#304: Asian Obsessed Man Pushed 2 Girls Off Cliff Near “Disney” Castle

0:02Some people say the Cinderella castle at Disneyland is haunted. I'm not saying that just because Disney has a very intense legal team, but some people have said it. And they think it goes against everything that Disney stands for. Apparently back then, you could tour this supposedly haunted dungeon underneath Cinderella's castle in Tokyo, of all places. And Disney eventually shut that whole amusement ride down because of just how creeped out the guests were getting. Their objective was, let's bring them in, show them these dungeons, and it'll be scary, it'll be spooky, and then we're going to have a happy ending.

0:37But people were genuinely terrified. There was something about the energy in that castle. Some people say the one in Disneyland in California is also haunted. There's just something about Cinderella's castle that either people romanticize it or they think nothing is that perfect. Something about that place is sinister. It goes against everything Disney wanted, which is to make this castle feel like romance, feel like you need to propose right now to your loved one in front of it. It feels like a happy ending, a fairy tale, which is very interesting considering the fact that the real-life castle that Disney was inspired by, the Neusch-Feinstein castle in Germany, it's got some dark past attached to it.

1:22Once upon a time, there was a mad king. His name is King Ludwig II of Bavaria. And if I were to be nice about it, they would call him the fairy tale king. because he lived in his own little Delulu land. He lived in his own little fairy tale land. So two years into him becoming king, he loses this big war to Prussia. And instead of being like, hold on, let me face reality. Bavaria is going down the toilet. I lost to Prussia. Let me be strong to my subjects. He decides, no, I'm going to live in my own fairy tale. I'm still going to rule over the biggest court of all the lands. So he loses himself in building this insane castle on this rocky cliff edge.

2:05It's like, I mean, if this were a villain horror story, it would be the villain's lair. But he's like, no, I want it to feel like Prince Charming's home. Rocky cliff. We've got the towers that go up, all the stone, impenetrable defenses in case someone wants to storm it. It's going to have 200 rooms, a ballroom, a theater with a big stage for all of his court to be entertained because he is the greatest king of all. This would be the Mad King's private escape from reality. And in this castle, he would be the ultimate king. He would actually dress up in medieval royalty clothing. Yeah, yeah. As Bavaria, his true reality, struggled with the loss of Prussia.

2:48King Ludwig continued to play make-believe. So he loses himself completely in this castle. He was driven mad. He starts borrowing insane amounts of money from foreign courts, going into debt, losing sleep over which room had to be painted what. He wanted each tower to look imposing, look straight out of an episode of Game of Thrones. And the fellow men of his court realize this man is losing his mind. We are struggling. And the king, the king is playing dress up on his cliffside castle. They decide he can rule no more. He was deemed unfit to rule by his own personal psychiatrist, diagnosed with madness, dethroned, and he was evicted from his precious castle.

3:30Three days later, he was found mysteriously dead. It's suspected he was either murdered or he was a murderer. The king of Bavaria was found dead in the lake next to a psychiatrist who had defensive wounds all over his body. It was clear that the psychiatrist was killed, but what about the king? did he kill his psychiatrist before ending his own life was it an accident or were they both killed was king ludwig really even mad i guess we're never gonna really know the answers to these questions but just weeks after king ludwig's death the castle was open for tourists oh wow yeah i mean that quick that quick and since then it has become one of the biggest tourist attractions in the whole world.

4:15More than 61 million people have visited this castle. More than 1.3 million people visit this castle annually. During the summer months, you can expect to see about 6 ,000 visitors per day because they just want to look at the true real life Cinderella castle, the fairy tale castle. I mean, it's beautiful. Despite its kind of sordid history, it's really pretty. I mean, you go up this massive cliff. I mean, typically with a tour guide, The best view of the castle is from this bridge that's like 200 feet in the air, suspended over the cliff. There's like waterfalls. There's a ravine. It's really breathtaking.

4:53I'm just looking at the pictures. And then you see this castle with grayish exterior, these circular towers and intricate balconies, detailings, the windows. Everything feels like CGI magic. You just can't picture that there were humans that came and built this castle on the cliffside. Think Cinderella's castle at Disney, but a hundred times bigger and on a rocky cliff. It's mysterious. It's imposing. It's breathtaking. I mean, how did they build it? And in 2023, the romantic Cinderella castle would be back in the news. Not because of Disney, not because of an alleged haunting, but because an Asian American tourist was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered at the real life Cinderella Castle by a man who was just really into Asian women.

