murder – VIETNAM STAR

Hanoi police arrest 2 for murdering GrabBike driver

Daisy Nguyen — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:53:53 +0000

A GrabBike driver had had an intuitive feeling that the two passengers he was going to carry could do something harmful to him, so he decided to take a photo of them, before he was indeed murdered and the picture became an important lead for police investigation.
Police in Hanoi said late Monday they had arrested two men for allegedly stabbing the GrabBike driver, Nguyen Cao S., to death last week, using the photo the victim had taken of the suspects and sent to a friend of his before the deadly ride.
Dinh Van Truong, 19, and Dinh Van Giap, 24, were apprehended when they were hiding in the northern province of Yen Bai, about 155 kilometers from Hanoi, where the alleged murder took place, at around 6:00 pm on Monday.
The men were brought back to Bac Tu Liem District in the capital to assist the investigation, an official from the Hanoi police department told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Truong and Giap are the prime suspects in the murder of S., an 18-year-old college freshman who worked after school as a GrabBike driver in Hanoi.
Police reports showed that the incident happened in Thuy Phuong Ward, Bac Tu Liem District on the night of September 26.
Before picking up Truong and Giap, S. had taken a photo of them and sent it to his roommate, Long, asking him give it to police officers “if anything bad happens.”
Long told officers he had tried to call S. multiple times later that night, but his roommate never answered.
S.’s family then reported his missing to police, before his body was found in a secluded area in Bac Tu Liem District on the evening of September 28.
As the student showed signs of being murdered, a manhunt was later initiated for the suspects based on the photo the victim had sent his friend.
According to Giap’s statements, he and Truong booked a ride from My Dinh Bus Station to Co Nhue Ward that day.
In the middle of the journey, Giap told S. that they did not have any money and asked if they could pay the fare on another day.

The location where S.’s body was found on September 28, 2019. Photo: Danh Trong / Tuoi Tre

S. did not agree, before an argument broke out between Giap and the driver.
During the quarrel, S. threw Giap’s bag on the ground, so Giap stabbed him multiple times with a swift knife.
S. then ran away as he screamed for help.
Truong and Giap took his motorcycle and fled to their hometown in Yen Bai Province, but did not steal his smartphone.
Meanwhile, Truong claimed he was standing from a distance during the quarrel, thus he was not aware that Giap had stabbed the victim.
Both suspects said they did not know that S. had succumbed to the wounds.
They also had no idea police were hunting for them as they did not read the news.
Further investigation is ongoing.
Source: Tuoitrenews

South Korean internationally hunted man detained in Danang

Daisy Nguyen — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 10:11:31 +0000

Police in the central city of Danang have just detained a South Korean man who was facing an international manhunt for murder.
Police in Hai Chau District announced on September 30 that they have arrested Lee Sam, 47, of South Korean nationality for drugs possession.
According to police reports, Lee came to a hotel on Bach Dang Street in Hai Chau District and harassed the staff here. He was detained by the hotel’s guard who then took him to police.
At the police station, Lee was tested positive for drugs. After searching his apartment in Son Tra District, police found two plastic bags containing a white substance which was suspected to be drugs.
Further investigations showed that Lee Sam was facing an international arrest warrant for murder.
Source: Dtinews

In Vietnam, cold-blooded man massacres brother’s family over land dispute

Daisy Nguyen — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 11:10:25 +0000

Police arrested a man on Sunday for slashing four members of his brother’s family to death and severely injuring another with a chopper because of a land dispute.
The suspect, 53-year-old Nguyen Van Dong, and his brother 50-year-old Nguyen Van Hai had a dispute over a piece of land their parents had left them on Hong Ha Commune, Dan Phuong District, Hanoi, Nguyen Thac Hung, deputy chairman of Dan Phuong, said on Sunday afternoon.
Dong carried a chopper knife to Hai’s place at 7:30 am on Sunday after the younger brother turned the first sod on his new house built on the piece of land.
The elder brother slashed Hai and the latter’s daughter, 28-year-old Nguyen Thi Bac, to death on the spot out of utmost rage.
He went on to slash Hai’s wife, 48-year-old Doan Thi Viet, her daughter 24-year-old Do Thi Hong Nhung, and one-year-old Nguyen Huyen My, who was Nhung’s child.
Viet and My were then pronounced dead in the hospital while Nhung is in a critical condition, sustaining multiple slashes.
Dong even calmly sat in his house and drank water after his serial killings.
Dong attempted to commit suicide at his home after the massacre but that was prevented by his adult son, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper reported, quoting a leader of Hong Ha.
The suspect then returned to the scene and kept slashing the bodies there.
Many neighbors saw the killings but none dared to intervene, as Dong was wielding the chopper and completely lost control.
Police rushed to the scene 15 minutes after the massacre and struggled to capture him.
The butchering primarily stemmed from a land dispute between Dong and Hai, Colonel Nguyen Thanh Tung, a chief investigator from the Hanoi police department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Source: Tuoitrenews

