In short
Podcast Episode Summary: Rotten Mango - Episode: 5yo Child Found DEAD In Ceiling Of Chinese Restaurant Run By Parents
Episode Overview The episode centers around the tragic case of a five-year-old girl named Ashley Zhao, who was found dead in the ceiling of her parents' Chinese restaurant. The podcast delves into the background of the case, the investigation, the dynamics of Ashley's family, and the eventual confessions of her parents, Liang and Ming Ming.
Key Themes and Concepts
The Initial Search for Ashley
- Context of Disappearance: Ashley's parents reported her missing after they claimed she was sleeping in the restaurant while they worked. After a busy evening, they could not find her.
- Police Investigation: Officers conducted a thorough search of the restaurant, including the walk-in freezer, but did not initially look up, where Ashley was ultimately discovered.
Family Dynamics and Background
- Parental Relationships: Liang and Ming Ming are portrayed as a struggling immigrant family, with various pressures including cultural expectations and economic hardships.
- Child Care Issues: Ashley had been raised by her paternal grandparents for the first four years of her life, leading to issues of attachment and discipline once she returned to her parents.
Investigation and Interrogation
- Contradicting Statements: Liang provided conflicting information during his 911 call, raising suspicions about the family's narrative.
- Interrogation Techniques: The podcast discusses the psychological aspects of police interrogations and how officers attempt to extract confessions from suspects.
- Confession of Guilt: Ming Ming eventually confessed to hitting Ashley, which led to her death, while Liang attempted to deflect responsibility onto her.
The Circumstances of Ashley's Death
- Abuse Claims: Evidence gathered indicated a history of abuse, with Ashley reportedly having multiple bruises and signs of trauma.
- Cover-Up Attempts: After Ashley died, Liang and Ming Ming attempted to conceal her death by placing her body in a container in the restaurant's ceiling while continuing normal operations.
Legal Outcomes
- Charges and Sentencing: Ming Ming pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received a 22-year sentence, while Liang received a 12-year sentence. The legal implications were complicated by their immigrant status and concerns over child welfare.
Key Takeaways
- Cultural Sensitivity: The podcast emphasizes the complexities of cultural expectations and the immigrant experience, particularly in relation to parenting styles and societal perception.
- Psychological Insights: There are discussions around the psychological impact of stress on parental behavior and the potential for abuse, particularly in families dealing with external pressures.
- Child Welfare: The case sparked discussions about child protection laws and the responsibilities of parents, raising questions about how to identify and intervene in similar situations.
Public Reaction and Community Impact
- Community Shock: The episode captures community reactions to Ashley's death, illustrating the shock and disbelief that such an incident could occur in a seemingly normal family environment.
- Calls for Justice: There is an outcry for accountability and justice for Ashley, reflecting broader societal concerns about child safety and protection.
Conclusion This episode of Rotten Mango provides a chilling exploration of a tragic case that raises significant questions about child welfare, parental responsibility, and the dark realities that can exist behind closed doors. The narrative is crafted with sensitivity to the complexities involved, offering listeners a detailed account of a heartbreaking story.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02There are only so many places you can hide inside of a restaurant. But the problem is almost every single spot is relatively easy to search. The bathroom requires someone sticking their head under the stall. You're going to be caught. They're going to peer. They're going to make sure nobody is hiding and they're going to see you. The stock rooms, the kitchen, same thing. You get one person poking around, hide and seek is over. There's not that many hiding spots, which leaves just that one door, the steel door. It's like the size of a small closet. Sometimes the room is, it's like a small room.
0:38And if you step inside and you close that door behind you, you might as well have taken a portal to a different world because once that door clicks shut, the gasping, the shivering, the numbness, you can't feel your ears, you can't feel your fingers. You're trying to bang on the door to be let out, but you're more clumsy. It's normal because this is exactly what happens when you are trapped inside of a giant freezer. The idea of working with a freezer big enough for you to walk into and then being trapped inside of one has seemingly become one of the top 15 slightly irrational fears of the everyday person.
