An unlicensed dentist in Tbong Khmum province is wanted for allegedly murdering a patient in the chair and making off with her valuables, officials have said.

The suspect, Huy Seng, 26, had allegedly called the victim, Lai Som An, 40, to his rental property in Memot district’s Dar commune on Sunday to receive dental implants.

Pes Chamroeun, the commune chief, said Som An had been killed and her corpse robbed of a gold necklace, a platinum bracelet, diamond earrings and an unknown quantity of cash.

The suspect had then escaped on her motorbike, he added.

“Suspicions were aroused and a search for the suspect launched after the authorities and victim’s family found the victim’s body in the dental room of the rental house,” he said.

Som An’s widower, Chhoan Vy, 46, said he returned home at about 3:20pm from his pepper plantation to find that his wife had been called into town to deposit money collected from her job as a lottery ticket seller and to buy pepper seedlings.

He tried to reach her on the phone but the calls went unanswered.

A friend who had been with Som An earlier that day told Vy that she had gone to the dentist, who had called saying he was headed back to his home province of Kampong Cham and had to do the procedure that day.

“My wife told the dentist that she was busy . . . and she could not go for the tooth implants on Sunday, but the dentist told that if she did not go, she might have to wait for a long time,” Vy said yesterday.

Vy said that when he reached the house it was locked. He called the suspect, who claimed that he had carried out the procedure and Som An had left the premises.

However, a witness told the family members, and later the police, that she had seen the suspect leave the area riding Som An’s distinctive red motorbike.

Vy called the police, who entered the house to a grizzly scene.

“I was so shocked when I found my wife. Seng had killed her and jammed her body into a plastic bag and placed it in a cupboard in the kitchen,” he alleged.

He added that it appeared that Seng had used a wire to strangle her and there was evidence of bruising on the right side of her face.

Hong Kem Hoeun, the district police chief, said a task force of local and provincial authorities had been formed to investigate the case and bring the perpetrator to justice.

He added that the police were treating the case as a suspicious death and would file a charge of “intentional murder” to the courts.