Vietnamese American woman prosecuted for kidnapping 2 girls and demanding $50,000

On the afternoon of March 16, Colonel Nguyen Sy Quang - Chief of Staff, spokesman of Ho Chi Minh City Police, confirmed that the Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency had issued a decision to prosecute the accused Truong Huong (Vietnamese American) for kidnapping to appropriate property.

Ms. Truong Huong at the investigation agency - Photo: MINH HA

Organize and implement alone

The source said that although in most of her statements, Huong admitted to organizing the kidnapping from beginning to end, this subject always affirmed that "she organized and followed the instructions of Mr. Hoang".(Mr. Tran Hoang, 45 years old, father of two kidnapped victims - PV)".

The investigation agency has spent a lot of time and effort investigating, but up to now there is no evidence or documents to prove that this statement is valid.

Reality also shows that Mr. Hoang's economic condition is very good, without any debt or problems, and Mr. Hoang himself loves his children very much. The children's grandmother confirmed that Mr. Hoang's economy is independent, has a high income, and if there are difficulties, she is willing to help.

Therefore, the investigation agency determined that Truong Huong was the main suspect, playing the role of mastermind, organizing the action from beginning to end and only Huong carried it out and issued the decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Huong for investigation.

Initial investigation results show that because they were friends and often played together in the US, when returning to Vietnam, Truong Huong stayed with Mr. Hoang's family in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City. During this time, Huong planned the kidnapping.

The kidnapping plan was prepared by Huong for a long time, carefully calculating each step and finding ways to attract and trick others to participate in order to seize money from the two children's grandmother.

To carry out the plan, Huong rented a room in Binh Tan District to hide the victims while threatening and forcing the child’s grandmother to pay the ransom. Next, Huong lured and tricked Lam Thi Phuong Dung (a maid for Mr. Hoang’s family) into helping her carry out the plan.

Dung and some related people said that because Huong had been in Mr. Hoang's house for a long time and had a close relationship like family, when Huong seduced him, Dung did not know this was a kidnapping plan and just followed through.

After many days of research, looking for opportunities and calculating all the plans, on March 7, Huong decided to take action.

Calculate carefully, erase traces

Two children at the investigation agency after being rescued - Photo: MINH HA

On the afternoon of March 7, Ms. Truong Huong called a familiar motorbike taxi driver to take Dung to pick up her two children at an international school in District 11.

To facilitate the action, Huong prepared a type of syrup to stimulate children to sleep and gave it to Dung, instructing Dung on how to give it to the children to prevent them from reacting.

Dung went to the classroom to pick up BN (6 years old) and take him to the cafeteria at 1:00 p.m. The child slept continuously until 4:00 p.m. When Dung went to pick up MA (8 years old) and leave school, BN was still sleeping.

The man who drove Dung and the victims from school was Nguyen Van Hung (58 years old, from Ben Tre, living in Binh Tan District), a motorbike taxi driver who often drove Huong.

According to Mr. Hung's testimony, when Huong assigned him to pick up Dung and the two children, he only thought he was hired to pick up and drop off the children as usual, completely unaware that Huong had organized the kidnapping.

After Mr. Hung drove Dung and the victims back to the motel, Huong returned several times to carry out the steps according to the previously planned plan.

First, Huong confiscated Dung's phone SIM card so that Dung could not contact the outside world, which could reveal her information and location. Huong left the phone for Dung and the victims to play games, but then Huong confiscated the phone for fear that it could accidentally connect to the wifi network.

Huong prepared food, drinks and necessary items for Dung and the victims from the time they were kidnapped until they were found and rescued.

During the time the children were kidnapped, Huong once went to the rented room and recorded the child BN telling her grandmother to transfer money to the kidnapper so that she could return to her grandmother soon. Huong taught the child the content of this conversation.

Huong used the iPhone that Mr. Hoang had previously used to send blackmail messages and film baby BN.

The messages sent via Viber with the content of the kidnapping announcement of the two children, threatening not to report to the police, otherwise they must go to Binh Duong to receive the children's bodies, and the notice to deliver 50,000 USD in Binh Duong were all sent by Huong right at Mr. Hoang's house.

After sending the video clip to the victim's grandmother, Huong deleted all data and even reinstalled the device two or three times to completely erase all traces and prevent data from being recovered.