#277: The Indonesian Girl That Killed Her Best Friend With Poisoned Coffee Because Of Jealousy

28:57So Arif would plan his honeymoon when he got home. By the evening that same day, he would be planning a funeral. Myrna and Hani arrive at the cafe at 5 15 p.m. They meet out at the front and they walk in together. They tell the waiter the name of the reservation, Jessica, and he leads them over to Jessica's booth. The drinks have been at the table for 55 minutes at this point. The ice in the coffee has completely melted, but I digress. Both Myrna and Hani, they slide into the booth. So Myrna is in the middle of the two girls. So Jessica's on one edge and then Hani's on the other. And then Jessica is seen motioning to the drinks like, this is for you, you know.

29:40Murray, you said you wanted the Vietnamese iced coffee. You said you wanted the cocktail. That is crazy. Yeah. Myrna drinks a sip or two of it and out loud, Myrna says, oh my god, this tastes awful. Here, try it. She pushes the coffee towards Hani. Hani picks up the glass smells it. She's wrinkling her nose. She takes the tiniest little sip. And at this point, Myrna is fanning her hand in front of her mouth. Almost like a burning motion. It's hot. It's hot type of motion. Honey agrees. Oh, that tastes weird. She passes it on for Jessica to try. But Jessica's like, oh, no thanks. I don't really want that.

30:21If you guys are both saying it's nasty, why would I take a sip, right? Within seconds, Myrna's head is rolled down to the back of the booth. Her eyes roll into the back of her head and she begins to convulse. Wow, that was instant. Yeah. Hani sees Jessica shake her head at the table and Hani's eye is caught by sudden movement and it's Myrna. So Jessica's shaking her like, I don't want to sip. And then in her peripheral vision, Hani sees Myrna convulsing. so she jumps up immediately and Hani is screaming help help someone help call 112 Jessica is sitting frozen in the booth next to Myrna and the restaurant is silent all eyes are on Hani she's like please please someone help I don't know what's happening the cafe manager Devi comes rushing out and she sees Myrna convulsing and the foam coming out of her mouth and she turns to the waiter that is standing behind her and she's like go get the police she rushes over to Myrna and she's like holding her head to keep it from banging on the table because she's losing consciousness.

31:23Hani quickly catches on, rushes over as well, and is protecting like Myrna's flailing limbs from the hard edge of the table because she's convulsing. Jessica, she's emotionless. Her eyes are just kind of darting back and forth, watching the chaos happen. And her hands are in her lap, but they're clasped together and she's kind of like slightly itching her palms. Kind of like itching. And Hani says to the manager, to no one in particular, really. She just sat down and took a few sips and then the seizures started. This has never happened before. Devi looks at the glass of coffee that's still on the table and it's mostly full.

32:00She calls another waiter over and she's like, huh, this is interesting. Now this is when Jessica is like, what did you put in the coffee? Wow. And Devi's insulted. So Devi's like, okay, waiter, bring me water and take the coffee back to the kitchen. Don't let anybody touch it. Jessica must be freaking out at that point then Yeah I mean Debbie was really not happy with the suggestion That her coffee had caused this to happen They had followed all the procedures And all the protocols when making their food I mean there was just no way Still she did notice that it had a strange yellowish tint When the waiter took it out A lot of people said it looked like turmeric coffee Like a golden latte you know So she chalked it up to maybe the cafe lighting is weird Like it's kind of like that warm cafe lighting maybe in the back you can see it better because it's the kitchen lights so devy calls the waiter over hey is the coffee in the back yeah put it in a clean glass jar and put a lid on it and keep the coffee glass wow so that waiter comes running to tell devy that the ambulance was close the mall's medical staff arrived with the wheelchair and they're carrying myrna they're wheeling myrna to the front of the mall so the ambulance can get to her quicker as myrna was being wheeled away Hani had glanced and there was this middle-aged woman standing in the middle of the dining room and she had her eyes squeezed tightly and her hands were pressed together.

33:24She was praying as hard as she could for Myrna. The other patrons had joined her and some of them even had their hands clasped in front of them. Others reached out and touched the shoulders of those who were praying and the whole restaurant seemed to be pleading to the highest power that they knew of, that Myrna would get home safe tonight. Except Jessica. Myrna was wheeled out of the restaurant and Hani was running after the team with her phone in her hand. She's calling Arif, telling him to meet her at the hospital ASAP. Meanwhile, back at the cafe, a waiter is holding Myrna's glass of Vietnamese coffee back in the kitchen and he's studying it.

