Garden City: Murderer sentenced in online friend’s death

A Tennessee man was sentenced to prison Friday in the death of a woman whose body was found under a bed in a Garden City hotel room.

Kim Phoung Tho Lam, 29, of Memphis, Tenn., was sentenced in Finney County District Court to 13 to 14 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Chi Kim Thi Nguyen.

Nguyen, 18, was found underneath a bed Oct. 11 at the Best Western Red Baron Hotel after hotel personnel noticed a foul odor coming from the room where Lam had been staying. Investigators said Nguyen likely died six days earlier.

Investigators said Lam and Nguyen had started an Internet and telephone relationship six months before Lam checked into the hotel Sept. 30.

Lam confessed to strangling Nguyen, putting her and her belongings under the hotel bed and fleeing to San Jose, Calif., according to testimony from Garden City Police detectives. He was arrested Nov. 1 in San Jose.