Woman kidnapped at knifepoint to be sold to Cambodia escapes when captors stop for lunch

By Phan Anh, Nam An March 2, 2026 | 03:27 pm PT

Suspects in a kidnapping case arrested along seized evidence in southern Vietnam. Photo by Nam An

A 41-year-old woman was ambushed on a Vietnamese highway, held overnight in a guesthouse where she was beaten and forced to transfer her savings, then loaded into a car headed for the Cambodian border, but managed to escape when her captors made one mistake: they stopped to eat.

Police in Tay Ninh Province that borders Cambodia on Feb. 27 announced the arrest of eight suspects in connection with the abduction, which began as a business meeting gone violently wrong.

The victim, identified only as L.T.M., had arranged to meet Vo Van Tuong, 44, in Binh Hiep Commune to resolve a financial dispute over a shared business, according to reports from Tuoi Tre and Doi Song Phap Luat. What she encountered instead was an ambush.

On the evening of Feb. 21, as the woman rode her motorbike along National Highway 62 near Moc Hoa bridge, Tuong and an accomplice pulled up in a rented white sedan and blocked her path. Tuong held a knife to the woman and forced her into the car while another man, Nguyen Van Nhan, 27, seized her motorbike, phone, handbag and identification documents, Tay Ninh police said.

The group drove her more than 70 km to a guesthouse in Tay Ninh, according to Tien Phong newspaper. There, Tuong and his accomplices beat the woman with a broom and a water pipe, and forced her to transfer VND157 million (US$6,030) from her bank account to Tuong's, police said.

The next morning, the group loaded the woman into a seven-seat vehicle and headed toward Binh Hiep Commune near the Cambodian border, telling her she would be sold to Cambodia.

But the captors made a critical mistake. When they stopped at a roadside restaurant on National Highway 62, the woman found a moment when her guards were distracted, burst out of the car and ran. She reached Binh Hiep Commune police station and reported her ordeal.

Officers rushed the woman to hospital, where doctors documented injuries across her head, face, arms, legs and other parts of her body, police said.

The Criminal Police Division of Tay Ninh provincial police quickly launched a manhunt. Investigators first summoned Vo Van Tuan and Ly Kim Toan, both 30, then tracked down and arrested six more suspects: Tuong, who was identified as the ringleader; Nguyen Thanh Tho, 25; Le Thi Nhu Linh, 26; Nguyen Van Qui, 23; Truong Thanh Cong, 23; and Nhan.

All eight face charges of robbery and unlawful detention.

At the guesthouse where the woman was held overnight, police also found suspected methamphetamine paraphernalia.

Vietnamese authorities have dealt with a surge in trafficking cases in recent years, with criminal networks luring or forcing victims across the border to work in online fraud operations. In the first two months of 2025 alone, police in the northern city of Hai Phong rescued 12 citizens kidnapped and sold to Cambodia, according to the city's Department of Home Affairs, nearly matching the total from all of 2022 to 2024.

In February 2025, Tay Ninh border guards received 177 Vietnamese nationals repatriated from Cambodia, most of whom had been involved in scam operations in Svay Rieng Province.

The investigation is ongoing.