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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Escapee Accused Of Killing Teenager Charged With Kicking Woman To Death In Her Home

A 17-year-old juvenile detention escapee kicked an elderly woman to death in her north Spokane home for a purse containing $62, a court document says.

Vy Thang of Aberdeen, Wash., was charged Friday with first-degree murder.

He climbed into the woman’s home through an open window last Aug. 29, according to a police affidavit.

Police say that once inside, Thang was confronted by 85-year-old Mildred Klaus, who lived alone in the West Mansfield house. Klaus told him to leave and threatened to call police.

Thang knocked her to the ground and kicked her repeatedly, the document states. He then looked through her belongings, took her purse and left, police say.

Detectives said he later told three roommates at his nearby apartment that he killed Klaus and threw the purse on top of a building.

At the time of the killing, Thang had been a fugitive for four weeks. He escaped during a supervised outing from the Maple Lane juvenile detention center in Centralia, Wash.

When counselors took a group of inmates to a Seattle Seahawks exhibition game, Thang and another juvenile offender from Spokane escaped.

Thang was serving a sentence for robbing an elderly Aberdeen woman in her home, beating her and leaving her for dead. The Spokane juvenile, Simeon Terry, was serving time for armed robbery.

Thang and Terry were arrested for a burglary in September, and have remained in jail while police investigated the north Spokane murder.

Thang, who turned 18 while in jail, was ordered held on $500,000 bond.

, DataTimes