Body of Man Who Massacred Family Found; Suicide Suspected

The hunt for a man believed to have massacred four members of his family in an alcohol-fueled machete attack in Kompong Cham province on Monday is over, after the body of the suspect was found on a road following an apparent suicide.

Eng Thy, 46, fled his home in Chamkar Loeu district’s Speu commune shortly after killing his wife, two young children and mother-in-law in a fit of rage late Monday night, sparking a manhunt across two provinces.

At about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, his body was found on a road in Kompong Thom province’s Baray district, according to Speu commune police chief Heang Meng.

“I suspect that he ran in front of a car because he was extremely sad that he had killed his wife, children and mother-in-law,” Mr. Meng said, adding that no witness to the suspected suicide had come forward.

Mr. Meng said he received a telephone call from the police chief in Koki Thom commune, where the body was found, and described Eng Thy’s outfit to him before deploying eight people from the suspected murderer’s village to identify the body.

“Those villagers said that it was the body of Eng Thy. They remembered his caved-in chest and a tattoo on his wrist,” Mr. Meng said.                         “The body was buried by Koki Thom commune police officials because the victim’s family refused to receive it.”

According to police, Eng Thy had regularly abused and threatened his wife and her parents.

On Monday night, after a heated argument, his wife and their children went to stay next door with her parents.

Shortly afterward, the grandparents noticed that Eng Thy’s house was burning—police later said he had set fire to his wife’s clothes—and went to check, but were met by their son-in-law, who attacked them with a machete before going inside their house and hacking his wife and children to death.

The only survivor, Svay Sakhorn, the grandfather, was still unconconscious in the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital on Wednesday after undergoing surgery on his skull, according to his niece.

Source: cambodiadaily.com