Man linked to death of Noelle O'Soup was deemed 'danger to public' — then released from immigration custody

CBC News has uncovered disturbing new details about the deceased occupant of a Vancouver apartment where the remains of a 14-year-old Indigenous girl and a woman were found this spring.

Van Chung Pham was ordered deported from Canada six years before police found the bodies of Noelle O'Soup and an as yet unnamed woman in his home in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood this May.

The CBC has learned Noelle and the other victim were not the first women to die in Pham's presence. 

Immigration authorities declared him a danger to the public because another woman died of an overdose in his former residence in Vancouver and because he sold fentanyl to vulnerable drug users.

Yet Pham was released from immigration custody with virtually no supervision in October 2020 as there appeared to be no hope of removing him from Canada in the face of a pandemic and foot-dragging Vietnamese officials.

"I'm 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," Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) tribunal member Michael McPhalen told Pham upon granting his release.

"So I do find that you pose a danger to the public. The only reason I'm releasing you is that I do not believe there is any possibility [the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)] will be able to get a travel document for you and return you to Vietnam."

CBC has obtained transcripts and audio recordings of both court and immigration hearings involving Pham in the years before he died. The details raise as many questions as they answer.

Vancouver police found Pham's body in his apartment in February, but initially missed the remains of Noelle and the other woman. They returned to Apartment 16 of the Heatley Block more than two months later after neighbours complained about a foul smell. 

That oversight has led to a neglect of duty investigation against an officer involved in the case by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has said Pham's death is not suspicious — but the other two deaths are now part of a major crimes investigation.

Police have said nothing about Pham or his history, but the CBC has confirmed that the 46-year-old was charged just days before he died with sexual assault and administering a drug in a case involving a different woman.

That incident allegedly occurred in November 2020. The file was closed after his death.

Noelle, a member of Key First Nation in Saskatchewan, fled a provincially run group home in Port Coquitlam, B.C., in May 2021 when she was 13. The RCMP, who have jurisdiction in that area, have said they actively searched for her.