34:02And he tells another waiter, hey, come here. One of the co-workers comes over. Is that from table 54? Yeah. Is the coffee like a turmeric coffee? The coworker looked at it. Usually Vietnamese coffee is like a dark, dark brown. So besides sweetened condensed milk, the only other thing in there is ice and espresso. The ice was melted, but it doesn't really, it just dilutes the color. It shouldn't make it a different color. This coffee was not dark brown. It was not light brown. It was more of like a dark orange, like a very deep yellow. In the shadow, it might look acceptable. But now that they were looking at it in the bright fluorescent lights of the kitchen, they could see it as plain as day.

34:42It was just such a bizarre shade. The first waiter sniffs the coffee. Kind of smells weird. He pushes it in the second waiter's face. The second waiter taps his finger against the top of the coffee surface so that a tiny little drop of coffee was on his finger. Then he brings it to his mouth, stuck out his tongue and tasted it. No He said instantly his tongue felt a little bit tingly And the coffee tasted really bitter So the first waiter Pours the coffee from the glass Into a clean jar And throws Myrna's used straw away And keeps the coffee cup Devi comes back into the kitchen with them And Myrna had already been rushed out of the cafe So there's not much that she could do She's looking at the coffee And she sniffs it She takes the tiniest, tiniest little sip Like waiter number two And after a second She said her mouth was tingling It was burning She put the coffee down she instructed her staff to label the jar undrinkable and store it in a safe place just in case now i just want to mention at this point devy was still under the belief that myrna had some sort of pre-existing medical condition i think everyone did okay so nobody drew the connection that no coffee killed her yeah i think it was more of like why did that girl accuse us of doing something to her coffee we would never do something to her coffee and we serve this coffee every single day we serve it table side it's like an experience so it does look weird like maybe the milk went bad i think that was the the mindset it wasn't like oh do you think someone put poison in the coffee let's try it got it it's more like oh that's so weird right so they kept the coffee and all of these feelings of maybe she had a pre-existing health condition they would all change very soon but her gut feeling of keeping this coffee would provide the police with some of the best evidence in this whole case.

36:35And this whole case would soon escalate into one of the most explosive murder trials that was ever televised for the whole nation of Indonesia to spectate. Wow. Arif found out when Hani called him in a panic. And he said at first it didn't even register. Like he knew it was Hani calling him. He knew it was Hani when he picked up. But he was like, no, she's got the wrong number. It just didn't click. Saw her a few hours ago. He was making dinner plans for when she got home. He was planning their honeymoon. I don't think the grief would hit him until he came back home. And that feeling of, wow, okay, her shoes are in the closet.

37:19Her keys are on the counter. Her dishes are in the sink. But I'm never going to see her again. And we just started our lives together. When Myrna was brought to the hospital, At first glance, it looked like she had suffered from a seizure. That was the doctor's first idea. But the main cause of death from a seizure is suffocation. And without an autopsy, they wouldn't know for sure. She and her family were very religious. The overwhelming religious majority in Indonesia is Islam. But I don't know for sure what their religion was. Typically, though, according to many religions, autopsies are frowned upon.

37:58Autopsies, they're actually incredibly invasive. You have to like break the chest plate oftentimes. It's a lot. And breaking the bone of a dead person is considered the same weight of a sin as breaking the bone of a living person in a lot of religions. So either way, you're harming a person and that's a sin. So typically autopsies don't happen unless they're absolutely necessary. In this case, it was necessary. So Myrna's family, they wanted the autopsy to be as minimally invasive as possible. They consented to a partial autopsy. Side note, while the medical examiners were conducting an autopsy, the police received the coffee from the cafe and they were running their own test.

