Fugitive Accused Of Torture, Killings In Philly Added To FBI's 10 Most Wanted List

PHILADELPHIA — A man accused of torturing and killing two Vietnamese brothers a decade ago in Philadelphia was added to the FBI's list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives, officials said Wednesday.

Trung Duc Lu participated in the August 2014 torture, kidnapping and murder of the brothers, the FBI said.

Lu also tried to kill the brothers' friend, but he survived the incident and has worked with authorities, the agency said. The FBI calls him "Sonny."

All three victims were Philadelphia drug dealers, who bought large amounts of marijuana from New York City and then sold it at a higher price, the FBI says. The trio soon started gambling the money they owed their source up north, which led their suppliers to send people to recoup the stolen funds.

In August 2014, Lu and others were sent from New York to Philadelphia to recoup the dealers' debt of over $100,000. When the men reached Philadelphia, they met up with Tam Le — a local point of contact who knew the victims — the FBI says.

The victims were lured one-by-one to a house in Southwest Philadelphia, where they were each attacked, tied up and beaten in an effort to extract the money, says FBI Philadelphia Special Agent Scott Baber.

Lu and his co-conspirators collected some of the missing money, but they decided to kill the three men, officials say. They transported the three victims in a van.

"They then arrived at a parking lot on the Schuylkill River, pulled each victim out of the van, stabbed each one viciously, tied them down with weighted buckets, and threw them into the river," Bader said.

After being mistaken for dead, Sonny escaped the river an flagged down a driver who called 911.

Sonny provided a statement to Philadelphia police that allowed law enforcement to get a search warrant for Tam Le's home. Authorities say they found evidence of torture and later found the other victims' bodies in the river.

Le was indicted in Philadelphia and captured in 2015. He was later convicted and sentenced to death. Last year, Le was found dead in his cell at the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix. A cause of death was not shared.

Bader noted that the victims had wives, friends and jobs beyond their criminal activity.

"They were people who, in many ways, were trying to live the American dream," said Bader, the lead investigator in Lu's case. "They were certainly flawed characters and broke the law, but their transgressions should not have resulted in them meeting the kind of end that they did."

An arrest warrant for Lu was issued in July 2019.

Lu was born in Vietnam. He and his mother moved to the U.S. as refugees when Lu was a teenager, settling in Queens, New York.

He is a permanent U.S. resident who never pursued citizenship, the FBI says. But the agency believes he fled back to Vietnam.

The FBI shared the following information on Lu:

• Dates of birth used: Oct. 1, 1980; Dec. 2, 1979; Dec. 9, 1979; Nov. 13, 1980; Oct. 1, 1981; Oct. 10, 1982
• Place of birth: Vietnam
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Brown
• Height: 5'7"
• Weight: 140 pounds
• Sex: male
• Race: Asian
• Occupation: nail technician
• Nationality: Vietnamese
• Languages: English, Vietnamese
• Scars and marks: Numerous tattoos, including a dragon in the center of his back with the words “Asian Pride” in large script above it, and an unknown tattoo over the left pectoral. Both upper arms heavily tattooed, including a dragon and claw design and a tiger.