Father throws 4 children off bridge
Ngoc Phan and three of her children.
Photo: AP
After having a dispute with his wife, Lam left the house with two children. Then came back later for the other two, apparently to throw them off the bridge as well.
To normal people this would seem insane. But Lam is not normal. He is a crack head with a history of drug offenses.
All four children are missing and presumed dead.
Sphere: Related Content
January 21st, 2008 at 4:58 pm
OMG… The poor mother. What is wrong with people??
January 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I have read recent news stories on this and they have finally found all of the childrens bodies. This is really sad, nobody deserves this. I wonder sometimes what motivates people to act like the devil!
January 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
How sad. We just had something similar happen where I live; a mentally ill man threw a toddler off an overpass onto the freeway
He was a neighbor of the child’s and somehow got ahold of him because the parents weren’t watching him properly. It was so awful.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
fourkidzmom – Wasn’t that the dude in Hawaii?? I saw that on the news. He was wearing scrubs and standing on the overpass?? That was shocking. Who knows what ets these freaks off…
January 21st, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I can’t stand to think of those poor children’s last moments. Bad enough that their lives were so short, but to imagine their fear and the fleeting thought of “why Daddy”, it makes my heart ache.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Sadly it also sounds like the toddler thrown off the overpass by the apparently mentally ill man had an unstable family life, with a father in prison, a mother who has had struggled with drug addiction, relapses and involvement with Child Welfare Services. I would like to do much more than just read these horrifying stories, what good does my grief for these children I’ve never known do?
January 21st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
mowse,
I think the only thing people can do is to be good neighbors for each other. I know it sounds insipid but if you see people in trouble or a situation that looks fishy– stop and give help (or call the appropriate authorities)
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 am
In the Hawaii case it looks like the mother had a long history of not taking care of her children. Why the HELL the state didn’t take this one away from her as soon as he was born – when they KNEW she stopped her prenatal care because she was doing pot and ice – is beyond me. Everyone involved in this case who failed to act when there were so many warning signs is as guilty in my mind as the psycho who threw the baby off the overpass.
This child’s life could have been saved and made such a happy place if he’d been taken from this woman the minute he was born and given to a family who would have loved and cherished him. He was a beautiful little boy from the pictures I’ve seen and any potential adoptive family would have taken him without hesitation.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:02 am
This could get worse. Is this horrible idea of throwing kids off things spreading? Most of these sick people are simply not that creative to think this up. They want to get back at spouse so they throw their kids off a bridge? Will we see copy cats doing this now?
Yes, the media should report this. But they should not over do it. I have seen this happen in schools, one kid attempts to kill themselves, in a few weeks there are more kids doing it. Once the idea gets out it spreads.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’m surprised this wasn’t posted earlier; it’s relatively old news. I’m really surprised there hasn’t been a “baby Grace” post yet here either.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
I have been following this since the beginning and it was in Bayou La batre alabama. Bubba Blue and forrest would be so saddened..you can check out the story here.. or check it out it happened around the second week of january I know I sent the email out about this on the 12th.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_7928293
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
I have been following this since the beginning and it was in Bayou La batre alabama. Bubba Blue and forrest would be so saddened..you can check out the story here.. or check it out it happened around the second week of january I know I sent the email out about this on the 12th.
Robot this was all over the national news I live in NC and I heard about it here.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_7928293
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
everard,
I gave the Baby Grace link to Joel and Anne – Marie, and Anne -Marie replied:
If Joel doesn’t beat me to it, I’ll post about this story this weekend.
Anne-Marie
PBB
But it’s never been posted here.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am
mowse, I read these types of stories and so many others and I feel the same way. Sad about what has happened yet frustrated that I can’t do anything about it. Wendy is right though. Even if we can’t personally do something for these poor people, just by being a good helpful person and caring about others is a step in the right direction. It’s a very small one but it is a step. There is no way for even the most professional person to stop every crime against children but to turn a blind eye on an obvious one is a crime. I don’t know what is happening to the human race. I guess if you are raised like an animal you will act like one, but even animals are more caring. Someday we will possibly understand what it all means, I don’t know. I think that stress and people on meds and a lot of things are so much more than they used to be that vulnerable people crack a lot easier than they used to. It’s such a shame that an innocent child has to pay the ultimate price for it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Pak67 said:”I don’t know what is happening to the human race. I guess if you are raised like an animal you will act like one, but even animals are more caring.”
I read that male primates usually kill the prior males children, and will sometimes kill their own offspring as a way to subvert the female. Is it possible that a good portion of what’s posted on PBB is the result of human de-evolution?