5:52As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. This was a highly requested case that I've been trying to cover for, I want to say a few months. I hoped that there would be a bit more information as time progressed, but it appears that this is just what we know so far and we're waiting for a trial to happen in Germany. But as always, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts down in the comments. So with that being said, let's get started.

6:19The bridge overlooking the Cinderella castle was already packed. I mean, even though it's Wednesday, June 13th at 11am, there are people shoulder to shoulder on that bridge waiting in line to try and get a picture with the castle. There were as many phones up there as there were faces in the crowd. So amongst them, there's two Asian American women. We've got 21 year old Eva Liu and 22 year old Kelsey Chang. So they're patiently waiting to get on this bridge. I mean, this is the main bridge that tourists will go on to see the castle. There are hiking trails around here, around the castle, but this is the best place for views.

6:53This is the best place for pictures. this main bridge. People will take turns squeezing past each other just to try and take a picture. Even if there's a million tourists in the background of your photo, it's just that good. And then maybe when they're done taking that picture, they just take a second to stare at this castle. It was everything that everyone online said it would be. It was a million times more beautiful in real life. So Eva and Kelsey, they start walking around this area. They're taking in the fresh, sharp mountain air, taking pictures, hearing all these tourists giggling and talking in all these different languages.

7:29I mean, the energy there that day particularly was very heartwarming. Everyone just wanted to see a real life castle. There's nothing tense about the situation. I mean, everyone's having a good time. There's families, there's kids. So Eva and Kelsey, they start walking around looking for the perfect shot of this castle. And they hear this voice, you girls American the girls turn around and this man I mean I don't know how to say this nicely but this man looks like the poster child for an American man I'm an American I was born here so can I say that um you know how Europeans say that they can sense their spidey senses can can their spidey senses start tingling when there's like an American tourist even a mile away they can spot one out in the crowd like that, that was this guy.

8:17He's wearing a baseball cap, jeans, t-shirt. He has a goatee and a big smile on his face. Everything about him is just American, super American. They turn around and they say, yeah, we are. We're American. So cool. Me too. I'm from Michigan. So he's like striking up this conversation with them and I'm sure they're bouncing it back politely. Oh, very cool. We've never been to Michigan. And the three start engaging in this conversation, it does seem like the man was the one that kept it going, but he wasn't creepy about it. He wasn't like, oh, what hotel are you staying at? He wasn't asking all these intrusive questions.

8:52He just seemed really excited to meet another American while he was abroad, which is the thing. Like when we were in Switzerland, we were really, my dad was so excited to see a couple staying at our hotel because they were Korean. We've never met this couple before. We don't know the first thing about this couple, but he's talking to them as if we You were a long lost family friends. So it's very interesting when you're traveling, you build this like sense of companionship with someone that's from the same country as you just because they're from the same country as you. So the girls, they're engaging in the conversation and there is again, nothing alarming about this man.

9:25He seems very nice. He's also super knowledgeable about Germany in general. He seems well-traveled. He's telling them all the hottest local spots to grab food. He wasn't even suggesting, oh, why don't we go after? He's like, oh yeah, if you guys have time tomorrow, you should check out this place. It was just a genuine conversation. And then he says, hey, do you guys want to see the castle from another viewpoint? The bridge is usually the tourist spot, but like literally right over there, there's a really clear part of the trail where it just has the best view. It's kind of like a local secret.

9:56Last time I was up here, a local showed me. At first, the girls are kind of hesitant, but they look around. It's broad daylight. There are kids shouting. There are families taking pictures. I mean, like I said, there's on busy days, 6 ,000 people visiting this tourist site in a single day. Everyone has their phone just left, right. Anything that's going to be caught on camera is going to be caught on camera here. It's one of the biggest tourist spot in the country. And this man has been nothing but normal and nice to them. Besides, if he's not that nice, they could easily call for help or run.

10:31There's a lot of people. So they go. They go with the man and he starts taking them around the trail. And this trail has a bit of a curve that they hit. And it's got a lot of these overgrown heavy trees. It was a moment where it's kind of, they're getting out of sight from the tourist. It's kind of hard to make out what's in front of you, what's behind you because of the curvature of the trail. So technically the area is surrounded by mountains and sharp cliffs. But it's actually really safe. It just kind of feels dangerous because we're scared of heights. No fatal accidents have occurred by the castle or surrounding the castle or even on the trails near the castle.