38:38And do you know how much cyanide it takes to kill someone? Listen, I am out here just putting myself on every single FBI watch list so that you don't have to, but apparently it takes about 2 mg of cyanide per kg of body weight for it to be a lethal dose of cyanide. Okay, one more time? 2 mg of cyanide per kg of body weight. so you would need more cyanide than i would taking a supplement and then opening the contents yes type of level it's very small amount you're not talking like a brick of cocaine so is that what you're trying to share like a small small amount well it's a small small amount but also i'm trying to share how much is in this coffee okay so this is not an exact science i mean some people probably have i'm sure health conditions personal fitness all of that plays into a role and i don't think it's like oh for sure two milligrams per weight and you're gone so there is some fluctuation and i'm not giving you step-by-steps on how to use cyanide but according to the cdc it takes around 150 milligrams to kill a full-grown average weight adult male in the u.s now if we're going at two milligrams per kilogram 150 milligrams is enough to kill someone that weighs 165 pounds myrna's Vietnamese coffee contained a whole whopping 300 milligrams of cyanide.

39:56It's a lot. That's almost the double amount needed to kill an adult male. But you say she only take one sip. Now, here's the thing. I think everyone's sips were different. So, you know when you like run into a cafe, you're probably like in the heat and then you sit down and you're like, oh, that looks so good. You take a big healthy gulp. now when she says taste it it's disgusting everyone's gonna take a tiny sip yeah and then the waiters it's not their coffee they're taking a drop yes so i do think that she took a maybe multiple sips wow i don't think it was like oh this is interesting you know like taking a little because it's a coffee she knows what it tastes like i just can't imagine being like let me take the tiniest sip yeah wow i feel like you take a few sips and then you're like oh wait this is what's going on with this coffee yeah and i wonder the 300 milligram you said is the leftover that's probably not including how much she already consumed yeah so this is where it gets really really strange let's talk about her first partial autopsy the doctors took samples of myrna's bile liver and urine 70 minutes after her death side note uh bile is the liquid that the liver makes when it it stores it in the gallbladder and it helps with digestion now these samples showed no abnormalities.

41:13I know it's strange, but that's what the results said. So the coffee is testing for crazy lethal amounts of cyanide and Myrna's body is fine. Like what's going on? Aref and the rest of Myrna's family, they had no answers. It's very confusing. How did the partial autopsy not bring up any traces of cyanide? So at the risk of sounding stupid on the internet, I'm going to try and break down how this may have happened. I'm not saying this is what happened, but these are the speculations. When you eat or drink something, the food goes into your stomach and then your intestines. That's where the nutrients are absorbed.

41:47Then the blood carries the nutrients into the liver, which filters everything out to make sure that you're not digesting any toxins. Then all the nutrients travel on their little merry way to whatever cells need them. It's crazy what your body does. Like it's kind of insane. Don't quote me on any of this, but it's a very complicated process other than just like I eat it and now it's in my blood system, right? Now cyanide works like a greedy little monster. Cyanide attaches to all of the oxygen it can find inside of your body. It leaves none for the rest of your cells. It makes you weak, dizzy, it gives you headaches, it can mess with your awareness and can render you unconscious.

42:25It can send you into a coma and it can even take your life. All of this can happen in a matter of seconds depending depending on the dosage. Wow. So maybe it wasn't showing up because it had happened too soon to her body for it to be detected in her bile, urine, or liver, you know? Got it. So we never even made it that far. Yeah. So the family was forced to consent to another partial autopsy. The doctors took a sample of the contents of her stomach and then analyzed it. The test came back positive for cyanide. And while extracting the sample from Myrna's stomach, the doctor also noted that all of Myrna's intestines appeared corroded, which could point to poison.

43:05They also noted that Myrna's mouth, which would have been the first point of entry for the cyanide, her mouth, her gums, her tongue, her cheek on the inside, all of it was black. It was pretty clear to the doctors that she had died of cyanide poisoning. She had been murdered. The case at this point had already reached the public eye because of the nature. You know, it happened in the mall during daylight in the middle of a cafe to a perfectly healthy young woman and an upper-class establishment on top of that. Because there was no official answers, the public, they start making up their own theories.

43:38We're going to explore some of these theories, but just keep in mind these are theories and not real facts. So the first theory is pretty practical. Myrna had a$5.7 million life insurance policy. And even I was kind of like raising my eyebrow at that because Myrna is young. She has no health problems. She just got married, right? but we have to remember Myrna was from a wealthy family. She was running one of the branches of her dad's business. She was quite literally the top manager for a very lucrative company but more importantly, she and Arif were about to start a family. It is not uncommon for those with a lot of money to think about getting life insurance around the time that they start family planning.