1:12I have yet to step foot inside of a commercial walk-in freezer, but I do have random perhaps intrusive thoughts about being trapped in one. So much so that there are ask reddit threads asking people in the hypothetical world, if you were to be trapped inside of a commercial walk-in freezer for the night, let's say at a restaurant, what do you do to survive? Nobody's coming until the morning. The answers really don't do anything to make you less paranoid. I would take the cold boxes of food and create an ice shelter type of structure. So you want to prevent the blowing air from cooling you down to the point of hypothermia.
1:49That's how you're going to circulate your inner warmth. Another professional Reddit survivalist writes, many restaurants have large plastic bags in or on those wire racks. If that's the case, take two bags, wrap yourselves in them, utilize your body temperature by breathing inside the bag, but not enough to suffocate yourself. Come out for air every now and then. You'll last eight hours. One person comments, I worked at a fish and chip shop once, got loads of pies and food and, you know, stuff back there. I would just stuff them into my clothes. I would put them in my pants. I'd put them in my shirt.
2:23Yeah, they're frozen pies. It's going to feel freezing for the first 10-20 minutes and then after that it'll actually somewhat insulate you that's how it works that is crazy how creative people are yeah i mean probably the best advice the most simple advice comes from one professional that works with industrial freezers he says best thing to do if you're trapped find something to stick into the fan blade so they stop turning it's going to overheat the compressor outside the cooler is going to stop cooling the temperature alarm is going to sound and then you'll get out. Obviously, this is after you check to see if the emergency exit method is not already working, which surprisingly a lot of people report in the restaurants that they work at, it never functions well.
3:03Naturally, it is one of the very first places the police officers check for the little missing girl. What if she accidentally walked into the freezer and somehow got locked inside? They start going through the bins, the grocery bags filled with raw meat inside of the freezer. She is not here. They check and they double check. And when they're done, they walk out of that commercial freezer. It's clear she's not in the freezer. But that is the thing. Even police have their blind spots. When looking for five-year-old Ashley, they look everywhere. They look on the shelves. They look under the chair.
3:38They look in the bags. They look inside that commercial walk-in freezer. But while they're in the freezer, did they ever think to look up. This is the case of Ashley Zhao, the five-year-old girl that was found in the walls of a Chinese restaurant.
4:12we would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for rotten mango to support baby to baby they are a non-profit that provides essential items to more than 1 million children across the country. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. I would also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. Now, first, a disclaimer for today's case. There are mentions of CA resulting in death, so please take time if that's too much, and I'll see you in the next one. And secondly, this case is incredibly multifaceted.
4:42Any mentions and details included in this episode should not be taken as fuel for like some sick anti-immigration xenophobic narrative or just hatred against Chinese people or China. At the same time, one's immigration status and culture should not be used as a reasoning or as an excuse for their crimes, especially when a Syria says murder. So these are just the facts of the case. And additionally, most of you guys are, sometimes I feel like you guys are a little too smart for your own good sometimes. But so this doesn't apply to you, but the very small percentage of people without working frontal lobes, please exercise a bit of common sense and nuance.
5:20Don't use this video as justification for avoiding small businesses or Chinese restaurants and avoiding mom and pop shops and allegedly finding an acrylic nail, allegedly in a crumble cookie. That's a valid reason to question the hygienics of a restaurant. Seeing that a restaurant is owned by a particular ethnicity or serves a particular cuisine is not a valid reason to question the hygienics. which is a thing I'm seeing all over Reddit. Lastly, any comments, opinions, criticisms are from netizens that we found online during our research and not a reflection of our personal thoughts on this case.
5:51So with that being said, let's get started. The top four most dangerous jobs in the United States. Can you guess them? Like probably like a lumberjack or something. No, not lumberjack. Yeah, logging workers. Logging workers. So logging workers is the most dangerous. Then pilots and flight engineers, oil, gas, and mining. And then number four are roofers. and there's two roofers standing up on the roof on top of this pet store. It's 15 feet tall so it's it's not like the most dangerous roof that they've been on but they're being cautious. They get up there 10 a.m they're trying to beat the afternoon sun.
