Mom fatally shoots her sons in bed and leaves note for police to find them, PA cops say
A Pennsylvania woman will spend the rest of her life in prison after officials said she killed her 9-year-old and 13-year-old sons, news outlets reported.
Trinh Nguyen was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole, CBS News reported.
On May 2, 2022, officials said Nguyen shot her two sons, 13-year-old Jeffrey Tini and 9-year-old Nelson Tini, in the head while they were asleep in their beds, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
It was something investigators said she planned, since just a week prior she left a handwritten note with instructions on what to do with her sons’ remains, as well as her own, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office told CBS News.
Nguyen went to her 22-year-old neighbor, who is also her ex-husband’s nephew, after she shot her sons, police said. She handed him a box of photos and asked the neighbor to deliver the box to her ex-husband, police told WPVI.
When the neighbor turned to face her, Nguyen had a gun pointed at him and pulled the trigger twice, officials told CBS News. However the gun didn’t fire, and the neighbor was able to disarm her.
Nguyen fled the scene and drove to New Jersey and was later found in a church parking lot, WPVI reported. Officials told the news outlet they found a note in the minivan saying, “Please call 911! My children are Dead in their bed.”
The mother of the neighbor went to check on the boys after the neighbor’s interaction with Nguyen. She found the boys alive in their beds with gunshot wounds, WPVI reported. Both were taken to a hospital, where they later died.
“It’s clear our evidence showed that this defendant had that wickedness of disposition that she had made these plans,” First Assistant District Attorney Jen Schorn said in a statement to CBS News. “She wrote a manifesto laying out what she was going to do, and you could see throughout the hate she had for others and the people she blamed.”
Nguyen was being evicted from her home and was recently divorced, news outlets reported. Prosecutors said she was “simmering rage,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. She wanted “revenge against the people she blamed for her misfortune,” the outlet reported.
However, Nguyen’s attorney, Deborah Weinman, told the outlet Nguyen suffered from years of trauma. She said she was forced into an arranged prior marriage when she was 18 and sent to America from Vietnam.
“Her mental health declined to such a point, she became so depressed, ” Weinman told the outlet.
McClatchy News reached out Dec. 21 but was unable to reach Weinman for comment.
In addition to the two life sentences, Nguyen was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in connection to the attempted murder of the neighbor, WPVI reported.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
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