A woman was arrested after her sketch was released online but the facial composite idea belongs to a teacher and the panting was done by a university lecturer not associated with the police.

Senior lieutenant colonel Nguyen Van Thanh, a police officer in HCMC’s district 7, confirmed with Tuoi Tre that they managed to arrest the suspect thanks to the sketch.

When sketch turns into investigative tool

It took only 20 minutes for Phan Vu Linh, a lecturer at HCMC University of Fine Arts, to piece together memories of the kidnapped victim’s relatives to produce a picture of the suspect. He drew a sketch of a young woman with thick lips, big eyes with glasses, and a round face.

Most notably, the artist is not associated with the police and did the job free of charge, after he was recommended by a local teacher.

Despite creating the sketch, Linh denied taking credit and said it was T. who phoned him to ask him to draw the sketch. T., a teacher who knows someone working in the force, then introduced him to the police in district 7 and suggested a facial sketch. The police agreed and the rest is history. 

T., who refused to be named, told Tuoi Tre: “I came up with the idea of drawing the sketch because I knew that composite sketches have been applied to solve crimes in some foreign countries and because I’m also a mother.”

T. said she got Linh’s number through her friends working in the fine arts and advertising field.  

“So far I’ve not met Linh in person. I’m surprised that he created the sketch so well”, T. added.

Art lecturer turns crime buster

To make the accurate facial composite, Linh asked the victim’s relatives about the kidnapper’s manners, voice, and personality.

When Linh finished his drawing, Truong Van Hen, the baby’s father who was a witness at the scene, commented that the face looked like the offender’s up to 90 percent. 

“I have drawn many sketches and portrait paintings. But this time, I would like to create a sketch as accurate as possible because I feel so sorry for the baby’s family”, Linh said.

Enthusiastic, T. posted the sketch on Facebook and sent it to local newswires which published the painting.

The story eventually had a happy-ending. On Jan. 12, a woman called the police and claimed that she just met a woman who looked like the person in the sketch in front of Tu Du maternity hospital in district 3. Based on her tip-off, police found the whereabouts of the suspect on the evening of the same day.

Rescue mission

According to senior lieutenant colonel Nguyen Van Thanh, the rescue mission started at 8pm on Jan. 12 and it was determined as of Jan. 13 afternoon that the suspect was living at a house in Binh Hung commune in HCMC’s Binh Chanh district.

After that, dozens of policemen in plain clothes were ordered to besiege the house instead of storming into it in order to assure the safety of the baby. “It was likely the suspect could kill the baby if the rescuers made any mistake,” Thanh said.

After talking to the suspect’s family for a consecutive 14 hours, the kidnapper, holding the baby in her arms turned herself in. 

The alleged kidnapper was later arrested and identified as 25-year-old Le Thi Bich Tram, a staff at the HCMC bus station.

She confessed she did it to hide from her husband the fact that she suffered a miscarriage.

On Jan. 8, Tram went to a hospital in district 7 and talked to Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, the mother of the kidnapped newborn baby Truong Van Hoai. She lied to Tam that she had brought her sister-in-law to the hospital for giving birth. She slept at Tam’s room that night.

Next early morning, Tram fled the hospital with the baby as the mother was busily making milk.