6:23One of the guys he gets close to the edge of the roof. He's just staring into the parking lot. He's like zoning out while he's waiting for his partner to get done with his part and he sees this SUV pull up and he says you know Nothing was out of the ordinary. I wasn't expecting anything. So it just seemed like a normal day. He watches the man get out of the driver's seat. A woman gets out the passenger seat. They don't talk. The two of them go to open the back door where they pull out a young little girl, maybe what, five, six years old. They take her out of the car seat, cover her face with her purple winter coat because it's freezing outside.
6:58And they walk away from their car. It's a pretty anticlimactic experience. I mean, he almost forgot the entire thing until the police start questioning him. because by the time that he saw the three of them, the man, the woman, and the little girl, one of them was already dead. What? A man calls 911. He sounds like he's trying to keep his composure. It's working. He sounds relatively calm. Hey, what's going on? That's literally what the 911 operator says. I can't find my daughter. Okay, how old is she? Five. She just turned five. When's the last time you saw her? This afternoon, probably. Around what time?
7:35I believe four maybe five you haven't seen her in five hours So he's calling around 9 p.m. and saying he hasn't seen his daughter since 5 p.m. This is a five-year-old little girl So it's not even like I haven't seen my 13 year old daughter who went to her friend's house You saw her at five? What was she wearing? She was wearing a purple winter coat. I don't I don't know what those things are called, but they're like not jeans They're like leggings. Yeah Okay, and you haven't seen her in five hours. I mean she was here sleeping Where was she sleeping? The man is explaining that he and his wife own this restaurant, which they have this little mattress in the back, a tiny little mattress, where sometimes one of their two daughters, so they have a six-year-old daughter and a five-year-old daughter, and the five-year-old is missing, and sometimes they just sleep in the back while their parents are working, and now she's gone.
8:19I mean, she was sleeping there. I picked up my older daughter from school. We all saw her sleeping there, and we went to work, and we let her sleep, and we got busy, and then after I got busy, we started cleaning up, and then we opened the door, and she's not there. Do you have any security videos or anything in there? No, no, no. We don't have any security cameras in the restaurant. We've been here for six years and never had security cameras. But we all saw her, all of us. Like my wife, myself, my older daughter. When we came back, when I picked up my older daughter from school, we all saw her sleeping there.
8:50Okay, were there any suspicious people that came into the restaurant at all? Do you think that she could have walked out? Could she have run away? I have no idea. I mean, she was sleeping in the back. It's kind of hard to say. None of your employees had seen her. There's only two of us in the restaurant, just myself and my wife. There's nobody else in the restaurant. There's only three people in the restaurant right now. Okay, when you guys left, who was there with you? Who was there with your daughter when you guys left to go eat your other kid from school? My wife. I got my other kid from school.
9:19So I picked up my eldest kid from school. My wife was at the restaurant with the youngest kid. But when we came back, she's here. The little girl is here. My wife is here. The restaurant is open. The restaurant's always open. I usually open up. I dropped my daughter off at school in the morning And then we come here to open up the restaurant And then I go pick her up Okay right now though when you left You said your wife and your daughter left to go pick up your daughter from school No I didn't say that I said that my wife is here all the time Did you hear the whole thing? Yes Was he contradicting himself?
9:49I would say that I think she was having a hard time understanding I don't think that he was blatantly contradicting Or anything was particularly alarming about the 911 call I think the only thing that I would take away from the call that was like a little Is that he seems a little calm However, that could be seen as a positive trait of a father trying to get a goal done a mission done When we came back, it was just myself and my daughter not my wife My wife was here the whole time we came back Okay, so your wife hasn't seen your littlest daughter since around four or five o 'clock either He explains they saw her around four or five everyone The six-year-old saw her.