11:07Everything is very clearly marked. It's easy to keep a safe distance from any cliff sides or steep ravines. Very, very easy. So this is around 2.30 to 2.40 p.m. that they start making their way down the trail with this man. And somewhere along this trail, the man's demeanor completely changes. he goes from being the nice guy next door to just a monster i don't know how else to say it kelsey was walking a little bit ahead and she heard a scream turned around to see the man trying to violently assault presumably sexually assault eva trying to save her friend kelsey runs over pull tries to pull this guy off of her best friend and for a second it works because he's now backed off from Ava.

11:54His hands are in the air, but he doesn't run off. Kelsey's hoping, okay, now he's going to know that we're going to scream. We're going to shout. People are going to come and help us. He doesn't back off. Instead, he turns all of his attention to Kelsey now, puts his hands around her neck, starts choking her and pushing her, basically choking and walking her closer and closer till he gets to the cliff's edge. And then he flings her over the 165 foot drop.

12:25165 feet is like throwing someone off the 17th floor balcony. Wow. The scarier part is this is a rocky cliffside. She could land on a sharp rock or a pile of them. I mean, she could keep falling down further. It's not like the bottom is 165 feet away. This is a very, very, very tall cliff. It's worse than a 17th story building. So the man turns to Ava, who's trying to fight him off with everything that she has. She's completely scratching up his face, getting his DNA under her nails, but also leaving him with these bright red streaks just across his cheeks, his forehead. But once he was done with her, and it's not confirmed, but it's presumed that he either tried or did essay her.

13:11When he was done, he threw her 165 feet off the cliff as well. a complete stranger thought that it was his god-given right to use a woman for pleasure and throw two women off the cliff when he was done with them so when news starts spreading of this case people are pissed off people are so pissed off at the audacity of this guy they start going online and saying okay well if it's an eye for an eye someone throw this man off a cliff and i completely understand the concept of an eye for an eye right a life for a life but what if what if the two lives are not equal to begin with that is the question that a lot of netizens have been having with this case troy bowling is the man that we're talking about he was known in his neighborhood for walking his cat on a leash it is unclear if the cat liked it or not yeah we don't know you can do that um i googled it it said that most cats don't enjoy it but you can train them when they're very young to walk on a leash fascinating it's fascinating yeah but that was pretty much what the 30 year old man's favorite pastime was was going out in lincoln park michigan where he lives with his brother and walking his cat and we don't really know much else about this guy everyone said you know he's quiet he minded his own business i mean apparently not a single neighbor was like oh that's cool you walk your cat nobody even talked to him they're like he just didn't seem that approachable but he didn't seem mean like we're not not approaching him because he's evil and terrifying and violent we just thought what an interesting guy he always just stayed in the house with his brother if you did pass him on his little catwalk he just wouldn't make eye contact with you it's weird like you know how you walk and you're like okay we should make eye contact now so we can like wave and like do the whole neighbor thing yeah no he he didn't never made eye contact and then sometimes you just wouldn't see the guy for weeks at a time.

15:08I mean, nobody knew if he's in the house, out of the house, never lived in the house. It's weird. So yeah, we don't know what he was up to. That's what the neighbors are saying. But we know what he was up to. He was arrested briefly in 2016 on embezzlement charges, but eventually those charges were dismissed. And the rest of his free time, a lot of his close friends said that he spent playing Dungeons and Dragons. And also, He would tell a bunch of Asian women that he met online how much he likes Asian women. Don't even get me started on this, okay? So a woman from Thailand, let's call her Cece.

15:42Cece said that she and Troy met online while they were playing a video game, and they just started hitting it off. He seems like a nice guy. He seems really genuine. It was just this cute online friendship and nothing more. They were texting every day, but that was it. And Troy was actually texting her the whole time that he was up in the mountains. so he had texted her prior to trying to assault and throw two women off of a cliff she said i never saw the red flags i mean i don't know what he was thinking the day of on that mountain he was sending me pictures of himself on the mountain he also told me about a random dream that he had last night the text read i had a dream that i was sleeping in the room and wanted to open the window to get a breeze.

16:26But it was too loud outside. And for most of it, I was watching my body and I wasn't in my body, if that makes any sense. He texted her that while he was climbing up the mountain. And then he texted her. I climbed it. It went about 328 feet, only tree roots and branches for stepping and grabbing. Then he sent her another ominous picture. It was two people kneeling in a small area that seems really secluded that's overlooking the castle. And he texted. Now I get to sit here and look at these two try and get the perfect Insta. So it's actually speculated that this is him scouting out locations that were secluded and easier to assault people in.

