A commune official in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district killed herself and her 5-year-old son, and seriously injured her 17-year-old daughter in an apparent murder-suicide early yesterday morning, police said.

Another daughter sleeping downstairs managed to escape to safety with her grandmother.

Neighbours and employees of 41-year-old Yon Sonita, second-deputy commune chief in Chaktomuk commune, said she had incurred a sizeable debt in a tontine – an informal investment scheme – and had begged her husband, who lives abroad, for money to pay it, saying she would kill the children if he didn’t comply.

Police, however, said that while official details were in short supply, nothing in the house was missing, making it unlikely that the killings were the work of an intruder.

“We do not know the reason behind this suicide clearly yet, but the first step is that police concluded that the victim had a mental illness,” Daun Penh district police chief Nhem Saonol told the Post.

Police who examined the bodies found that the victim had stabbed herself in the stomach and chest, and her son in the stomach.

Som Ravy, who lived in the same house as the councillor and worked in her shop, said Sonita’s mother had told her Sonita had worked until 1am without exhibiting any abnormal behaviour.

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In Khmer: ជំទប់​ទី២​សង្កាត់​ចតុមុខ​ចាក់​សម្លាប់​ខ្លួន​និង​កូន​ប្រុស​ស្រី​ពីរ​នាក់

In English: Official in murder, suicide