Girly Chew Hossencofft

Case background and investigation

Girly Chew was born in Penang, Malaysia, in August 1963, according to Wikipedia. Oxygen reports that she met Diazien Hossencofft while visiting the United States, married him in the early 1990s, and later worked as a teller at a Bank of America branch in Albuquerque. Oxygen describes the marriage as abusive and reports that Hossencofft, whose real name was Armand Chavez, had presented himself variously as a doctor, a former CIA operative and an alien.

Girly filed for divorce in early 1999 and reported threats from her husband afterward, according to Oxygen, which also reports that she told the FBI to look at him if anything happened to her. On September 9, 1999, she disappeared after leaving work; her supervisor reported her missing the next day when she did not come in. Investigators found traces of blood and bleach-stained carpet in her apartment, and a tarp bearing her blood, clothing and hair was later found well south of Albuquerque, according to Oxygen and Murderpedia's compilation of Associated Press and Court TV coverage. Her body has never been recovered.

Diazien Hossencofft pleaded guilty to her murder in January 2002. Wikipedia and Murderpedia report that he was sentenced to life in prison plus 61 years and has been held in Wyoming. According to Notorious USA, he later sought to have his sentence vacated, arguing that his plea was improperly obtained.

His girlfriend, Linda Henning, was tried separately. On October 25, 2002, a jury found her guilty of first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, tampering with evidence and perjury, according to Oxygen and Murderpedia. Murderpedia reports that Hossencofft testified at her trial and claimed he had planted evidence against her. She was sentenced in April 2003; the Associated Press reported the sentence as life plus 43 and a half years, while Oxygen and Wikipedia describe it as about 73 years.

On April 25, 2006, the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously reversed Henning's four perjury convictions, finding she had not been given adequate notice of those charges, but upheld her convictions for felony murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and tampering with evidence, according to an Associated Press report reproduced by September Sacrifice and Murderpedia.