Mother silent after drug gang members rape, murder daughter

Vietnam Star — Tue, 28 May 2019 13:04:10 +0000

The mother of a woman gang-raped and murdered by eight men in northern Vietnam belonged to their drug ring, police say.
Police in the northern province of Dien Bien said “a drug organization” was directly behind the case in which eight men kidnapped, raped and murdered Cao Thi My Duyen, 22, in early February.
They also found that Duyen’s mother, Tran Thi Hien, was in the same drug ring as the eight men.
Investigators are gathering evidence on Hien in the case, whether she denies involvement or not, Dien Bien police chief Sung A Hong said on Monday.
This drug gang has operated for some time and many of its members have been arrested, he said.
“If we find more proof that ties suspects to drug-related crimes, we will expand the investigation. For now, the focus will be on the rape and murder only,” he said.
The eight men involved in the rape murder – Vi Van Toan, 37, Bui Van Cong, 44, Vuong Van Hung, 35, Pham Van Nhiem, 47, Luong Van La, 26, Luong Van Hung, 39, Pham Van Dung, 47, and Cam Van Chuong, 45 – are also being investigated for robbery, storing narcotics and illegally detaining people. The eight men are all drug users.
During the investigation, these suspects had changed their testimonies several times, police say.
Investigators found Toan had told the other seven men that Hien owed him a lot of money, so he wanted them to help him kidnap her daughter and blackmail her.
In return, Toan would give them money and drugs.
Hung came to check out chickens sold by Hien and her daughter Duyen at the Muong Thanh Market in Dien Bien Phu Town on February 4.
He asked for Duyen’s number so that he could place orders later. The same night, he called Duyen and asked her to deliver 13 chickens to a specific address in town.
As Duyen arrived with the chickens, driving a motorbike on her own, he and others in the group kidnapped her and strangled her unconscious. They also took the chickens and the bike. Then they took her to Cong’s house and from the night of February 4 to the first hours of February 7, the group raped her one after another and killed her on the morning of February 7.
They dumped her body in an abandoned house five kilometers (three miles) away.
Police found that Cong’s wife, Bui Kim Thu, 44, was aware of what her husband and other men did to Duyen but did not inform anyone. She pretended to be the first to discover Duyen’s body by accident, police said, adding that she had tried to mislead the investigators. Thu is being investigated for not reporting the crime to the police.
Hien, the victim’s mother, had told investigators earlier that she knew none of the men suspected to have brutally raped and killed her daughter. Police have detained her to serve their investigation.
Source: Vnexpress

Women in ‘corpse-in-concrete’ case admit to murder during cult-like activities

Vietnam Star — Sun, 19 May 2019 16:17:38 +0000

Four women who are involved in a ‘corpse-in-concrete’ case in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong have confessed to murder, claiming that they and the victims were Falun Gong followers.
An official from the provincial Department of Police confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the suspects had admitted to killing one man, while stating that another had committed suicide.
“We are conducting further investigation to determine the exact role of each woman in the murder, as well as their motive,” the policeman stated.
The four suspects include Pham Thi Thien Ha, 31, her mother, 66-year-old Trinh Thi Hong Hoa, along with Le Phu Hanh, 54, and Le Thi Phuong Thao, 29.
The victims have been identified as Tran Tri Thanh, a Ho Chi Minh City resident, and Tran Duc Linh, who hailed from north-central Nghe An Province.
They were said to be between 30 and 35 years old.

Authorities break concrete at a house in southern Binh Duong Province, where the murder happened, on the night of May 15, 2019. Photo: Ba Son / Tuoi Tre

According to the suspects’ statements, they and the two victims were followers of Falun Gong, a Chinese religious spiritual practice.
Their group rented a house on D2 Street in Ben Cat District, Binh Duong Province to practice the spiritual discipline.
After some members left the group, the other followers decided to relocate to keep their activities a secret.
Ha then rented the house of Nguyen Minh Vuong in Bau Bang District, also in Binh Duong, in October 2018.
During their practices, the two men developed some conflicts with the four women.
One of the men, Linh, eventually committed suicide by jumping off the house roof.
The other members then kept Linh’s body inside a room. As his body began decomposing, they put it into a barrel and covered it tightly with tape.

