"Gentle man" murdered and burnt in haystack.

[CEOCambodiaNews]

A particularly grisly and shocking murder was discovered on Sunday in the Battambang countryside. The body was found so burnt that it took some time to identify the victim. The motive remains undetermined. The victim, Sok Sovanda, was said to have been a gentle man without grudges with his neighbours, however, a family grudge can never be ruled out. For the moment, according to the police, the most likely motive is robbery. The attack is believed to be the work of several men who are being hunted by the police.

Partially Burned Body Discovered
District police officers are trying to find the people who killed a man and attempted to burn his body and destroy the evidence of their crime on a farm in Battambang province’s Phnom Prek district.

Pich Chenda commune police chief San Nget told Khmer Times yesterday that police went to the crime scene in Phnom Touch village after villagers discovered the partially burned body at about 9pm on Sunday.

“The victim was killed by chopping his head and his body was beaten before they burned him in a pile of hay in an effort to destroy the evidence, but the body did not completely burn,” he said.

Mr. Nget said nobody could identify the victim at first, but later someone recognized him and contacted his family to take the body for funeral services at his home in a different commune.

“His family members told police that the victim was a gentle man who had no conflicts or ill will with anyone,” said Mr. Nget, adding that the 20-year-old victim, Sok Sovanda, had been a farmer...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/32522/ ... iscovered/

[CEOCambodiaNews]

Police are now suggesting that the victim was a druggie who was murdered for his motorbike by his "friends"...

Burned, mutilated man a robbery victim: police
Sareth Viseth, deputy district police chief, said the body of victim Sok Vanda, 20, was found on a pile of hay near a farm on the outskirts of town. Vanda’s motorbike was missing, leading Viseth to conclude the motive was robbery likely by drug addicts.

“The victim’s head was smashed open by a rock. His eyes had been stabbed with a screwdriver that we found nearby. The body was laying downward and both legs were completely burned. We also found a plastic bag with ice [crystal meth],” he said.

Viseth claimed the damage to the victim’s body was done in an attempt to destroy evidence.

The police also concluded that the perpetrators and the victims were friends, as the spot was secluded, and theorised that they went there to take drugs together that night...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/b ... tim-police

[CEOCambodiaNews]

The victim's motorbike was found dumped in a pond. A cunning plan to get rid of the evidence no doubt.

[Bitte_Kein_Lexus]

If robbery is the motive, why get rid of a potential source of income?

[Username Taken]

^^ Maybe his 'stash' was under the bike seat.

[John Bingham]

His eyes had been stabbed with a screwdriver that we found nearby.

I haven't read of that eye-mutilation in a long time. It was widely reported in murders years back. There is a long-running myth/ superstition that a murder victim has the last thing they saw recorded in their eyes, and that investigators can find the killer by examining them.

[Username Taken]

^^ Myth/superstition? So, you don't think it could be true?