44:17Now, the public wasn't thinking about any of that. All they saw was a big hefty life insurance payout and they figured that one of the family members had something to do with her death. sadly they started pointing the finger at Myrna's father I'm not sure why it was her father I mean typically it's the husband that gets accused and oftentimes is the one that does it but maybe since they just got married maybe everyone believed her father was still listed as the beneficiary of her life insurance this specific information is not public but it's the only reason I can think of that why the public would go after the dad in the end they dropped the theory because nobody touched Myrna's life insurance policy.

44:56Nobody claimed the money. The money stayed in with the agency for at least the first few months after Myrna's death. And I'm sure part of the reason was because whoever was going to touch it, I mean, the public was going to go after them. So eventually they lose interest. That was the practical theory. Then we have the fantastical theory. And not fantastical as in fantastic, but fantastical as in truly existing only in some sort of strange fantasy land. The business competition theory. Olivier Cafe was a popular destination. They'd been open for about a year and they were bound to have competitors.

45:33The idea was that what if one of their competitors spiked the ingredients of the Vietnamese coffee that only Myrna drank from that booth, remember? Because the other two girls had cocktails. Or even that specific cup was spiked in the hopes that one of the customers would get sick and would make Olivier Cafe look bad and lose all of their business. the theory was crazy but it was debunked because all of our cafe had served another 10 vietnamese iced coffees that day before myrna came in nobody else was sick also in this specific cafe like i mentioned the waiter makes the vietnamese coffee at the table in front of you it's part of the price it's like the show the waiter brings out the sweetened condensed milk pours it in a glass then brings out the coffee grinds puts them through the filter and lets the water seep through and the whole process is done in front of not just your table, but really the whole cafe.

46:21It's not like a waiter from the competition came and slipped something into the drink as it's being carried out of the kitchen. Again, you could argue that something was slipped into the coffee grounds or the milk, but like I mentioned, 10 other coffees had been served prior to Myrna's coffee that day. It just didn't add up. So this theory dies down. Then another one pops up in its place. This one was brief, but it had the potential to ruin lives. people started pointing the finger at Hani since as far of what the public knew so far the cafe was in the clear the coffee was in the clear that meant that Hani was with Myrna before she entered the cafe maybe she poisoned her then maybe she gave her a little candy before they walked in but later when people found out that Hani looked genuinely so upset that she was the one contacting emergency services organizing how Myrna's family was getting to the hospital making sure Myrna's head didn't hit the counter, people kind of stopped pointing the finger at her.

47:19And they directed it at Jessica. But not for the reason you think. Let's go over the last theory. The love triangle theory. To simplify it, people believe Jessica killed Myrna because she wanted Myrna to be with her romantically. Alleged screenshots came out of a conversation between Myrna and Jessica. And in the messages, they used phrases like, I love you and I'm really happy I want to kiss you now our Indonesian researchers said that that was a major red flag so apparently you don't really say I love you to your friends in Indonesia like that in Indonesian culture that's kind of a thing that's really only said between partners the phrase I'm really happy I want to kiss you doesn't exist like in America where it's maybe like oh my god I want to kiss you okay I feel like maybe in America it's also kind of interesting but it doesn't it especially in indonesia just doesn't really exist it's a very the translation in indonesian reads quite literally now lots of people thought that jessica and myrna must have been in some sort of secret lesbian relationship or that jessica must have had a crush on myrna but since myrna was already taken or she was straight she killed her out of jealousy i will say one thing to consider is that these alleged screenshots could have been a hundred percent faked.

48:35Now the second thing is they're studying abroad in Australia even though it might not seem that common in Indonesian culture, it could have been maybe they were getting accustomed to the Australian way, like the American way, you know, everyone's like, love you, love you non-stop, right? But then you go to Korea and no one's saying like, 사랑해 to their friend so casually So maybe it's just a cultural difference that they got used to in their college days But this last theory would actually catapult this case, not just in Indonesia, but everywhere internationally. For the rest of the world, it's very intriguing, I guess.

