A Vietnamese female student was reportedly stabbed more than 100 times to death by her stepfather while she was trying to prevent him from assaulting her mother at home in the U.S. city of Seattle, the Seattle Times reported on Thursday.
Angelina Tran, 21, believed to be Vietnamese-American, was allegedly given 107 stabs to death by her stepfather Nghiep Kein Chau, 54, on August 7, according to the newspaper.
In the early morning on that day, Tran woke up due to the sound of a quarrel from the kitchen at a 31st Avenue South residence in Beacon Hill in Seattle, the state of Washington.
The schoolgirl ran into there and witnessed Nghiep repeatedly beating her biological mother.
The schoolgirl immediately prevented the man from his cruel acts but she was stabbed by Nghiep repeatedly to death with a kitchen knife.
Examining the home’s security camera footage, local police said Nghiep punched Tran's mother in the face and head at least 15 times before Tran interfered.
After killing Tran, Nghiep went around the house looking for Tran’s mother with an aim to kill her, too.
Meanwhile, the woman had managed to hide from a place near the scene of crime and called 911 for help.
Around 5:00 am on the same day, local police officers rushed to the house and saw the stepfather still holding a bloody knife in his hand.
Nghiep confronted officers inside the house with the knife, but he eventually dropped it and police took him into custody.
The man told officers that he and Tran’s mother had a quarrel as he was in doubt that his wife would divorce him and take all of his assets.
In a fit of anger during the argument, he hit her, the suspect killer said.
He also said he became angry with Tran as she intervened in the quarrel and tried to block him from her mother.
The man confessed that he was trying to find and kill his wife before police arrived, according to court documents.
Nghiep is currently being held at the King County Jail on a US$5 million bond, waiting for his hearing expected to take place on August 31.
The man displayed irrational and extremely violent tendencies and classified him as a flight risk, the Seattle Times cited prosecutors as saying.
According to local court documents, Tran’s mother and Nghiep had known each other for 19 years before they got married last year.
Angelina Tran is a design and engineering student at the Seattle-based University of Washington, where a professor commented that Angelina was an energetic and enthusiastic student, who was set to graduate next year.
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