Oberlin College Professor Pipo Nguyen-duy Found Dead; Son Charged in Double Killing

Pipo Nguyen-duy, a photographer and longtime art professor at Oberlin College and Conservatory, was found fatally shot at a home in Oberlin, Ohio, and his son has been charged in connection with a double homicide. ARTnews reported the case.

Nguyen-duy was 64. He was found on the first floor of a house on South Pleasant Street, according to CBS News Pittsburgh. Police found his wife, Tran Thi Phong, shot on the second floor. Both had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to a police statement. Their bodies were discovered on Wednesday, 28 October.

Nguyen-duy had taught studio art and photography at the college, a private school in Oberlin, since 1998. He was the studio art chairman there. He had also been a Guggenheim Fellow, an award that supports artists and scholars in their work. He came to the United States from Vietnam in 1975 as a political refugee, and he earned his master's degrees at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In 2023 he took part in the 15th Sharjah Biennial, a major contemporary art exhibition in the United Arab Emirates.

Police say his son, Daniel Jones, formerly known as Asia Nguyen-duy, killed his father and stepmother. The New York Times reported that police described the victims as the professor and his wife. Jones has been charged in connection with the double homicide. Prosecutors have not yet proved the charges in court, and the accused is entitled to that process.

The arrest came on Wednesday. An Oberlin resident reported a "wet, disheveled man" at her front door, and officers took Jones into custody without incident. About 90 minutes before the bodies were found, police had been called to a campus parking lot for a fire in a vehicle registered to Jones.

Prosecutor Zachary Simonoff said Jones told officers he had "killed his family." He also gave them his father's address. The weapon allegedly used in the shootings has not been found, Simonoff said.

Jones appeared in court on Thursday afternoon, 29 October. He was ordered held in jail, with bail set at US$3 million.

Oberlin is a small college town, and the case has drawn attention well beyond its streets. Nguyen-duy's work, and his time at the college, mark the lives of students and colleagues who knew him. Further details are expected as the case moves through the courts.