When prosecutors and attorneys in Houston were asked where they believe two murder fugitives were hiding, they suspected somewhere that requires a 20-hour flight.
It turns out those suspicions were true.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to Eyewitness News that Polie Phan and Jaiden Vu Nguyen, who the Houston Police Department accuses of killing two out-of-town marijuana harvesters in a Timbergrove neighborhood, were captured in Vietnam.
HPD announced back in March that Phan, 26, and Nguyen, 25, were charged with murder after the bodies of Dana Ryssdal and James Martin III were discovered two months prior in January.
Police also announced in March the arrest of Kathy Vu, who is accused of helping Phan, her boyfriend, by cleaning the scene of evidence.
The pair was brought back to the United States last week and are awaiting extradition to Harris County, the U.S. Marshals added.
HPD was called to the 1700 block of West TC Jester on Friday, Jan. 27, about a neighbor being concerned that a Toyota Prius was running inside a garage that morning.
Dana Ryssdal, 35, was found dead at the home while his friend, 37-year-old James Martin III, was reported missing along with a white Dodge Ram truck that belonged to Ryssdal.
Three days later, on Jan. 30, that truck was found in southeast Houston, but Martin was not located. It wasn’t until Feb. 1 that Martin’s body was found in the trunk of the Prius at an HPD impound lot, where it was towed for evidence processing. Police said Martin’s body was bound with duct tape and had been shot multiple times.
It wouldn’t be until March that police announced the first arrest, involving the 23-year-old Vu, who’s charged with tampering with evidence.
Houston police said an H-E-B receipt from the day of the murders, back in January, helped lead investigators to Vu.
Police said they found bleach and iodine bottles in the back of Vu’s car, and an H-E-B receipt from the day of the murders, showing she bought trash bags, towels, and other items she allegedly used to clean up the crime.
According to documents, the motive behind the murder appears to be drug-related, as police reported finding “marijuana in various places throughout the residence,” and bundles of cash totaling $35,980 found in the freezer.
A search warrant says Ryssdal and Martin were in the marijuana harvesting business in Oregon, where it’s legal.
Documents state that during an interview with Vu, she admitted to being in a relationship with Phan, one of the murder suspects.
She also added that Martin had a history of threatening a lot of people, including her boyfriend.
“If anything, because people don’t want to pay him back. If anything were to have happened, it would definitely have been self-defense,” she told authorities.
She told investigators that Martin owed her boyfriend $40,000 “after a narcotics-related transaction did not go as planned.”
However, court documents reveal police believe Martin and Phan had a history and that Phan owed Martin money.
Vu said that on the night of the murders, she had a work-related dinner planned and wanted her boyfriend to go with her, but he did not attend “because emergencies happened.” She denied having any knowledge about what happened between her boyfriend and Martin.
However, court documents say Vu was texting and talking with her boyfriend before, during, and after Martin’s murder.
