The suspect, identified as TS, had previously confessed to killing Yaneang by covering her nose and strangling her on June 3. Police
The Phnom Penh Military Police on Thursday charged the suspect who killed and dismembered a widow earlier this month with “premeditated murder” and sent her case to the municipal court for further legal procedures.
Phan Daravuth, the deputy commander of municipal Military Police in charge of the criminal office, said: “After completing the interrogation, we verified the suspect’s answers, the timeframe involved and location of the evidence."
“The experts confirmed that everything fit together, leaving us enough base to charge the suspect in accordance with the law.”
Daravuth confirmed that police had charged the suspect with premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances.
The suspect, identified as TS, had previously confessed to killing Yaneang by covering her nose and strangling her on June 3.
In a video clip posted on the Phnom Penh Military Police’s Facebook page and shared widely on social media and local media, TS was seen dragging the victim into the bathroom until she lost consciousness and then taking 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 suffocated to death.
“After the victim declined to accept a $300 repayment from me, she 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,” TS said during her interrogation.
After Yaneang had died, TS dragged the corpse into a freezer. When her husband and daughter left home, she chopped the body into smaller pieces and gradually threw them into the Tonle Sap River in front of Phsar Chas and Phsar Kandal between June 5 and 9.
Eventually, the body parts were found by fishermen in their nets, who then reported it to the police.
The public and the victim’s family had suggested that there might have been more than one murderer. But a Military Policeman who is part of the investigation and requested to remain anonymous had said the suspect was the only killer, and no one else was involved.
He also noted that the investigation was still ongoing.
Phnom Penh municipal military police anti-crime office chief Maing Sokluch told The Post that a prosecutor was still interrogating the suspect.
Ly Sophana and Y Rin, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokespersons, declined to comment on Thursday.
