Hanoi police find car of 'missing' district chairman

On the afternoon of January 2, Mr. Do Lai Luat, Permanent Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quoc Oai District, informed that he had found the personal car of District Chairman Nguyen Hong Lam, who had been "missing" for a week.

The car was parked in the parking lot in lane 113 Tran Duy Hung (Cau Giay, Hanoi), the results of the car search "found nothing special except for some personal items". Mr. Luat said that the discovery, car search, and taking the car to the garage of the District People's Committee were all carried out by the police with the family and the District People's Committee witnessing.

Citing a police report, Mr. Luat informed that one of Mr. Lam's last phone calls before he became unreachable was to his son on the morning of December 26, 2017. During the call, Mr. Lam told his son that he was "in trouble."

The authorities have identified vThe last known location of the phone number wasin the Den Lu Lake area (Hoang Mai district). Authorities then conducted a search, but "found nothing".

Quoc Oai district leaders said, one day before "disappearing"(December 25), Mr. Lam still ran the work of the District People's Committee as usual. That evening, he attended a farewell dinner.a retired officer at the district finance department.

"At around 9pm, Mr. Lam drove himself out of the office, and then no one knew where he went. The next morning, at around 6:35am on December 26, Mr. Lam called the District Party Secretary to ask for permission to be absent from the meeting of the Standing Committee, s"Then we could not contact each other," Vice President Do Lai Luat said.

The Criminal Police Department (Hanoi Police) added that aboutAt 9:00 p.m. on December 25, 2017, Mr. Nguyen Hong Lam drove a black Camry out of the headquarters of the People's Committee of Quoc Oai District. At 9:36 p.m., he parked his car at 113 Tran Duy Hung, then walked to alley 115 Tran Duy Hung and left by an unknown means of transportation.

Chairman of Quoc Oai District People's Committee Nguyen Hong Lam. Photo: Quoc Oai District Portal

At 9:53 p.m. the same day, Mr. Lam arrived at Den Lu Lake (Hoang Mai, Hanoi). Currently, his family has not been able to contact Mr. Lam and does not know where he went or what he did..

Previously from nOn December 26, 2017, Mr. Nguyen Hong Lam, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quoc Oai District, did not come to work and did not submit a leave request. District leaders tried to contact him but his phone was constantly turned off. A day later, his family reported to the district that Mr. Lam had suddenly "disappeared".

Mr. Nguyen Hong Lam was born in 1964, residing in Nghia Huong commune (Quoc Oai, Hanoi). He used to be the Chairman of Nghia Huong Cooperative; Chairman of Nghia Huong commune; Chief of Office of Quoc Oai District Party Committee; Vice Chairman of Quoc Oai district.

In mid-2017, Mr. Lam was elected Chairman of Quoc Oai district after his predecessor was appointed Director of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment.

During more than 10 years as Vice Chairman of Quoc Oai district, Mr. Lam was assessed as "very cautious, calm, nothing special about relationships. His behavior and leadership and management work also had no problems".

The Criminal Police Department (Hanoi Police) requests citizens and organizations, if they discover Mr. Nguyen Hong Lam, or have any related information, to contact the department via phone number 0692196451 to coordinate the investigation.