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Sheriff: Investigation yields few solid leads in murder of family

Authorities say they found hunting knife near gun

Robert C. Reed

Law enforcement agents photograph evidence at the scene of Thursday's quadruple murder.

DESCRIPTION OF SUSPECT

Probably an Asian or Hispanic male

Height: 5’4” to 5’8”

Hair: jet black, short and well kept

Face: clean-shaven

Age: 30s to 40s

Clothing: blue hooded sweat shirt, blue jeans, wearing a small backpack with black straps in the front

Suspect vehicle: dark-colored mid-sized sedan, possibly a Honda or a Toyota Camry, extremely clean, appeared freshly washed and waxed, may have had an out-of-state license plate with the first letter “P” and the last three digits “244” written in red lettering. The name of the state was written in blue cursive at the top of the tag

Tips may be made to the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office at 464-5241, at www.catawbacountync.gov/ depts/shf or to “America’s Most Wanted” at (800) Crime-TV or through its Web site, www.amw.com.

AT A GLANCE

On Thursday, March 12, a teenage girl calls 911 just after 7 a.m. to report that a man was beating her friend.

When authorities arrived at the home on Gristmill Drive minutes later, they find Lisa Phan and her children, 20-year-old Melanie Saephan, 18-year-old Pauline Chao and 4-year-old Cody Tzeo, dead.

The autopsy results have not been released.

Brian Tzeo, Phan’s husband and the father of the children, had left for work in Statesville shortly before his family was killed.

The story aired Saturday, March 14, on “America’s Most Wanted” bringing in hundreds of tips to investigators.

A search warrant revealed investigators took a number of items from the home, including six cell phones, several computers, sofa covers, shell casings, footprint impressions and a black briefcase.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: March 17, 2009

NEWTON - Five days after four people were brutally murdered in their own home, law enforcement has released a few new details about their deaths.

Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman said at a press conference Monday that investigators recovered a hunting knife near a gun, shortly after the murders occurred on Thursday.

Capt. Roy Brown, an investigator with the sheriff's office, said it looks as though the hunting knife and gun were dropped simultaneously in the bushes, about two blocks from the victims' home on Gristmill Drive in Conover.

Huffman also said the home did not show signs of forced entry.

"This is not random. (The suspect) knew exactly what he was doing at the house he was at," he said, although Huffman said they haven't determined a motive yet. "We've had a lot of evidence and a lot of leads. We're hoping to get any type of prints that we can get off the weapons and things we found in the house."

The man who killed Lisa Phan and her children, 20-year-old Melanie Saephan, 18-year-old Pauline Chao and 3-year-old Cody Tzeo, is still at large. The sheriff's office has received hundreds of tips, many of them after the case was featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted" on Saturday.

Brown said most of the tips they have received have been about the car seen leaving the neighborhood shortly after the murders. The car described by witnesses as a dark-colored mid-sized sedan, possibly a Honda or a Toyota Camry, may have had an out-of-state license plate with the first letter "P" and the last three digits "244" written in red lettering. The name of the state was written in blue cursive at the top of the tag.

"The majority of the calls were car sightings with Asian or Hispanic males," Brown said. "We've answered each and every one, but none have checked out conclusively."

Investigators are hoping they can find DNA on evidence they've seized, including the gun and knife they believe were used to kill the victims. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating if and where the gun is registered, Huffman said.

Huffman said the sheriff's department will know more when they receive the results of the autopsy.

Although it's difficult enough matching the results of even two people to the same murder weapons, Huffman said this situation is complicated by the fact that four people were killed, and two weapons have been found.

"Usually we have one person, maybe two. Here, we've found a gun and a knife. We have to make sure they've been used on all four people," he said.

Huffman said the autopsies likely won't tell investigators the order the family was killed. Huffman did say, though, the youngest child, Cody, was eating breakfast Thursday morning when the attack happened. He added he can't say until the autopsies come back if any of the women were assaulted.

"Our investigators have been going 24 hours a day since last Thursday when this happened. We got there within five minutes," he said. "Any murders are bad, but this is especially bad."

Huffman reiterated he did not think the children's father and Lisa's husband, who was at work in Statesville when the murders happened, was a suspect in the case.

Brian Tzeo, is Mien and from Laos. Huffman said they are usually more even-tempered.

"Mien people are calm people. I wouldn't think that's a part of this situation. It's highly unlikely that the husband is involved," he said.

Brown added the Mien society is a clan society that tends to keep up with each other. He said the other family members have kept in contact with law enforcement, and told them no one else in the family has gone missing.

Brown added Tzeo wanted to bring the bodies back to California, where Tzeo's initially from and where he has family.