Vietnam ready to send suspect back in ’83 cold case

Nate McIntire reports:

ALHAMBRA – A suspect in a 25-year-old murder investigation who once told police that his alleged victim fell on a knife is being extradited from Vietnam and is expected to return to the United States today, authorities said.

Members of an FBI task force will escort Vietnamese national Ninh Kim Nguyen, 52, back to the United States to face murder and robbery charges after he allegedly stabbed a woman to death in Alhambra in 1983.

“Soon after the investigation began, he became the prime suspect,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Joe Romero said.

Nguyen, who is also a convicted rapist, fled the country after being charged with murder a week after Khuyen Thi Bui, 38, was found by her son in her North Fifth Street apartment with a kitchen knife sticking out of her throat.

Nguyen was a friend of the victim and was arranging to assist her in the sale of $30,000 worth of jewelry before her death, according to authorities.

“At the time of the murder, Nguyen was allegedly trying to defraud the victim in a scheme involving diamonds, with which he allegedly absconded before he fled the United States,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller wrote in a statement.

 

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