“Larry”
Who Killed Haing Ngor? Season 3 – Episode 11 – “Larry” – 17 July 2026
INTRO: There's an assumption I've made throughout our investigation of Haing Ngor's murder. If someday I was going to confront Larry, who we think either ordered or orchestrated Ngor's killing, and we were right, then I'd only get to talk to him once. That's why Frank and I have spent as much time as we have building a case against him. We wanted to confront him with as much evidence as we could gather. We've had some success.
One of our wins is Frank's deep dive into open source intelligence gathering across social media. He came up with photos of the man we believed was Larry and a few relatives. On top of that, we also had information, thanks to Singapore's surprisingly transparent online business registry. And in April 2026, I headed to Singapore. Frank had considered joining me, but ultimately he couldn't justify the cost, nor could the Innocence Center afford to send him.
I hired Aaron, a local journalist, to work with me, and we set out in search of Larry. Much to my surprise, we found him on the very first day. I was confronting a man we thought was involved in the murder of Haing Ngor. The truth would prove more complicated.
My name is [Mary] Patricia Nunan, and this is who killed Haing Ngor.
SCRIPT: MPN: AUDIO STAND-UP: All right. I'm at a Metro station and I'm on my way to meet Aaron. And we're near the apartment building where our suspect Larry might live or might have lived. So this is sort of. This is a big mourning for me, for us. And I don't quite know how to manage my own expectations. It could be great if we go in there and find Larry or someone who knows him. I'm a little bit worried that he's dead, or I'm a little bit worried that what I represent, the past and Haing Ngor might just be too alarming and his family will completely freeze me out. But. You can only research on the Internet for so long and sometimes you have to go knock on a door.
This is a day I've been imagining for a long time. I've flown halfway around the world largely to confront Larry.
CLIP: MPN: I found Aaron. Here we are.
Aaron and I first connected over the phone when I was still in the US And I'd brought him up to speed on both Haing Ngor and Larry.
CLIP: MPN: We gotta record some of this.
CLIP: AARON: Okay, can, like some of the….
CLIP: MPN: Well, you know what? I think I'm gonna…. [FADE OUT].
I'm wearing a linen shirt with a pocket. My plan is to hit record on my phone and leave it in my pocket with the screen facing my chest and upside down, so the mic is near the top. I had permission from the Innocence Center's Mike Semmanchik to tell Larry I was working for them. That may be a little devious. And so was a secret recording, but neither are as bad as possibly paying to have someone killed.
[BREAK]
Listeners know why I'm here first.
Larry allegedly had a dispute with Ngor over a failed deal to buy a bank license from him. Ngor had sold it with a promise that he'd get the name on the license changed. When that didn't work, Larry threatened Ngor's life, saying, I know professional killers. Ngor was so frightened he went into hiding. That information came from Los Angeles Police Department records. They had interviewed Ngor's former secretary and girlfriend.
She said that Larry represented a Singapore group, a small circle of investors. On top of that, when Ngor was killed in Los Angeles, there were some strange moves in Phnom Penh. Someone had called Ngor's hotel claiming to be family from the us. The caller told the manager not to let anyone in Ngor's room. That included his adult niece Sophia, whom he had raised as a daughter.
It's possible that all of this went down before the news of Ngor's death was widely known in Cambodia. For some reason, someone wanted to get in there first. We assumed it was Larry.
[BREAK]
Aaron and I knew we were in the right place the moment we saw the apartment. Thanks to Frank's digging, we recognized a photo of one of Larry's relatives displayed prominently on a shelf.
CLIP: AARON: Hello?
We had a few minutes to take things in. The apartment door door was open and just the metal grill gate was closed. They're a kind of security gate you see in front of apartment doors in Singapore.
CLIP: AARON: Hello? Ni hao.
No one was answering, so Aaron and I went for a coffee. About half an hour later we came back. This time we found Larry.
[BREAK]
Imagine how strange this was. Two random people, a Singaporean man and an American woman show up at your front door asking questions about a 30 year-old murder. Larry was surprised and more than a little defensive.
He was standing in the middle of his front room while Aaron and I talked through the gate, trying to persuade him to sit down with us so we could have a real conversation. We'd expected the person we were meeting to be older, closer to Ngor's age, and he'd be 86 now. Larry is younger.