49:10The whole idea that a best friend secretly loves the victim and is so upset that she doesn't love her back, so then she kills her in a cafe with a Vietnamese iced coffee. It was a whole thing. Now, it was pretty damaging for Myrna's family, even if people knew it was a rumor in indonesia the majority religion is generally not accepting of lgbtq relationships that's not to say indonesians hate anyone that's not straight not at all but the general majority culture looks on these issues unfavorably so it was just um it's a whole thing

49:51so when the investigation opens the police were looking at marina's husband and father, sisters, and the people who had seen her last. Close family, last known contacts. That's the way they start the investigation. But then they go to the cafe, they look at the CCTV, and they only have one suspect in mind now, Jessica Wong-su. The same day that they turn their attention on Jessica, the second partial autopsy is released, and the police, oh, they're all hands on deck. Four days have passed since the murder, and it was abundantly clear that there was something incredibly wrong with Jessica. They bring in Myrna's family for interviews.

50:27And they're like, hey, do you know about her friend Jessica? Like, what do you have to say about her? And they speak to Myrna's father first. And his name is Eddie. He says, you know, I always thought of Jessica as my daughter's strange friend. What do you mean by that? Well, Jessica wasn't really that close with Myrna. But Jessica acted like they were closer than they were. Jessica acted like she knew Myrna and the whole family really well. and he said you know she did very strange things like she would hug my wife very very tightly when they first met she would go into our primary bedroom when she visited the house look i don't know okay that to me is kind of crazy yeah like i think even going into my own parents bedroom i'm usually knocking or like hey i'm coming in right but then like to just go into your as an adult too it's like whoa what is going on that's not normal the police then spoke to Arif and Arif knew exactly who Jessica was.

51:24He told the police officers that Myrna was actually a bit afraid of Jessica and wanted to distance herself from her. He talked about the last time he saw Jessica during that meeting, during that little dinner where Jessica up and left. And ever since then, you know, Myrna was kind of a bit iffy about her friendship with Jessica. And it's just also strange. To put it quite bluntly, the reason that Hani was there was because Myrna probably didn't want to be alone with Jessica. She was very cautious of her. And that's why they didn't even invite her to the wedding. Very interesting. The police believe they have their killer.

52:00So at the end of the month, 23 days after Myrna's death, the police officially announced to the public that Jessica was their main suspect and they arrest her the next day. Now, the first thing they asked of Jessica was for her to participate in a reconstruction of the crime. They wanted to take her back to the cafe and have her walk them through everything that she did, where she sat, where she put the bags, all of that. The police do this in order to get an exact idea of what happened, when it happened, and how it happened. They were going to use this alongside the CCTV as evidence in court.

52:29Now, sources are not clear if she had a lawyer at this point, but I'd like to think that she didn't, because from my very basic true crime knowledge, I feel like as a lawyer, I would maybe perhaps possibly not want my client demonstrating to the police how they put cyanide in a coffee cup. That is my non-law school educated opinion. If there are lawyers that think otherwise, please let me know Jessica wholeheartedly agreed to do this reenactment not only did she show police officers what happened that day which is kind of wild to me because later she pleads not guilty so she confessed to all she doesn't really confess she just says like then she put her hands up like this so it's like really weird right but the whole time she's acting like she's on some sort of TV show she's smiling she's posing off camera she tries chit chatting with the officers like they're on set filming some sort of TV show.

53:21There's this one picture of her where she's leaning up against the bar and she's facing away from the bar. So she's like leaned back against the bar and she's got her full prison uniform, like this bright orange color, name tag and everything. And she's smiling like someone who is, you know, just leisurely hanging out at the bar. It's like she is playing a prisoner on Grey's Anatomy. There's like 20 officers around her that just have the most serious expression on their faces. Like, this cannot be real right now. Like this, I'm so confused. After arresting her, the Indonesian police actually asked the Australian police to release information they had on her during her stay.

53:59They're looking for things like speeding tickets, major purchases, just anything really. Now, the Australian police agreed under one condition. If found guilty, Jessica would not be sentenced to death. So Indonesia still has the death penalty, but Australia doesn't. And they did not want their actions to potentially contribute to someone's death, even if they're a murderer. And Indonesia is like, yeah, yeah, sounds good. Now, Jessica's Australian vial is insane. Insane. August of 2015, Jessica gets into a car accident just a few months before Myrna's wedding. She was driving her car in Sydney.

