Man throws his four children off bridge after row

Published on Wednesday 9 January 2008 21:00

A VIETNAMESE man threw his four children off a bridge after an argument with his wife, authorities in the United States said yesterday.

Lam Luong, 37, who is charged with four counts of capital murder, told police on Tuesday night that he drove to Alabama's Dauphin Island bridge and dropped the children from a span that reaches 80ft in places, said Detective Scott Rivera.

Luong moved to Alabama from Vietnam in 1984 and worked in the commercial fishing industry as a shrimper.

His children – missing and presumed dead – are: Danny, four months; Lindsey, one; Hannah, two, and Ryan Phan, three. Ryan is not his biological child, but Luong raised him from infancy.

A search is continuing for the children, but it is being hampered by poor weather.

Luong and his wife, Ngoc Phan, lived with her mother at Bayou La Batre, a fishing village with a large south-east Asian community.

They argued on Sunday and again on Monday, a relative said. Luong left the home with two of the children, but returned later for the other two.

The family initially feared the children had been traded to support a drug habit, the relative said. Luong had a crack cocaine habit and had spent an insurance settlement from a car accident rapidly, he said. Police confirmed that Luong had a history of drug offences.

Ms Phan, 23, was in seclusion at her mother's brick home, the front porch cluttered with children's shoes.