10:27The wife saw her. The husband saw her. Everybody saw her sleeping. And then the dinner rush came. They were fixing up the dinner rush afterwards. They went to check on her and she's gone. And it's been five hours. Maybe she managed to walk out the back door. And if that's the case, she maybe has a few more hours left. Because if she's been out there for at least a few hours and it's six degrees outside, she doesn't have a lot of time. Six degrees Fahrenheit? Yes. What? If the walk-in freezer is the worst case scenario, at least on first glance, this is the second worst case scenario. Ashley, five-year-old Ashley being lost outside in the cold.
11:07A lot of health inspectors do not like to eat out at restaurants. It's just not a fun time for them. You want to eat dinner with a health inspector, you're probably going to go to their house. It's understandable. Maybe it's safer to cook at home when a ton of restaurants they're inspecting are clearly doing what they call fire drills. You think the health inspector doesn't know what's going on? They know. Manager, owner, eyes get huge. They start ordering employees to do all sorts of tasks. You over there, you over there. They're like managing a drill to cover up all sorts of potential violations, which usually results in creating more violations on the spot.
11:42Or some of them try the distraction method. Divide and conquer. They send people to bombard the inspector to get all their attention so they can't actually focus on the restaurant. and the inspector is thinking that's not working. Sometimes I hear they will form a clique with all the restaurants nearby. Yes. So usually when it comes to one of them, they will alarm the other. Yes. Like there are so many ways around it. I think the health inspectors are the citizen's number one friend and the restaurant's number one enemy sometimes. And one of them just goes by this rule, one health inspector. He said, go to the bathroom.
12:22Before you order, go to the bathroom. Usually in most restaurants, the bathroom and the kitchen are in very similar conditions. One health inspector writes online, at one busy restaurant, there was a bucket under the prep bench. And I thought, what's that bucket? I walked up to it. The chefs were peeing inside the bucket instead of going to the bathroom. Another says, I do remember a steak being returned once. Flipped it over. There was a crispy fried cockroach cooked into one side of it. One netizen writes online, my mom was inspecting a donut shop in California and saw someone changing a diaper on the dough prep table.
13:01Their excuse was, what? We're not open yet. People say, I've seen soup being prepared in five gallon Home Depot buckets on the floor. I've seen soup being prepared without utensils. just using a bare arm to stir the soup. Someone said, I discovered as a health inspector, one of the local restaurants had been washing dishes in the lake behind the restaurant. Another said, I'm not a health inspector, but I worked at a major fast food chain. I had a coworker that would lick her index finger every time she peeled a slice of cheese from the stack of cheese to make cheeseburgers. It was as if she was trying to separate a sheet of paper from a stack of papers.
13:41I would watch her do this all day long. I never said anything to the health department but I sure as hell never ate the cheeseburgers. Another person writes, I worked at another major national food chain, fast food chain. When the health inspector came, the cooks took all the expired food out of the fridge, stored it in their cars by the dumpster until after the health inspector left and then we put it all back. One health inspector said, we kept getting reports of a vanilla ice cream machine with black specks in it. worried it would be grinding metal like a little lock metal that could be a health hazard.
14:17The barrel for the ice cream machine was infested with cockroaches just being ground up and expelled as additional protein. One person writes, you think that's bad? I saw a floor painted with non-slip paint and they literally painted over a dead rat and sealed it there. Considering how bad health inspections can go, Aang's Chinese Cuisine in Ohio is actually not that bad. Aang's is a Chinese carryout restaurant, so you don't really go there to sit and dine in. It's you go there, you order food, you get your dank Chinese food, and then you leave. You pick up, you do to-go orders, you have some tables lined up with some menus and like the soy sauce containers with the chili oil containers, but most of the time you see a row of people standing on their phones waiting for their takeout.
