Police: Chicken delivery girl could have escaped death if her mother told the truth

On the afternoon of October 23, speaking to the press on the sidelines of the ongoing National Assembly session, Director of Dien Bien Provincial Police Sung A Hong said that after 8 months of the shocking case of murder and rape of a female chicken delivery student on the afternoon of the 30th of Lunar New Year, Dien Bien Provincial Police had completed the investigation, although the suspects used many "tricks". The 9 suspects in the case all had many convictions, criminal records and were heavy drug addicts, some of whom confessed after several months of being arrested.

According to Mr. Hong, during the investigation, the victim's mother, Ms. Tran Thi Hien, continuously made it difficult for the investigation agency. She was the first person to know that her daughter was kidnapped by a group of addicts to pressure her because she did not pay her drug debt, but she did not honestly report it to the police, "only saying that her daughter went to deliver chicken and went missing."

"When meeting the investigator, Ms. Hien's husband and eldest daughter knew the truth but did not provide any information. This was the direct reason why the investigation agency could not save the female student. If Ms. Hien had provided information about her daughter being kidnapped from the beginning to the investigation agency, I think saving the girl would have been very simple," Mr. Hong said, adding that until now Ms. Hien is still considered "stubborn".

According to the investigation, Vi Van Toan sold two heroin cakes to Ms. Hien for 300 million VND 10 years ago but did not have time to collect the money. After being released from prison, Toan went to Ms. Hien to collect the debt but was unsuccessful. Toan then hired Bui Van Cong and Vuong Van Hung for 50 million VND to kidnap Ms. Hien's daughter, Cao My Duyen (22 years old), to force her to collect the debt.

At around 6:40 p.m. on February 4 (Lunar New Year's Eve 2019), Cong and Hung asked Duyen to deliver 10 chickens from Muong Thanh market to area C13 (Thanh Truong ward), about 7 km from the market. At the meeting point, while Duyen was catching the chickens, Cong strangled her from behind with a nunchaku. The group carried Duyen onto Cong's truck and took her to his house in team 11, Thanh Nua commune, Dien Bien district. While their accomplices were taking action, Toan secretly followed them from afar on a motorbike.

After successfully kidnapping the victim, Cong told Hung to hide 13 chickens, the victim's motorbike and phone. Hung then hid the evidence and gave the victim's phone to Toan.

Toan said that at around 8:58 p.m. the same day, he heard Duyen's phone ringing. He answered it and asked to meet Ms. Hien. Toan said he was kidnapping Duyen and asked the mother to quickly pay the money. However, Ms. Hien refused to pay and threatened to call the police.

On the afternoon of the second day of Tet (February 6), a female student was murdered after two days of being locked up and raped by a group of drug addicts.

According to Toan, on the morning of the 5th day of Tet (February 9), after learning that her daughter had been murdered, Ms. Hien rode her motorbike to his house and started cursing. At this time, no suspect has been arrested.

According to the investigation, Ms. Hien denied the above statements of the group of suspects. She affirmed that she did not know the defendants in the case and did not owe Toan or Cong money. When her daughter was kidnapped, she did not receive a call from Toan demanding payment. Ms. Hien said that she called Duyen many times but she did not answer and at nearly 9 p.m. she saw the phone turned on but no one said anything.

Dien Bien Provincial Police determined that there was not enough evidence to conclude that Ms. Hien knew about Toan's group kidnapping Duyen, so they did not prosecute her for failing to report the crime.

At the end of May, while the "chicken delivery girl" case was being investigated, Ms. Hien was arrested on charges of being an important link in a major drug trafficking ring in Dien Bien. She is currently being prosecuted and detained in another case.

Pham Du-Lan Ha