Lien Nguyen, a 40-year-old Vietnamese man, was found shot multiple times on the side of a road in an isolated area of New Orleans on the night of April 23, 2013. A witness discovered him bleeding from the mouth and neck with his hands tied behind his back; before he died at the scene, Nguyen told the witness that his wife was responsible for the shooting. The witness also reported seeing a silver or gray Nissan Titan speed away.

Investigators focused on Nguyen’s wife, Charity Nguyen, and her alleged lover, Khoi Quang Hoang, concluding they had solicited a hitman for financial gain and to continue an affair. Both were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, solicitation to commit second-degree murder, and second-degree murder; Hoang also faced an obstruction of justice charge. Hoang’s jury was deadlocked on murder counts but convicted him of obstruction; that conviction was later the subject of appellate reversal and reinstatement by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Charity Nguyen’s murder trial began in September 2016 and the jury acquitted her on all counts despite prosecutors’ presentation of the affair, an alleged $10,000 and marijuana payout, and Lien Nguyen’s dying declaration implicating his wife.

Did anyone in New Orleans at the time know the Nguyens or the Nissan Titan described by the witness?