Six weeks after a San Pablo man was arrested and charged with the murders of his wife and mother-in-law, police have confirmed that the mother-in-law's remains have been found.
A body that was pulled from the Oakland Estuary in September has been positively identified as that of 74-year-old Que Thi Tran, according to the San Pablo Police Department. In a news release, the department said that the body was recovered on September 30, 2023, which would have been about two weeks after Tran and her daughter, 40-year-old Tho Ngoc Ly, were reported missing.
On March 26, a positive DNA match was confirmed with Tran.
San Pablo police said on Tuesday that they had conducted a new search "near the area of initial recovery in the City of Alameda." But no further evidence has been confirmed.
Ly's body still has not been found, police say.
Phuc Hong Vo, 41, was the person who reported his wife and mother-in-law missing, telling police that they had driven to Southern California "following a family argument." Investigators became suspicious after they found inconsistencies in Vo’s statements regarding the vehicle that the two women had supposedly driven off in, a 2017 Honda Fit. They then discovered the vehicle in question parked in Oakland in early December, and after surveilling it, they observed Vo himself getting into it in order to re-park it.
Video of Vo's interrogation by police shows him denying that he had seen the Honda since his wife and her mother had disappeared.
UPDATE: 3 months after his wife & mother-in-law disappeared, Phuc Vo told police he didn’t know where his wife’s car was - but was then caught on video re-parking it in Oakland, per @SanPabloPolice. @ContraCostaDA charged him w/2 counts of murder. @AmberKTVU reports pic.twitter.com/OhdVot8r4c
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) March 5, 2024
Investigators ultimately obtained a warrant to search the San Pablo home Vo had shared with his wife and mother-in-law, along with two children, and allegedly discovered blood evidence there. And Vo was arrested in late February and charged with the murder of the two women, even though their bodies had not been found.
At the time of Vo's arrest, a neighbor, Jazmin Rosillo, told KTVU she had spoken to Ly and Vo's young son, who allegedly "said his mom has been missing for a while and that they had fought. He hadn't seen her and [said] that he missed her."
Anyone with information related to the case can contact the SPPD Investigations Division at 510-215-3150.
Previously: East Bay Man Charged With Murdering Wife and Mother-in-Law, Six Months After Reporting Them Missing
