Cops: Dad Threw 4 Children Off Ala. Bridge

(CBS/AP)  A man angered after a dispute with his wife confessed to tossing his four young children off a bridge, authorities said Wednesday as they searched murky waters for the bodies.

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

Luong came to coastal Alabama from Vietnam in 1984 and worked in the commercial fishing industry as a shrimper, Police Chief John Joyner and a relative said. He had argued with his wife, Ngoc Phan, before taking the children, he said.

Missing and presumed dead were 4-month-old Danny Luong; 1-year-old Lindsey Luong; 2-year-old Hannah Luong; and 3-year-old Ryan Phan. Phan is not the man's biological child, but Luong raised him from infancy, authorities said.

Family members tell CBS affiliate WKRG-5 in Mobile that the youngest had heart problems and had just gotten out of the hospital.

Authorities were searching a 100-square-mile area and waters as deep as 55 feet. The search included divers and cadaver dogs in small boats, as well as three helicopters, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said.

Joyner said he feared the search of the Intracoastal Waterway below the bridge would be hampered by bad weather and choppy waters. The bridge extends from the mainland to Dauphin Island, which lies between the waterway and the Gulf of Mexico.

The couple lived with Phan's mother at Bayou La Batre, a fishing village with a large Southeast Asian community. Phan's brother-in-law Kam Phengsisomboun, who is from Thailand, said the couple moved back to the area from Hinesville, Ga., only a couple of weeks ago.

They argued Sunday night and again Monday, he said. Luong left the home with two of the children, then later came back for the other two, he said.

The family initially feared the children had been traded to support a drug habit, Phengsisomboun said. Luong had a crack cocaine habit and had spent an insurance settlement from an automobile accident rapidly, he said, and authorities confirmed Luong had a history of drug offenses.

Luong reported the children missing Monday, and told police that a woman who had the children failed to return them, authorities said. Phengsisomboun said he was later told by investigators that a witness had seen someone throw a bundle from the bridge and then saw three children in a nearby car.

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

[azcagirl]

I agree with bama_mama I couldn''t have put that better myself. And as for mercyme884, there have been cases where mothers kill their children too. I was raised by a single father, and he never hurt me. You can''t just blame these sorts of things on men.

[houstontx22]

Davicar2 and mercyme884- you are what the problem in america is. If he needed a break- take the children to the hospital or police and give them away don''t throw them off a bridge. Mercyme- what can I say- you are crazy and give christians a very bad name.

[mercyme884]

This is so sad...Maybe the precious children are better off with Jesus than here on Earth to be tortured and beaten and murdered by crazy, unprincipled, unspeakably,cruel and heartless MEN.This to all Mothers who love their children, you must never trust these precious babies to the care of cold, cruel,and selfish men who only care for themselves. Mothers you and you alone have to protect your children.Please please watch over your children and save them from this madness.

[bama_mama]

pensacola88-I am from Mobile. Our state and community did not fail him. He failed himself and he failed his family. As the father of these innocent children, he should be their protector, not their murderer. I am so tired of people feeling that illegal immigrants are entitled to anything! And I am also tired of no one taking responsibility for their actions. Always blaming someone else. I have three children near the same age, 4, 2 and 4mo. This is unthinkable. I say wrap an anchor around his neck and toss HIM off the Dauphin Island bridge. And every time you might think that is cruel, think of those four poor babies watching as one after the other is tossed off, wondering what Daddy is doing, and then struggling to breath as they slowly drowned. All because he was ticked off at his wife. Education had nothing to do with it. Like I said, no one failed him but himself. And in turn, he failed his children in the ultimate way. Sink him.

[kevzgrl]

"One who kills another, whether legal or not, has a burden to bear." posted by whatithink

And just WHO gets to "bear the burden" of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to keep this scum alive in a prison, in protective custody of course, as the general population would "hurt" him if he was in the regular cells. The TAXPAYERS, that''s who - execution would be much cheaper, and if you take him back to the bridge and toss him off, it''s only the cost of the tank of gas.

He''s a junkie and that "burden" you mention won''t even occur to his fried brain - all he will be thinking about in jail is how to get drugs smuggled in to him. That, and how soon will it be until he sees his court-appointed and taxpayer supported lawyer, so he can file ANOTHER appeal, wasting MORE tax dollars and tying up court time.

[kevzgrl]

Searing Truth - I usually agree with most of what you say, however, this time I have to say, you are a bit short of the mark. Who is going to pay to send this heartless piece of trash to prison for the rest of his life??? Will YOU foot the bill for his food, housing, clothing, medical care, educational opportunities and recreation, all by yourself - or will the taxpayers have to pay? When so many are having a hard time taking care of ourselves, why should we have to pay and pay and pay for scum like this to go on living? I say take him back to the bridge, or a much higher one, and toss him off like a bundle of trash - just like he did to 4 helpless, defenseless little children. See if HE floats....

[Krazcarl]

I know some good old boys that will help and we''ll toss this piece of trash off the bridge...the book says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth in the meantime he sits around gets lousy chow and harasses folks on the phone.

[michellem99-2009]

I am poor. The framers of this nation would be appalled at the shape of the nation they put together. I think they would. I am. The death pentity don''t deter crime and we know that. Yet the bloody killers don''t care if they live or die. They know their peers gave them death and they sit in their cell as they know it is a joke..Yep. A once great nation not now..

[knyghtwolf]

Well well well, shall we all be communal or just associative here? Who made the choices here? Who did what to whom here and failed whom? We are responsible for FIRST: ourselves, SECOND: our immediate family. After viewing hours upon hours of video tapes from China in order to get a sociology degree and seeing how other nations treat children, the comparison was easy, we do it here just as they do it there. We have people here who think they can justify their behavior just by spouting off christian mythologies in some celestial voice, others see it as a platform for REFORM or REFORMATION. Humans behaving human is all it is, we are still animals, maybe a little higher up on the evolutionary scale than some others but we are still animals. We like to think we are something "special" or perhaps the correct word is "spacial" but none the less, we thrive on misfortune, we live, breathe, eat, sleep, feast on misfortunes of others just to say thank god I am who I am, that is, until the right button is pushed. No one has a clue until its too late, then the words just pour out like massive infection that has been released and is smelling up the very air we breathe with foul stenches of rotted flesh. Who really has the right or business to determine life & death, YOU?

[Krazcarl]

Kill him NOW nothing but a waste of skin with 0 morals housing him in prison till he runs out of breath isn''t nicer.