SERIALously - 55: Stabbed Over 100 Times By Step Father | Angelina Tran

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

In today's episode, we are going to talk about a current case coming out of Seattle, Washington, that has been heavily requested. What started out as a normal night on August 7, 2023, quickly took a turn for the worse. The events that unfolded throughout the night are outright sickening and pure evil and, unfortunately, led to the devastating loss of a beautiful and intelligent college student, 21-year-old Angelina Tran. There is not a lot of information on this case yet, as the story is still developing. However, I felt like it was important to share Angelina’s story. Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise Angelina Tran’s Family GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-angelina-thanh-tran  Merch Drop Link: https://shop10tolife.com/   All Social Media Links  https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_  About Me: https://annieelise.com/  SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/  For Business Inquiries:  [e-mail] Sources/Audio Credits: King 5 Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/@KING5Seattle  Fox13 Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/@fox13seattle  Law & Crime Network: https://www.youtube.com/@LawAndCrime

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to talk all things true crime with you. Now, the reason why I had to jump on here and drop this bonus episode outside of the normal release schedule is because I need to talk to you about this case. It is so wild. There is so much to talk about, so we got to get right into it. Before we do, please take a quick second, just make sure that you are following along on the podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes and bonus episodes like these that drop, and also follow along on the Serialistly Facebook page where we drop all information regarding giveaways, behind-the-scenes information,

guest episodes, Q&As, all sorts of good stuff. All right, now let's get into today's case. Angelina Tran was a 21-year-old student at the University of Washington. She was set to graduate next year with a bachelor's degree in human-centered design engineering. She was an incredibly smart, beautiful young girl with a very bright future ahead of her. According to Angelina's LinkedIn bio, she was interested in ways that she could apply innovative tech to social work that focused on marginalized communities such as the elderly community. Now, other than her academic endeavors, not much is known about Angelina's personal life, but from the little bits and pieces that I have been able to find and read about,

she was just an amazing person and loved her family fiercely. She was living at home with her mother, 50-year-old Lynn Tran, and her stepfather, 54-year-old Niep Chow. Mr. Chow and her mother were together for 19 years, and they had just gotten married last year. But Angelina grew up with Mr. Chow for almost her entire life, so it's not surprising that she had always thought of him more as a father rather than just a stepdad. They had been together, 19 years, and that's what makes this case so unbelievably devastating and just outright sickening. In the early morning hours of August 7th, 2023, Angelina woke up at around 4 43 a.m. to hear what sounded like an argument and a lot of banging, And it wasn't just normal sounds of

somebody being loud in the house and shutting a cabinet hard or closing a door loudly, slamming a door. These noises were very different. So Angelina got up from her bed to go and see what was going on. When she made it into the kitchen, she found her stepfather punching her mother in the face and in the head repeatedly, and it wasn't just a couple of punches. He had brutally hit her approximately 15 times. When Angelina saw what was happening, she immediately went into action, and she ran toward her stepfather and stood in between her mom and Mr. Chow. He continued to try to hit her mother, Lynn, and in the process, he hit Angelina

in the face and the head area with a closed fist. All three of them struggled for a moment and then stumbled onto the floor, and Lynn was luckily able to break free and run downstairs to call 911. But Mr. Chow wasn't done just because Angelina's mother Lynn ran away. He was still enraged and now Angelina was the target and his focus was all on her. Now one of the most chilling aspects of this case was that the family actually had security cameras all throughout the interior of their house and one of those cameras happened to have a direct view into the kitchen, where all of this chaos and fighting was taking place. When Angelina stopped her stepfather from continuing to hit her mom, her mother ran into a bedroom to immediately call the police.

After her mother went to call 911, Angelina and Mr. Chow began wrestling on the ground until he grabbed a hold of Angelina, dragged her further into the kitchen toward the cabinets, grabbed a knife, and began stabbing her over and over and over again. But Angelina was a fighter. Even after her stepfather was stabbing her, she was still doing everything she could to fight back. They continued to struggle and they both fell near a folding dog kennel. Mr. Chow then dragged a piece of the dog kennel, with Angelina on top of it, back toward the kitchen and grabbed a knife. Then he repeatedly stabbed Angelina as she fought back and continued even after she stopped displaying any signs of life, this all according to the probable cause document. The police arrived at 4 55 a.m. and even

though it was only 12 minutes after Angelina had entered the kitchen, it was enough time for Mr. Chow to make Angelina stop fighting. Police had no idea of the horror that they were about to walk into. As they entered the home, they quickly realized that they were walking in to an absolute blood bath. Mr. Chow was walking down the staircase holding a large bloody knife, and when he noticed the police, he froze. The police ordered him to immediately drop the knife, which he did. He was then placed under arrest. He had fresh blood all over his clothing and a wound on his right hand. Now, court documents that were later released shed more light into what happened exactly in those early morning hours when Angelina was murdered, and it is absolutely haunting.

