FREE ESSAY ON KAIT`S CASE

KAIT`S CASE

After Kait was shot, her car traveled 719 feet, crossed the median, and came
to a rest on the sidewalk east of the intersection of Lomas Blvd. and Arno
Street. The first officer on the scene (not in uniform--just passing by)
observed two vehicles parked on the sidewalk, Kait's red Ford Tempo and a
VW Bug parked next to it. He also saw a man standing next to Kait's car.
The officer drove past the vehicles while he radioed in to ask about an
accident (none reported), then returned to the scene to investigate. He then
discovered an unconscious, blood drenched girl, lying across both front seats
of the Ford. Assuming she had been injured in a traffic accident, he called for
an ambulance and APD assistance. While waiting, he conversed with the
observer at the scene, Paul Raymond Apodoca, but took down only his
name and an incorrect phone number.
Officer #2, who arrived moments later, observed only one vehicle on the
sidewalk -- Kait's Ford Tempo, with the first officer standing behind it,
chatting with Apodoca. Officer#2 took one look at the bullet-shattered
driver's window, recognized that this was a crime scene, and radioed the
station for back-up. Neither Officer #1 or Officer #2 was ever officially
questioned in connection with this case.
No police officer ever interviewed Paul Apodoca, either at the crime scene or later. Nor
did they question the disappearance of
his VW Bug between the time Officer #1 saw it parked next to Kait's car, and the time
Officer #2 arrived on the scene. They
allowed him to leave without even getting his address, despite the fact that he has a
long record of violent crime, including
multiple vicious attacks on women and shooting one victim from a VW Bug with the same
caliber weapon that killed Kait.
After being awakened by the sound of gunshots, witnesses who lived on Arno, 500 feet
north of the crime scene, reported
seeing a VW Bug with more than one person in it race up their street, pull into the
parking lot of an automotive body shop next
door to their house, turn off its lights, and soon afterward drive slowly away down the
same street. Newspapers carried banner
headlines stating POLICE SEEKING INFO ON VW BUG, a mystery vehicle that APD allegedly was
desperately trying to
locate. The note was placed into evidence. Kait's parents allege that, not only does the
note not sound like Kait, who was an honor
student, but that the note is not in Kait's handwriting.
We have since discovered that Dung Nguyen was part of an interstate Vietnamese crime ring
that Kait was planning to expose,
and has been directly linked to identified members of the Santa Ana and El Q Gangs in
Southern California. One activity this
ring was involved in was car wreck insurance fraud. Kait's boyfriend and his friends from
Albuquerque would fly to the L.A.
area, rent or steal cars, and then stage wrecks, claiming fake injuries. The participants
would be paid $1,500; doctors, lawyers,
and paralegals would rake in the Big Money.
Dung Nguyen has confessed to personal involvement in two such wrecks and has told
investigators that he knows of up to 20
people in Albuquerque who are also involved. Several of these people have also been
identified as interstate drug dealers and
as participants in a racket to steal and sell computer chips from such companies as
Intel.
Dung Nguyen's alibis for the night of Kait's shooting are An Quoc Le and Khanh Tuan Pham.
He said he and his friends spent
the evening at the Monte Vista Fire Station Restaurant, and Khanh Pham dropped him off at
his apartment at approximately 10
p.m. The police did not verify this alibi.
Dung has since identified both these friends as participants in the car wreck scam. He
also has identified the insurance fraud
capper in Orange County, CA, as An Quoc Le's cousin, Bao Tran, housemate of a convicted
arsonist, Hong Phuc Duy Van.
Both were employed at the law office of attorney Minh Nguyen Duy, aka: Minh Buy Nguyen.
Minh Duy told investigators
that his office is owned by Scott Gentilly, who also owns three other Vietnamese-run law
offices that handle primarily auto
accident and personal injury cases.
Kait's final phone bill showed calls to Santa Ana, CA, made from her apartment as soon as
she was pronounced dead. The
phone numbers were for Bao Tran's residence and beeper. Dung Nguyen first told police
that Khanh Pham made the calls. He
later changed his story and said An Quoc Le phoned Tran to tell him Kait was dead.
Neither An Quoc Le nor Khanh Pham
was questioned about these calls.
According to the APD case file, Dung Nguyen allegedly attempted suicide on the night of
Kait's funeral (July 21, 1989), by
stabbing himself in the abdomen in the dorm room of Airman Khanh Pham, Room #202 of
Building #23216, on Kirtland AFB,
Albuquerque, NM. An Quoc Le, Dung's other alibi for the night of Kait's murder, was there
as well. According to the OSI
spokesperson, Khanh Pham refused to talk to police on the advice of his Air Force
attorney and therefore was never
interviewed. 
One investigator was told by a mole in the Police Department that two members of this
Vietnamise group were stealing
get-away cars for an Albuquerque Police Department officer, Matt Griffin, to use to
commit bank robberies. One week before
Kait was shot, Officer Griffin was identified as the Ninja Bandit, a notorious bank
robber who always made his getaways in
stolen sports cars.
This web site, established by Kait's brother in July, 1996, has turned out to be more
productive than we ever imagined.
Investigators from all over the country -- ranging from forensics experts, to handwriting
experts, to crime scene
reconstructionists, etc. -- have contacted us to offer their assistance pro bono. 
Most important, however, has been the information from good people (many from
Albuquerque), who -- although they couldn't
hand us a smoking gun -- have been able to provide bits and pieces of information about
activities and individuals that are
linked in one way or another to Kait's case. In many cases these people didn't realize
that what they knew was important -- but
it WAS. Some of those fragments of information filled in gaps in the jigsaw puzzle.
Others verified previously unsupported
suspicions. Still others caused us and our investigators to redirect our attention to
aspects of the case that we had previously
overlooked.
Bibliography
page 16 of book