Forensic police will perform an autopsy on two bodies found by a farmer in a field in Kantaok commune’s Kamrieng village of Phnom Penh’s Kamboul district August 27.

The male victim had gunshot wounds and the female had fractures to her skull.

Kamboul district deputy police Chhim Savuth said on August 29 that police are treating the case as a suspected homicide.

“We are looking for relatives of the victims to confirm their identities. There is not a lot remaining of the bodies,” he said.

Citing the locals, Savuth said that on the evening of August 27, a villager went to dig for bamboo shoots in the area and noticed a skull while walking through a field. He then reported the incident to the Kantoak commune police, who referred the case to district police chief Morn Savuth.

The man’s body was buried in a shallow grave of less than half a metre. Police expanded the search area and found the woman’s body about 1 to 2m from the first victim.

Dr Nong Sovannaroth, a forensic specialist at the Ministry of Health, told The Post on August 29 that he and forensic police had been working on the case all of August 28. The first body was decomposed, but some parts remained, such as the pelvic area so the body was identified as male. The victim had been shot in the forehead with the bullets exiting at the back of the head.

He said the male victim was between 45 and 60 years old, and the woman was aged between 35 and 40. The two factures on her head suggest that she had been beaten.

“Both bodies may have been dead for four to six months. The bodies are severely decomposed,” he said.