15:06Most of Aang's Chinese cuisine violations include chicken thawing on a rack at room temp. Food should be thawed under refrigerator or running water. Chicken that has been cooked is cooling at room temp. Food should be cooled by placing in shallow pans and placed in the walk-in cooler. And then lastly, chicken has been repackaged into disposable grocery bags. Food that is repackaged must be repackaged into food-grade packaging. These are comments from the inspectors? Yes. Now, regardless, once these problems are fixed, they pass all their health inspections. There's really nothing notable in any of their health inspections, except one that is taken by Inspector Christina, but none of the customers really care for it.
15:46January 4th, 2017, she says, while conducting my inspection, I noticed a little girl hunched down in a small toddler chair in the dry storage room. It caught me off guard because of her presence and demeanor. I only thought the owner and his wife were there. I asked the little girl how old she was And I got no answer And I stared at her and I said Are you three? She responded back Five The girl remained in the same spot during the whole time I was inside the facility Approximately 90 minutes I asked the male owner if she went to preschool or kindergarten And he reported she went to kindergarten But I don't know There was a blue table in the facility By the hallway of the kitchen Had coloring books, crayons, a baby doll another toy.
16:32It was just so strange though. I don't know. It was so odd. The little girl was so quiet and she would only stare at the floor. I thought she was in trouble for something, but I'm not sure. I just thought it was so strange the entire time I was there. I didn't even know she was there too. It was like, she's like a little ghost. Is this an interview or is it? This is a written formal statement, and interview with the officer. I see. A few weeks later, that little girl, five-year-old Ashley, Aung's Chinese Cuisine Restaurant technically has four employees. You've got Liang Dao. So Liang, the dad.
17:10You got Ming Ming, the mom. Jojo is the six-year-old daughter. This is a nickname. This is not her real name, but they refer to her as Jojo, but it's not her government name. And then Ashley is the five-year-old daughter. So there are the four employees of the restaurant. Nobody else works there. It's just the four of them and a 300 item menu. And every single person that walks into the restaurant to order the approximately five to eight minutes that they wait for their food, they will all have very different feelings about this family. Liang the dad is very mild-mannered, very quiet. Mingming the mom, she gives me the vibe of kind of tightly strong, more vocal.
17:50I don't want to say in control, but when I was ordering, I felt like she wore the pants. A former delivery driver does mention that Mingming and Liang seemed like good people. However, I always thought Liang wanted a son. He would say, I want a son, but he didn't have one and I think it bothered him. Do with that what you will. Others think it's just a little bit much to run the entire restaurant with the two of them. I mean, they do the cooking, they do the front of the house, everything. I imagine the hours are pretty insane. One fellow parent at the local elementary school says, my daughter was friends with their oldest daughter, Jojo.
18:25If they wanted play dates, I would have to bring my daughter to the restaurant. But the family unit as a whole is pretty wholesome. I don't think I ever caught them at a bad moment. This is a direct quote from neighbors. Like these are direct quotes from people that knew the family. They're always very polite, a little reserved. The family seems very private, but the two girls by all accounts seem like daddy's girls. But now Ashley is gone and the only lead the police have is maybe she went outside. The doors to the back lead to the back parking lot of the plaza. Once you pass that, it's a pretty dense wooded area.
19:03It's like one of those suburban areas in Ohio where you drive and it's tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, plaza, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, plaza. Those are the trees. She's five. I mean, she could have been anywhere. She could have been taken. We don't know. I mean, has anybody been acting strange recently? Liang the dad says, there were two guys that came into the restaurant on two separate occasions, a few months apart, but twice. I remember because they were asking some weird questions. We thought, like they were trying to see which restaurant to target for a robbery. They were asking like, when are your busiest times?
19:36How long do you stay busy? What time do you close? But I didn't think anything of it after the second time because it just seemed kind of dumb that they would also ask all of that. And probably they realized that there's not much to rob here. So they moved on. But maybe Liang is wrong. Maybe they didn't come for the robbery. Maybe they were looking for something else. Because behind the restaurant in the woods, the police find their very first piece of evidence. And it's not looking good. A pair of black shoes. Too big to be Ashley's. Adult shoes. Like men's sneakers. Over 100 officers are searching the dense woods behind the restaurants all night Civilians are coming out in giant puffer jackets and winter coats to help search One woman in the car is being interviewed as she's going to search I just pray that if somebody took her that they would have the heart to bring her home because I'm sure these parents are in such distress So that night there is a gathering in the plaza of the restaurant with all the locals People are praying.
