Ta Duy Khanh, 38, told police that he and Hanoi resident Ho Yen Nhi had developed a “close relationship” since the beginning of this year.
On October 10, he asked Nhi to meet him at an apartment in Hanoi’s Gia Lam district.
After that, he took her out to eat and, when they returned to the apartment, they started arguing because he asked her to pay his debt, but she refused, he said.
He became angry and stabbed her several times, killing her.
Then, he cut her body into several parts in the toilet, put them in a Styrofoam box and booked a taxi to transport the box to an area near the bank of the Red River in Gia Lam.
After the taxi driver left, he carried the box to the river.
He threw several body parts into the river and buried the rest.
He then booked another taxi to return to the building, where he dumped all of Nhi’s belongings.
Two days later, he bought cement and, in the early morning of October 13, he went to the place where he buried Nhi’s body parts to cover them.
That afternoon, he learned that parts of Nhi’s body were floating in the river. So he went to his hometown, in Thai Binh province, on the border with Hanoi.
On Saturday around 11 p.m., he was arrested in Thai Binh.
When police approached him, Khanh attempted suicide with a knife but was stopped by police.
On Monday, police announced that Khanh was being investigated for murder.
Major General Nguyen Thanh Tung, deputy director of the Hanoi Police Department, said police were determining whether Khanh had an affair with Nhi.
According to police, Khanh is married and his wife and children do not live with him in the apartment where the crime took place.
Nhi’s body parts were discovered by a fisherman on the afternoon of October 10, who then joined police to search for other parts.
The victim was a finalist in aaodaibeauty contest at the start of the year.
She is the second child in a family of three siblings.
Her mother said the girl had rented a house to live on her own a few months ago.
The mother said she lost contact with her daughter on October 11 and three days later police asked her to identify the body.
