/ 20 December 2004

Gruesome surprise for ex-wife

Enraged at his ex-wife’s remarriage, a Cambodian man dug up her daughter’s decomposing body and placed the exhumed corpse on his former wife’s doorstep, police said on Monday.

Police said Ou Phoun (59), furious that his wife, Khlout Toeng (43), had divorced him and remarried, exhumed the corpse of her daughter from a previous marriage from its grave and placed it on her doorstep.

Pursat district police chief Pen Tung said by telephone that Ou Phoun had apparently been motivated to place the decomposed corpse of Khlout Rin on the doorstep in a jealous rage.

The daughter, who was 25 when she died, had been buried for about six months, he added.

”He dug her up, carried her around the village on a bicycle showing people and then left her at his ex-wife’s home while she was out at the market,” Pen Tung said.

Police said no charges will be laid after Ou Phoun agreed not to do it again and paid his former wife $250 in compensation to rebury the corpse. — Sapa-DPA