CLIP: MPN: Can I give you my card? Mr. XXX -- Did he work in Cambodia? A long time ago.
Once again, I'll put a transcript to this Episode on the who Killed Haing Ngor webpage. Larry's accent and the Singaporean style of speaking English may be tough for some to follow.
CLIP: MPN: It's related to another, an American gentleman who worked in Cambodia. And so we're wondering if could tell us about this individual because it would help us with a. justice case in the United States. Police in Los Angeles. I'm with a legal nonprofit. And so the police in Los Angeles interviewed some family and friends of this gentleman is now deceased.
CLIP: LARRY: Who is a gentleman who deceased.
CLIP: MPN: His name Ngor.
CLIP: LARRY: Ngor. Haing Ngor.
CLIP: MPN: And they said that XXX worked with him in Cambodia. And so we're trying to find out.
CLIP: LARRY: He's living in my house before Haing Ngor is living with my house.
CLIP: MPN: He's living here?
CLIP: LARRY: No, in my house in Cambodia.
CLIP: MPN: In Cambodia. Are you XXX?
CLIP: LARRY: Yes.
CLIP: MPN: Oh, okay.
CLIP: AARON: Okay.
Boom. Larry just confirmed who he was and that Haing Ngor was his housemate. Suddenly, information started pouring out of him, but it was fragmented and disjointed. Larry was simultaneously corroborating and contradicting what we know about the case. The very next thing he said Ngor owed him money. You know, people have told us that he had money problems.
CLIP: LARRY: Yeah, because he buy a lot of things. He still owes me money.
CLIP: MPN: How come?
LARRY: He did some transaction, then he did not pay me back. He unable to fulfill the transaction. He compensated me back all the losses, but then he only paid me half. Half of it.
CLIP: AARON: Oh, okay. Okay.
CLIP: MPN: What business was it?
CLIP: LARRY: Logging. Logging In Cambodia. His brother is Chan Sarun, correct?
Larry was still standing in the middle of his front room. This all felt chaotic and disorganized, like we were gonna lose him at any second.
CLIP: MPN: Can we take you for a coffee? You seem to know a lot about it.
CLIP: LARRY: Because he's staying with me. I know.
CLIP: AARON:Yeah, yeah.
CLIP: MPN: Can you just tell us your memories?
Thanks to the recording. I'd later see that this disjointed conversation through the door went on for 11 and a half minutes. It wasn't until I laid out the situation facing Jason Chan and Taksun Tan, wrongfully convicted of Ngor's murder alongside Indra Lim, that Larry relented. The police locked up three teenagers when Ngor was murdered.
CLIP: LARRY: This was many years back.
CLIP: MPN: This is many years back. The police locked up three teenagers, for Ngor’s murder - One is safe but two have been released but now because of the Trump administration and ICE and all that they're facing deportation
And with that, he led us into talk. Thank you. Appreciate it.
CLIP: MPN: Do you want my shoes off?
[BREAK]
Once inside, I found myself playing the part of research assistant. I was pretending I knew far, far less about Cambodia and Hang Nor than I actually do. It felt like the right way to keep Larry talking. He had already thrown at us a major contradiction to what Ngor's secretary told the LAPD. His business dispute with Ngor was not about a banking license. It was about a logging quota. And then there was this.
CLIP: MPN: He didn't pay.
CLIP: LARRY: That time. Near to Chinese New Year, I flew back to Singapore and then he went back to the States. And then weeks later, the sister called me. Sister Hang off a shot in the States.
Larry was not in Cambodia the night Ngor was killed. It was Chinese New Year's and he'd come home to Singapore. That was disappointing to hear, but it also made intuitive sense to me. Chinese New Year's is such a major holiday. Of course he would go home.
I was doing my best to carry on a conversation while mentally I was fact checking. Ngor owed him money. That lines up Chinese New Year's and the logging quota.Was Larry part of that falling out that Ngor had with Chon Saren? And he's not confirming banks or being any sort of broker?
Let's take a deep breath for a second and we'll come back to all of that. First, let me introduce you to Larry.
[BREAK]
Larry was one of Cambodia's earliest Singaporean investors. He first went before the October 1991 peace deal was signed. Or as he put it, before Prince Sihanouk returned from exile in Beijing. It makes sense he would put it that way.
