Pailin police believe a husband and wife who burned to death in a house fire along with their one-year-old daughter in the early hours of yesterday morning were tied up with wire before their house was torched.

Soy Khim, deputy chief of Salakrav district penal police, identified the victims as commune clerk Heng Bora, 25, his wife Pory Samrong Sameth, 24, and their daughter, whose name has not been released, of 0-5 Village in O Andoung commune.

“The perpetrators had entered into the house while they were sleeping at about midnight on Thursday,” Khim said.

“They have caught both the husband and wife and tied them with wires on the bed before pouring petrol into the house, setting it ablaze and then escaping.”

“The fire has burned the whole family dead and only skeletons remained,” he added.

Keo Phirom, deputy chief of Salakrav district police, said there were steel wires tied around the couple’s necks, hands and legs.

Phirom said following preliminary investigations the case was being treated as murder but that police still had not identified the perpetrators.

Prak Sophyma, Pailin coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said her organisation had not received a report about the case yet.

“My organisation will investigate and follow up this case,” she said.