Suspect records confession after killings
A 31-year-old suspect charged with killing an Oberlin professor and his wife asked a neighbor to film their admission.
By Robert Marshall ·
Residents of the Lorain County area learned on Thursday that a suspect in the double shooting of a college professor and his wife recorded a video confession immediately after the crime. Prosecutors stated that the suspect knocked on a stranger's door and requested to be filmed while admitting to the murders.
Asia Nguyen-Duy, 31, of Ashland, Oregon, appeared in court Thursday. Several police officers carried the suspect into the courtroom, where they were seated in a chair and rolled to the defense table. Nguyen-Duy, who previously went by Daniel Jones, told the court they are gender-neutral. They legally changed their name in 2025.
The suspect faces six counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and one count of tampering with evidence. The victims are Pipo Nguyen-Duy, 64, and Thi Tran Phong, 56. Pipo Nguyen-Duy served as a studio art professor at Oberlin College and was an internationally exhibited photographer.
Police were alerted on Wednesday morning after finding a smoldering, modified vehicle in an Oberlin College parking lot. The vehicle was registered to Nguyen-Duy and contained loose ammunition and magazine packaging. Officers located Nguyen-Duy nearby and conducted a welfare check at the victims' home, finding both dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
During the hearing, prosecutors detailed that Nguyen-Duy was covered in scratches and blood when they approached a nearby resident. The suspect claimed they were escaping a cult and took full responsibility for the acts. A judge set bond at $3 million, and the case has been bound over to county common pleas court.