It turns out Larry was friends with a member of the royal family. Cambodia had been so badly decimated by the Khmer Rouge that trees were literally the only commodity they had for export. We touched on that last season. So when Cambodian officials saw what they thought was a deep pocketed foreign investor coming in, they courted them. One was Chan Sarun, Ngor's brother, who was the director of the Forestry Department. Remember Japanese investor Koji Okada?
He was a Japanese godfather like figure that we talked to in the Timber Mafia episode last season. He was familiar with Ngor's sawmill. He was courted. So was Larry. That's how Larry met Chan Saron, Prime Minister Hun Sen and Hang Nor and even that member of the royal family. They all used to hang out together. Here's one of the first mini headlines of my visit.
CLIP: LARRY: Chan Sarun wanted to go back to the States but. But then Hun Sen tell him not to go to Go. Because maybe they want to kill him as well.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah, at the time. At the time. Well, at the time, they thought it was Khmer Rouge.
CLIP: LARRY: Because we are all linked up. We all know each other very, very well, actually. The royal family, Hun Sen's family, all these all. We all know them.
CLIP AARON: You also know Hun Sen?
CLIP: LARRY: Yeah, we went to his house.
CLIP AARON: Hun Sen’s. Wow.
CLIP: MPN: So Chen Sarun wanted to go for the funeral, Right?
CLIP: LARRY: Right. He wanted to go and sort it out. Then he was stopped by Hun Sen.
CLIP: MPN: He said, no, don't go, because they think it's Khmer Rouge.
CLIP: LARRY: He's one of the Minister. - Forestry Minister. He's a quite important guy for Hun Sen.
Chan Sarun wanted to go to Los Angeles for his brother's funeral.
Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered him not to because he thought it was dangerous. They legitimately seemed to think Ngor was murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
[BREAK]
It turns out security was a major concern for Ngor. Remember Cece, Ngor's childhood friend? She and her family visited Ngor in July 1995. That's when she learned that Ngor kept a gun beneath the seat of his car. He also hated to answer his phone because he kept getting death threats. Larry also heard about the threats. Ngor told him there was even a $3 million bounty on his head because.
CLIP: LARRY: His head was worth $3 million. According to those people who say you get Haing Ngor's hair $3 million.
CLIP: MPN: Who says that?
CLIP: LARRY: Whoever get his head at $3 million.
CLIP: MPN: So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't understand. Explain this to me. So he thought, who would pay $3 million?
CLIP: LARRY: I hear say that his head worth $3 million. Whoever get his head $3 million.
CLIP: MPN: So it was a rumor.
CLIP: LARRY: It was a rumor going around. I said you very dangerous.
CLIP AARON: Then were you scared to be with him.
CLIP: LARRY: Sometimes because he go around. Anybody in Cambodia all know him. Even people from foreigners, India, anywhere. Those doctors, all these that seem. Oh, I know you. I know you. I was very afraid of him the time.
CLIP AARON: Were you afraid?
CLIP: LARRY: Of course I was.
CLIP AARON: Of being with him.
CLIP: LARRY: With him. I'm afraid.
CLIP: AARON: Then why did you let him stay in your house?
It turns out Larry rented a massive villa with nine bedrooms, and he wasn't using all of them. He rented it from a politician, and it came with plenty of security. So he told Ngor he could stay. Plus, Ngor was always a little disorganized. And Larry had household staff who cooked and cleaned. So Ngor moved in. It's a little odd, but as Larry Just said Ngor would hobnob with random people who recognized him from the killing fields. In other ways, he was super careful.
When I lived in Phnom Penh, if I needed to go to the Thai Cambodian border, I would hire a car and a driver, and we'd drive northwest via the city of Battambang. We were always careful to get off the highways before dusk. In 1994, a handful of foreigners had been kidnapped and held for ransom. But you could still do the drive. Plenty of people did. If Ngor needed to go to the border, Larry said he'd actually fly to Bangkok and drive overland through Thailand instead.
[BREAK]
As for that rumor that there was a $3 million bounty on Ngor's head, I'm sure Ngor believed there was a real threat. And to be fair, I'm not Khmer and I'm not a movie star.