54:35She was drunk and she decided that she was going to floor it straight into the brick wall of a nursing home, which, listen, I'm not a big drinker and I've never driven under the influence, like this part is kind of confusing to me. Either she was so intoxicated and potentially falling asleep at the wheel amongst other things, but I've just never heard of people driving into literal buildings like this. Like I've heard of people getting a DUI because they drove into a pole on the street. Like no one I personally know, okay? But like on the news, you know, they drive into a pole or another car or a pedestrian or like a building on the side of the street.

55:10But I would imagine like a nursing home has a parking lot around it, right? So that would be some really, really hefty drunk driving. The brick wall was completely obliterated, so it seems like she was going pretty fast too. Thankfully, no residents were on that side of the property at the time. No one was hurt except Jessica. She had a couple of cracked ribs and some chest pain as well as a shiny new DUI charge. She was actually supposed to appear in court February of 2016, but she wouldn't be able to make it because she was in jail in Indonesia for murder. Yeah. Not only that, but people, a lot of people ratted Jessica out to the cops.

55:48So Jessica was facing like$15 ,000 in fines and legal fees for her drunk driving incident. She texted colleagues and friends where she was openly, proudly talking about fleeing the country. She literally texted a friend, Hey, I could use the money to have like an epic holiday, have new licenses anywhere. And my dad has power too. rather than giving the money to those police, those ignorant. In another one, she texts, I'm being pushed again and again, and I will break. Side note, since we're on the topic of conversations on texts, these are not the only texts that Jessica sent that were seen by Indonesian officers.

56:23Even before her arrest, after the murder, Jessica was texting friends talking about how she was so shaken up about what happened to Myrna, about how upset she was. She even texted one friend back in Australia, like I came here because a particular someone was bothering me but even here like all these bad things are happening to me but it doesn't end there Jessica had the audacity to text Myrna's own twin sister Sandy an article about poisonous coffee truly trying to divert any and all attention off of her as the murder suspect back to Jessica's police file the DUI charges were not the only thing on there Remember Patrick?

57:04Her ex-boyfriend that she always told Myrna was so toxic, so abusive. Listen, I don't want to say that he's innocent because I don't know what truly happened in their relationship. But if you look at just the police files, Jessica seems to be the toxic one. Jessica's ex-boyfriend Patrick said that his relationship with Jessica was quite possibly one of the worst, scariest experiences in his entire life. Wow. And it got worse after they broke up. He was ready to move on. He was done with her stuff. but each time he would even try and break up with her, Jessica would threaten to self-harm. When their relationship finally ended September of 2015, Jessica kept sending him texts and calling him.

57:42She would threaten to hurt herself if he ignored her. She threatened and even attempted to unalive herself multiple times and tried to convince him that her death would be on his hands. There would be blood on his hands. It would be his fault. He filed a police report each time she did that. When Indonesia got Jessica's file, there were more than a dozen reports like that. She would text him things like, I will unalive myself with carbon monoxide. It would freak him out to the point of calling the police to do a wellness check, but also sometimes talking to her to try and help interacting with her in some sort of way.

58:18Another time, she basically texted him that she was over life and the police were sent to do a wellness check and she was found unconscious near sleeping pills antidepressants and a knife and then after they broke up patrick's car was suspiciously and mysteriously vandalized he requested a restraining order against jessica and it was granted now just to clarify she was struggling with her mental health but that's a separate thing from her criminal actions i just want to put a disclaimer there to make it clear that while jessica's criminal actions may have been influenced by her mental health, mental health struggles do not lead to criminal actions.

58:56There are so many people who struggle with their mental health that do not hurt people. Now, there were no attempts or reports that Jessica made against Patrick, at least in the police files. Now, Indonesian prosecutors were also able to reach out to Jessica's former boss who had filed a police report against Jessica for disturbing behavior in the workplace. Her name is Christy Carter, and she said that she fired Jessica days after Myrna's wedding in November of 2015. So like two months prior to the murder. Christy said that Jessica admitted to knowing how to kill people. The police clarified, wait, what do you mean?

59:32Well, she said that she knew how to hurt someone. What did she say exactly? Well, on one occasion, she attempted to unalive herself. She was hospitalized. And as a supportive boss, Christy went to visit her, show her moral support. But Jessica was complaining to her, I want to go home. They're treating me like I killed someone. If I wanted to kill someone, I know exactly how to do it. I know the exact right dose. Christy was so taken aback. She didn't know what to say, but she just knew that this is not someone that she feels safe to be around her, her employees, the business. So she let her go.

