Police Rule 12-Year-Old Jessica Nguyen's Death Homicide

[Whisper]

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA) -- A young girl was found dead Tuesday night in the basement of a Gaithersburg home.

Captain Paul Starks, spokesman for the Montgomery County Police Department, says police and EMS units responded to a pediatric emergency at a house in the 700 block of Raven Avenue shortly after 7:30 p.m.

They found the child, 12-year-old Jessica Nguyen, unresponsive.

Police say the medical examiner found trauma to Nguyen's upper body and has ruled her death a homicide.

Police executed a search warrant at the home overnight and towed away a white minivan.

Anyone who has information about this death is asked to call the Montgomery County Police-Major Crimes Division at 240-773-5070
[....]

http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/15...n-Gaithersburg


UPDATE:Homicide Victim Was Sixth-Grader at Gaithersburg Middle
No arrests made; medical examiner attributes death of Jessica Nguyen, 12, to upper-body trauma

UPDATE 4:40 p.m. June 1 -- Her death now ruled a homicide, Montgomery County Police have identified the 12-year-old girl found in her home last night as Jessica Nguyen, a sixth-grader at Gaithersburg Middle School.
Officers found Nguyen dead shortly after 7:30 p.m. at her family home in the 700 block of Raven Avenue, in the Glen at Hidden Creek community. The state medical examiner’s office in Baltimore ruled her death a homicide today after an autopsy revealed "trauma to her upper body."
Police declined to comment on possible suspects, what kind of weapon may have been used or who was at the home when officers arrived last night.
Grief counselors and child psychologists were helping Nguyen’s former classmates at Gaithersburg Middle School deal with the aftermath, and a letter went home with students today, said MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig.
Anyone who has information about Nguyen’s death is asked to call the Montgomery County Police-Major Crimes Division at 240-773-5070. Callers may remain anonymous by calling Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) or 240-773-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest and/or indictment.
[...]

http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articl...ear-olds-death

Jessica Nguyen's

[TheMorningStar]

The stepfather of 12-year-old Jessica Nguyen has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the girl's May 31 slaying, Montgomery County Police said Tuesday evening.
David Rich Hang, 42, of the 17100 block of Queen Victoria Court in Gaithersburg, was arrested on Tuesday, according to police. A news conference is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday.
A police spokesman did not initially confirm that it was Hang who had been arrested, but police named him in a statement issued at 6 p.m.
Online court records show that Hang and Jessica Nguyen's mother were divorced in October 2010.

http://montgomeryvillage.patch.com/a...stabbing-death

[Kindly One]

Wait, so the mother and stepfather had been divorced for 7 months when he killed her? Now my morbid curiosity is piqued.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Police do not know whether 12-year-old honor student Jessica Nguyen was targeted by her stepfather, but officers say his DNA was on a knife sheath that lay near her body May 31, the day she was found cut and stabbed to death in her Gaithersburg home.
[...]

After a five month investigation, police zeroed in on Hang when DNA found on the sheath matched a sample taken from his cheek. Police also matched bootprints left at the house on Raven Avenue with Hang’s shoe size and confirmed that he took the afternoon off work.

Police have not found the knife.

Hang lived at the house at 745 Raven Ave. in 2005 and 2006 and was evicted by Jessica’s uncle, according to county court records.

He filed for a divorce from her mother in 2010, according to court records.

“The parents were going through a pretty difficult divorce,” said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger at a press conference Wednesday morning. “There was a lot of bad blood.”

Manger said Hang appeared to be married to more than one woman as part of a scam.

In a divorce petition, Hang wrote that there was no allegation of physical or sexual abuse in the relationship.
[...]

Jessica lived with her sister and mother in one bedroom at the Raven Avenue house, and her father lived in Australia, said Thuy Hoang, Jessica’s Sunday schoolteacher at Our Lady of Vietnam Roman Catholic Church is Silver Spring.

The mother and daughters had planned to move somewhere else on the night Jessica was found dead, Hoang said.

Hoang said she did not know Jessica had a stepfather.---- “I was surprised. The name of a stepfather was never mentioned,” she said. “I am glad somebody takes accountability for [Jessica’s death.]”
[...]

http://www.gazette.net/article/20111...mplate=gazette

[...]
In addition, police learned that Hang had taken off from work the afternoon of the murder. He is employed as a bus driver for the Montgomery County Ride-On Bus System.

Hang is currently in the process of divorcing the victim's mother. Police said that he had lived in the house with Nguyen and her mother from 2005 to 2006. Manger said that there were no signs of forced entry at the murder scene, leading police to believe that the perpetrator was someone known to the household.

The chief said in Wednesday's press conference that in addition to Nguyen's mother, Hang had at least one other wife. Police sources told News4 last night that Hang might have had four or more wives in Montgomery County.

Despite the evidence, neither Chief Manger nor Montgomery County prosecutor John McCarthy was able to identify a motive in the case. Chief Manger seemed to indicate that the six-year-old was an innocent bystander, but said at the time, he could not explain why Hang would kill the girl.

"What troubles me is that you can have someone as cold and heartless as that," Chief Manger said, "who could kill an innocent child that really had nothing to do with whatever issues he had."

In Hang's bond hearing, more evidence on the crime was heard.

According to prosecutors, Hang stabbed Jessica Nguyen over 40 times.

The prosecution alleged that Nguyen's mother had been involved in a "immigration sham-like marriage" with Hang. According to prosecutors, Hang was angry at Nguyen's mother over the marriage.

Hang was determined to be a flight risk, and was denied bond. The judge said Hang had recently spent time in Nevada, where he used a fake name.

During the hearing, Hang said before the court, "I didn't do it."

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/lo...132148168.html

[AngelFire]

At first glance I though Jerry O'Connell went ape shit

[Jerri Blank]

David Hang Convicted In Jessica Nguyen's Murder

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA) -- A man was convicted in the May stabbing death of a 12-year-old girl in Montgomery County, police said.

David Rich Hang, 42, was convicted in the murder of 12-year-old Jessica Nguyen, his stepdaughter.

Police say Hang was married to at least one other woman, maybe more, in a news conference Wednesday morning. He currently lives with his other wife. Hang may have been involved in some kind of immigration scheme, by marrying multiple women, police said.

Police stumbled upon DNA evidence on the sheath of a knife found next to Nguyen's lifeless body, in the basement of the home on the 700 block of Raven Avenue in Gaithersburg on May 31st, earlier this year.
There were footprints at the murder scene as well, that matched Hang's shoe size, according to police.

It took months to charge Hang, because there were so many people living in the house.

"We had to eliminate each person in the house as a suspect," police said in the news conference.

Hang had taken off of work that afternoon and entered the home, probably with a key, because there was no sign of forcible entry, police said.

"I can't understand how someone could be so cold and heartless, that he could kill an innocent child like this," Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger.

Hang's sentencing is scheduled for October.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/21...tgomery-County