Husband kills man who had conflict with wife and hides body in pond
After using a knife to kill a man who had a conflict with his wife, Nguyen Van Thanh hid the body in a pond. Although the wife knew about her husband's murder, she did not report it to the police.
On August 5, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a trial for defendant Nguyen Van Thanh (born 2004, residing in Long Son commune, former Anh Son district), now Yen Xuan commune, Nghe An, for the crime of murder and his wife Nguyen Thi Kim Anh (born 2004) for the crime of "Concealing a criminal”.
According to the case file, at noon on January 17, 2025, Nguyen Van Thanh and his wife went to the house of Mr. Tran VD (born in 1970, residing in the old Phuc Son commune, now Anh Son commune) to borrow money, using a motorbike as collateral. However, after examining the motorbike, Mr. D. only agreed to lend 4 million VND, so Thanh and his wife did not borrow any more.
After that, Mr. D. invited Thanh and his wife to stay and eat dog meat, and Thanh agreed. Mr. D. went into the kitchen to prepare the meal, Thanh went behind the pigsty, and Kim Anh sat on a wooden bench in the middle of the yard. After a while, Thanh heard his wife calling him so he went out to ask, but Kim Anh did not say anything.
On the way home, Kim Anh told her husband, "I was pushed by Mr. D. earlier, I was scared and screamed so he couldn't do anything." Thinking that Mr. D. was harassing his wife, at around 4:30 p.m. that same day, Thanh and his wife returned to Mr. D.'s house to talk.
When they arrived, Thanh sat down to drink wine with Mr. D. while Kim Anh went to the garden to pick vegetables. A moment later, Kim Anh went in and told her husband to go home, but Thanh said his wife would go home first. So Kim Anh went home alone to cook dinner.
While staying to drink, Thanh was angry that Mr. D. had said many insulting words to him and his wife. Nguyen Van Thanh went down to the kitchen to get a knife, stood behind Mr. D. and slashed him in the head, causing him to fall face down on the cement floor.
Not stopping there, Thanh continued to use the knife to slash 3 times in the back of the head and used the back of the knife to hit 2 times in the head, causing Mr. D. to die.
When he saw that Mr. D. was dead, Thanh told his younger brother Nguyen Van Chien to help him take Mr. D.'s body and throw it into the pond behind the house, then used an iron plate and 4 bricks to cover it.
Thanh then took the victim's ID card, notebook, and blood-stained phone and destroyed them to cover up his tracks. At the same time, Thanh called his wife to inform her that he had killed Mr. D. and told her not to tell anyone.
After discovering that Mr. D. was missing, the victim’s relatives reported the incident to the police. On February 20, Nguyen Van Thanh went to the police station to surrender and report his crime. Only after learning that her husband had surrendered did Nguyen Thi Kim Anh report the incident.
At the trial, the defendants admitted to their crimes. Defendant Thanh stated that he acted impulsively because the victim despised, humiliated, and insulted his wife. After slashing the victim, out of fear, he hid the body in a pond.
Also appearing in court, defendant Kim Anh justified her actions in concealing the crime because she saw that her child was still young and was afraid of losing his father, so she kept silent and did not report it to the police.
The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendant Nguyen Van Thanh deliberately committed the crime to the end, and that the murder was a hooliganism, which was an aggravating circumstance, so he was sentenced to death.
For defendant Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, the court sentenced her to 24 months in prison with a suspended sentence for the crime of Concealing a Criminal.
Regarding the civil part, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim's family nearly 300 million VND for funeral expenses, mental damage and monthly support of 2 million VND for the youngest 11-year-old child until he turns 18.
As for Nguyen Van Chien, he committed the crime of Concealing a Crime, but when he committed the crime, Chien was only 15 years old, so he is not criminally responsible. The authorities handed Chien over to the commune government for education.