when Angelina was murdered, and it is absolutely haunting. When police first arrived, they were met by Angelina's mother, Lynn, who was, of course, extremely emotional. She also had fresh wounds and blood on her face. Lynn and her mother, who also lived in the home, were escorted outside, which was when Lynn told police that Angelina was still inside. When police entered the home to search for Angelina, that's when they ran into Mr. Chow on the staircase. So the police began to look for Angelina and ultimately they found her. She was lying on her back on the kitchen floor, but unfortunately she was no longer alive. There was blood everywhere and it became obvious that Angelina fought for her life with everything that she had. After this discovery, Mr. Chow was detained, and the house was secured as a crime scene in preparation for a search warrant. After noticing surveillance cameras,

investigators were able to look into the security camera footage, which captured Angelina's devastating death and horrific murder all on film. However, the only issue with the cameras was that they were motion activated, causing some interruptions in the feed, which made it harder to count the exact amount of times that Angelina was stabbed. Despite that, investigators estimated that she was stabbed over 107 times in the torso. The camera also caught Mr. Chow going toward the downstairs area, which he later admitted was an attempt to find Lynn and ultimately kill her as well. But that's not all. They also noticed that Mr. Chow took several breaks while murdering Angelina. Investigators found evidence that he had actually changed his clothing during the attack, which he later explained was because he was cold from all of the blood that was on his body.

After changing his clothes, he went back down into the kitchen. At this point, Angelina was not showing any signs of life, but that didn't stop him or his hatred and evil tactics. From there, he reached into a drawer and grabbed a meat cleaver and repeatedly chopped at Angelina's chest. Mr. Chow was read his Miranda rights and began making damning admissions through a Vietnamese translator that was on the scene. He even straight up said, I killed someone. He told investigators that earlier in the night he had visited an urgent care for high blood pressure and trouble sleeping. He then began bickering with Angelina's mother about money that was left laying in the living room area. He claimed that it had made him extremely angry, so he hit her for it. The location of the Seattle home is Nip Chow on August 7, 2023.

This is surveillance video obtained in a public records request from the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. It shows Chow's wife approaching him moments before police say he begins punching her at least 15 times in the face. He then began arguing with her because he believed that she was going to divorce him and take all of his money, which is when he began hitting her over and over again, until Angelina Heard was woken up and stepped in. He then said that Lynn had never even threatened a divorce, but for some reason, he still thought that it was true and that she was going to. And I'm going to talk more about that in a moment here. Mr. Chow was taken into custody and charged with first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. This is a case that was investigated by the Seattle Police Department who were at the scene and was referred to our office for a review of criminal charges. We reviewed the case and filed felony charges. Rush filed two felony charges, which reflected the seriousness of the case.

Murder in the first degree and attempted murder in the first degree. His bail was requested on August 10th to be set at $5 million. It was also requested that he have no contact with Angelina's mother, that he not leave the state of Washington and not possess any firearms or weapons. Court documents claim that the bail was requested to be such a high amount because Mr. Chow is a flight risk because of his travel history to Vietnam through the past year until returning to King County in April of 2023. They also believed that he had the financial means to flee if he had the opportunity. Additionally, and not so surprisingly, prosecutors argued that Mr. Chau is a danger to Lynn and a no contact order would be needed if he were granted bail. But remember, a no contact order is just a piece of paper at the end of the day.

So there's a huge risk that a no contact order won't stop someone who was that violent in the first place and outright said his intentions were to kill her. The murder appeared to be the result of anger at his stepdaughter for intervening in the defendant's attack on her mother. This individual represented a danger to the community and a flight risk. Luckily, Mr. Chow has not posted bail and is still in custody in King County. On August 11th, Mr. Chow's public defender filed a motion to preserve all physical evidence related to the alleged offense, the scene of the alleged crime, and the defendant's arrest and detention. Court documents state that this includes but is not limited to police communications, 911 recordings, and video recordings. Court documents also showed that the only criminal

history Mr. Chow had on his record was a fishing violation. There was no other history of domestic disputes, though I will be curious once more comes out on this case if there were any other signs or instances like this before, because it seems unlikely to go from nothing to murdering someone. So I wouldn't be shocked if there was a long history of him being violent in the past, but maybe just not reported. I find it very hard to believe that this is just some one-off. I absolutely agree with you. In my experience, no one began with homicide. There's always some. No one began with homicide. There's always some.