Still, I'm not so sure. At least I doubt it came from senior Khmer Rouge, for reasons I've gone through in previous episodes. A threat like that could have come from anybody with a phone. Plus, $3 million in 1995 is about $6.6 million now.
Cambodia was so poor that, honestly, if there had been an actual bounty, someone would have killed him for a lot less. That's my take.
[BREAK]
One thing I was trying to keep track of as I listened to Larry was Ngor's properties. Larry had said Ngor lived with him in the villa. At the same time Ngor had an apartment on the river.
It's where Yuk Chong used to run into him on the sidewalk when Ngor chatted in what was probably Teochew with his friend's mom before heading to the Naga World Casino. We heard about that in the Narcissism of Small Differences episode. Ngor also had an apartment on Manivong Boulevard. My colleague and I visited it the last time I was in Phnom Penh. It's a microfinance office now, closely tied to Chan Surrender. That's the address he told a journalist he lived at in 1994.
But Sophia Ngor told police that she was barred from entering Ngor's hotel room after he was killed, as if that's where he was living in February 1996. So it looks like he bounced around a lot. Ngor's room in Larry's villa was largely bare.
CLIP: MPN: Did he have a laptop? Did he have no personal. Did he have files for his, for his businesses? He didn't.
CLIP: LARRY: No – very clean inside the room.
CLIP: MPN: He didn't have any files or anything.
CLIP: LARRY: I don't see any paper. Documents are not found there. It's not there. He just comes back and sleep, bathe, eat, this and that.
CLIP: MPN: Oh, so he didn't keep work material at the house. And did Sophia stay in your house?
CLIP: LARRY: Sophia came to my house once, but she's living in the hotel.
CLIP: MPN: She's living in a hotel? Is it possible? Did he have office space in a hotel?
CLIP: LARRY That I don't know. He used to come and sleep in my house sometime 1 o'clock, 2 o' clock in the morning.
He probably used the hotel room as his office and maybe even stayed there from time to time. It's likely Sophia lived at that same hotel.
Remember, Ngor had higher ambitions for himself and for the Haing Ngor Foundation. He'd bought a villa of his own, but he couldn't move in because the Canada House orphanage was basically squatting there. I went into that in the Compassion Fad episode last season.
When the lease was up, the director of Canada House refused to relocate and quit paying rent. Ngor would not evict a bunch of orphans. Between the money he paid for the villa and months, if not years of lost rent, he may have been out of pocket more than $300,000 in today's money.
[BREAK]
That brings us to something else that Larry corroborated about Ngor. He was scattered when it came to money.
When Ngor returned to Cambodia after the killing fields in the peace deal, people assumed he was really wealthy. But by my count, he gave away lost or invested more than $2 million in 2025 terms between about 1992 and his death in early 1996. He had survivor's guilt, and a 1994 interview made clear he was short on cash. Then a year later, he may have earned close to $1 million for playing a Buddhist monk in a TV commercial for IBM.
We don't actually have the exact figure, but that would be about $2 million today. So $2 million up, $2 million down. That's quite the roller coaster. Ngor was carrying a debt of about $203,000 in today's money when he was killed. And for another twist in that roller coaster, Ngor's sawmill was going to start generating revenue of of about $128,000 in today's money on March 1, 1996. But he was killed four days earlier. One of Ngor's businesses was a trucking company.
His partner in that venture was his secretary girlfriend. And Larry was aware of it.
CLIP AARON: How is he with money?
CLIP: LARRY: People see him very rich. But in asset. But in cash wise? I don't think so.
CLIP AARON: How come? Why do you think so?
CLIP: LARRY: Because he keep on buying things. Buying machinery, all this other that. Then they ship to Cambodia. Where? To find money. Those big flat sides he just folded, put in the container, then ship to Cambodia. So every two, three months you see him fly back to the States. Order, order, order. Then fly back to Cambodia.
Ngor's secretary girlfriend tried to claim ownership of that company after he died. According to probate documents, Ngor owed her money. So it's logical she would expect compensation from the estate. This is the woman who talked to the LAPD. Ngor's secretary girlfriend tried to claim ownership of that company after he died. According to probate documents, Ngor owed her money. So it's logical she would expect compensation from the estate.