17:03He's filling Cece in on his very quote normal day, right to the point where he tries to murder two Asian women. And one of the last things that I thought about when I was researching Ava Liu was Cinderella. Cause you know, this is all happening at the Cinderella castle. And I mean that with the utmost respect it's it's not about fairy tales it's not about love but she really just didn't feel like she needed a prince charming that's like what i just kept getting from her story eva was the type of person that she knew what she wanted at a young age and worked non-stop ever since she was a kid to get to that point she only counted on herself she had this twin sister named alice and the two of them would do everything together they would run around terrorizing their parents.

17:49I'm kidding. But apparently they were these really cute, well-behaved kids. They're identical twins. They would wear the same clothes. They played the piano and they had this party trick where one of them would play with their left hand and the other one would play with their right hand. And they just had opposite personalities. Alice said that she was super shy and Eva was the one that always encouraged her to get out there, go talk to people, like live a little. They grew up in Canada before moving to the US. And eventually, Eva would actually work her way into one of the most prestigious programs in the country.

18:24She studied computer science at the University of Illinois, which is ranked fifth in the nation for computer science programs. The first four being MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. Wow. I mean, it's so impressive. Like the amount of things that Eva was able to balance during her life, she would study all day during the weekends. She would volunteer at church. one time her sister walked in on her in the dorm room there were two girls in eva's room one on the desk one on the bed eva is tutoring the one on the desk right before her exam and the other friend was having a mental breakdown on the bed and eva was alternating between helping one friend solve a mathematical equation and then turning around and trying to console her friend that everything was going to be okay she's doing all of this while maintaining her studies and excelling so she graduates from the university of illinois and she secures a full-time position at microsoft as a software engineer which is insane like that's really impressive to have right out of college she was going to start this year july 2023 and between may which is when she graduates she's got the month of june she's got most of the month of june before she gets into her first corporate job and she's thinking, okay, why don't I do something crazy?

19:38Because once I get into this job, it's going to be years of me trying to climb the corporate ladder or trying to find my passion. This is my chance to be free. So she talks to one of her best friends who also just graduated, Kelsey Chang, and they decide, let's do a Europe trip. It sounds crazy, but it's not really crazy because they earned it. They worked their asses off to get through school and they secured their future spots. and now they're just going to spend three weeks seeing the world. I mean, when else are they going to do this? Which side note, Eva and Kelsey were really safe travelers.

20:12Not that it would matter even if they weren't because it doesn't matter. Like that's just victim blaming. But just to preface, they really were. So they were the type to not stay out after dark. They would review and plan their itinerary really well. They were constantly aware of their surroundings and really only headed to popular, populated touristy spots. again nothing would have changed if they hadn't been doing that but i'm just stating so the first stop was budapest then vienna prague and now germany was their last leg of the tour before they went home which apparently munich is one of the prettiest cities in all of europe they say that the architecture is breathtaking the streets are beautiful there's there's parks scenery lakes forest there's all these little cafes and shops around the city center but more than that it's internationally known as one of the safest cities for female tourists.

21:03So again, they're like, okay, this is kind of perfect because we're two girls traveling on our own. One of the last things that they wanted to do on this trip was visit the famous Cinderella Castle.

21:19June 13th, 2023, Eric Abernery from New York City. So this is a man from New York City. He was at the castle too. and he had never seen anything like this castle. Like, hear him out. The Brooklyn Bridge, beautiful. But this castle is something else. And the bridge that he's on soaking in the sight of this beautiful castle, it was insane. And then all of a sudden, he sees this red, bright red helicopter just swarming, doing circles. He's like, that's weird. That's really weird. It's getting closer and closer and closer. What are they looking for? So he and other tourists, they start looking under the bridge, over the bridge.

21:55They're like, what is this helicopter doing here? and it's very loud. So people start rushing over. Suddenly the castle that they all wanted to take pictures of, meaningless. Now they want to know what's going on. Is it a mountain climber? Is it some sort of animal? Did someone fall? Eric starts scanning his eyes along the river at the foot of the mountain and he sees two young women just on the ground. They look closer to teenagers than anything. One of them was moving but hanging onto a tree so it looks like she was stuck in a tree or landed on a tree. The other one was laying motionless on the ground.

