CA - Ha 'Jade' Smith, 52, & Anita Vo, 23, murdered, Westminster, 21 April 2005

The Vietamese mother read palms and told fortunes for a living. The daughter attended college and was described as being "Americanized". The police found the murders, by looking into the windows and seeing a body. The daughter's boyfriend was concerned because they had been unable to contact his girlfriend since Fri. Police are declining to discuss the condition of the victims bodies or how they were injured, stating that it goes to the motive for the crime so they are trying to keep it quiet. According to a police spokesman, "It's that mysterious condition of the bodies that keeps us from being definitive," Marsh said.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/04/24/sections/local/crime_courts/article_494097.php

Do you have anymore info on this story?
It sounds very odd.

I did a little more looking around, but didn't find a whole lot. As that was in Sundays news it probably hasn't had time yet. Other item I found:

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/la-me-ocbriefs24.1apr24,0,2601833.story?coll=ktla-newslocal-1

additional info

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/04/25/sections/local/crime_courts/article_494723.php

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/04/26/sections/local/crime_courts/article_495556.php

Mind you, Vu isn't touting either of those as a definitive theory. That's because there's also the matter of the white paint that covered both victims' heads and hands. Vu is trying to determine what that means — or even, he says, if it might be a red herring. "Is it something the suspects did just to throw us off?" he asks, rhetorically. "That's in the back of our minds."

In that same vein, Vu says, an older man who once taught in Vietnam has given him "quite an education on certain cultural aspects and how that may apply to the significance of white paint. And that's something I did not know about."

Experts told The Times last week that white can signify mourning or rites of passage, but said it had no obvious meaning in a double-murder case.

"This case is unique," Vu says. "I haven't come across anybody else who's had a case in which the victims' heads and hands were covered in paint. I've had calls from colleagues in other departments too. They feel kind of fascinated by that. It's just not something that happens."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printed...la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

WESTMINSTER – A North Carolina woman accused in the grisly killings of a Westminster fortuneteller and her daughter tipped off police when she allegedly bought plane tickets in the dead women's names.



The Orange County District Attorney's Office on Friday charged Tanya Jaime Nelson, 41, and Phillipe Zamora, 50, accused of being her accomplice, with the murder of Ha Jade Smith, 52, and her daughter, Anita Nhi Hung Vo, 23. Their bodies were found in their Westminster home April 22, stabbed as many as 10 times, their faces and hands covered in white paint. The two may face the death penalty, the District Attorney's Office said.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/06/04/sections/local/local/article_547260.php

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Woman Found Guilty of Killing Fortune Teller Over Failed Love Spell

KTLA News
5:28 PM PST, February 16, 2010


SANTA ANA -- An Orange County jury has found a woman guilty of murdering a Westminster fortune teller and her daughter because a love spell didn't work.

Jurors found 45-year-old Tanya Nelson guilty of masterminding the murders of Ha "Jade" Smith andher 23-year old daughter Anita Vo five years ago.

.........

Nelson faces the death penalty.

more here

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-fortune-teller-murder,0,2124028.story

That is just crazy. I wonder if it was worth it now! Sounds like the white paint was to throw the LE off after all. LOVE SPELL didn't work :waitasec:

why the heck did it take 5 years to go to trial

Woman Sentenced to Death in Fortune Teller Murders

KTLA News
3:10 PM PST, March 2, 2010

SANTA ANA -- A jury recommended today that a woman who killed a Westminster fortune teller and her daughter be sentenced to death.

Tanya Jamie Nelson was convicted Feb. 16 of killing Ha Smith, 52, and Smith's 23-year-old daughter Anita Vo, on April 21, 2005.

The same jury convicted Nelson of special- circumstance murder Feb. 16.

Nelson, with her friend, Phillipe Zamora, 55, fatally stabbed fortune teller Ha Smith, 52, and Smith's r 23-year-old daughter Anita Vo, on April 21, 2005.

Nelson was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with special- circumstance allegations of burglary, robbery and lying in wait.

In arguing for the death penalty for the defendant, Deputy District Attorney Sonia Balleste said Nelson was a "narcissistic, selfish, cold- blooded, black-hearted evil woman."

Nelson tried to get her son, George Nguyen, to help kill Asia Nguyen -- the wife of her husband's brother, Loi Nguyen -- because she was distraught her affair with Loi Nguyen had ended, the prosecutor said.

"She tried to use her own son to do her dirty work," Balleste said. "That is evil incarnate."

Nelson took the gun from her son and used it to beat Loi Nguyen on Dec. 17, 2004, Balleste said.


more here

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-fortune-teller-murder,0,2124028.story