Larry told me about two secretaries who worked for Ngor. These are different people entirely from the woman that Frank and I know about. One secretary that Larry knew would know all of Ngor's financial details. He said sadly she died of cancer a few years after Ngor. So it looks like Ngor had three secretaries. But Larry is confident that neither of the women he knew were romantically involved with him.
Despite the roller coaster, there may have been a limit to Ngor's financial recklessness.
CLIP: MPN: And you never knew him to gamble?
CLIP: LARRY: Not at no. He don't gamble.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah.
CLIP: AARON: Why do you say he don't gamble?
CLIP: LARRY: I don't see him gamble. He don't go to casino.
It was an hour-long visit. My head was spinning with the confirmations and contradictions Larry had given us. Still playing the part of the researcher, we told Larry I'd talked to my team back in the U.S.
[BREAK]
Back at my hotel, I jumped on a zoom call with Frank. We were both a little deflated, but we both agreed Larry's not who we thought he was. I no longer believe he was involved in the murder of Haing Ngor. That was quite the plot twist.
Larry told us his issue with Ngor was over a logging quota, not a bank license. So we found ourselves circling back to LAPD records. Ngor's secretary and girlfriend was in the room when Ngor was having a conversation on the phone. That's how she was able to quote Larry. Supposedly enraged over the loss of the banking license as saying, I know professional killers. Was it possible she mixed up Larry with someone else?
We don't know if Ngor was on a landline with a speakerphone or on a cell phone. And I honestly can't remember if the cell phones available in Cambodia in 1995 had a speakerphone option. There were only a few models you could get, and they were expensive, so I did not own one. During that visit, I was trying to keep Larry on side to keep the stream of information open. But I was painfully aware that I'd not yet confronted him with our most vital question.
Did Larry threaten Haing Ngor's life? Fortunately, we got to meet with him again.
[BREAK]
CLIP: LARRY: Hello. Good morning.
CLIP: MPN: Good morning. Perfect timing.
On our second visit, Larry greeted Aaron like old friends. We had swung by a bakery and arrived bearing gifts.
CLIP: MPN: We've brought you some treats.
Yeah, I was doing that same trick. Cell phone upside down in my shirt pocket, already rolling. I was also armed with my iPad with PDFs of some LAPD records. This time, Larry's wife was there, too. She'd made us a brunch with all sorts of Singaporean pastries. Larry had also done us a favor. He dug around and pulled out some old snapshots.
CLIP: MPN: Can I look through?
Some were classic 1990s shots of Phnom Penh awash in United nations vehicles. Some were of himself hanging out with Haing Ngor and friends. He pointed out a few folks. Ngor’s secretary - the one who passed away - and her husband. He might be someone we could track down, he said. And there were party shots with embassy staffers.
CLIP: AARON: This is Haing Ngor, right?
CLIP: MPN: Yeah, this is the secretary.
CLIP: LARRY: No, this is the second man of this ambassador.
You see, investors like Larry gravitate toward diplomatic circles, and even diplomats wanted to meet a movie star.
CLIP: MPN: So this is social.
CLIP: LARRY: This is social together. When they meet each other, they say, hey, let's meet up with. Haing Ngor. So I just call him, hey, people meet up with you? Then we group together. Then we go to the embassy. Sometimes we have lunch together.
He also showed me photos of his lumber. Giant felled trees with trunks that were probably three feet in diameter.
CLIP: LARRY: These are the logs we do in Cambodia, Right?
CLIP: MPN: They're big. Some serious, serious lumber. That's like three foot.
CLIP: LARRY: I don't cut trees, but I buy. They fall, those logs like that. Buy from them.
CLIP: MPN: You buy the fallen timber.
CLIP: LARRY:Buy from them.
CLIP: MPN: Right.
CLIP: LARRY: That's why I need the quota.
A quota that tracks with what was going on in the logging world at the time. In January 1995. The Cambodian government banned new logging in response to pressure from the international community and the prominent environmental NGO Global Witness. But there was an exception. Trees that had already been cut down could be sold if you had an export quota. So what Larry was telling us was credible. He paid $20,000 to Ngor for a quota.
Ngor would have had to get his brother Chan Sarun to put the paperwork through, but at some point, they had had a falling out. If you go back to my “Timber Mafia” episode in season two, Chan Sarun had refused to give Ngor a logging concession to bring wood into his sawmill. It looks like he refused this request.