1:00:07And she made the right choice clearly because immediately afterwards, Jessica texted her saying things like, you have to die and so does your mom. Christy said, she's manipulative scheming emotionally unstable she sent me death threats i have no doubt that she's capable of hurting or killing another person another thing that would come out during the trial is that um police asked jessica to turn in her clothes from that day and she basically was like i can't what do you mean you can't just no i can't do you realize that we're not asking this is like a police order they're burnt i burned the clothes why would you burn the clothes well they were worn out and i don't wear clothes that are worn out so i burnt them what okay on top of that cyanide is proven to be a skin irritant so if you touch cyanide you could have very very itchy hands now once they gather up all this evidence the prosecutors come up with their motive they believe Jessica killed Myrna out of jealousy if the motive for this murder is jealousy that means Jessica constantly compared her life to Myrna's every bad thing that happened to her was a good thing that happened to Myrna Jessica broke up with her boyfriend Myrna married the love of her life Jessica lost her job Myrna became the branch manager for her family's business Jessica was sent to the hospital for another unalive attempt Myrna posted her engagement and wedding photos where she was wearing her signature dimpled smile and just looked so happy surrounded by people that loved her and Jessica wasn't invited.

1:01:40Now, I will say it's a motive for sure. Countless murders have been committed due to jealousy, right? But it is one that's hard to argue in court because jealousy is such a common emotion that everyone feels. And most people will think to themselves, well, can you really kill someone because you're jealous? I would never kill someone because I'm jealous, right? But not only that, this is weird. The public felt like it would be one thing if Jessica was from a middle or lower class family and she was best friends with this upper-class girl, Myrna. Maybe it'd be too much of a contrast. Maybe it'd be that feeling of injustice.

1:02:13But the thing is, Jessica is also from the upper class. Her dad owns a pretty big bicycle spare parts factory in Jakarta. Maybe her family's not as rich as Myrna's, but they're really well off. So most people in Indonesia reading about this case, they would never even spend their money at Oliveira Cafe. It was a$3 sign establishment. To put it in perspective, the majority of Indonesians have to live on less than$4 a day. The average drink at the cafe is about$4. For an American perspective, the average American lives off$160 a day. That's including like bills and rent all calculated and split into one day, right?

1:02:52Imagine going to an establishment where you were spending$160 per person on like a drink. Wow. Yeah. So it was shocking for civilians to be like, I don't really believe that a girl from this type of class can also feel jealous of someone from the same class, basically. That doesn't make sense, right? That just, I don't know. And if she can, then we should have no sympathy for this type of girl. Jessica's problems specifically just were not real problems when you look at it compared to everyone else in the country. So the trial begins. Jessica's psychological condition was evaluated and it was stated that she was a very smart woman, calm and collected, but she was a narcissist.

1:03:40They were able to categorize her and she actually fell under the amorous narcissist. These are considered the least violent of the narcissist, the least aggressive of the narcissist groups. They have attention-seeking behaviors, but not in the way that you would think of most narcissists. They don't have this grandoise sense of self that you can feel immediately. They're actually incredibly insecure. They have a deep desire to gain affection for affection's sake. So most people want affection from their partner or their family to satisfy this human connection need that we have, right? But these narcissists, they just want affection for affection's sake.

1:04:22They tend to live under this rule of if I scratch your back, you better scratch mine. So they will typically shower you with attention. They do not mean it typically. But they will do this because they expect you to return the attention. I mean, it doesn't sound that bad compared to some of the other narcissists that we've talked about, right? But the problem lies in the fact that they will keep wanting more and more. There's not really a satisfaction point. And it will never stop. And I'm not exactly sure what happens if you cut someone off like that. I'm sure person to person, it varies. but it's very enlightening in terms of this case, right?

1:05:02So Jessica's trial resumes. There would be three judges that would decide Jessica's fate if she would face the death penalty. And I know what you're thinking. Didn't Indonesia agree not to kill her, right? That's another part of this case. Like this case just kept going more and more viral because it just kept unfolding. There was so much drama. Australia was like, hello, Indonesia. You gave me agreements in writing that you would not pursue the death penalty for Jessica. Indonesia was like, I didn't do that. I never did that. And for some reason, Australia never wanted to show proof. And they didn't want to force Indonesia to comply.

