Post by Scumhunter on Nov 29, 2015 11:28:22 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: First Coast Crime Stoppers)
It has now been over a decade since Hiep Nguyen was found dead at the coffee shop where he worked. His case was featured as a My Story on AMW's old website, where a victim's friend or family member writes into the website about the case. I'll post the fact-related part of the story from the website only to not confuse people for the sake of us discussing our theories, but his mother's words can be viewed at one of the links below.
Kim Tran was proud of her son, Hiep. He had taken lemons and turned them into lemon-flavored bubble tea when he opened his Boba Coffee Shop. But just when the shop was about to get the public attention it needed, there was a sudden change of focus. The cameras were no longer interested in bubble tea. The spotlight was on murder - and Hiep was the star of the show.
Hiep Nguyen moved from Vietnam with his family to Ontario, Canada. After he finished secondary school he moved by himself to Louisville, Ky., and then to Jacksonville, Fla. for a telecommunications job. When he was laid off, Hiep saw an opportunity to make the dream of owning his own business come true. He met Jonathan Gillis, a computer technician who had also been laid off, and discovered a shared love for Boba tea. Boba, or "bubble tea," is very popular in Asia and California, and made by combining fruit flavoring, ice, tea, and tapioca balls that can be sucked through a large straw and chewed. The two men decided to introduce Boba to Jacksonville by opening their own store- the Boba Coffee Shop.
Patrons described the Boba Coffee Shop as a comfy place to hang out. Asian lampshades hung from the ceilings, large bamboo fans adorned the walls, and checkerboards, cards, and other games sat invitingly on small tables that were scattered throughout the store. On the evening of June 22, 2004, Boba employee Joseph Cummings said Hiep was busily preparing his coffee shop for a live camera interview. The shop was going to be featured in a segment for "Stoppin' By" on WJXT TV4 early the next morning. Joseph helped Hiep clean up, and closed the shop around 10:00 p.m. When he left at 10:30 p.m., Joseph said Hiep was in the locked coffee shop speaking in Vietnamese to someone on the telephone.
The next morning at around 6, the television crew arrived at the Boba Coffee Shop, but found the shop locked and Hiep nowhere to be found. A member of the crew called Hiep's business partner, Jonathan, who hurried to the shop to let them in. But when Jonathan entered the unlit shop, he found Hiep's lifeless body behind the counter in the storage room. He walked back outside in tears. "He's dead." One of the crew members followed Jonathan back into the shop and saw Hiep's body. He said that Jonathan then sat in silence as police were called. Hiep's roommate and friends were immediately notified of the murder and came to the shop crying and in shock.
According to police, Hiep Nguyen had been strangled. Police also found that money was missing from the cash register, and someone had broken into the business safe. While the missing money would indicate a robbery, police found no forced entry into the shop, and Hiep's car was still parked in the same spot where he left it the previous evening. There was one unusual clue -- a shoe that police found next to Hiep's body. At this time, police aren't ruling out any suspects.
Thoughts? Obviously, I think the most important factor in trying to solve this case is to figure out whether this was a robbery or a murder set up to look like a rivalry. With Nguyen's surprising success, it wouldn't surprise me if his murder was business related and/or someone was jealous of his success for whatever reason.
web.archive.org/web/20060510180111/http://amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=36471
www.fccrimestoppers.com/Unsolved.aspx?PageNum=4 (Scroll down or search via ctrl + f for Nguyen case)
Admin Note: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form