She left her husband once before, and told her family she planned to file for divorce.
On Nov. 20 police found the body of Bich D. Mai inside her Mill Creek area house. The next morning detectives arrested her husband.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner determined that Mai died of a blunt impact to the head. Investigators believe Ha Ngoc Tran, Mai’s husband, beat her to death.
Tran, 32, was booked into jail for investigation of second-degree murder. Everett District Court Judge Roger Fisher on Nov. 21 ordered Tran jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.
His older brother, Son Ngoc Tran, also was arrested in connection with the investigation and was held on $50,000 bail.
Police say they believe he helped his brother try to cover up the crime.
Ha Tran called police Nov. 20 to report that he found his wife, 25, dead in their bedroom.
Ha Tran told police he hadn’t seen his wife since Nov. 19, when she left his parents’ Seattle home, according to a police affidavit filed in Everett District Court.
He and the couple’s 4-year-old son stayed at his parents’ house overnight, Ha Tran told police.
The man told investigators he only went home after an employee at one of the nail salons he owns, including New Top Nails in Mill Creek, called to report that his wife hadn’t come to work, according to the police affidavit.
During his interview with detectives, Ha Tran said he and his wife talked about getting a divorce in March, but decided to try to reconcile.
He also told police that his wife told an aunt that he had hit her. That wasn’t true, Ha Tran told police.
Detectives interviewed the aunt, who told them the woman was planning to file for a divorce about six months ago. Her niece described two occasions when her husband hit her, the woman said.
The aunt told police her niece moved out of the couple’s house about three months ago and was gone for a month, according to court records. She’d been back in the house for about two months.
Investigators searched the couple’s house, located in the 14100 block of 50th Drive SE. They also impounded two vehicles parked there.
A neighbor told police he spotted a suspicious vehicle in front of the house about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 20. He’d copied down the license plate. Police learned that the vehicle belonged to another one of Ha Tran’s brothers.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies haven’t been called to the house in the past for reports of domestic violence, sheriff’s deputy Rich Niebusch said.
“As far as we know, he doesn’t have any prior arrests,” Niebusch said.
Diana Hefley is a reporter with The Herald in Everett. Mill Creek Enterprise editor John Santana contributed to this report.
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