A 57-year-old American man was found dead after suffering suspected heart failure at Phnom Penh’s Walkabout hotel on Tuesday, police officials and hotel staff said yesterday.

Walkabout staff members, who declined to be named, identified the deceased as Richard David, 57, who had checked into the hotel on Friday and was discovered dead in his room on Tuesday.

“We don’t know when he died but he was found dead on Tuesday,” a staff member said, adding that the deceased had probably been dead for some days judging by the “really bad smell”.

“He died in the hotel room but we did not yet receive the results of the [blood] sample”, Lanh Yavma, deputy chief of the Science and Technology department at the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, said yesterday.

“We suspect that he died from a heart attack because there are no scars or bruises on his body,” he added, before declining to comment further.  

A staff member at Walkabout hotel, located in the Phsar Thmey III commune of Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, added that the body had been found after cleaning staff, attempting to tend to his room, found the door locked on Tuesday.

He added that American Embassy officials and police spent hours at the guesthouse before taking the body to Calmette Hospital at about 4pm.

American Embassy officials in Phnom Penh declined to comment on the case yesterday.