[BREAK]
So now it was time to confront Larry. First, just a few details. We had a copy of the ID card for Ngor's secretary and girlfriend issued by the NGO she was working for.
It's a black and white photocopy of the ID card, so the actual picture is kind of dark. We also had a copy of Larry's old business card. This was found in Haing Ngor's wallet when he died. And his company name corresponds with his Singaporean business records.
CLIP: LARRY: So you managed to find out something from the Stateside.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah. Yeah.
So I really appreciate you meeting with us for a second time because I know this was a long time ago. And I know it's an unpleasant subject.
CLIP: LARRY: Yeah. Very sad. Just like yesterday happened, because it is still inside my memory. Haing Ngor. Is my best friend saying to me. And I recall after meeting you, I recall back slowly, slowly.
Larry is just a codename that Frank and I gave to this man. His real name is Chinese. It's a name that may be mistaken for a Western name. So, for instance, if his name were Tan, Westerners might hear that as Dan. If his name were Wang, Westerners would hear that as Wayne. His business card had the Westernized version of his name. You'll hear him refer to that. So now I'm reading the LAPD records to Larry while he reads along on my iPad.
MPN: So this is my horrible question I have to ask you. XXX says XXX was a broker from Singapore. He made a deal with a license. This says for a bank. And you had to change the name on the license. Within 30 days of an agreement. And then she said, this is what she says, XXX became angry and told the victim that he knew professional killers.
CLIP: LARRY: Oh, my goodness.
CLIP: MPN: So you can read.
CLIP: LARRY: This is dangerous. This is dangerous.
CLIP: MPN: Sorry, it's not a very good copy. And that's this woman.
CLIP: LARRY:: Oh, my goodness. Oh, my.
CLIP: MPN: So is she just out of her mind? Why is she mixing you up with someone?
CLIP: LARRY: I'm not sure. But I use the name. Correct.
CLIP: MPN: Where's my stuff?
CLIP: LARRY: I don't deny about it. Correct.
CLIP: MPN: But she said you threatened him.
CLIP: LARRY: No, I never have any arrangement with licensing. No. Only my logs. Only.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah. And nothing about the bank?
CLIP: LARRY: The bank? I have no idea.
CLIP: MPN: Right, right, right.
CLIP: LARRY: No idea. Totally no idea about the bank.
CLIP: MPN: XXX Became angry and told the victim that makeup story.
CLIP: LARRY: I'm not sure. Add in my name and get me into trouble. I do not know. I don't even know.
CLIP: MPN: Right, right, right, right.
CLIP: LARRY: I don't even know.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah, that's what she said. But you don't even recognize the woman.
LARRY No, I don't. I seen the XXXX truck before. Moving around. Yeah, yeah too.
CLIP: MPN: So did she have her own car or like her own.
CLIP: LARRY: Sometimes. Haing Ngor. Might hang up with her. I'm not sure. Bring her around. Maybe I seen her. Maybe remember rightly.
CLIP: MPN: Right, right, right. It's not the greatest photo. So that's what's just so confusing. So she could be mistaken because she's saying bank.
CLIP: LARRY: Yeah.
CLIP: MPN: And XXX But this. She could be talking about some other human being. She must be.
CLIP: LARRY: I use the name. My name was XXX. My name XXX also. Yeah. I have no doubt. Right. I. Whatever I do. I sincerely. Whatever. I know everything. I tell you the truth.
CLIP: MPN: All right. Yeah. No, I. I believe you. I believe you because I don't think a bad person would let us in the door. Right?
CLIP: AARON: Yeah.
CLIP: LARRY: You want to know because he's my friend.
CLIP: MPN: Yeah.
CLIP: LARRY: You want to investigate something. Wherever I can help my health.That's my principle. He's my good friend. I also don't know why people kill him. I don't know. You come here. I also want to find out.
As you can tell, Larry was shocked to hear that he was accused of threatening Ngor's life. And I don't blame him because again, I no longer think he was involved. I was wrong about Larry. We all were.
But again, we were working off information that Ngor's secretary gave to the LAPD. She was wrong too.
Everything Larry said felt genuine, consistent and credible. He showed us photos of his logs with a bit of machinery. Especially on that second visit. He seemed eager to help us. He dug out the photos.