The house where the bodies were discovered. Photo: Ba Son / Tuoi Tre

After a while, the women thought that Thanh was no longer a suitable member, so they planned on murdering him.
The suspects first rendered him unconscious by electrocuting him, before strangling him to death.
The women also kept Thanh’s body inside a room while they continued their religious exercises.
As the corpse started to smell, they threw it into another barrel and filled it with concrete.
In April 2019, they returned the house to Vuong, who then sold it in May.
The new owner discovered the concrete-filled barrel on Wednesday night and found Thanh’s body as he was breaking up the concrete.
Police officers then searched the house and found Linh’s body the following day.
The women were apprehended on Friday night when they were staying at a hotel in Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong, about 50km from the murder scene.
Source: Tuoitrenews

Police arrest suspect in murder of 3 family members in southern Vietnam

Vietnam Star — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:04:45 +0000

Vietnamese police have apprehended a suspect in the killing on Wednesday of three people in a family, allegedly resulting from a personal animus toward one of the victims who had opposed the suspect watching porn at her house.
Officers said on Thursday that they had arrested Tran Trong Luan, a 34-year-old man from Tan Uyen Town in Binh Duong, a province around 35km to the east of Ho Chi Minh City, the day before.
Luan is accused of killing three family members, including a grandmother, a daughter, and a grandchild, in Tan Uyen.
The suspect, who was the victims’ neighbor, would watch porn on his smartphone whenever he came to the house of Dao Thi Thu Cuc, 54, for coffee, as the place doubles as a coffee shop, according to preliminary reports.
He was told to go home by Tran Thi Quynh Nhi, Cuc’s 17-year-old daughter, each time he opened porn, leading to his animosity toward the young girl.
Luan intended to commit suicide after losing all of his money in gambling on Tuesday evening.
But the intention of killing Nhi suddenly crossed his mind so he carried three knives and a machete to the coffee shop around 0:00 on Wednesday.
He was breaking into the house through the roof when Cuc found him. He then slashed her with the machete to death before going on to murder Nhi and her niece, 8-year-old Nguyen Thi Bao Ngan.
Police officers found the weapons Luan had thrown 100 meters away from the crime scene.
The crime story unfolded when neighbors heard dogs barking continuously at 3:00 am on Wednesday but they did not check the area, thinking someone might be working at the sand strip nearby.
At 7:00 am, Cuc’s eldest adult child Tran Minh Phuong dropped by to pick up her daughter, Ngan, on the way to work when she saw the little girl lying motionless on the floor amid blood.
She shouted for help from neighbors who rushed in to see Cuc and Nhi also dead.
Police were informed of the crime shortly.
They captured Luan after a raid on Wednesday. During the raid, the suspect tried to kill himself with poison but he survived after police took him to the hospital.
The suspect admitted to his crime at the police station.
Source: Tuoitrenews

American may face death for Vietnamese tourists’ murder

Daisy Nguyen — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:46:58 +0000

Man accused of killing two Vietnamese tourists in Las Vegas pleads not guilty, prosecutors to decide on death penalty demand.
Prosecutors have sought time to decide on whether or not to ask for the death penalty in the murder of two Vietnamese tourists last June. They have been given until November 13 to make a decision.
Julius Trotter, 31, showed up at a hearing on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to accusations that he stabbed two Vietnamese tour employees to death while robbing them at a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, a Washington Times report says.
Trotter’s attorney declined to comment.
The victims were Nghia Boi Sang, 38, director of a Ho Chi Minh City-based tourist company and her 30-year-old employee Nguyen Le Ba Khuong, who had arrived at Las Vegas on May 31 and stayed at the Circus Circus hotel and casino. Their bodies were found with multiple stab wounds on the afternoon of June 1.
A week after the murder, on June 7, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Las Vegas police captured the suspect in California after a 5-km car chase. The arrest was based on the hotel’s surveillance camera footage.
Trotter is being held without bail.
Following the incident, Vietnam’s foreign ministry instructed its embassy in Washington and consulate general in San Francisco to coordinate with local authorities in providing assistance to the victims’ families so they could come to the U.S. and arrange for their funerals.
The ministry also requested the U.S. police to solve the case and promptly inform Vietnam of the result of their investigation.
Trotter had pleaded guilty last year in Las Vegas to resisting a police officer with a weapon, and had been sentenced to five years’ probation for felony.
Source: Vnexpress

Dad of Kim Jong Nam murder suspect wants ‘kind’ daughter home

Vietnam Star — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 06:30:46 +0000

Doan Van Thanh proudly displays diplomas and photos of his daughter at his home in rural Vietnam, hopeful she’ll be freed from a jail in Malaysia where she’s on trial for the murder of the North Korean leader’s half-brother.

