Kou Thao and Tong Pao Hang
By H. Nelson Goodson
April 24, 2013
Milwaukee, WI - Police arrested Kou Thao at a Milwaukee home located at the 200 block of N. 38th Street for an April 6, Wausau homicide. The dismembered body of Tong Pao Hang, 58, of St. Paul, Minn. was discovered 13 days later in Milwaukee by police.
Nouce Thao called police on April 17, about a missing person. When they went to investigate, a man at the home told police about a murder that had occurred on April 6 and that Thao had taken the body to Milwaukee.
The next day, Milwaukee police were notified by Wausau police about Thao taking a body to a local home where it was found afterwards.
On Monday, Thao was charged in Marathon County with one count of first-degree intentional homicide, one count for hiding a corpse, repeater and one count for possession of a firearm by a felon, repeat offender in Hang's homicide. If convicted Thao is facing life in prison without parole, and 10 years for count 2 and count 3, including an additional 2 years for each repeat offender enhancer. Thao is considered homeless and his bail was set at $1 million dollars.
The Marathon County criminal complaint states, Thao shot Hang once in the forehead on April 6, while they were drinking in a basement at a Wausau home located at the 400 block of Chicago Ave. Thao's brother in-law, Yeh Lor told police that he helped Thao wrapped Hang's body in a tarp, put it in the trunk of a blue Honda Accord. Thao then drove to Milwaukee with the body.
Lor admitted that he heard a gunshot coming from the basement of the Wausau home. When he went to investigate, Lor saw Hang's body lying in a pool of blood. Lor told police that he helped Thao with the body because he was afraid of getting shot too. Lor's sister was Hang's girlfriend, according to the complaint.
Police in Wausau learned from Lor that Thao had friends in Milwaukee. They notified Milwaukee police, when they went to the home to investigate the next day. Police located the Honda Accord matching the description parked outside of the home.
Thao fled through a rear door after police knocked on the front door, but was arrested.
Thao confessed to police that he killed Hang and then dismembered his body in Milwaukee. Both Milwaukee and Wausau police went to the home again with a warrant and found the body parts. Thao's girlfriend and others at the home were also taken into custody for questioning, according to the criminal complaint.
Investigators searched the Milwaukee home and found the body parts under some cushions in the basement. Hang's head was recovered from the trunk of the blue Honda Accord.
A knife and a tarp with blood on it were also taken by police for evidence.
Thao is expected back in court for a preliminary hearing on May 1.
