Trang Van Tribute

from the Houston Chronicle

Homicide detectives are investigating the death of an 18-year-old whose body was found inside a closet in her family’s northwest Harris County home.

The young woman’s father told authorities he found the body of Trang Van after returning home to the 10100 block of Lazy Lagoon Thursday night.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a home invasion about 8:45 p.m. Deputies met with homeowner Binh Van on arrival who told them he found his daughter’s body. Neighbors said Trang was found shot in a closet.

Neighbor Gabriel Garza said Trang, one of three children, moved back in with her family one to two months ago. Garza said he did not know the daughter, but talked with her father a lot.

“We would just talk about family and work — really nice guy,” he said. “They were just good quiet neighbors. I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked, but he (Binh) was hysterical.”

Binh was cooperating with investigators, Harris County homicide sergeant Greg Pinkins said.

In November 2005, Binh was charged with a felony for assaulting a family member, according to court records. The day after the charge was filed he was ordered to have no contact with Trang Van. He pleaded guilty to the assault charge and served three years of probation until December 2008. Binh also spent four days in jail on a 1996 assault charge, records show.

Trang’s parents were divorced. Trang’s stepfather, Paul Bui, said the young woman had moved back and forth between her mother and father’s homes recently.

He said she had just graduated from Cy-Fair High School and wanted to go to college to study nursing. He said she sometimes worked on weekends at a nail salon her father owned.

Trang’s uncle, Chi Van, said the death was shocking.

“If you are a mother or a father and something happened to your kid like that you know how you would feel,” he said. “When you get home and see your kid like that, what do you think? You cannot move.”