Two men killed, entombed in concrete, four women arrested

Police in Binh Duong Province said on Saturday they have detained the women pending investigation of the grisly murder case which took place in a rented house in Hung Hoa Commune, Bau Bang District, less than two hours from Saigon.

"For now, three of them have admitted to committing the murder and putting the two bodies in the tanks with concrete. They said personal conflicts instigated the killing," a senior officer said, adding that they are investigating the remaining woman’s role.

Two of the women, Pham Thi Thien Ha, 31, and Trinh Thi Hong Hoa, had lived in the house with the two victims from October 2018, according to the house owner.

Pham Thi Thien Ha (L) and Pham Thi Hong Hoa, two of the four suspects in a murder case of two men in Binh Duong Province in southern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Binh Duong Police.

No information has been given about the relationship between the other women and the murdered men, the specific reason for their murder, and how it was actually committed.

The murder was discovered on Thursday when a man who bought the property was cleaning up the place.

In one bedroom, he found a water tank filled with concrete. He had some workers break it in order to move it out, and found a decomposing body encased in the concrete.

When the police arrived and searched the property, they found another plastic water tank filled with concrete. This one contained a body too.

A water tank on the side of a house in Binh Duong Province, in which police found a body hidden in concrete. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyet Trieu

Police said the victims were male, aged 30-35, and were most probably killed about a month earlier. One body had ten stab wounds on the back and a one-meter string around the neck while the other one was covered with tea leaves and packed in sponge, glue and silicon.

Investigators had first looked for Ha and Hoa, with local media publishing their images within the past day. In the early hours of Saturday, Nguyen Quang Khai, who works for a local hotel, reported to the police that the two women were staying there.

Khai said Ha and Hoa rented a hotel room in early April for long-term stay with two other women for VND7 million ($300), with Ha submitting her ID card while checking in.

"The four rarely went out and only communicated with the hotel staff when necessary; but they did not show any abnormal signs," he said.

On learning that their whereabouts has been discovered by the police, the group immediately checked out and demanded Ha’s ID back.

But Khai told them that he had already given the card to the police, in an effort to delay them.

As the four got into a seven-seat car to leave, the police arrived and arrested them.