5 chilling details about Dephne Wright's crime

In 2019, Dephne Wright, a self-proclaimed psychic, was convicted of orchestrating the murders of Long and Huong, an elderly couple who paid her almost $300,000 throughout the years to lift some curse on their sewing business.

The murders of Long Nguyen and Huong Ly in Arlington, Texas, in 2012 revealed a twisted scheme fueled by greed, deception, and a sinister manipulation of religious belief, as reported by Oxygen.

In September 2019, after a long investigation, Deephne Wright was found guilty of capital murder and solicitation of capital murder. She received a sentence of life in prison with no parole, as reported by Oxygen.

According to Justia Law, her accomplice, Bobby James Guillory, was also sentenced to life in September of 2018. Willie Guillory, a minor during the crime, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received a 20-year sentence with parole eligibility in 2025, as reported by Oxygen.

Wright charged over $280,000 for fake “curse removal” rituals (Image via Unsplash)

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1. Wright charged over $280,000 for fake “curse removal” rituals

Long Nguyen and Huong Ly, the victims, who were Vietnamese immigrants, hired Dephne Wright to help remove a curse, demotivating them from their sewing business. Over time, they paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars using credit from their company, which Wright asserted was for spiritual services.

According to Oxygen, court documents later revealed a ledger outlining exorbitant amounts owed to Wright, which ranged from $10,000 to $40,000, for rituals and spells. The manipulation was so extensive, the victims' families feared Wright's mystical threats could uproot their entire families in a physical or spiritual sense.

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2. She used a family member to gain access to the victims’ home

Dephne Wright did not act alone; she enlisted the help of Bobby Guillory and his sixteen-year-old nephew Willie to assist with the murders. In a particularly disturbing turn, Chau Tran, the victim's son-in-law and co-business partner, admitted to providing Wright the key to their apartment.

Tran later cooperated with investigators, stating the family was distressed by the large debt and fearful of the alleged power of Wright. Investigators determined Wright was able to capitalize on Tran's fears to manipulate and coerce him into being an unwitting accomplice.

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3. The crime scene was deliberately staged to look like gang activity

The crime scene was deliberately staged to look like gang activity (Image via Unsplash)

Bobby Guillory also brought along drug paraphernalia, a beer bottle wrapped in a blue bandana, and other props to trick the police into believing that there was a break-in related to gang activity.

The police scene was disgusting, littered with blood splatter and rooms overturned in disarray, but it quickly grew suspicious. Arlington Police Department found it to be "too perfect," as if it were a staged scene, Arlington Police Detective Byron Stewart told Snapped, according to Oxygen.

It took years for DNA from a marijuana cigarette that Willie left behind to link the crime to the real offenders, as reported by Oxygen.

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4. The victims were hogtied and suffocated with duct tape

The bloodless and brutal murders were shocking. Nguyen and Ly were found hogtied, and tightly binding duct tape had been looped around their heads and bound around their mouths, causing suffocation.

Blood found at the apartment front door and in other areas of the apartment seemed to indicate they were assaulted the moment they entered the apartment. Autopsies later confirmed blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, as reported by the Toronto Sun newspaper.

According to Oxygen, one detective explained that the moment she entered the scene, she knew they were dead. This type of calculated violence demonstrated a clear intent to silence William Nguyen and Tsan Ly and to eliminate them.

Wright planned to pay herself using their life insurance policies (Image via Unsplash)

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5. Dephne Wright planned to pay herself using their life insurance policies

According to court documents. As reported by Oxygen, Investigators learned that Dephne Wright knew of the couple’s $1 million life insurance policies and saw the couple as a financial solution for her unpaid debt. Instead of taking civil action or writing off the unpaid fees, she chose murder for profit.

Dephne Wright offered Bobby Guillory $10,000 to kill the couple, imagining that the insurance payouts would cover the enormous sum she believed she was owed. Her deliberate act of murder versus civil action sealed her conviction for capital murder.

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Season 30, Episode 22 of Snapped covered Dephne Wright's crime. It can be streamed on Oxygen and Peacock.

Edited by Bharath S