Hunt on for robbery-murder suspect

POLICE are hunting down the suspect responsible for killing a man and stuffing his body in a bag in Kandal province as investigations into the gruesome murder continue.

A passersby on Sunday found the bag containing the victim’s body on the side of a street in Khsach Kandal district’s Prek Tameak commune. His hands were tied to the back and he was strangled, the chief of the serious crime office at the provincial headquarters Chao Vuthy told The Post on Tuesday.

The suspect killed the victim, who was a taxi driver, crammed his body inside the bag and threw it to the curb, Vuthy said.

Police, he said, had questioned members of the victim’s family in search of clues related to what might have been a robbery-cum-murder case.

“According to my team’s preliminary investigation, the suspect killed the victim to steal the latter’s taxi,” he added, declining to provide details of the victim’s identity.

However, the provincial police report said the victim’s body was found near Prek Ruong II bridge, about 7.5m away from National Road 8 in Anlong village.

Identified in the report as Moeuk Sophorn, 37, the victim was from Chambouk village, Boeung Beng commune, Malai district, Banteay Meanchey province, it said.

The report further said that the evidence found at the scene included a 2.6m cable wire, a belt which was over 1m long with a metal buckle and a pillow. They were used as weapons against the victim.

According to the report, the body was facing down when found, and both the victim’s hands were tied behind his back using the wire. Moreover, the belt was wrapped around his neck.

There were marks of injur y on the v ictim’s Adam’s apple and on both sides of his mandible, it said.

Pathologists from the Ministr y of Interior and forensic specia lists from t he prov incia l headquarters reportedly performed an autopsy of the body.

Following the post-mortem examination, the body was handed over to the victim’s family for funeral rites the same day.