He also gave us names of people we could possibly track down. And he asked us to be in touch. Especially if we find out who killed Haing Ngor. I now consider Larry an ally.
[BREAK]
My hypothesis? Ngor's secretary conflated Larry with someone else.
A banking license and a Singapore group are both Very specific things she shared with police. It seems unlikely to me that she'd dream those up out of the blue.
Plus, certain facts still remain. Who was that creepy guy who showed up at the crime scene in la, at Ngor's apartment building, knocking on doors? The one who was looking for his mother and who called the hotel in Phnom Penh?
The manager and a security guard blocked Sophia Ngor from entering her uncle's room. That strongly implies someone wanted to get into Ngor's room before anybody else had the chance.
Who was that? And why? Was there paperwork in the room? Was there money? Was there? Ngor's missing necklace? We don't know.
And again, the timeline really matters. Did that go down before Ngor's death was widely reported in Cambodia?
[BREAK]
After Ngor died, Larry moved on from Cambodia. He became a more devout Buddhist. Someone for whom even dealing with cut trees, destroying life in any way, is forbidden. I asked him if that was related to Ngor's murder, but he said no. He'd been on that trajectory for a long time.
Larry had a successful business elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but after several years, he returned to Singapore to care for aging parents. He's retired now.
When Ngor died, Larry also tried to claim his financial loss against the estate from Chan Saron.
CLIP: LARRY: Have all the things written to him and let him sign and give it to Chan Sarun. Chan Sarun doesn't want to pay me. And then he has a lot of assets in Cambodia. The niece took over all his properties.
[BREAK]
That's not actually true. After Ngor died, Sophia and a lawyer went back to Cambodia to try to secure some of his assets. She found her uncle Chan Sarun, to be both uncooperative and intimidating. He took over all of Ngor's assets, according to probate documents.
That's consistent with what I saw when I visited those locations the last time I was in Phnom Penh. They were all so closely affiliated with Chan Sarun that some even had his photo hanging up.
So it appears Chan Sarun lied to Larry on that point.
Again, I've tried multiple times to get interviews with Chan Sarun, and he's always turned me down.
Sophia Ngor also tried to meet with Ngor's secretary and girlfriend. She'd laid a claim to Ngor's trucking business. Maybe Ngor gave her a percentage for that $50,000 he'd borrowed in her name. But I'm just speculating there. When Sophia was in Phnom Penh, the secretary and girlfriend was nowhere to be found.
Sophia assumed at the time that she was dead. I don't actually know, but that's probably because Sophia found out that the secretary had made an estate claim and because Chan Sarun was so intimidating.
But Frank found her. She's in the United States. Frank showed up at her house and they chatted for a few minutes. When the subject turned to Ngor, she suddenly couldn't speak English anymore.
The reason I've been so careful about not identifying the secretary is that we don't know her immigration status, and I don't want to jeopardize her. It looks like she moved to the US pretty soon after Ngor died. We don't know how she made that happen.
At the end of the day, Ngor's estate was insolvent, in the US the probate process is super complicated and we may or may not get into that. But people came out of the woodwork when Ngor died, trying to claim a piece of him.
Ultimately, Sofia Ngor was left with nothing, beyond some personal items, and a six figure bill for legal fees.
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I'll admit that before my Singapore trip, I had a certain fantasy in it. We'd find Larry. He'd say something like, “I always knew this day would come. Let me tell you everything.” Then he'd outline his involvement in the murder of Haing Ngor. And he'd hand over Ngor's gold chain and pendant with an image of his late wife or some other key piece of evidence.
Clearly it didn't work out that way. But Larry is not the only guy I spoke to in Singapore. I also met with a couple of retired Triad members, gangsters, and they're gonna give me the scoop on Naga World that's coming up in our next episode.
My name is Patricia Nunan and this is Who Killed Haing Ngor? If you knew Haing Ngor personally and would like to contribute, or if you have information or ideas that you think could be helpful to the investigation, please get in touch.
I can be found at whokilledhangnor@gmail.com I'm also open to answering questions. I'm on both Telegram and Substack as MP Nunan. If you'd like to support the investigation, there's a donation button on the webpage, Whokilledhangnor.com thank you for listening and see you next week.