Las Vegas police are trying to identify a suspect who fatally hit a nail salon worker with a car after leaving without paying for a $35 manicure.
Ngoc Q. Nguyen, a mother of three girls, was killed on Dec. 29, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.
The suspect claimed to be going to her car to get money after a manicure, but instead tried to leave the area, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Nguyen tried to stop her from leaving by running in front of the car, police said. The unidentified customer not only struck Nguyen, but dragged her roughly 50 feet, according to police.
Nguyen’s partner and fellow manager of the salon, Sonny Chung, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he tried to stop the vehicle from moving. He said he and Nguyen were not married but lived together for nearly 13 years, and referred to her as his wife.
“I tried to hold the car back, but I’m not Superman,” Chung told the newspaper. “She ran off for $35 and killed my wife — $35 to run my wife over.”
The suspect had been driving a black Chevrolet Camaro rental car, ABC News reported. Police discovered the vehicle, which had been reported as stolen, abandoned in a nearby housing complex.
Nguyen immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1990 and eventually moved to Las Vegas, where she opened her own salon. Her daughter Anne Trinh, who lives in California, told the Las Vegas Sun that she’d visited her mother shortly before her death.
“It made me realize how dependent we are on her. Even today, we’re all older, we’re all adults and we all depend on her,” Trinh told the newspaper. “Now that she’s gone, we have to step it up.”