Woman accused of staging husband's murder as suicide

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Paul Hafer describes his son, Steven, as a devoted father who worked hard so he could be the best husband. The wife he worked so hard to support is accused of killing him and making his death look like a suicide.

"We got a text from her, said your son shot himself," says Paul Hafer.

Tu Huynh is charged with Steven's murder. In her emotional first appearance in court Monday morning, we learned from prosecutors that she did not try to revive him, that the shotgun found in the house had been wiped clean, and that the shot's path did not match that of a self-inflicted wound.

Prosecutors also say she admitted to having an affair with an ex-boyfriend. His parents say they noticed trouble when they brought their daughter to visit them in Michigan for the holidays.

"We didn't think it was anything that significant," Paul says.

Paul tells Eyewitness News his son and daughter-in-law had money issues, so for the first time since giving birth, Huynh went back to work as a nurse. They left their daughter in Michigan while she did orientation at MD Anderson. He says Steven flew back last weekend to get her.

"He left all his clothes at our house. He says I'm going come back," says Paul.

"Four days later he got killed," says his tearful mother Cheryl.

Tu Huynh's attorney told us on the phone that this murder charge was a rush to judgment, and that he's confident the evidence is going to show she did not harm her husband, much less murder him.

The Hafers say there's so much more to Steven than his murder.

"One of his friends said that Steven is the kind of guy I want my daughter to marry when she grows up," his father explains. "We know that our son is in Heaven where he belongs with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But it's just too awful right now."

There will be a memorial service here Friday, and he'll be buried in Michigan.