Aloni Kieu Truong, a 3-year-old female from Milford, Delaware, was identified by Milford police as one of two victims killed in a double homicide during the early morning hours of June 5, 2024. The other victim was Mercedes Ortiz, 31, also of Milford, who was described in later reporting as Aloni's mother and the significant other of the accused killer, Davis Truong.
What began as a call about an injured man quickly led police into a far more devastating scene inside the Brookstone Trace development.
Around 4:45 a.m., Milford police officers were dispatched to the 500 block of South DuPont Boulevard for a report of a man bleeding from the head. Officers and EMS found Davis Truong, 31, suffering from a head injury that was later described in reporting as a gunshot wound. He was given medical aid and taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. As officers investigated how he had been hurt, they were led to a residence in the 6000 block of Pebblebrook Drive, where they found Mercedes Ortiz and Aloni dead inside the home.
Investigators treated the deaths as a double homicide from the beginning. Police initially said a person of interest had been detained and that there was no ongoing threat to the public. By the evening of June 5, Milford Police detectives had secured an arrest warrant for Davis Truong, who was then arrested in connection with the killings. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. After his presentment through Justice of the Peace Court 3, bail was set at $2.2 million cash only, and he was turned over to the Delaware Department of Correction. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Sussex County Court of Common Pleas on June 13, 2024.
Later reporting based on court paperwork described the killings as an alleged planned murder-suicide that did not unfold as Davis Truong intended. According to those accounts, investigators believed Davis shot Mercedes Ortiz, shot Aloni, and then shot himself. Doorbell footage reportedly showed him at a neighbor's door around 4:30 a.m., covered in blood and trying to get help, but gone by the time the neighbor reached the door. He then reportedly made his way to The Palace, near Brookstone Trace, where bystanders helped him before police arrived. Officers followed a blood trail from that area into the development and to the residence connected to the victims.
The case carried an especially painful family dimension because Davis Truong was identified in local reporting as Aloni's father and Mercedes Ortiz's significant other. The court-filed explanation reported by local media suggested a murder-suicide plan, but Mercedes Ortiz's mother publicly rejected the idea that her daughter would have agreed to die or allowed harm to come to her child. She described the killings as cold and calculated, saying Mercedes loved her children and had been looking forward to family milestones, including her older daughter's upcoming graduation.
Online sources available for this synopsis reported Davis Truong's arrest and charges, but did not show a trial result, plea, sentencing, or conviction outcome. As reported, the case remained centered on the allegation that Davis Truong killed Mercedes Ortiz and Aloni inside the Milford home before surviving his own gunshot wound and being taken into custody.
