Iowa Murder-Suicide Latest in Deadly Trend

Domestic violence shatters another Midwestern Hmong family

By Stacy Lavilla

At the beginning of this month, Maichao Vang and Young Sayaxang Lee might have appeared to be living the American Dream-a white-collar couple raising their six children in a middle-class suburb called Pleasant Hill, near Des Moines.

But as November ends, so has that dream. Now, the couple's children, ages 1 to 11, are orphans-left parentless when, police say, their father shot their mother, then himself.

Police say that on Nov. 11, the eldest of the children, an 11-year-old girl, called 911, saying she had discovered the body of Vang, her 28-year-old mother, in a bedroom shortly after 7 a.m. After responding, officers also found the body of Lee, 37, in the basement, the gun beside him.

As was the case before the September strangling of six children in St. Paul, Minn., domestic discord had plagued Vang and Lee for months, authorities and family members say. Vang's decision to leave her 13-year marriage proved the last straw for Lee, said Pleasant Hill Det. John Britt.

Pointing to a five-page suicide note, written mostly in Hmong, Britt said "it was a way of saying good-bye. There was an indication that there was disharmony with the family. He didn't say he was angry with his wife-the gist of it was that he found out she was going to file for divorce."

Though Vang and Lee had professional jobs-she was an accountant at Norwest Financial, he taught high school math and tutored ESL classes in middle schools-that fact couldn't make them immune from a violent streak that has destroyed at least three other Midwestern Hmong families this fall: First, Khoua Her, 24 was accused of strangling her six children in their St. Paul home on Sept. 3, and shortly after that, police found the body of a 13-year-old who had been raped and stabbed. Then, police found Kao Vang, 32, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in his St. Paul home. His wife was missing.

Like Her, Vang apparently didn't feel she'd get sufficient support from Hmong elders. Amy Kepes, Vang's attorney, said Vang told her that she would be told only to go back to a marriage she'd endured since she was 15, one that she knew was beyond repair.

"I was aware of a threat, that he would rather see her dead than let her go," Kepes said, adding that Vang told close relatives of the threats. "She wasn't frantic about it at the time, but you took it seriously."

Vang and her lawyer set out on a plan designed to get Vang out of the marriage safely by next year. Kepes said Vang intended to complete her bachelor's degree in December, then secure a job in Kansas City, Kan., where her mother lived. Once that was done, Kepes said, Vang planned to move her children to Kansas City while her husband was away, then file divorce papers and a restraining order.

The plan unraveled, though, during a meeting that Vang and Lee had with relatives the night before the slayings. According to Kepes and police, the couple met with Lee's older brother, Dang, and his wife to discuss a rumor that Vang was having an affair with one of Lee's relatives. Though that allegation was downright false, Kepes said, the relative was helping Vang rework her resume and find a job in Kansas City. Though no one can say what exactly was said at the meeting, it was apparently too much for Lee.

"It's just tragic ... this woman was very intelligent, very kind," Kepes said. "I really enjoyed dealing with her, talking with her. I really just wanted to help her."

Vang's sister, Ka, said Maichao had "been unhappy for a really long time," and said abuse did occur, though not in the form of flying fists.

"She was never physically abused ... it was more mental and verbal abuse," Ka Vang recalled. According to Kepes, Lee told his wife "that had he bought a computer instead of marrying her, it would have been a better investment."

Young Lee's relatives were unavailable for comment. The six children are staying with his brother Dang.

Ka Vang said her sister's unhappiness went back nearly to the beginning of the marriage. "According to what she said, after six months of marriage to him, she knew what kind of person he was, or thought he was. He made lots of promises to her that he couldn't keep. She was the kind of person who didn't want to shame her family and didn't want her parents to worry.

"So she tried to bear with it and hoped it would get better. But it never did."

Still, Ka Vang said she never thought Lee would kill her sister, even after Maichao told her of his threats.

"It was very hard and so unbelievable to get that call," Ka Vang said, recalling the moment when she was told of the news. "I think when she first told me that he had made that threat, I kept thinking how he wouldn't do that. But in the back of my mind, I thought he could."

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