Unsolved murder cases in Lake County: Who killed to Mount Dora shopkeepers in 2020?
Editor's note: This is the first of three stories about unsolved murder cases in Lake County. The others will be published on Jan. 26 and 28.
MOUNT DORA — How can a community that claims to have loved two hard-working Vietnam immigrants, who were gunned down in their store, refuse to come forward and name the killer?
“We have a person of interest,” Mount Dora Police Detective Gary Hutcheson said of the slaying of Khiem “Ken” Ba Trinh and his wife, Mihn “Tina” Nguyen, on Nov. 30, 2020, at the T&N Market, but he said someone needs to step up and give police a name.
“It could be fear,” he said.
It could also be a calloused disregard for life. “There is a subculture of illegal activity,” he said.
Police hoped that a $10,000 reward would result in an arrest. The case is among several unsolved homicides across Lake County.
Certainly, there was an outpouring of grief and support by the community on Grandview Street at an impromptu candlelight vigil in the store’s parking lot immediately after the shooting.
One person stood out, however: A woman who was spotted on store surveillance video.
Undrea Dixon was still wearing the same clothing four hours later. She told police she “saw no one and heard no one.” However, she walked into the shop “approximately one minute” after the hold-up, saw and heard one of the wounded shopkeepers cry out, and left without calling for help. It was 18 minutes before anyone else came into the store.
She later pleaded no contest to giving false information to law enforcement in a felony investigation and served 10 months in jail.
Police said she was uncooperative. “We believe she has information that she is not giving to us,” Hutcheson said.
Brett Meade, who was the interim police chief at the time, described the case as “inherently difficult” because there were no eyewitnesses. He said evidence technicians discovered DNA at the scene, but that did not prove to be the case.
The gunman, wearing all black, including gloves and a a screen over his face, left no fingerprints. Even his voice, heard on the video, might be disguised.
The video picks up the sheer terror in Mihn’s voice. “I promise you, I won’t do anything,” she told the agitated gunman. She begged him to take the money. At one point he shouted to Khiem, “Stop, stop, stop.”
The video ends as he herds the couple to the back of the store and shoots them multiple times.
Meade held numerous press conferences after the shooting, adding that his department was being aided by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Meade boasted that tips were pouring in to Crimeline and to the department. “This case will be solved,” he vowed months later in March of 2021.
Meade, who resigned last year over differences with the city manager, never saw the case cross the finish line.
Hutcheson, who described Meade as an “optimist,” remains somewhat hopeful himself despite the difficulties. “We’ve interviewed 150 people,” he said. “Some have refused to talk to us. Others, you can’t even find them.”
The couple’s family certainly is looking for justice. They had two sons, ages 12 and 18. Their cousin, Christina Nguyen set up a GoFundMe account at the time to help pay for their education. “They were the nicest people you could ever meet,” she said of her aunt and uncle.
Earlier coverage: Investigation continues in Mount Dora slayings
Lake County is sometimes the unlucky destination of criminals who come in from Orlando to victimize people, but Hutcheson believes the killer lives in north Mount Dora.
“I’ve heard that the killer told people he did it, but none of these people have come forward,” he said in a recent interview with WFTV. It was the third anniversary of the murders.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: 2020 deaths of Mount Dora shopkeepers remain unsolved
