Father throws children from bridge after row

Four young children are feared dead today after their father told police he threw them from an Alabama bridge after an argument with his wife.

Divers searched the murky waters yesterday for the bodies of the youngsters aged from four months to three years old, as Lam Luong, 37, was charged with four counts of capital murder.

Drug user Luong had argued with his wife, Ngoc Phan, before taking the children, said Ms Phan’s brother-in-law, Kam Phengsisomboun. He said the family initially feared Luong had traded the children to support his drug habit.

Luong’s girlfriend was a factor in the couple’s argument on Sunday and Monday morning, family members and police said.

Authorities said they believe Luong then drove on Monday to the two-lane Dauphin Island bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, stopped at the highest part of the span and threw the youngsters over the side.

Luong reported the children missing on Monday, initially telling police that he had given them to his girlfriend, who was living in a nearby hotel, and that she failed to return them.

Authorities said they found holes in his account, and he later changed his story.

Missing, presumed dead, are four-month-old Danny Luong; one-year-old Lindsey Luong, two-year-old Hannah Luong and Ryan Phan, three. Ryan was not the man’s biological child, but Luong raised him from infancy, authorities said.

The search area covered 100 square miles because the current might have swept the children away, Sheriff Sam Cochran said.

The search was called off last night when dense fog rolled in, obscuring the bridge.

Luong, who came to Alabama from Vietnam in 1984 and worked as a shrimper, will appear in court today. The couple lived with Ms Phan’s mother at Bayou La Batre, a fishing village 20 miles south west of Mobile with a large south-east Asian community.

Luong had a crack habit and had used up an insurance settlement from a car accident, Mr Phengsisomboun said.

Ms Phan, 23, was staying at her mother’s home yesterday.

Some family members and friends held out hope that the children were not dead.

“I just pray for the kids, that they are still alive,” said Van Lam, a family friend.