After a month-long manhunt, police in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on Sunday arrested a suspected murderer who allegedly killed four family members in a brutal attack that rocked the public.
Tan Lao Lo, 24, was finally caught while trying to sneak through the forest back to his home, after going on the run in the wake of the alleged murders and robbery in August.
According to a VnExpress source, the suspect has admitted killing four family members, and is currently in custody facing charges of murder and robbery.
Murder suspect Tan Lao Lo. Photo by VnExpress/Son Duong |
On August 9, Tan Ong Nai, 22, found the body of his two-year-old daughter Tan Mai Phuong in a stream 50 meters from his house on his way home from work.
Nai tried to get into the house to search for the rest of his family, but found the front door was locked. Instead he went around the back and entered the house to find a booby-trap set inside with a gun pointed at him. It didn't go off.
Lao Cai Police arrived at the scene the next day and discovered the body of Nai’s wife (Tan Ta May) and his other daughter (Tan Thuy Van), who was only 20 days old, in a pond near their home.
Nai’s niece Tan Thuy Chi, 6, was subsequently found dead in a ditch 100 meters from the house. The family's house had been ransacked, and VND14 million (US$628) in cash was stolen.
Autopsy results showed that Tan Ta May had been beaten to death, while the three children had been drowned.
Police identified Lo as the prime suspect following his disappearance, and tracked him to Coc My Commune, Bat Xat District, about 10 kilometers from the border with China.
Lo has a wife and two children and was described as a “lazy and abusive” person. Three years ago, he broke into the house with the intention of raping Tan Ta May, Nai's wife, but failed. according to the police.
Vietnam reported 1.51 intentional homicides per 100,000 people in 2011, up from 1.25 in 2008, the New York Times reported last month, using a World Bank database that cites figures from the United Nations. But that was still below the average of two per 100,000 people reported across the Asia-Pacific region in 2012, the closest year for which data was available, the Times said.
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