Son Charged With 6 Murder Counts in Killings of Oberlin Professor, Wife

Q: What bizarre "cult" did the son of a renowned Oberlin professor claim to escape right before allegedly murdering his parents?

He claimed he was escaping **“a cult,”** but no specific group was identified in the reporting. According to prosecutors and witnesses, Daniel Jones told an Oberlin resident he was trying to escape a cult and asked her to record a video for the internet. In that video, he identified himself as “Asia Nguyen-Duy,” said he was escaping a cult, and added that “everything I did was on my own accord and I take full responsibility.” The available reports do not name any organization or provide evidence that such a cult existed. Authorities have described the killings as family-related, and the motive had not been publicly established in the reporting cited.

Q: Why did a smoking car on an Ohio campus lead police to the tragic double homicide of a celebrated refugee artist and his wife?

Police were led to the killings because the smoking car triggered the chain of events that exposed the crime scene. Authorities said officers were called around 8:57 a.m. to an Oberlin College parking lot to help with a vehicle that was smoking and possibly on fire. The car was traced to 31-year-old Daniel Jones of Ashland, Oregon. As police tried to locate him for a welfare check, he was found near Shipherd Circle and taken into custody without incident. According to prosecutors, Jones then allegedly told officers he had killed his family and gave them his father’s address. Police went to the South Pleasant Street home at about 10:28 a.m. to check on the family and found Oberlin professor Pipo Nguyen-duy, 64, and his wife, Tran Thi Phong, 56, dead inside. Police said both had been shot multiple times, with Nguyen-duy found on the first floor and Phong on the second floor. Investigators say the case appears to be family-related. Jones, the professor’s son and Phong’s stepson, was charged with six counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and tampering with evidence. Police have not announced a motive, and the gun has not been recovered. The deaths stunned Oberlin College, where Nguyen-duy had taught photography and studio art since 1998. A Vietnamese refugee who came to the United States in 1975, he became an internationally recognized artist and Guggenheim Fellow.

Q: Where is the missing firearm used by a professor's son who recorded a chilling confession video after the brutal family killings?

The firearm’s whereabouts are unknown. Investigators said the gun allegedly used in the killings had not been recovered. Court and police reporting indicate Daniel Jones — also identified in later proceedings as Asia Nguyen-Duy — allegedly confessed to officers and appeared in a video recorded by a stranger in which he said he was “escaping a cult” and that he took “full responsibility.” But despite his arrest, authorities said they still had not located the shooting weapon. Reporting also said police were missing another item Jones was believed to have had: a belt bag he was reportedly wearing. No public update in the material provided says where the gun was discarded, hidden or whether it was later found. So the direct answer is that the firearm used in the double killing was still missing and its location had not been publicly determined.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 29

Oberlin police said Daniel Jones, 31, was arrested after photography professor Pipo Nguyen-duy, 64, and his wife, Tran Thi Phong, 56, were found shot to death at their Ohio home on Wednesday.
Jones — identified by police as Nguyen-duy’s son and Phong’s stepson — was charged with six counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence; authorities did not immediately give a motive.
Nguyen-duy had taught at Oberlin since 1998, chaired its studio art department and won a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, making the killings a shock to the campus and artists who knew him.
Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar called him a beloved member of the college community, underscoring the wider impact beyond the criminal case.