A pattern built around trust and financial gain
Vietnamese court reporting described Lê Thanh Vân as approaching people through social or financial relationships, then using cyanide to kill victims and take money or property. The crimes attributed to her conviction stretched across several southern provinces and Ho Chi Minh City from 1998 to 2001.
Reports from the 2004 trial consistently state that the court found Vân responsible for 13 deaths. Some contemporary articles also discussed additional poisoning incidents under investigation, including people who survived and several further deaths. Because those additional incidents were not all part of the same final murder convictions, this archive does not add them to the verified victim count.
Trial in Bình Dương
The Bình Dương People's Court tried Vân in August and September 2004. She denied the central murder accusations and argued that earlier statements had been coerced. The court rejected that defense, relying on the evidentiary record and testimony presented in the case.
On September 1, 2004, the court sentenced Vân to death for murder, robbery and illegal possession of poison. Dìu Dãnh Quang, her partner and co-defendant, was convicted for his role in the killing of Trần Văn Khôi and for robbery, receiving a 21-year prison term at first instance. The judgment did not establish that Quang participated in all 13 murders, so this page does not describe him as a co-perpetrator of the entire series.
Appeal and execution
On February 2, 2005, the appellate division of Vietnam's Supreme People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected Vân's appeal and upheld her death sentence for murder, robbery and unlawful possession of poison. The same appellate ruling reduced Quang's sentence from 21 to 17 years.
Vân then sought presidential clemency. Vietnamese reporting states that the request was rejected on October 4, 2005. Her death sentence was carried out on October 26, 2005, in Bình Dương Province.
Why the count is kept at 13
Later retrospectives continued to mention other suspicious poisoning episodes linked to Vân. Those reports are important to the historical record, but a responsible archive must distinguish suspicion or investigative linkage from adjudicated murder counts. The legal record reviewed for this page establishes 13 murders. Any larger number would require case-by-case proof that the additional death was formally attributed to her at the same evidentiary level.
Timeline
1998–2001: The series of cyanide poisonings later proven in court takes place across southern Vietnam.
August–September 2004: Bình Dương People's Court tries Vân and Dìu Dãnh Quang.
September 1, 2004: Vân is sentenced to death for murder, robbery and illegal possession of poison; Quang receives 21 years.
February 2, 2005: The appellate court upholds Vân's death sentence and reduces Quang's sentence to 17 years.
October 4, 2005: Vân's clemency request is rejected.
October 26, 2005: The death sentence is carried out in Bình Dương Province.
Current status
The case is classified as Solved / Adjudicated. Lê Thanh Vân was convicted of 13 murders and the sentence was upheld on appeal. Additional poisoning incidents discussed in reporting are not counted as separate proven murders on this page unless the available legal record supports that conclusion.