A Change of Guard

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Thursday 12 February 2015

Suspect ID'd in Cambodia killing of [American] Palm Springs woman

(Photo: Courtesy of the Grgich family)
Seventeen months after a Palm Springs woman was murdered at a Cambodian island resort, Interpol has released the identity of her suspected killer, launching an international hunt for the vanished fugitive.
Katherine "K.G." Ann Grgich, 55, a massage therapist who lived at the Palm Springs Country Club, was found dead while vacationing on the island of Koh Rong on Oct. 1, 2013. The lone suspect in her death is Yeoun Yann, 34, a saw worker who lived on the island.
Yann's name and mug shot were added to a Interpol database of wanted fugitives in the last few weeks. Interpol will now notify police in other countries that Yann is wanted in Cambodia, and help alert Cambodian authorities if Yann is arrested in another country.
For Grgich's family, Interpol's role breathes new hope into what had felt like a stagnating, half-hearted investigation.
Grgich's sister, Jennifer Harden, said she credited the inclusion of Interpol to journalists at The Cambodia Daily, which published an in-depth story about the murder investigation over the weekend. In that story, reporters questioned why police had never launched an international search for Yann, prompting Interpol to reverse the normal protocol and request information about the fugitive directly from the Cambodian government.
"I have been so disappointed in the way my sister's death was handled," Harden said. "She could not be at peace because nobody was doing anything and nobody over there seemed like they really cared. … Nothing was being done before this article was written."
Katherine Grgich worked as a part-time massage therapist at Salon 119 & Day Spa in Palm Springs. She had more than 30 years of massage experience and was a master of reiki, a Japanese relaxation technique that promotes healing. She left California for a trip to Southeast Asia in September 2013.

Katherine Ann Grgich was found dead on the Cambodian island of Koh Rong on Oct 1, 2013. Brett Kelman/The Desert Sun
Eventually, Grgich's travels led her to Koh Rong, a small island off the southwest coast of Cambodia, closest to the port city of Sihanoukville. The island is a budding tourist destination, mostly covered in unspoiled rainforest, that caters to outdoor enthusiasts and scuba divers.
Grgich was on Koh Rong for about four days before she vanished, leaving her belongings in a bungalow that she had rented for the week. The resort reported the disappearance to police, launching an investigation. A few days later, resort employees found Grgich's body dumped in the jungle alongside a mountain trail.
Police initially said that Grgich had died a natural death, according to the Grgich family, but later confirmed that she was the victim of a homicide. According to a Cambodian police report, translated from the language of Khmer, Grgich was killed by a blow to the head, which shattered her skull in several places.
Investigators initially suspected the motive for the killing was robbery, and came to focus on Yann, who had a reputation for stealing from tourists on the island, the police report states. Further investigation revealed that Yann's wife had recently attempted to sell a digital camera to a local shopkeeper, according to the police report. Grgich's camera was missing.
Although police quickly came to suspect Yann, he was never found. The suspect immediately left Koh Rong, and it is possible he fled Cambodia altogether, which is why it is necessary for his identification to be passed to Interpol.
Interpol declined to discuss Yann or the murder investigation. Cambodian police could not be reached for comment.
Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email atbrett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

May be this guy is Ah Nguyen Van Troy aka Yeoun Yann.

He is another Thomg Sarath.