He refuses to believe that “affable and kind” Doan Thi Huong could kill anyone, in line with defence arguments that she was tricked into the assassination along with her co-accused, Indonesian Siti Aisyah.

“She was cheated,” Thanh told AFP, his eyes bloodshot and his face weathered.

Huong and Siti have been behind bars since Kim Jong Nam was killed with the toxic VX nerve agent at a busy Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.

After months of hearings, a judge ruled Thursday (Aug 16) there is enough evidence for the trial to proceed, dashing hopes of an acquittal.

“I love my daughter and miss her, but there’s nothing I can do,” said Thanh, 64, who works as a cleaner and parking lot attendant at a nearby market.

Huong, a former hair salon worker, left home after high school and spent a few years studying pharmacology and accounting in Hanoi.

She then moved to Malaysia, where like many Vietnamese migrant workers she hoped for a better life than the one on offer in her poor rice-farming village.

Her flashy fashion, foreign boyfriends and edgy hairstyles quickly sparked chatter among neighbours back home.

That gossip exploded after she was linked to Kim’s murder, and videos quickly circulated of a woman who looks like her auditioning for the “Vietnam Idol” TV series.

Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong (C) escorted by armed Malaysian police leaves after facing trial at the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur on Aug 16, 2018 for her alleged role in the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. (Photo credit: Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP)

Other unsubstantiated images showed the same young woman kissing a famous social media prankster on a popular YouTube channel.

Her apparent hunger for fame may have embroiled her in the shocking assassination that has grabbed global headlines.

Vietnamese man jailed 15 years for fatal stabbing in Taiwan

Dung Duong — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 05:30:50 +0000

High Court finds man guilty of murder of a compatriot and causing bodily harm to two others in June 2017

According to a report on Asia Times, a Vietnamese man was sentenced to 15 years jail for murder and causing bodily harm after killing a compatriot and injuring two other men in a restaurant in New Taipei City last year.

Bui Tien-dung had a quarrel with another Vietnamese man surnamed To in the toilet of a Vietnamese restaurant in Xinzhuang district in June 2017, Central News Agency reported, citing court documents. The two seemed to have resolved their conflict with a handshake but Bui remained unhappy about the incident.

Bui’s cousin went out to buy five knives as he was worried that To would seek revenge. When Bui and his cousin were about the leave the restaurant, Bui went to To’s booth and stabbed a man surnamed Pham to death with a knife. He also injured To and his friend, also surnamed Pham, on their arms and backs.

Bui was previously given a 16-and-a-half-year jail term by the New Taipei District Court for murder and an attempted murder. But he appealed the case to the Taiwan High Court.

On Tuesday, the Taiwan High Court said Bui’s intention to murder Pham was clear as he stabbed the victim in the chest. However, there was no evidence that Bui wanted to kill To and the other Pham as he was only waving the knife at them.

The High Court dropped the attempted murder charge against Bui and reduced his jail term to 15 years.

He is due to be deported once he has served his prison sentence.

Teen gets death for killing family of 5 in Saigon

Daisy Nguyen — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 11:59:13 +0000

Gruesome murders shook the nation, happened when millions of Vietnamese were celebrating the Lunar New Year.
A Vietnamese teenager was sentenced to death on Monday for the brutal murder of a family of five in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Huu Tinh, 18, was found guilty for the heartless killing of Mai Xuan Chinh, 46, his wife and their three children aged between 6 and 13 on February 12 this year.

Tinh has also been forced to pay VND200 million ($8,677) to the victims’ next of kin.

According to the indictment, Tinh was an employee at Chinh’s welding shop in Binh Tan District on the city’s outskirts since August 2017. He received a monthly salary of VND4.5 million ($195), plus food and accommodation.

He attended the family’s year-end party on the night of February 12 with his colleagues, but while his co-workers returned home to celebrate the Lunar New Year after the party, Tinh asked to stay behind at the family’s house. That night, he stabbed Chinh’s entire family to death.

He told police officers that he had been treated unfairly while working at Chinh’s shop, that he was frequently scolded by the owner’s wife. He wanted to take revenge and steal their belongings.

The culprit admitted his crime at the hearing.

The murder was discovered three days later, after residents reported to police the smell of decomposing flesh coming from Chinh’s house.

The incident shocked the public as it took place at a time when the nation as a whole was celebrating Tet, the Lunar New Year, the longest and most important holiday in Vietnam.

Tinh was arrested while hiding in Long An Province outside the city on February 16.

Source: Vnexpress