A man on the run for six years for the gruesome killing of a 9-year-old boy in his Cambodian classroom in 2009 has been found in an Ubon Ratchathani prison.
The Phnom Penh Post reported Tuesday that Sok Phan, now going by the name of Yeng Dy, was located by a Cambodian multi-agency task force and Thai security services serving a two-year term in the northeastern jail for illegal logging. He was sentenced six months ago.
Cambodian police in Koh Kong province say Sok Phan walked into a crowded classroom on Dec 18, 2009, asked Yoeun Pov Rattanak where his father was and, when the young boy said he didn't know, slit the child's throat and cut open his abdomen in full view of the class, which included his own son.
While police quickly identified the killer and his motive -- a dispute with the child's father over a boat engine -- Sok Phan and his family had already fled the province.
Sok Phan's trail eventually grew cold and police gave up the hunt until June this year when an investigator approached the Child Protection Unit, a joint initiative of the Cambodian National Police and Cambodian Children's Fund, to reopen the case.
Their investigation spanned tracked the suspect through four Khmer provinces and into Thailand. The effort grew into Task Force Romeo, a cooperative project that included the Cambodian Interior Ministry and Koh Kong police.
The task force learned Sok Phan had been imprisoned in Thailand, but visits to jails in Surin and Si Saket proved fruitless.
It wasn't until investigators in Cambodia's Preah Vihear province discovered Sok Phan's name change that they found his jail cell in Ubon.
Thai and Cambodian forces confronted the wanted child killer in prison on Friday and informed him he would be extradited home to face murder charges and a life sentence, if convicted.