A 10-year-old girl was kidnapped and murdered on Friday after her abductor apparently panicked at the prospect of being caught after demanding a $2,000 ransom for the girl’s return in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town.
The suspect, Sok Khoeunsoythy, was arrested on Saturday and questioned by Military Police after he allegedly abducted Sot Chhun Ey, 10, on Friday, and murdered her the same day. He was caught trying to dispose of her body the following day.
“We questioned the suspect already, but we will prepare the lawsuit and send him to the provincial court on Monday morning,” said Men Phirum, Banteay Meanchey’s deputy commander for the Military Police, adding that he will face the charge of premeditated murder.
Phirum said Chhun Ey’s body was put in a bag and was about to be disposed of when authorities found Khoeunsoythy and arrested him.
A video of Khoeunsoythy’s confession on Facebook indicates that the suspect was friends with the victim’s brother and that he lived in a rented room a short distance away from where Chhun Ey lived with her aunt.
Having dropped out of nursing school, Khoeunsoythy said he was asked to leave his family home and decided to kidnap the suspect to extort a ransom. “I just told [her mother] that if they do not give me $2,000, I will kill the girl. When I thought about it, I worried of being identified, so I strangled her to death,” he says in the video.
Adhoc coordinator Sum Chankea said it was unclear if the suspect will be charged with kidnapping or extortion because security camera footage shows that the victim willingly went with Khoeunsoythy.
