“My Dad Tried to Kill Me”: Stepfather Goes on Trial in Death of 11-Year-Old | Crime House 24/7

Good morning everyone, we have multiple breaking true crime cases this morning that you need

to know about and we're starting with the biggest one.

A California man is now on trial for allegedly stabbing his wife and killing his 11-year-old

stepdaughter, who prosecutors say used her final moments to tell first responders, quote,

my dad tried to kill me.

This is Crime House 24-7, your non-stop source for the biggest crime cases developing

right now.

Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a line up for you today.

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On March 5th, a murder trial began in Orange County Superior Court for 81 year old

Tan Tien Tron who was charged with murder and attempted murder in the stabbing death of

his pre teen stepdaughter and the attempted killing of his wife inside the family's garden

grove California home.

The attack happened on August 29th, 2018 more than seven years ago and the details laid

out by prosecutors in their opening statement are devastating.

The victim 11 year old Ann Nguyen Duong died after being stabbed while trying to save

her mother from the attack as she lay on the front lawn waiting for paramedics.

She told officers and first responders her last words quote my dad tried to kill me and

quote the knife had gone three and a half inches into her body striking the left side of

her abdomen deputy district attorney Devon Campbell told the jury that on literally gave

her life trying to save her mothers and that she died because she tried and succeeded in

saving her mom.

Tron met his wife, son Nguyen while traveling in Vietnam despite a nearly 40 year age difference

he was 69 and she was in her early 30s at the time.

They began dating around 2014 and married in 2016.

Tron brought Nguyen and her three children to Orange County on who was 11 at the time of

the attack and her two younger brothers then ages three and six.

Tron used his retirement benefits and watched the children while Nguyen worked to bring

in extra income.

But according to prosecutors Tron came to believe his wife was cheating on him.

Campbell told jurors there appeared to be flirty romantic texts with another man on Nguyen's

phone and that Tron's suspicions may have been warranted.

His anger the prosecutor said had been percolating and boiling up over time for weeks.

A trial briefly filed by the prosecution stated that Tron had been mulling the idea of

killing Nguyen.

The night before the attack, Nguyen told Tron that while she did not plan to divorce him,

she was looking for another place to live with the three children.

That was the tipping point.

The next morning, August 29th, as Nguyen was getting ready for work, Tron shot her in the

arm with a BB gun, forced her into a closet and began stabbing her repeatedly with a knife.

Her screams woke his stepdaughter on who came into the bedroom.

Nguyen initially shut the closet door, blocking the girl from reaching her mother.

Then according to the prosecution, he grabbed on through her to the ground and straddled

her body as he continued stabbing at her mother through the closet door.

The knife struck on in the abdomen.

Nguyen was eventually able to escape from the closet and from the home running outside

in blood splattered clothing.

Her screams drew immediate attention from neighbors in what had been a quiet residential

street.

Nguyen responded and were able to get the injured girl and her two younger brothers who

were apparently unharmed out of the house.

Tron remained inside and got into a standoff with officers.

He made several attempts to take his own life by cutting his wrist, his neck, and poking

a blade into his stomach.

But all of the wounds were superficial.

He was eventually taken into custody.

Nguyen was found on the front lawn where paramedics tried to save her.

She did not survive.

The prosecution also revealed that after Nguyen was released from the hospital in September

2018, she returned home and found a journal her daughter had been keeping.

According to a trial brief, the journal contained allegations that Tron had been molesting

on.

The prosecution also noted that Tron's phone contained search history for explicit material involving

underage girls.

Tron is charged with murder and attempted murder, with sentencing enhancements for the personal

use of a deadly weapon, inflicting great bodily injury and attempted premeditated murder.

He listened to the March 5th proceedings through Vietnamese language interpreters and appeared

overcome with emotion by the end of opening statements, prompting Judge Lewis Clap to

call a temporary recess.

His defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Eugene Sun, told jurors the evidence would

lead them to a different conclusion than what the prosecution alleged, but did not elaborate.

While that trial gets underway in California, a judge in Wisconsin showed no mercy this

week when sentencing a teenager who killed both of his parents to fund the terrorist

plot that never came close to succeeding.

On Thursday, March 5th, a Waukeshaw County judge sentenced 18-year-old Nikita Kasup to

two life sentences with no chance of parole for the murders of his mother Tatiana Kasup

and his stepfather, Donald Meyer Jr., inside the family's home in the village of Waukeshaw

Wisconsin last year.

Kasup had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide.

Prosecutors dropped seven additional charges as part of the plea deal, including two counts

of hiding a corpse and theft.

Under Wisconsin law, first-degree intentional homicide carries a mandatory life sentence.

