Local : Suspect in 2 Fullerton Murders Kills Himself : Ex-Vietnamese Army Officer Commits Suicide in San Antonio After Agreeing to Surrender to Police

A man wanted for double murder in the slayings of his former girlfriend and a man in Fullerton shot and killed himself today in the driveway of a friend’s house in San Antonio, authorities said.

Dan Van Nguyen, 35, a former second lieutenant in the South Vietnamese air force, died instantly after putting a .38-caliber pistol to his right temple and pulling the trigger shortly before 4:30 a.m. PDT, said San Antonio Police Detective Anton Michalec.

Nguyen was wanted by Fullerton police in the deaths of his former girlfriend, Trinh Tuyet Duong, 28, and Lewis Long Vu, 34, of Bellflower. They were found in Duong’s apartment early Tuesday on West Franklin Avenue in Fullerton, both of them dead from multiple gunshot wounds. (Story, Part II, Page 1.)

Michalec said Nguyen apparently drove to San Antonio in his car following the slayings and went straight to the house of Hieu and Pearl Nguyen, who are not related to the suspect but were described as his best friends.

According to Michalec, the suspect admitted that he had killed Duong and Vu. The couple managed to talk Nguyen into surrendering to San Antonio police, Michalec said.

“He agreed to this and said he was going to turn himself in,” Michalec said. “He said he was going to get his clothes out of the car, take a shower and wait for me. The next thing they know they heard a shot, and he had shot himself.”

Michalec said Nguyen was apparently deeply depressed that a restaurant he had invested in with the San Antonio couple had gone out of business and that his two-year relationship with Duong had also failed.

“He told Hieu that this was the hardest year of his life,” the detective said. “He was broke, and he lost his girlfriend. There is no simple explanation for it, other than a slow mental decline.

“It is a sad end to a story that should not have happened. There is no easy way to explain something like this.”