'Danger to the public': Safety concerns surrounded man found dead in suite where Noelle O'Soup's body found

More information is coming to light about a man found dead in a rooming house in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside -- in the same suite where the bodies of missing teen Noelle O’Soup and another woman were found months later.

More information is coming to light about a man found dead in a rooming house in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where the bodies of missing teen Noelle O’Soup, who was 13 when she disappeared in 2021, and another woman were found months later.

Less than two years before Van Chung Pham’s body was found in February, he was released from immigration custody, even though authorities considered him a danger to the public.

In May, the bodies of 14 year-old O’Soup and another woman police have not publicly identified were found in the same room.

CTV has reviewed audio of an Immigration and Refugee Board detention review in October 2020, where Pham was ordered released.

During the proceedings, IRB member Michael MacPhalen told Pham he was “satisfied that you are a long-term drug addict and that you use meth and fentanyl”.

“I’m also satisfied that you sell drugs to people, and that you give drugs to vulnerable women so that they will have sex with you. One woman died of an overdose in your room,” MacPhalen said, and added that incident occurred at the Canada Hotel in June of 2019.

“I do find that you pose a danger to the public. The only reason I’m releasing you is I do not believe that there is any possibility that (Canada Border Services Agency) will be able to get a travellers document for you and return you to Vietnam.”