America's Most Wanted Fans

Scumhunter
Commissioner (Admin)

Posts: 39,012

Unknown Sok Ung & Vuothy Tho Killer- California- 2003 Apr 21, 2016 15:36:49 GMT -5

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Post by Scumhunter on Apr 21, 2016 15:36:49 GMT -5

(Above: Top: Sok Ung (Photo Credit: sfgate.com Bottom: Vuothy Tho: Photo Credit: YouTube)

From the AMW archives:

"Long Beach police are looking for the unknown gunman who shot and killed the celebrated Iraqi war soldier, Cpl. Sok Khak Ung, and his friend, Vuothy Tho.

On Sunday, October 19, 2003, Cpl. Ung and his family were having a barbeque in their backyard, which is bordered by a six foot high wooden fence. Police say a Hispanic man jumped over a neighbor's fence, came up behind the fence that divides the Ung's backyard and started firing wildly over the fence. Six to eight shots were fired. Cpl. Ung was hit in the torso and head and died at the scene. Tho was shot once in the head. He was transported to a hospital and later died.

Cpl. Ung was a decorated Marine with the 15th Expeditionary Unit, which was responsible for the capture of 270 Iraqi soldiers on the first day of the war, and later participated in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Cpl. Ung's family had escaped war torn Cambodia, and he had become a US citizen only a month before his death."

web.archive.org/web/20040613024856/http://www2.amw.com/site/thisweek/U/UngSokKiller/ungkillerindex.html

Article with additional information:

www.sfgate.com/news/article/Marine-survives-Iraq-only-to-die-in-America-2581238.php#photo-2691153

Thoughts? This case was aired on the November 15th, 2003 episode of America's Most Wanted and as far as I can tell it is unfortunately still unsolved. Which is a shame because of how tragic the circumstances are.

Admin Note #1: Based on crime location, our advice for anyone with information on who killed Sok Ung and Vuothy Tho would be to contact L.A. Crime Stoppers: www.lacrimestoppers.org/

Admin Note #2: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form

Last Edit: Jan 3, 2017 23:54:29 GMT -5 by Scumhunter

HeadMarshal
Assistant Commissioner

Posts: 9,159

Unknown Sok Ung & Vuothy Tho Killer- California- 2003 Apr 21, 2016 17:40:54 GMT -5 Scumhunter likes this

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Post by HeadMarshal on Apr 21, 2016 17:40:54 GMT -5

Based on the fact that the killer just wildly shot all over the backyard where the barbecue was being held, one possible theory was that this was a gang initiation to prove that he could be willing to endanger the lives of as many people as possible. I'm very surprised that this case was never uploaded to the last version of amw.com.

pakman
Major

Posts: 1,009

Unknown Sok Ung & Vuothy Tho Killer- California- 2003 Apr 21, 2016 23:15:56 GMT -5 Maddog likes this

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Post by pakman on Apr 21, 2016 23:15:56 GMT -5

Especially given how personally John Walsh took this case. When he was doing his post-case spiel, he looked at the camera and said, "If you know who killed him and don't come forward, you're an even bigger coward than the person who did this."

Also, Vuothy Tho almost seemed like a forgotten victim when AMW did the case. The website only listed the case as the Unknown Sok Ung Killer. And when AMW aired the case, he got maybe one mention during Ed Miller's piece. I don't think this was done intentionally, but I distinctly remember that happening.

Scumhunter
Commissioner (Admin)

Posts: 39,012

Unknown Sok Ung & Vuothy Tho Killer- California- 2003 Apr 22, 2016 6:41:37 GMT -5

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Post by Scumhunter on Apr 22, 2016 6:41:37 GMT -5

Yeah I think AMW wanted to hammer home the point about the tragedy of a Marine's death, but Tho was a victim also.

Maybe not the best analogy but I sort of equate to if there's a plane crash where 32 people die and one of them is a celebrity movie star. The headline isn't going to be 32 dead. It's going to be "Movie Star and 31 others dead."