It would be non-reported. I think we had been discussing that sometimes, you know, where you come from, your background, your nationality, your religion, it's something that you don't report. And there is, you don't feel safe reporting it. For us in the Brooklyn Attorney's Office, it was a big thing in the deaf community. It was a big thing in the Hasidic community that these folks kept their, they felt like it was within their own and they did not want outside intervention or outside help. And that is very sad and unfortunate sometimes that the results come and end like they did in this case. sad and unfortunate sometimes that the results come and end like they did in this case. Another thing that makes me curious and question this is when I first read about the surveillance cameras being set up in the interior covering every single corner of his house. When I first heard that,

my initial thought went to, it sounds like something that someone who was very controlling would do. Because it's not just cameras on the exterior of the house or even on the interior pointing at the points of entry trying to just safeguard the home for there to be camera setup to monitor every inch of the house maybe it is just a precaution or maybe it's somebody who wants to monitor the movements of everybody in the house and I say this because not only did that kind of rub me the wrong way but also his statement to police about him thinking that Lynn was going to divorce him and take all of his money but then saying she never even said she was going to do that but I still thought she was going to it made me wonder is this person could he be hyper paranoid thinking she's going to leave him

could he be very controlling which is why there's cameras covering every corner of the house I mean don't get me wrong I have security cameras myself all on the exterior and some on the interior but the interior are more strategically placed it's not just to see everything going on in my house and so it could be nothing but there's something with the surveillance cameras coupled with his statement about the divorce that just didn't sit right with me. And also knowing that it escalated to a physical attack and a murder where he's never had a background reportedly of this kind of behavior, I think there's more to the story. But again, that is just my opinion. That has not been confirmed, so I am curious to know what you guys think of that.

His arraignment was initially set for August 23rd, but it was pushed back due to Mr. Chow being medically unavailable. His arraignment was reset for August 31st, 2023. Angelina's body was recovered by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, and her autopsy showed multiple stab wounds to the chest and other vital organs. Her death was classified as a homicide. Angelina was full of so much tenacity and will to save her mother from this monster. You can just tell that she loved her mother so fiercely until the very end. So the fact that this evil, scum excuse for a human went back to try to kill Lynn after what he just did to her daughter is so scary to imagine. If it weren't for Angelina fighting back until she couldn't fight anymore, Lynn may not have had a sufficient time to call

the police and to hide well enough to not be found quickly, which could have ended up with two deaths, maybe even three, since Lin's mother was also in the home. A GoFundMe page was created in Angelina's honor where all proceeds will go to the National Asian Pacific Center of Aging, which was so close to Angelina's heart and involved those who she wanted to one day work with after earning her degree. On the GoFundMe, it says, the pain of her absence is profound as she was a gem of a human being. The impact she had on all of those fortunate enough to know her was significant. Her radiant smile was a source of immense joy, and though the ache of her loss is deep, we believe Angelina would want us to stand strong and keep our smiles bright.

Deirdre Bowen, the director of Seattle University's Family Law Center, who specializes in domestic dispute cases, was interviewed by King 5 Seattle News Channel regarding Angelina's case, and she said that sadly, 20% of homicides that occur in domestic disputes are actually to a third-party victim, such as Angelina, who is trying to step in. Now, that is a very haunting statistic to know that 20% of the deaths that come out of a domestic dispute are of victims who try to intervene, who try to intervene to help, to stop the dispute, to save someone. That is very scary to think about. As I mentioned, this case is still developing, and there isn't a ton of information out there yet, but I wanted to cover this case and share Angelina's story,

because if it weren't for her bravery, who knows what would have happened to her mom, and also possibly even her grandma. I can't imagine how her mother is feeling through all of this and the guilt that she might be carrying. The fact that Angelina thought of this man as her father and she stepped in with the hope of de-escalating a fight and ended up being brutally murdered by someone who feels like they are some type of stone-cold serial killer, switching knives changing clothing and taking breaks in between it's just absolutely horrifying and heartbreaking to think

about so i'm going to be keeping a very close eye on this case guys and i will update you as soon as more details emerge in this i'm curious to know what you think do you think that there was maybe some sort of history there that maybe just went undocumented, unreported? It seems like a very stark escalation to go from zero to murder and wanting to do a mass murder, but I guess anything's possible. What do you think? All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another bonus episode with me. Like I said at the top of this episode, make sure you're following the podcast so that you don't miss any more bonus episodes in the future. And if you would be so kind as to just quickly rate this podcast, review it. It takes 30 seconds max to leave a review, and it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out to more people

so that these victims' stories get heard, which we know is the goal. So thank you guys so much for tuning in to another bonus episode, and I will be talking to you again very, very soon. All right, it's me, Annie, signing off. Thank you.