Suspect held in killing of four family members in central Vietnam

Vi Van Man was detained on Sunday, 18 days after the shocking murders were detected in a mountainous field in Tuong Duong District, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Phuc Tu, deputy chief police officer of the district, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Man comes from Tam Hop Commune in the same district.

The victims were Le Van Tho, 28, his wife Yen, their nearly-one-year-old baby and his 70-year-old mother, who lived in the same district as Man, Lt. Col. Tu said.

The killings resulted from a prolonged conflict over a love triangle between Tho, Yen and Man, a source told Tuoi Tre.

After his arrest, Man told police that he and Yen had had a love affair, which led to a long-standing row between him and Tho.

Man also said he had repeatedly tried to persuade Yen to leave her family and live with him, but she refused.

On July 2, Man entered a mountainous field owned by Tho’s family to pick lemons when he met the husband, and a quarrel broke out between the two men over the love triangle, Man told police.

A fight erupted and Man used a knife to stab Tho to death.

After witnessing the stabbing, Yen, who was holding her baby nearby, tried to run away, but Man chased her and asked the woman to go with him, but she rejected it.

Man them slashed both her and the baby to death, he told police officers.

The suspect added that he later encountered Tho’s mother and killed her with the knife, too, for fear that she would accuse him of the murders.

The bodies of the victims, who had suffered many stab and slash wounds, including those in their neck, were discovered by locals in the afternoon of the same day, police said.

After days of investigation, police identified Man as a suspect in the murders and detained him yesterday.

Police are further probing the massacre.