What kills me is that a witness saw the man with 3 kids in a car, on a bridge, holding a bundle– and didn’t think that was a curious enough situation to merit checking it out or calling someone to go check it out. Maybe it wouldn’t have been enough to save one child, but it might have saved the others. Maybe 3 would have perished before help arrived and one would have survived? We don’t know now because the witness simply wasn’t curious enough.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Yes, I live in Hawaii, and yes, the parents were screwed up. The mother had two other children that she wasn’t raising (what does THAT tell you) and she had had CPS involvement before. The boy actually wandered away from the boyfriend while he was fixing his vehicle and was brought back by the cops earlier the SAME DAY!!! Basically their lack of supervision is how he ended up in the hands of his unstable neighbor.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Wow. That is so sad. Poor baby.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
forkidzmom, yes I read some of this families history and as far as I can tell he didn’t have a single adult person on whom to depend on. Right on down the line to his Grandfather this poor child didn’t have an adult role model or protector. There was also suggestions made that she had this mentally unstable and drug addict babysitting on occasion, something she denies. However given the familes history and the abductor being able to remove him from his home and make the journey to where this poor boys life made it’s tragic end, fills me with doubt about the Mothers credibility. I would expect the child to resist being taken away from his residence by someone his Mom wouldn’t “allow near her son” according to her statement.
Too many people failed this little boy and too many people are failing all of our children.
I agree with the sentiments being expressed here and I will take them to heart and remember to do my part. By setting an example to my own children, advocating for a child who is in need of help, and NEVER turning a blind eye. I think we all have a responsibility and have always believed in the statement “It takes a Village to raise a Child”.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
http://www.kitv.com/news/15078174/detail.html
This particular link contains video regarding the boys family who had a history of neglect and reports that the Grandfather allowed this neighbor to take the boy for a walk. The fact is if not for this families neglect this wouldn’t have happened.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:37 am
This world has went just crazy. It seems like EVERY DAY we are hearing shit like this on the news, parents killing and torturing their children.
If the punishment were harsher in some of these cases, at least maybe some of it would stop.
January 24th, 2008 at 7:58 am
We have an outdated punishment system. Steal a chicken, do a month. Kill a husband, hang. Can’t hang now, so 40 years. Wait, too expensive, 15 years. It’s a patchwork based on the idea of payment. Also the mistaken idea that high prices are a good deterent.
Incompetent people can’t be “detered” anyway.
Prison is not a great deterent. It does not rehabilitate, so what does it actually do? It removes people who are not fit to be part of society. I think we need to start looking at it that way. Also consider some real rehab. We have tons of knowledge about how criminals operate but we don’t use it. These people are not capable of parenting. What are we doing about it?
We can either fix them or remove them or a combo of both as indicated. We know damn well they will offend whenever given the chance. They need to be healed. If they cannot be, they need removal. They old “paying your debt to society” assumes an ability to function as society expects. But when people offend after they’ve been identified as incapable, it’s our fault. We permitted them to be broken amongst us.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Wendy,
Do you really blame the witness on the bridge for this? There’s nothing abnormal about a father and his children standing on a bridge. How is any normal, decent person supposed to know what this man might do?
January 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Absolutely not, the witness was not the one that tossed the children off the bridge. I saw the pictures of the bridge from a news story and I wouldn’t exactly call that a scenic view, which does make it a bit abnormal.
Still, I think the witness could have helped.
What could happen if nothing is wrong or out of the ordinary? Walk up (or drive up) ask if there’s car trouble, get a closer look, see the kids look panicked etc, and go your way– if something is wrong then you can go call for help.
Since when did we turn into this society that refuses to look each other in the eye for fear of offending? On one hand you have people who call the cops when they find mysterious white powder on changing tables (duh!) and on the other you have folks that notice weird stuff but just don’t want to make a fuss.
It’s not making a fuss, it’s not going to bother the police (trust me, they love rescues and hate “recoveries”) it’s the difference between being “witness” and “hero”
January 25th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Amy: You are right, our system does not work. But the root of it all is that our prison system is based on the old Quaker system which essentially just put people away, out of sight. Sort of like time out for children.
They put you in a cell to give you time to think about what you did. Of course this also put the lawbreaker out of sight of the public, this made the public feel better.
This was thought of as an improvement over other punishment systems at the time, most of which involved physical punishments like 21 lashes…
March 30th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
These poor children and the mother who has to live with this for the rest of her life! They look so cute and for their own father to take their life like that, hope he gets whats coming to him!!!