witness claims to have seen father his

Witness claims to have seen father, his children on bridge

By Garry Mitchell

Associated Press

01-12-2008

MOBILE -- A witness saw four children in their father's vehicle on a

bridge the morning he allegedly tossed them from the 80-foot-tall

span, and another witness later saw him leave Dauphin Island without

the children, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said Friday.

Cochran said he released the details about the witnesses in response

to Lam Luong's claim that he gave the children to a friendly Asian

woman and was coerced into saying he threw them from the Dauphin

Island bridge Monday morning.

"All the credible evidence brings us right back here to Dauphin Island

and that's why we continue to search," Cochran said.

He said there's no evidence the children are alive. Crews have been

searching waters around the coastal bridge for bodies of the children,

ranging in age from a few months to 3 years.

Cochran said after one witness saw Luong with the children on the

bridge, the second gave him gas on the island and the children were

not with him. He said investigators also have documented that the

witnesses were on the island at the right times for them to have

witnessed Luong being on the bridge.

The witness accounts would put Luong on the bridge about 9:15 a.m.

Monday.

Luong, 37, initially told police that two women in Bayou La Batre who

claimed to know his wife, 23-year-old Kieu Phan, took the children

about that time and never returned them. While he later told

authorities he tossed them from the bridge, he recanted that

confession Thursday in his first meeting with a defense lawyer and

stuck to the initial account.

Cochran said claims that the children may have been taken to