Police are investigating the murder of a professional money lender after his body was found wrapped in plastic and weighed down with a rock in a Siem Reap town canal, officials said yesterday.

Duong Sokha, director of the provincial crime unit, said the body of victim Van Virak, 24, had been discovered by a fisherman in Aranh Village on Friday.

“The police found that the victim had stab wounds to the head,” he said, adding that a clear motive for the attack had not yet been established.

Two shallow holes were also found in the body’s chest, but police concluded they had been made accidentally by the fisherman who found the body.

According to statements his family made to police, Virak disappeared at 7pm on October 14 while collecting money.

Police said they had little to work with when it came to finding the killer, but said they would follow a number of possibilities.The most likely is that the suspect owed the victim money that he was not able to pay back when the victim went to demand it.