knees, he said.
