Unmasking the female monster who trapped a strange man online and then drugged him

Two consecutive sentences in a short period of time are the price this "monster" must pay for her frequent use of drugging her new boyfriends to "trap" them for property. The journey to expose the "monster" is a battle of wits between the Criminal Police (CSHS), Nam Tu Liem District Police and this scheming woman...

The woman is full of tricks

More than 2 years have passed since the Criminal Police Department, Nam Tu Liem District Police received a complaint from Mr. Nguyen Dinh V. accusing a woman named Linh of giving him sleeping pills and taking all of his belongings. According to Mr. V.'s report at that time, although they had only known each other through social networks, Linh claimed to be from the same hometown as Mr. V. and in their first meeting outside, he went with Linh to the SB motel in Trung Van ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi to have sex. On the way to the motel, Mr. V. said that he had broken his bones in an accident and was still in pain, Linh asked him to stop at a pharmacy to buy painkillers. When they arrived at the motel, Linh gave Mr. Vinh 5 pills, saying they were painkillers. After taking the pills, Mr. Vinh felt sleepy and slept until midnight. When he woke up, all of his belongings were gone along with his new girlfriend.

At that time, apart from the woman named Linh and the phone number used to access the social network Zalo, there was no information about the woman's identity. Major Dang Manh Cuong, Captain of the Criminal Police Team, Nam Tu Liem District Police, recalled that at that time, Linh's phone number that Mr. V. provided was no longer in use. It is possible that she removed the SIM card and threw it away to avoid being tracked by Mr. V. as well as the police. It can be said that she was a young woman but experienced, scheming, and cunning when dealing with the police.

Immediately after receiving the victim’s report on the morning of February 21, 2016 and being provided with a photo of a woman named Linh, the detectives identified a phone number different from the one provided by Mr. V., which Linh used to access social networks (Zalo). On February 21, the detectives followed Linh and discovered that this woman moved continuously, especially at one point she appeared in Hai Duong province…

Defendant Tran Thi Thang

Searching for the "monster"

The method of drugging victims and robbing them is not new, but it is very easy to do, especially for men who like “one-night stands”, so if the subject is not urgently arrested, many more victims will surely fall into the trap. Throughout the night of February 21, many detectives continued to search for the identity of this subject.

Throughout February 22, Linh's traces became more and more evident. Through professional measures, the police discovered that around the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, Linh had appeared in Dak Lak province and stayed there for a few days. According to common reasoning, this address could be the home of an acquaintance of Linh's, only then could Linh stay there for a long time, and at the same time, it was determined that she might return here.

From this clue, on the morning of February 23, the Criminal Police Team of Nam Tu Liem District Police went to the ticket counter for the bus to Dak Lak at My Dinh Bus Station and learned that a few hours ago, a girl with similar identification characteristics to Linh had boarded the bus. Immediately, the task force set out to arrest Linh. "From My Dinh Bus Station, when we were close to Ha Nam province, we got the driver's phone number and requested to coordinate in arresting the subject," Major Dang Manh Cuong recalled.

To ensure the safety of the trip and the passengers on the bus, when arriving at a gas station in Ninh Binh province, the criminal police of Nam Tu Liem District Police asked the driver to stop and fill up the gas so that the passengers could rest. At that moment, the task force appeared and arrested Linh, to the surprise of many passengers on the bus. In the backpack Linh was carrying, in addition to all the property she had taken from Mr. Nguyen Dinh V., there were also a number of identity cards (ID cards). Notably, this woman had 3 ID cards with other people's names but with her photo attached. When entering motels, this subject often used fake ID cards to rent rooms to show that she was a decent person and not to embarrass her "boyfriend".

While searching for Linh, Nam Tu Liem District Police also requested the cooperation of police units in districts and towns in Hanoi. Long Bien District Police at that time provided information that the woman named Linh was Tran Thi Thang, who had been arrested by Long Bien District Police for fraud and appropriation of property and was later sentenced to 12 months in prison by the Long Bien District People's Court.

Specializing in cheating on your lover

Returning to the case with Mr. V., around January 2016, through the social network Zalo, Thang introduced himself as a fellow countryman (Tuyen Quang) in the process of getting to know Mr. V. With the fake name Linh, Thang said he was working as a maid in Hanoi. After only a few conversations, in February 2016, Mr. V. arranged to meet Thang in Tuyen Quang and very quickly, the two rented a motel to have sex. On February 19, using the excuse that it was the weekend, Thang went to Mr. V.'s workplace in Nam Sach district, Hai Duong province to date. There, the two had "fun" with each other. On the morning of February 20, Thang proactively invited Mr. V. to his house in Hanoi to play and this worker, without suspicion, took his motorbike to take his "girlfriend" back to the capital.

Using the excuse of pitying Mr. V. for being in pain due to a broken collarbone, when arriving at the gate of Military Hospital 103, Thang told his "boyfriend" to stop in front of the pharmacy to buy painkillers, but in fact she had gone in to buy sedatives. Thang took the initiative to take Mr. V. to a motel, directly rented a room for the two of them to "have fun", and at the same time had the opportunity to take possession of the victim's property. After taking the medicine, Mr. V. fell into a coma and the "female monster" took away an LG mobile phone, a motorbike with its registration and some money...

Born and raised in Tuyen Quang, after finishing high school, Thang went to work as a worker for a garment factory and fell in love with Hoang Van T. (in Chuong My district, Hanoi). When Thang became pregnant, but T.'s family did not accept, she stayed in Tuyen Quang to "give birth" alone. When the daughter was 3 years old, T.'s family accepted the relationship, so Thang moved back to Chuong My district to live and gave birth to another daughter.

When his daughter was over 1 year old, Mr. T. had another woman and did not provide for Thang and her mother. Feeling frustrated, Thang gave up his younger child, brought his older daughter back to Tuyen Quang for his mother to raise, and then applied to work as a maid at a restaurant in Hanoi. Here, taking advantage of his good looks, Thang had an affair with the restaurant's chef and tricked him into buying a motorbike. After this incident, Thang was sentenced to 12 months in prison by the Long Bien District People's Court. After being released from prison, Thang had no job and returned to working as a maid.

Thang used social media to find his victims, using ID cards he bought at pawnshops to hide his identity, luring men who were interested in strange things into his trap. Before committing the crime against Mr. V., Thang used this trick to steal the property, a motorbike, from another man in Viet Tri.

“When cases involving these types of “free” love affairs are closed, despite their attempts to defend and cover up, the victims cannot deny that the reason is that they themselves were lustful, greedy for “strange things” and pushed themselves into the “love trap” of criminals.”

Major Dang Manh Cuong (Captain of the Criminal Police Team, Nam Tu Liem District Police, Hanoi)

Chau Anh