20:35They're comforting each other. They're praying that Ashley makes it back home And there's at least one person there praying that Ashley will never be found.
20:55Do you know how to tell when someone is lying? I mean, there's so many videos on YouTube of FBI profilers telling you how to spot a liar. There's probably more than four videos on this topic at the very least. but the only way to really tell if someone is lying is to establish a baseline. Figure their unique nonverbal communication habits first and then see if they change when they're being deceptive. But if you don't have the time for that, look for micro expressions. That's what they say. Tell someone good news about your life and watch for a brief flash of a smirk or a grimace before they smile and congratulate you and if you catch it, even for like a split second, Just know that maybe they're not the most happy for you.
21:35Or sometimes it's below the table signs, which actually works. There was a K-drama clip that went viral recently, but there's a reason that it went viral because humans have a very distinct way of communicating. The clip is of a guy and a girl meeting up at a coffee shop. The girl starts crying. The guy gets up to get her tissues, feeling bad for her. But as he's walking back to the table, her back is turned to him. She's still sitting at the table crying. He stops Because just from looking at her back He can tell her body language And she's lying She's not actually crying Can you guess what that body language is?
22:13Like chest up? Like shoulder straight? No She's hunched over crying Oh she's shaking her leg No Yes Her foot is moving up and down She's rocking one foot Her legs are crossed and she's a rocking one foot. Yeah. Which typically doesn't happen when you're crying and distraught. It's very inconsistent. So clearly when adults lie, there are inconsistencies. But is it possible for a kid to lie? I mean, one could argue it's nearly impossible for kids to lie. I actually hate that thing where it's like all kids lie. I get it. Kids go through a phase where they test boundaries and they learn how to communicate.
22:58But I think it's nearly impossible for kids to lie because most of the time adults will be able to spot it. They're not the most advanced at hiding their deception. One of the detectives on site searching for Ashley spots her older sister Jojo sitting off to the side. He decides with consent to ask Jojo again exactly what is it that she saw in that restaurant. Jojo glances around. She makes sure that nobody's eavesdropping and she whispers, mommy and daddy said I can't say what happened. What? What? I don't really know. I'm not sure. Mommy and daddy said, I can't say what happened. Suddenly, the detective is staring at Ming Ming and Liang from across the restaurant.
23:39And it's not adding up. Liang is fidgeting with his hands, talking to other officers, but he almost looks nervous more than anything, which fine. Maybe he is nervous. He's nervous to find his daughter. But Ming Ming, her reaction right now this entire time has been cold. The officer walks up to Liang, the dad. Do you have a recent photo of Ashley? I do not You don't have social media? You don't post them? Do you have a physical album somewhere? No, the only picture I have of her is her passport photo Some people swear by the idea that the only way to lie on a polygraph test and not get caught is to clench your butt cheeks or put a thumbtack in your shoe and every time that you answer a question truthfully you step your toe onto the thumbtack.
24:31Or you clench your butt muscles and you release them slowly to throw off the questions reading. Others say, no, you just have to lie. Like you have to think when they ask you normal questions. So they do a baseline first. Control questions is what they call them. They ask you for your government name, your birthday, who the president is. This is your baseline. This is when you're normal, when you're not stressed out. This is how you're going to be. They said, when they ask those questions, start biting the inside of your mouth. Throw off the baseline. Because that's what they're going to compare the lies to.
