Korean found dead in Cambodia identified as social media influencer
Suspects in the death of Byeon Ah-young in Cambodia are reported by Koh Santepheap, a local daily news platform in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday. Screen captured from Koh Santepheap's homepage
By Ko Dong-hwan
A photo of Byeon Ah-young, taken from her Instagram account on March 6, 2023
Cambodian police on Monday identified the body of a Korean female found abandoned near Phnom Penh earlier this month. Her name was Byeon Ah-young. She was a 33-year-old broadcast jockey who was active on YouTube and Instagram.
Her body was found on June 6 in a puddle in a small town near Phnom Penh. Her body was wrapped in a red sheet, according to a report by Cambodian local news outlet, Rasmey Kampuchea.
Following identification, the deceased's
received plenty of attention with some people choosing to post comments to pay tribute to her. She had over 258,000 followers on Instagram. The story of her passing went viral after it was discovered that Sunday, May 11, was her birthday.
One of her latest Instagram posts is from March, in which she declared she had quit being a broadcast jockey. It said that she would now live a normal and busy life.
Byeon's family members arrived in Cambodia on Sunday. The Korean Embassy in Cambodia began communicating with the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Korea to help the bereaved family with post-mortem procedures and further investigate the case jointly with local Cambodian police.
Local authorities in Cambodia arrested a Chinese couple on Sunday as suspects in Byeon's death. The police believe the suspects, who are in their 30s and running an illegal medical clinic, transported her body and abandoned her in a puddle, after she had experienced a seizure and died while receiving treatment at their clinic on June 4. The details came from the suspects' confessions, according to local reports.
According to a local source, it is presumed that the victim died after receiving an intravenous solution or serum injection at the clinic two days after arriving in Cambodia on June 2. She is also rumored to have been found with a swollen face, which raised the possibility of assault, the source said.
According to a local Korean who wished to remain anonymous, Byeon entered the country to travel with another person. The Korean embassy is known to have contacted that person to further investigate the situation.
Cambodian authorities said Monday an autopsy will be required to find the exact cause of Byeon's death but her family has rejected it, saying that they want to proceed with her funeral as quietly as possible.
Illegal medical clinics are known to exist in large numbers in Cambodia. Koreans planning to travel there have often been warned to avoid such clinics. Seo Se-won, a former influential Korean comedian who retired from show business decades ago, died at a medical clinic run by local Koreans in Cambodia on April 20. He died at 67 while receiving an intravenous solution.