The only question before Judge Ralph Ramirez on Thursday was whether Kasup would ever be

eligible for what Wisconsin calls extended supervision, the state's equivalent of parole.

The defense had asked for eligibility after 20 years, and Judge Ramirez said no.

He called Kasup's crimes horrific and inexplicable, telling him he did not have a crystal ball

that would tell him when or if a profound or significant change could happen.

Here's the timeline of what happened leading up to this point.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators believe Kasup shot his stepfather once in the

back of the head while Meyer was working at his desk in his den and shot his mother three

times as she entered the home on or around February 11, 2025.

He then lived with the decomposing bodies for approximately two weeks.

On February 28th, Waukeshaw County Sheriff's Deputies conducting a welfare check requested

by family members discovered the bodies.

By that point, Kasup had already fled across the country and Meyer's SUV, taking $14,000

in cash, jewelry, passports, his stepfather's gun, and the family dog, according to the

criminal complaint.

He was arrested February 28th during a traffic stop in Kansas when officers spotted the

gun in plain view on the passenger side floor.

But the murders were not the end of the story.

Federal authorities accused Kasup of planning the killings to fund a far larger plot.

The assassination of the president, according to a federal search warrant, Kasup had written

a three-page manifesto calling for the president's assassination with the goal of starting

a political revolution.

He'd been communicating online with others, including a Russian-speaking individual, about

plans to flee to Ukraine afterward.

He sent more than $8,700 in Bitcoin to purchase a fake license plate, a drone, and explosives

he planned to use in the attack.

A classmate of Kasup's told police that Kasup had told him he was planning to kill his parents

and was in contact with someone in Russia about overthrowing the government and assassinating

the president.

But prosecutors say the people Kasup had been communicating with never intended to supply

him with anything and only saw him as an easy mark.

After an intensive federal investigation, no other arrests were made.

At his sentencing, Kasup gave a tearful statement, saying he loved his mother and acknowledged

that both she and Meyer were kind, loving people who took care of him.

He said he became obsessed with hateful thoughts after the deadly Christmas market attack

in Germany in December 2024 and told himself bad things had to happen in war.

Kasup came to the United States from the Republic of Moldova with his mother when he was in

grade school.

Prosecutors described him as a kid who had it all.

And now to New York, where a quiet residential street in Astoria became a crime scene this

week after a years-long feud between neighbors ended in a fatal stabbing.

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A 75-year-old retired math teacher was stabbed to death in the lobby of his Queens apartment

building on March 3rd, and his 48-year-old neighbor has been charged with murder.

The NYPD says officers from the 114th precinct responded to a 911 call about an assault in

progress on 33rd Street in Astoria, around 140 pm.

This is where they found the victim, George Dordunas, with multiple slash wounds to his

neck in a first floor hallway, steps from his apartment door.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A neighbor who entered the building during the attack called 911.

Ray Fassanella, who lives across the hall, said he was asleep at the time and heard

a muffled voice calling out for help.

Dordunas had lived in the building for approximately 30 years.

Fassanella told Gothamist that Dordunas was soft-spoken, bookish, and non-confrontational.

He had recently earned his doctorate and spent most of his time at his girlfriend's

home or with his cats.

Detectives took 48-year-old Demetrios Manesis into custody hours later, and on March 5th

he was arraigned on a criminal complaint, charging him with second-degree murder and criminal

possession of a weapon.

Both men lived on the first floor of the building.

Sources familiar with the investigation told multiple outlets that the two men had been

involved in a long-standing feud, though the specific cause remains unclear.

Neighbors described it as one-sided, with Manesis fixated on Dordunas for years.

One neighbor told the New York Post that Manesis was mentally obsessed with the victim,

and that he would talk about Dordunas constantly while walking in the street.

Manesis Anella recalled that Manesis had referred to Dordunas as a fake Greek.

Fosanella said Manesis had damaged Dordunas' car the previous summer, but Dordunas chose

not to press charges.

Worried it would escalate the situation.

He said Manesis's behavior had grown increasingly erratic, adding that his eyes were not clear

and he would say things that did not make sense.

Fosanella said that lately, Manesis scared him.

When reached by phone, Manesis' mother, Georgia Manesis, told Gothamist tearfully that

her son is mentally ill, describing him as paranoid and schizophrenic.

She said he'd been receiving medication.

Queen's district attorney Melinda Katz called it a senseless act of violence that has rattled

the Astoria community.

Manesis faces 25 years to life in prison, if convicted, and is expected back in court

Monday, March 9.

And now to Ohio, where a dog walker's shocking discovery led police to a mother, now charged

with killing her two young daughters.

On March 6, an Ohio mother accused of killing her two young daughters, appeared in court

for the first time after prosecutors filed murder charges in a case we've been closely

following.

