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A police spokesman says the incident may have been the result of a love triangle.
By MELIA BOWIE
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 23, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- A nanny has been placed under guard at Bayfront Medical Center after police said she stabbed and severed the thumb of her employer late Sunday night, then stabbed his new wife and finally herself.
"This was believed to be a lovers' triangle," said St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa.
All three were taken to Bayfront, where hospital spokeswoman Cassandra Morrell said Monday both women were in fair condition.
The husband, 47-year-old Linh Truong, was transferred to Tampa General Hospital, where doctors hoped to reattach his thumb. His condition was unavailable, although authorities said they did not think his injuries were life threatening.
According to police, the stage was set years ago when Truong hired nanny Thach Phen to care for his children and his dying wife. Thach Phen's age was in dispute Monday night.
Linh Truong's youngest daughter, Mari, was featured in a 1998 Times series -- The Girl Whose Mother Lives in the Sky -- on the Southeast Asian preschool in southern St. Petersburg, which is designed to help children whose families have immigrated to the United States. The Cambodian family was struggling to overcome the death of Mari's mother and adjust to life here.
During the series, Truong, a father of six who worked 12 hours six days a week to provide for his family, reported he could not have made it through without his second wife, Thach Phen, who helped raise Mari and her five older brothers. It is unclear whether Truong and Phen ever married.
But when his first wife passed away, "Mr. Truong then went back to his homeland and while there he met his current wife," 25-year-old Huyen Truong, Kajtsa said. "He married her and moved back to the United States, where Phen was."
About 11 p.m. Sunday, an argument erupted between Truong and Thach Phen inside the modest one-story white house shared by the family and their nanny at 1415 Seventh Ave. N.
"She took a knife and stabbed him several times in the upper body," Kajtsa said, adding they suspect his thumb was sliced off as he threw his hands up to defend himself. "His wife came out in the middle of the disturbance and she became a victim."
Huyen Truong was stabbed several times in her upper body, and her hands were slashed before Thach Phen turned the knife on herself, cutting her lower torso.
St. Petersburg police spokesman Rick Stelljes said detectives "believe some sort of relationship occurred at some point while (Thach Phen) was taking care of the kids . . . then the guy goes and marries someone else. (Detectives) think the confrontation was in regards to that relationship."
Police said a 17-year-old boy was at home and witnessed the attack by the nanny, whom he also referred to as a stepmother.
It was unclear, police said Monday, how many other children lived in the home, their ages or whether they were present during the attack.
"All parties of concern are of Asian origin and ... there was a slight language barrier," Kajtsa said.
The investigation is continuing.