22:28So the crowd, they start dispersing. They start whispering in their own native languages since they're all tourists. And the red helicopter is loud trying to circle the area nonstop. Rescuers are coming down on rope being lowered into the dense tree-lined rocky cliff. It looked like they were sending down a claw machine, just trying to catch something, going up, failing, trying to go back down. It was weird. So the rescue mission for the two women, I mean, it was very difficult. The terrain is dangerous. It's impossible for normal police forces to go in and get them. So special Alpine rescue missioners were used and people were wondering like, do you think the girls fell?

23:04Do you think they slipped? Didn't someone lure them over there? I felt like I saw someone go over there with them. When one of the girls was being lifted onto the helicopter, the rest of the tourists could see she was moving. Thank God she was alive. And she was actually on the phone in that moment. Kelsey would call Eva's twin sister and say, Alice, he threw us off the cliff. While Kelsey was being rescued on a stretcher, she called Eva's twin to tell her that the man, the man pushed them both off the cliff and he had been trying to assault Eva. So that man was Troy Bowling. He was not that hard to catch.

23:43All exits out of the tourist spot were shut off immediately. 25 emergency vehicles were sent to the scene. I'm talking cars, helicopters, sniffer dogs, like everything. A lot of netizens speculate that Eva actually helped in catching their perpetrator. His face was bright red with all of these wounds from Eva, and it was pretty easy to pick him out from the crowd. And he was about to be charged with homicide. Kelsey had survived the fall, so she had fallen onto a tree. Now, even though she fell 165 feet just like Eva had, because she fell out on a tree at an angle it softened the impact and helped her survive she was responsive when the rescuers got to her she was able to talk able to communicate this is kind of a crazy miracle falling nearly 165 feet kelsey only had minor injuries wow a few bruises and scratches as well as bleeding from like a shallow injury to her head but other than that, Kelsey was okay.

24:45Eva landed just a few feet away from her friend, so nearly in the same spot, but she landed flat on the ground. There was no tree there to break her fall and that would literally be the difference between life or death. We're not sure the extent of Eva's exact injuries, but she was unresponsive when rescuers arrived and she would pass away the night of at only 21 years old. she stayed at the hospital morgue while her family flew in from across the world to be with her they just wanted to bring her body back home so the family they flew to germany flew back to the u.s with eva on father's day june 18th 2023 eva's father said it was the most painful father's day of his entire life and the worst part the more painful part is that german prisoners probably live better lives than the average free American citizen.

25:40Prisoners in Germany live in rooms. They look more like hotel rooms rather than prison cells. They sleep in proper beds, so not concrete bunk beds with mattress pads thrown on top. Guards at German prisons are advised to knock before going into prisoners' rooms. They have privacy. They don't have just bars. If prisoners are hungry, they can walk to the communal kitchen and cook their own meals. They get paid for work. They have opportunities to leave the prison and hang out with their family, learn skills, get an education. They can even decorate their little hotel room. That's where he's at right now?

26:22Yeah. It said German prison cells look more like maybe dorm rooms at liberal arts colleges. You get phones in your hotel cell so that you can call anyone at any time that you want. You can even call the media if that's what you want. You get forks and knives, like real forks and knives. I mean, it honestly doesn't even sound like a prison. And I do just want to disclaim something. I think the US prison system is not great at all. I mean, I've been pretty vocal about wanting to learn more about the system in general and how it targets the underprivileged. and clearly Germany is doing something all right since they have lower crime rates than the US.

27:00They have less re-offending criminals. But for this case in particular, a lot of netizens were angered that an American tourist killed two American citizens abroad. He should face American prison. Yeah, yeah. Why is he not here? Because the crime took place in Germany and there is no plan to extradite him to the US. Wow. Now, a lot of netizens are just really pissed off about all of this. I mean, the idea that he tried to kill two successful, hardworking women that would have been incredible figures in their communities, workplaces, and even just in society, just because he felt like it was his right to, just because he felt like he could and that he was above them somehow and he could just discard them like that as if like they're objects.

27:42So after all of that, he's going to be decorating his little hotel cell with construction paper art and eating snacks on his foam mattress bed while chatting on the phone. That's crazy. I mean, the idea of that to a lot of netizens was insane. A lot of netizens demanded he be brought back to the U.S. so he could be tried for murder and potentially face the death penalty here since Germany won't do that for him. Most people that are sentenced to life in prison for murder in Germany, they get out in 15 to 20 years. people argued, even if he were to be in the U.S. and get the death penalty, how is this a life for a life if the two lives aren't even equal to begin with?