The daughter of a woman who was killed and dismembered in Phnom Penh earlier this month requested the authorities on Wednesday to impose the death penalty on the woman who killed her mother, after listening to the killer confess and describe her gruesome actions without any remorse.
Pich Sievmey, the only daughter of the victim, Koem Yaneang a 40-year-old widow, said: “The suspect killed my mother and cut her corpse into small pieces which she threw into the Tonle Sap river. She spoke without any expression of guilt.
“I know the constitution in Cambodia allows only life imprisonment but, as far as I’m concerned, I want the authorities to give her the death penalty to provide justice for my mother,” Sievmey said.
She said the suspect, who was once Yaneang’s close friend, borrowed money from her mother and other people in the village. Having no money to repay, the suspect fled two years ago and no one knew where she had gone.
“But on June 2, my mother saw the suspect in a shop at Phsar Kandal market. My mother took the victim’s daughter to stay with her for one night at home near Tuol Sangke pagoda. The suspect’s daughter slept at our home for one night,” she said.
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The following morning, Yaneang returned the suspect’s daughter to her mother but had been missing ever since.
Sievmey said she sought the intervention of Daun Penh district’s Chey Chumneah commune authorities and posted pictures of her mother on her Facebook page.
Then, on Monday, she said, the police informed her of the horrific news that her mother had been killed.
“I know other people’s mothers have died. At least their bodies were whole and they could have a proper funeral. But my mother was killed by her friend and only her hands and feet remain,” Sievmey told The Post in tears.
In a video clip posted on the Phnom Penh Military Police’s Facebook page and shared widely on social media and local media, the suspect said she killed the victim by covering her nose and strangling her.
She dragged Yaneang into the bathroom until she lost consciousness and then took her into her daughter’s bedroom.
The suspect then tied the victim’s hands and feet and covered her nose and mouth. There the victim was locked inside the room until she died from suffocation.
“After the victim declined to accept a $300 repayment from me, the victim forced me to pay all the debt, which was $700. She said that if I didn’t pay her the whole lot, she would tell other people to come and demand money from me."
“I wanted to kill her with a kitchen knife but I was worried people would see the blood,” the suspect said. According to the suspect’s confession, the victim died on June 3.
After Yaneang was dead, the suspect dragged the corpse into a freezer. When her husband and daughter left home, the suspect chopped the body into smaller pieces and threw them into the Tonle Sap River in front of Phsar Chas and Phsar Kandal.
She said it took five days, from June 5 to 9 before she was able to dispose of all the body parts. “I am very smart. I used to be a chef and I have experience in chopping up chickens, pigs and cows,” she said.
Despite thinking she had outwitted the victim’s family, the police and the public, the body parts were found by fishermen in their nets. After that, the fishermen reported the find to the police.
The public and the victim’s family believe there might be more than one murderer.
A Military Policeman who is part of the investigation but who requested not to be named said the suspect was the only killer, and no one else was involved.
“Experts have verified the suspects’ answers, the timeframe involved and the location of the evidence, and examined the victim. No one else was involved. But the police have not yet ended the investigation,” he said.
National Military Police spokesperson Eng Hy told The Post that the suspect was being detained at Phnom Penh Military Police headquarters for further questioning and the authorities were preparing a case to send to court.