A 13-year-old boy was detained and sent to the Battambang Department of Social Affairs after allegedly killing his 8-months pregnant sister and injuring his niece on Saturday, authorities confirmed yesterday.

According to Bavel District Deputy Police Chief Mi Kimsan, the 13-year-old suspect allegedly perpetrated the crime on Friday in Kdol Tahen commune. Villagers alerted authorities when they saw a 3-year-old girl with a head injury, covered in blood and waving for help as they passed by in a tractor.

Upon approaching the girl, Kimsan said, the villagers came across the dead woman in a pool of blood and called police.

“The face and head were chopped fatally, and the arm and body were slashed as well,” he said.

He identified the woman as the boy’s 32-year-old sister. Her daughter was sent to the provincial hospital.

The boy was arrested after fleeing the scene and was found with $250, as well as about $780 in baht. He confessed that his sister had made the $250 by selling rice and that the baht was hers as well.

According to Kimsan, the boy confessed to hacking his sister after lunch as she was sleeping in her hammock. He also allegedly admitted to having used drugs in the past, but said that he had been clean for a month.

As a minor below the age of criminal responsibility, the provincial court handed him over to the Social Affairs Department.