Medical examiners confirmed that a body found in an Oakland estuary last year has been identified as that of a missing California woman whose son-in-law is suspected of killing her and her daughter, police in San Pablo, California, announced on Tuesday.
Que Tran, 74, and her daughter Tho Ly, 40, were reported missing on Sept. 13 by Phuc Vo, 40. Vo told police that the women left their Bay Area home following a family argument and were on their way to Southern California, the San Pablo Police Department said in March.
Detectives reported that they discovered inconsistencies in Vo’s statements throughout their investigation, including his account to officers that Ly left home that day in her car, according to Tuesday’s news release. Detectives said they discovered surveillance video showing Vo driving Ly’s missing car, which was ultimately found on Dec. 5 in Oakland.
San Pablo Police Department
“He was actually seen entering the car and driving off … moving the car and parking it in a different location,” San Pablo police Officer Peggy Chou told KRON-TV in San Francisco in March.
Vo was arrested in February. The Contra Costa County district attorney’s office charged him with two counts of murder with a special circumstance enhancement after detectives alleged he “had direct involvement in the disappearance and murders.”
Jazmin Rosillo, one of the victims’ neighbors, told Oakland’s KTVU-TV in March that she would often see the two women gardening in their yard but sensed something was wrong after they vanished.
Rosillo told the station at the time that the couple had a young daughter and son. She added that the boy told her his mother had been missing and that his parents fought.
According to KTVU, investigators thought that an argument over money may have led to the women’s disappearance.
Tran’s body was discovered in the Oakland estuary in late September, but DNA evidence did not confirm the identity until March, according to a police statement. Ly’s remains are still missing.
