A man stabbed his wife to death and then hanged himself on Tuesday night in Dangkor commune’s Ta Lei village in the capital’s Dangkor district, leaving behind their three-year-old daughter.

Dangkor commune police chief Ton Tony told The Post the couple had been at loggerheads for some time and had not had sexual relations for several months. He said the wife had repeatedly asked for a divorce.

“The couple had been quarrelling for a long time and had not had sex for three months. They slept separately and the wife had long wanted to get divorced from her husband. The final confrontation resulted in this [tragedy],” Tony said.

He said the 26-year-old victim worked in accounts at a private bank, while her husband, who was 34, worked for a company selling products.

A doctor who examined the deceased couple said the incident did not involve a third party, Tony said.

He said that when he arrived at the scene, he saw the woman’s body had been slashed with a sharp knife on her left breast and neck.

The man’s body was covered with his wife’s blood. The knife was new, Tony said, and had probably been purchased specifically to carry out the murder.

After killing his wife, the man pulled out the knife, went outside and hanged himself with plastic cord used for tying cows. He tied the cord to an iron post at the back of their house, Tony said.

“Construction of the house had not been completed. There’s an iron post at the edge of the back section. He took the cord and connected it to the post. Then he climbed the post and dropped to his death,” Tony said.

The couple lived at the house with the wife’s older brother, he said, while their three-year-old daughter lives with her grandmother where the family comes from – in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district.

On the day of the incident, the victim’s brother was not at home. He had gone to work and, as usual, returned home at night, Tony said.

When he arrived at the house, he unlocked the door and walked his motorbike inside. He immediately spotted blood and went into his sister’s room.

Finding his sister dead in a pool of blood, he tried to phone his brother-in-law – the man who had killed his sister – because he presumed someone else had carried out the attack.

He went to put his motorbike at the back of the house and it was then he saw his brother-in-law hanged.

He rushed outside and screamed for neighbours’ help. One of the neighbours called police chief Tony, who arrived within minutes.

A Dangkor district police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Post the couple came from Sa’ang district and were distant relatives.

The source said the pair often quarrelled. The husband only earned a small salary and could not afford to pay for the ongoing construction.

He said the cost was shared by his wife and her brother.

The woman had planned to get divorced after Khmer New Year, he said.

The couple’s bodies have been handed over to their families for funeral rites.