A police recruit arrested earlier this week in connection with the murder of his 20-year-old girlfriend was officially charged yesterday by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Hong Kalydin, 27, who only recently passed the police recruitment test, was charged with illegally possessing a weapon, drug distribution and intentional murder, said deputy prosecutor Seang Sok.

He has been sent to Prey Sar prison. Police say they seized two handguns, a 2014 Toyota Tundra, methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia from Kalydin’s Chamkarmon district home after his arrest on Tuesday. According to Leok Vannak, deputy head of penal police at the Interior Ministry, Kalydin has professed his innocence.

“He has confessed that he was a boyfriend of the victim … but only for about one month.” Kalydin’s lawyer could not be reached for comment. On October 7, police found the body of Song Davin, a first-year student at the Vanda Institute of Accounting in Phnom Penh.

She was floating face-down in the Tonle Sap, just south of the Japanese Friendship Bridge within sight of an elementary school on the west bank. Police said she was still clothed in a blue dress. Originally from Preah Vihear province, she lived in a rented house in Chamkarmon district.