1:05:35So it was like a he said, she said between the two countries. And Indonesia was like, well, technically, that's our citizen. And it's a crime that took place in our country. So we can do whatever we want. So they're debating if they want to kill her. Yeah. Wow. So if Jessica is convicted, she could face the firing squad, which is how they carry out the death penalty in Indonesia. if you're on death row you get woken up in the middle of the night taken to a remote grassy location and you can choose either to sit or to stand 12 guards face you with rifles pointed only three of the rifles have life bullets it's to make the guards not know who's the one that delivered the fatal wound

1:06:18so they all shoot and if the prisoner survives it's up to the commander to shoot until a doctor confirms no signs of life yeah the stakes could not be higher but uh if you look at some pictures of jessica during the whole thing i mean some parts she does look serious right if you watch the videos as well but most of the time she looks kind of chill like she's in there for a speeding ticket no matter of fact she looks like she's supporting someone who's in front of the court for a speeding ticket she doesn't even look like she's on trial it's bizarre it's so strange. I mean, she pled not guilty.

1:06:53Her lawyers that are funded by her parents are literally grasping at straws, doing everything. I mean, they even lied and they were like, she has no Australian criminal past. And everyone's like, we literally have the files. Literally. When asked about then what happened? How did she die? She's like, I don't know. She took a sip of her coffee and it happened so fast. It was just nonstop. They kept trying to pin the blame on other people at one point they tried to pin the blame on a reef they came up with this theory where her defense attorney said that one of the cafe waiters was paid 10 000 usd by a reef to kill myrna and spike the coffee yeah the waiter was brought into court and was like i've never seen that guy in my life i've never like i don't know what you guys are talking about in the end it lasted 135 days the verdict was 377 pages long it took the judges four hours to read in full but at the end of it they read it for four hours straight in the end they said jessica wong tzu has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing premeditated murder they spared her the death penalty and instead she got 20 years in prison which is so light that's it yeah everyone was upset it's not even an eye for an eye it's okay you know what we can debate the death penalty and i think that everyone is valid to their own opinion about it and i just as someone i will never give an opinion on it because she's young too right yeah that's what i'm saying so she's like what 20s 20s she'll get up in 40s.

1:08:29Yeah, it should be like 47. Maybe even earlier. Maybe even earlier, yeah. What? Yeah, that's why people were so upset. Like I was saying, I will never debate death penalties because I think when you have families of victims of these types of crimes, I will never be the one to look them in the face and be like, well, no, we shouldn't kill people, right? The thing is, it's not even an eye for an eye. It's not even life in prison. That's the crazy thing. Like, I don't know how it went from death penalty or 20 years in prison. Like, why was there no life in prison? but I do think a lot of countries don't strongly enforce life in prison like the states does yeah because like even a lot of cases we talked about countries where it's life in prison but on average they get out in like 20 years so she's going to get out in 20 years and I just cannot imagine what it feels like for Myrna's family especially because she gave a statement Jessica said I did not kill Myrna and I never planned to do so she said losing her means the world for me and my family so i will say there is a group of people that do think that jessica is innocent so i don't know you know they think that there is no evidence of her actually putting the cyanide in um there's arguments that putting cyanide into coffee will actually make it appear a darker color and not a turmeric yellow color there's arguments that her motive doesn't make sense but i don't know especially from what we know about justice systems why would they pin it on a another upper class woman typically that doesn't really happen they have a cold case and they pin it on lower class civilians so that do you know i mean it just i don't know um myrna's family keep her in their memories but they are trying to move on from the trial.

1:10:16They said the trial was pretty traumatic. They still post about Myrna and they keep her memories alive. Myrna's father recently got married and it made headlines, but thankfully the public is giving him his space. Arif is having a really hard time. It might be because of the language barrier, but he still talks about Myrna in present tense. He said, I think she is the most wonderful person I've met. She has an amazing outlook on life. He just tries to find comfort in the fact that Myrna got to experience how it feels to be in love and he feels honored that he was the man that she fell in love with.

1:10:52It brings him a little bit of peace. And that is it for today's story. What are your thoughts on this? I mean, I think that this case was going around for so long and I think in the beginning when I first got into true crime, I covered it and I talked about it and I was so like confused about this case. But now I'm like, wow, there are so many layers to this that I wasn't able to dig into prior what are your thoughts please stay safe and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode bye