Language Barrier Hinders Investigation of Multiple Slayings

Hampered by a language barrier in their probe of one of the city’s worst multiple murders, investigators reported little progress Friday in determining who shot and killed a pregnant Vietnamese woman, her two children and a 30-year-old friend.

Investigators say they still can’t tell whether the deaths are the result of a murder-suicide--or whether a killer is on the loose.

“Things aren’t quite so black and white in law enforcement,” said Police Capt. Thomas Lazar, who is heading the investigation. “What we saw there doesn’t point in any one specific direction right now, whether it was a murder-suicide or the murder of four people. I’m trying to get that point across to everyone, but no one wants to listen.”

Investigators planned to revisit the crime scene Friday and talk to friends, acquaintances or relatives of the victims, who apparently kept largely to themselves.

“We want to try and find (the family’s friends and relatives) to get to know the victims better,” Lazar said. “But one of the obstacles we’re running into is a language problem, since most of these people speak Vietnamese.”

Asked about any possible suspects, the captain said simply: “I wish I had one.”

Lazar would not discuss a published report claiming that a gun found at the family’s home, located in the 1300 block of Baker Street, had led investigators to focus on a murder-suicide angle in the four deaths.

Dead of gunshot wounds are Hanh Thi Duong, 25, her son, Thang Quoc Nguyen, 7, and her daughter, Lan Ngoc Nguyen, 4. All were apparently recent immigrants from Vietnam, and police said Duong was about three months pregnant. The fourth victim was Oanh Van Le, 30, of Westminster, whom police described as a friend of the mother.

An unidentified friend who was helping Duong move out of the apartment called police Wednesday evening. He had gone to the family’s home and, when they did not answer his knock, peered in one window and saw only Duong’s leg as she lay on the floor.

Investigators found Duong and Le dead in the living room and the bodies of the two children on the floor of their bedroom. They have not released a time of death or other autopsy details.

The apartment remained cordoned off by yellow police tape Friday. A yellowing newspaper, overrun by ants, still lay on the front stoop.

While the killings initially raised fears of a violent “home-invasion” type of crime like that plaguing the Vietnamese community in recent months, police say residents around the crime scene have little to worry about. They said there was no evidence of burglary or a struggle at the scene.

Some neighbors, however, were not reassured.

“Everyone’s pretty nervous,” said Enrique Sanchez, 28, as he piled his kids into a car Friday outside the apartment complex. “You don’t know if it can happen again.”

Meanwhile, at the elementary school where Thang was to have begun the first grade Monday, administrators and teachers met with a psychologist to determine how to help the youngster’s kindergarten classmates deal with the tragedy.

“We’re going to low-key it--that was the recommendation,” said Killybrooke Elementary School Principal Fred Feller. “We’re not sure how much the kids will know about it, but if questions come up, we’ll deal with it then. In any case, it’s certainly not the most pleasurable way to start the school year, that’s for sure.”

Times staff writer Catherine Gewertz contributed to this report.