Suspect in killings of Oberlin professor, wife held on $3 million bond
[October 31, 2026]
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Oberlin College professor and his wife are
dead, and the educator's 31-year-old child is being held on a $3 million
bond and facing murder charges in their deaths.
The bodies of Pipo Nguyen-Duy, 64, a studio art and photography
professor and acclaimed fine art photographer, and his wife, Tran Thi
Nam Phong, 56, were found shot in their home a few blocks off campus on
Wednesday, according to police. The professor was on the first floor of
the home, his wife on the second.
Asia Nguyen-Duy, previously known as Daniel Jones, of Ashland, Oregon,
was arraigned Thursday on charges of murder, felonious assault and
tampering with evidence, according to court filings. A motive has not
yet been released.
The younger Nguyen-Duy, face tattooed and bloodied, was initially
carried into the municipal courtroom before later being wheeled in
seated on a chair. The suspect said they are gender neutral and no
longer go by the name Daniel Jones. Identification found in a car that
police found set afire near the college's conservatory of music, which
led them to the scene of the crime, listed the name Daniel Jones.
Oberlin City Prosecutor Zachary Simonoff told the judge that the accused
had offered a confession to the crimes and led them to the father and
stepmother's address.
Simonoff also told Oberlin Municipal Court Judge Farah Emeka that the
defendant's mother had been in touch with police to let them know that
her child was “currently psychotic” and needed medication. A message was
left with Asia's attorney.
The case has been bound over to Lorain County Common Pleas Court, where
it will next go before a grand jury. The suspect is being held in the
Lorain County Jail.
The deaths have rocked the private liberal arts college, where students
had just returned this week from fall break.
Studio art classes were paused or modified in the wake of the
professor's death. An exhibit of his internationally acclaimed
photography was placed on display at the campus art museum to provide
students, alumni and collaborators a place to gather and reflect. A
memorial tribute for Nguyen-Duy, who arrived at Oberlin in 1998, also is
being planned.
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In this image from video provided by WEWS, police respond at the
home of Oberlin College professor Pipo Nguyen-Duy and his wife, Tran
Thi Nam Phong, in Oberlin, Ohio, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (WEWS/News
5 via AP)
Digital forums for sharing condolences and memories also were set up
by Oberlin and some regional institutions, including the Museum of
Contemporary Art Cleveland.
Carmen Twillie Ambar, president of Oberlin College and Conservatory,
called it “a deeply challenging moment for our community.”
“Tragedies such as this one intrude upon our lives in jarring ways,”
she wrote in an open letter. “I am simply overwhelmed with sadness,
and I am deeply concerned about the impact of the devastating loss
of Pipo to our community.”
Pipo Nguyen-Duy was also mourned by the Guggenheim Foundation, where
he was a 2011 photography fellow. The foundation said he immigrated
to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975 and took up photography in his late
20s. He had a bachelor's degree in economics from Carleton College
and both a master of arts and a master of fine arts degree from the
University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.
“In his wide-ranging body of work, Nguyen-duy considered immigration
and emigration, intimacy, abandonment and decay, cultural
assimilation, and the cost of war,” the foundation said on
Instagram.
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