Vietnamese man sentenced to death for killing his entire family in a day

The Hanoi People’s Court on July 8 handed down the death penalty to Vu Van Vuong for murder. At trial, Vuong admitted his crimes and asked to be executed as soon as possible.

Vuong worked as a bamboo and rattan weaver, while his wife was a construction laborer. They lived with his 78-year-old mother and their two children, aged 17 and 19. Since early 2024, Vuong had stopped working to care for his bedridden mother.

According to prosecutors, Vuong was in poor health and felt life had become "too difficult and hopeless". He decided to kill his entire family before taking his own life.

On Jan. 15, after his wife left for work and his son went to school, Vuong called his 19-year-old daughter into his room around 10 a.m., turned up loud music on his phone, and beat her to death with a wooden pestle. He hid her body under the bed and cleaned the blood stains.

Later that day, after having lunch with his 17-year-old son, he killed him too, placing both children’s bodies together.

When his wife returned home around 5 p.m. and asked about the children, Vuong lied, saying one was out with friends and the other was staying overnight at work. Around midnight, he killed his wife and his elderly mother.

Vuong wrote a suicide note and tried to kill himself multiple times by taking sleeping pills but survived.

The next night, Vuong fled Hanoi by bus to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, now part of Ho Chi Minh City. Police arrested him two days later.