Oberlin professor and wife found shot dead; son faces charges

An Oberlin College photography professor and his wife were found shot dead in their Ohio home Wednesday after police investigating a smoldering car located the professor’s son and went to check on the couple, authorities said.

Pipo Hieu Nguyen-Duy, 64, was found on the first floor, and his wife, Tran Thi Phong, 56, was found in an upstairs bedroom, according to a police incident report cited by NBC News. Nguyen-Duy’s son, 31-year-old Daniel Jones of Ashland, Oregon, was arrested Wednesday and charged with six counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence. Phong was Jones’s stepmother. A motive remains unclear.

At a Thursday court appearance, Jones asked that gender-neutral pronouns be used and said they go by Asia Nguyen-Duy, NBC News reported. They did not enter a plea and were held on $3 million bail, according to The Guardian.

The investigation began just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, when Oberlin officers responded to a report of a smoldering vehicle in an Oberlin College Conservatory parking lot. The silver Toyota hatchback had Oregon license plates, a boarded-up window and a pipe sticking out of its roof, according to the police report cited by NBC News. Investigators identified Jones as its owner.

Police found Jones later that morning and took them into custody without incident. A prosecutor said Jones had knocked on an Oberlin resident’s door and asked her to record a video for posting online. In the video, Jones said they were escaping a cult and that “everything I did was on my own accord and I take full responsibility,” according to the prosecutor.

Jones had scratches on their face and injuries to their arm and hand, the prosecutor said. According to the prosecutor, Jones told police they had killed their family and provided the home address. Officers forced their way into the house during a welfare check and found Nguyen-Duy and Phong. The prosecutor said ammunition was found in the car; the weapon used in the shooting had not been found.

The Guardian, citing ABC News, reported that police had spoken with Jones’s mother in Oregon and that she told them Jones had a mental illness and required medication. NBC News reported that Jones’s biological mother declined to comment because she was too upset. An attorney for Jones did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment Friday.

Nguyen-Duy had taught at Oberlin since 1998 and served as its studio art chair. College President Carmen Twillie Ambar called him “a cherished colleague and a vibrant presence in the classroom and throughout campus.”

Nguyen-Duy migrated to the United States from Vietnam in 1975 as a political refugee, according to The Guardian. A Guggenheim fellow in photography, he had work exhibited in public collections in the United States, Europe and Asia, according to a biography cited by NBC News.