Wife, neighbour held in taxi driver’s murder

A woman and her alleged accomplice were sent to court yesterday after being accused of murdering the woman’s husband and dumping his body in a canal in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district.

Ly Sophana, spokesman for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said that the two suspects were sent to court yesterday morning.

“Municipal military police sent the suspects and case to the court already, and they are being interrogated,” Sophana said.

The victim, Kao Pha, 48, was a taxi driver with four children from Svay Rieng province. A military police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kao’s wife, Sao Sam Oeun, 46, had hired their neighbour to kill her husband for having an affair with another woman.

On October 13, her neighbour, Sou Pha, 30, allegedly killed her husband for $1,000 after pretending to need a taxi ride to Siem Reap.

The accused allegedly beat his victim to death before driving the body to Phnom Penh and dumping it into a waste canal where it was found the next day.

Spokesmen for the military police could not be reached for comment yesterday.

However, according to a post from the national military police Facebook page, Pha confessed to the murder.

“He secretly put a substance into his juice for the victim to drink and fall asleep. He then attacked him from behind,” the post reads.