28-year-old Aliyah Henderson of Cleveland has been charged with two counts of aggravated

murder in the deaths of her daughters.

Ten-year-old Amor Wilson and eight-year-old Mila Chatman, a judge set Henderson's bond

at $2 million during her arrangement.

The case began unfolding on March 2, when a man walking his dog discovered a partially

buried suitcase in a field near Gin Academy and called police.

Officers responding to the scene located the suitcase and found the body of a child

inside.

While searching the surrounding area, investigators uncovered a second shallow grave about 25 feet

away, containing another suitcase with a second child's body.

The Kaya Hoga County Medical Examiner's office later confirmed through DNA testing that

the victims were Henderson's daughters.

Authorities detained Henderson on March 4 as the investigation intensified.

Police have not yet publicly detailed how the girls died or what evidence led to the

charges.

She was also located a third child connected to the household who was found safe at a

residence and placed into the custody of child protective services.

And in another disturbing case involving children, authorities say a Christian school teacher

has been accused of using artificial intelligence to place minor's faces onto explicit images.

On March 2, during a court appearance in Guildford County, North Carolina, a judge set

bond at $750,000 for a former Christian school teacher accused of creating explicit images

involving minors.

During the hearing, a detective testified that investigators discovered 111 explicit images

on the defendant's electronic devices.

Authorities alleged the images were created by placing minors' faces onto sexually explicit

photos using artificial intelligence.

The defendant, 56-year-old Richard Lynn Upright, is a former teacher at Vandelia Christian

School in Greensboro.

Upright was arrested on February 27 and charged with 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation

of a minor.

Investigators say the case began after Google submitted multiple cybertips to authorities,

flagging suspicious material that had allegedly been uploaded to Upright's Google Drive

account.

Following the charges, Vandelia Christian School confirmed Upright was fired from his teaching

position.

Authorities say the investigation remains ongoing and is not yet clear how many potential

victims may be involved.

Upright is scheduled to return to court on March 31 as the case moves forward.

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High listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson.

I wanted to take a brief moment to tell you about another show from Crime House that I

know you'll love.

America's most infamous crimes, hosted by Katie Ring.

Each week, Katie takes on a notorious crime, whether unfolding now or etched into American

history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society.

Real killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night,

and investigations that changed the way we think about justice.

Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday.

From the first sign that something was wrong, to the moment the truth came out, or didn't.

These are the stories behind the headlines.

Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes, Tuesday through Thursday, on Apple

Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Before you go, let me tell you what else is happening at Crime House today.

On the final hours, we examined the mysterious death of Chuck Morgan, an Arizona escrow agent,

who told his family he was in danger.

In the days before his death, he claimed that powerful forces were watching him.

He spoke in fragmented warnings.

He carried a $2 bill covered in cryptic markings.

When he was later found dead in the desert, the official ruling did little to quiet speculation.

There's a particular kind of case that unsettles people in a different way.

It's not simply about violence, it's about perception, it's about someone insisting

they're being followed, monitored, or targeted, and then something happens.

Sometimes those fears are rooted in mental distress, sometimes they intersect with real

threats.

Sometimes, the line between paranoia and danger is impossible to draw cleanly.

When a person expresses fear of being watched and their life ends abruptly, the unanswered

question lingers, were they imagining the threat?

Or were they right?

Here are five cases where the victim claimed they were being watched or targeted before

their deaths.

Cases where perception became part of the mystery.

Number one, Ray Rivera, the note behind the computer.

In May 2006, Baltimore writer Ray Rivera disappeared after receiving a late-night phone call.

His car was later found parked near a historic hotel.

Days afterward, his body was discovered in a conference room below a hole in the hotel's

roof.

The official ruling classified the death as a probable suicide, but the circumstances

raised persistent questions.

Rivera had reportedly expressed fear prior to his disappearance.

According to those close to him, he believed someone might be following him.

He had installed a home alarm system and reacted strongly to certain phone calls.

After his death, investigators discovered a long cryptic note taped behind his computer.

The document referenced secret societies, films, and cryptic language that some interpreted

as code.

To some observers, the note suggested paranoia or delusional thinking.

To others, it implied involvement in something larger, the ambiguity of the writing fueled

ongoing speculation.

What made the case endure was not simply the unusual scene.

It was the combination of expressed fear and unexplained physical evidence.

The sense that Rivera believed something was happening to him made the mystery feel intentional

rather than accidental.

Number two, Karen Silkwood, the whistleblower who said she was in danger.

Karen Silkwood worked at a plutonium processing plant in Oklahoma in the 1970s.

She raised concerns about safety violations and radioactive contamination.

According to colleagues and friends, she believed she was being monitored because of her complaints.

