French family death in Cambodia 'not suicide': Probe

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - French and Cambodian investigators on Saturday ruled out suicide in the deaths of a Frenchman and his four young children whose skeletal remains were found in a submerged car last year.

Ten French investigators, including a judge and scientific and forensic police, arrived in Cambodia earlier this month to probe the deaths of widower Laurent Vallier, 42, and his young children.

"This (investigation) has led to very significant breakthroughs which are now ruling out the possibility of a suicide," the French embassy in Phnom Penh said in a statement.

The family's badly decomposed bodies were discovered inside Mr Vallier's white 4x4 vehicle after it was retrieved from a large pond behind his house in southern Kampong Speu province in January last year.