Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
Boy Kills Family Over Stolen iPhone - The Kevin Bui Story
Wed, 29 Jan 2025
This is the story of Kevin Bui - the boy who killed an entire family over a stolen IPhone
Chapter 1: Who is Kevin Bui and why is he angry?
So this guy, his name's Bui. And Bui is about to set someone on fire for stealing his iPhone. So Bui's 16, and he's not a very good kid. In fact, he's what you would call an unlicensed pharmacist. But one day he's out selling unlicensed pharmaceuticals and suddenly, bam, the deal goes bad and somebody robs him and the thief takes all his stuff. But most importantly, he takes his iPhone.
Chapter 2: What revenge plan does Kevin Bui create?
And ultimately, Bowie is pissed off by this and his ego is hurt. I mean, how could someone do this to him? Well, Bowie, he isn't going to let this slide. He's determined to get revenge. But first, he needs to find the thief who did this. So he logs on to the Find My Phone app to see if he can trace the location of his iPhone that was taken.
Chapter 3: Who assists Kevin Bui in his revenge?
And instantly, kaboom, he traces his phone and he sees that it's in a neighborhood nearby. And he feels like he's located the house that it's in. Must be where the thief lives. Cool. Now he needs a crew. So he hits up two of his shadiest friends. This friend, Gavin, who's 16, and this other friend, Dylan, who's 14.
And he tells them all about his revenge plot, and he asks them for their help in pulling it off. And so, they agree. So the three of them meet up, and they start putting this plan together. They're going to break into the thief's house, do shit with gasoline, set the whole place on fire, and then, I don't know, feel joy? I don't know what comes after that.
Chapter 4: What preparations do they make for the plan?
Regardless, now their plan is in motion and they spend all their time getting prepared. They map it all out. They buy cans of gasoline. They go to a costume store and buy masks. They even look at pictures of the inside of the house online so that they can get familiar with the layout. And then a few weeks later, the big night of revenge finally rolls around. It's 2 a.m.
Chapter 5: What happens when they execute their plan?
and Bowie, Gavin, and Dylan, they put on their masks and they put on their hoodies and then they head over to the thief's house. And then once they get there, they sneak around back. And the neighbor's camera, it actually gets some footage of them. I mean, you can actually see them here. But these guys, they're not worried. They're not going to get caught. They're in disguise.
So they go around to the back door and then kaboom, they break in. And immediately they start douching the walls with gasoline. And then once they're done and the gas cans are empty, they set the house ablaze. And then as the fire starts to build up, the three boys, they make a run for it and they disappear into the night.
Chapter 6: What tragic mistake do Kevin Bui and his friends make?
And it doesn't take long for this fire spreads and it engulfs the whole house. Now here's where the story gets crazy. I don't know how accurate the Find My Phone app is, but the house it led Bowie and his friends to is not the right house. The iPhone thief doesn't live there. Two Senegalese families live there, eight people, and they're all asleep during this.
Chapter 7: What are the consequences of the fire?
So then bam, suddenly the family wakes up and the fire alarm is going off and there's smoke everywhere and there are babies crying. So one of the dads, he runs over to the bedroom door and he opens it and a massive wall of smoke comes in. So they can't leave that way.
So then he runs over to the window and he opens it and he just straight up jumps out and then his daughter jumps out and he catches her and then his wife jumps out. And as they're jumping out, they can hear the father from the other family inside trying to gather up his wife and kids so that he can get them out of the house.
So the dad who's outside, he runs around to the front door and he tries to punch in a key code and open the door for them so the other family can get out. But for some reason, this code isn't working. Meanwhile, a police officer, he happens to be patrolling in the area and he sees the fire from afar.
And so bam, he rushes over to help and he gets to the house and he runs up to the front door where he sees the dad trying to punch in the key code and the officer just says, it and pow, he kicks the door in. But sadly, all he sees is one of the family members lying there on the floor,
unalived and the heat forces the officer back out of the house so then the fire department arrives and they're battling the fire but unfortunately it's too late the house as you can see is already ruined and the five family members that were trapped inside they don't make it So then police, they investigate all this.
And them and the surviving family members, they can't figure out who could have done something so violent. Like they don't have any enemies that they know of. Meanwhile, Bowie, Dylan, and Gavin, they're all back at their homes, lying low, trying not to get caught. And no one around them suspects anything. So it seems like they just went ahead and got away with murder.
until months go by and police they have no leads on this but then during their investigation they get an idea they start thinking maybe this fire wasn't so random like maybe it was planned out and they're thinking the arsonists probably had to use google to google the home address and get directions to the place or to get the layout of the inside of the house
So then police go and they get a search warrant. That warrant requires Google to turn over any account information of anyone who Googled that home address in the days leading up to the fire. And that ultimately leads police to a couple of IP addresses based in the area. those IP addresses lead them to Bowie, Dylan, and Gavin.
And so police have their suspects, and boom, all three boys are arrested. So here's Bowie's mugshot, here's Gavin's mugshot, and I guess Dylan doesn't have a mugshot, because he's only 14. But Dylan ultimately gets three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a young inmates program. And Gavin gets 40 years in prison.
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