In November 1974, Silkwood died in a single car crash while reportedly on her way to meet

a journalist with documents related to her allegations.

The official conclusion was that she fell asleep at the wheel.

However, questions arose almost immediately.

Some of the documents she had allegedly been carrying were never found.

Supporters argued that she'd been targeted because of her whistleblowing.

There's no definitive proof that Silkwood was murdered.

However, the fact that she had voiced concerns about being followed or threatened created

a narrative that extended beyond the accident report.

Her expressed fear became inseparable from her death.

It shaped public interpretation and contributed to decades of speculation about corporate

misconduct and institutional retaliation.

Number three, Danny Casillaro, the journalist and the octopus.

In August 1991, journalist Danny Casillaro was found dead in a West Virginia hotel bath tub.

His death was ruled a suicide.

However, Casillaro had been investigating what he described as a sprawling conspiracy involving

intelligence agencies, software theft and organized crime.

He referred to it as the octopus.

In the months before his death, Casillaro reportedly told friends he believed he was being followed

and that his investigation had put him in danger.

He expressed concern about the people he was writing about and claimed he was close to

exposing something significant.

After his death, some of his notes were missing.

Those who doubted the suicide ruling pointed to the absence of certain materials as suspicious.

Others argued that Casillaro may have been overwhelmed by the complexity of his theories.

The case sits at the intersection of investigative journalism and possible paranoia.

The key element that sustained speculation is the record of his own statements.

Because he articulated fear before his death, the official explanation has never fully

silenced alternate interpretations.

Number four, Philip Taylor Kramer, the musician who feared surveillance.

Philip Taylor Kramer, a former bassist for the band Iron Butterfly and later a computer

engineer, disappeared in 1995.

Prior to his disappearance, he reportedly made statements suggesting he believed he was

being monitored or targeted.

Months later, his remains were discovered in his vehicle at the bottom of a ravine in

California.

In the period before he vanished, Kramer had spoken about complex theories involving

advanced technology and claimed he possessed significant knowledge that others might

want to suppress.

Friends described his behavior as increasingly erratic.

The case reflects a pattern seen in several high-profile mysterious deaths, expressed fears

of surveillance or targeting blur the boundary between mental health crisis and external threat.

Kramer's statements suggested he believed powerful entities were after him.

His death became fertile ground for speculation beyond the official findings.

Number five, Frank Olson, the scientist who fell from a window.

In 1953, Frank Olson, a U.S. Army biochemist, fell from a hotel window in New York City.

His death was initially ruled a suicide.

Olson had been involved in secret government research programs during the Cold War, shortly

before his death, he'd reportedly expressed distress and concern about his work.

Decades later, the U.S. government acknowledged that Olson had been unknowingly dozed with

LSD as part of an experiment prior to his fall.

The acknowledgement fueled suspicion that his death might not have been voluntary.

In 1975, a presidential commission investigated the circumstances, and the Olson family later

received a settlement.

Although definitive proof of homicide has never been established, the case remains controversial.

Olson's own distress and statements about his unease with classified activities complicated

the narrative.

When the government later admitted to secret experimentation, it validated at least

part of the broader mistrust surrounding the case.

The ambiguity persists because the line between documented secrecy and speculative conspiracy

remains difficult to define.

Why fear becomes part of the evidence?

When a victim claims they're being watched or targeted, those statements take on new weight

after death.

If the death appears self-inflicted, observers question whether the fear contributed to psychological

decline.

If the death appears suspicious, those earlier warnings can be interpreted as foreshadowing.

Human psychology struggles with ambiguity.

A person expressing fear may be experiencing stress, paranoia, or genuine threat.

Without conclusive evidence, outsiders often interpret the fear in the direction that best

fits the physical evidence or their own assumptions.

In cases where the surrounding facts are incomplete, the victim's own words become central.

They are replayed, analyzed, debated.

The presence of expressed fear transforms a death from a static event into an open question.

Chuck Morgan's final days were marked by claims that he was being watched and that his

life was in danger.

His death in the Arizona desert, accompanied by cryptic notes and unexplained details,

ensured that those statements would not be forgotten.

For the full examination of his final hours, including the $2 bill covered in markings

and the unanswered questions that followed, listen to today's episode of The Final

Hours, because sometimes the most unsettling mysteries are not defined by what investigators

find.

They are defined by what someone said before everything went silent.

You've been listening to Crime House 24-7 bringing you breaking crime news.

I'm Vanessa Richardson.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with more developing stories.

Stay safe and thanks for listening.

Thanks for listening to today's episode.

Not sure what to listen to next?

Check out America's most infamous crimes hosted by Katie Ring.

From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game-changing investigations, each week

Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history.

Come to and follow America's most infamous crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts.