Lam Luong was a bayou shrimper. His common law wife Nancy Phan was a nail technician.
Together, they were raising 4 young children; 4-year old Ryan Phan, 2-year old Hannah Luong, 1-year old Lindsey Luong and a 4-month old boy named Danny Luong.
The children’s uncle, Kam Phengsisomboun, says that Danny had finally come home from the hospital. “He have a heart problem. He just came home two days before he took em.”
Nancy Phan was working at Fancy Nails in Tillman’s Corner on Monday when co-workers say Lam Luong came in demanding money but didn’t get any.
Her brother-in-law says it was a power struggle that spilled into work. “He said just remember you will get what you deserve. He just wanted to show her, prove to her, that he is the man of the house “
The brother also believes that Luong’s previous drug problem crept back into their lives. “When he come in, he wants the money. Give him the money. He go whenever he want. He leave whenever he want “
Hours after the reported argument, the couple showed up at the Bayou La Batre Police Department.
Detective Scott Riva says Luong showed little emotion when explaining that his kids were missing. “He explained to us that he had given the children to a relative or someone close to the family and just didn’t come back”
For hours, Bayou police searched for the four kids until Luong reportedly confessed that he drove the children to the top of the Dauphin Island bridge and tossed them in the water.
The children’s mother is now in seclusion. The kids were her everything. “If she lose these kids she’s not gonna be able to live. I don’t want her to commit suicide or stuff like that. We need her to testify against him.”
Police don’t believe the mother had anything to do with the disappearance of her children.
It is reported locally that the mother is in the hospital and will not drink or eat...she is suicidal....this is all so bad...i don’t live far at all from all this.
I love the Dauphin Island area.
We used to attend the sailboat races. We even competed a couple of times.
Did you by chance hear any of the national news people trying to pronounce Bayou La Batre? It was pretty entertaining. Reminds me of the joke when I was in HS in the area, Q: What do you call a Bayou La Batre boy that marries a girl from Grand Bay? A: Social climber.
I won’t bother to try and show phonetically how they tried the pronunciation, but suffice it to say it was worth the price of admission!