Oberlin professor and his wife found shot dead at home; son charged with murder
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAA renowned photography professor at Oberlin College and his wife were found shot to death in their Ohio home, and the professor's 31-year-old son has been charged with murder in the killings, police said.
Pipo Nguyen-duy, 64, and Trần Thị Nam Phong, 56, were discovered by law enforcement doing a welfare check at their home in Oberlin, Ohio, on the morning of October 28, the Oberlin Police Department said. Nguyen-duy was the father of the suspect and Phong his stepmother, police confirmed.
The suspect, Daniel Jones, 31, was charged with multiple counts of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence, police said. He is being held in the Lorain County jail, and a judge set his bond at $3 million at a court appearance on October 29.
The case began that Wednesday morning when police responded at about 9 a.m. to a report of a vehicle possibly on fire on the Oberlin campus. Officers found a Toyota hatchback "smoldering," with a boarded-up window and a wood stove-style heater inside fitted with a makeshift chimney going through the roof. Jones was the vehicle's registered owner, and his wallet, passport, keys and loose ammunition were found inside, according to a police report obtained by USA TODAY.
Officers found Jones about a mile away and took him into custody. Based on their interaction with him, police then went to check on his family, forcing entry into the home at about 10:30 a.m. There they found Nguyen-duy and Phong dead, both with gunshot wounds. A shelter-in-place order was briefly in place on the college campus before authorities determined there was no larger threat.
In court on October 29, Jones was carried by his arms and legs into the courtroom while shackled, footage from WKYC Channel 3 showed, and was later wheeled out on a rolling chair. In court, he said he goes by the name Asia Nguyen-duy, is unemployed and a street musician. Prosecutor Zachary Simonoff said in court that when officers found the suspect, he had scratches on his face and injuries on his hand and arm, and that he told officers he killed his family. A gun has not been recovered in the investigation, Simonoff said, and police have not announced a motive.
Nguyen-duy had taught at Oberlin since 1998 and served as chair for studio art. He immigrated to the United States as a political refugee from Vietnam in 1975, according to his biography on the college's website, and his life had taken him from national table tennis athlete in Vietnam to Buddhist monk in India to bartender and nightclub manager in New York City. He was a Guggenheim fellow in photography and was recognized with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. His work, the Guggenheim Foundation said, "considered immigration and emigration, intimacy, abandonment and decay, cultural assimilation, and the cost of war."
"I am simply overwhelmed with sadness, and I am deeply concerned about the impact of the devastating loss of Pipo to our community. Pipo was beloved. During his years at Oberlin, he touched all of us through his passion for photography," Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar said in a statement.
Sources: USA TODAY, “Oberlin professor, wife killed in shooting; son charged with murder” (Oct 31, 2026); The Cincinnati Enquirer, “Beloved Oberlin professor and his wife killed by his son, police say” (Oct 30, 2026); The Art Newspaper, “Celebrated photographer Pipo Nguyen-duy and his wife murdered by his son, according to police” (Oct 30, 2026).
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