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25:01Other netizens say, listen, I've lied on many polygraphs. It's just 90 % breath control. Just sit in the chair and keep a steady breath. Every once in a while during a control question, interrupt your normal breathing rhythm and breathe faster. And then go back to normal. Be very calm. They will ask you the same questions over and over. You will be bored. You will be frustrated. This is a game of patience. With some even saying that the best way to beat a polygraph is during the control questions where they ask you for your name, start counting backwards from 100 by intervals of 7. So like 93, and then from there and there.
25:37Because that makes your, I guess it does something physiologically to you. Or recall emotionally charged memories during childhood to trigger physiological responses that are going to throw people off. It's actually pretty terrifying how a lot of polygraph administrators cannot tell when someone is using a deceptive technique. It's really hard to detect. but that means it could go the other way too. You can completely tell the truth and it will look like you're lying. Liang, the dad, is the first to go. He's welcomed into the interrogation room. He's wearing a black hoodie, dressed comfortably.
26:07But first, the control answers. Do you have any idea what the reason is for this test? To see if I hurt my daughter? Did you hurt Ashley? Answer truthfully by saying the word yes or no. Oh, he's going through a lie detector test? No. If I were to ask you right now, you physically have anything to do with Ashley's disappearance, what would the truthful answer be? No. Have you ever had any psychological counseling? Yes. When was last time? About a month ago. What was going on? What were you having a hard time with? My wife's immigration case. Oh, oh yeah. What is going on with that? Is she going to be deported or something?
26:45So Ming Ming is trying to get asylum in the United States, but it's not working. I don't know. Maybe. But you're an American citizen. Yes. And your wife can eventually become a US citizen. My mom did the process as well. It's harder than it looks. So what are you feeling? What were some of the things emotionally that you're feeling? That my wife might get deported. Okay. I don't know what to do with my kids. So you were worried about what might happen, that she can't take them with her? I don't know. Even if she did, I would still have to support them. On Tuesdays, that's the only day the restaurant closes, what do you do on your day off?
27:24I pretty much do stuff for the restaurant. So you don't have any hobbies or things you like to do? I like to draw, play some games. He's very calm. What is your greatest ambition in life? Wait, how old are you? 34. Honestly, I told my wife I gave up on the personal stuff. I just want to raise the kids. I just want to make sure that they have a good future. Do you plan to have more children than two? Yeah, I wanted four, but it can be tough. What's the single best thing that's ever happened to your life so far? My kids. What's the single worst thing that's ever happened to your life since the day you were born?
28:03Probably this. This is where it starts feeling less like a polygraph and more like a full-blown interrogation. A lot of people would categorize this type of interrogation like being buried alive. So I think it's very interesting when you watch a lot of interrogation tapes, each one has vastly different pacing, but they're all kind of across the board, can fit into different categories. And it always depends on probably the interrogator themselves, how much evidence they actually have on the subject, and then the subject themselves. Each personality is going to be different. But this one is such a clear categorization of being buried alive.
28:38Just soil collapsing on the subject. The overlying feeling is supposed to be every lie you tell buries you deeper and it becomes suffocating. The interrogator asked Lang, why did you agree to take the polygraph today? I didn't know. I thought I was, I thought I had to, you know, has Ashley ever run away before? Run away? Run away from home? She went out the back door before. Okay. I'm just talking about, you know, is she the type to kind of run off and go? No. You say she ran out the back door, ran out of the back room at the apartment? No, at the restaurant. Can you kind of tell me what you did yesterday?
29:17Yesterday? Oh, uh, I'm sorry. I haven't slept for a while, so I don't know what yesterday was. Has Ashley ever wandered off before? Yes, she opened the back door and walked out before. Can she unlock the door herself to get out? Yeah, both my daughters can. They both did it. They're not supposed to do it, but they do it. So how many locks are on the back door that they have to open? None. It automatically opens from the inside. Okay, and then you need a key to get back inside if you're outside? Yes. What do you think happened to Ashley? I don't know. So what do you think? If somebody took your child, what do you think should happen to that person?
29:53What do you want to see happen to them if you find out through the investigation that someone took your child, she was just wandering around, and they picked her up and took her? I would want her back. What do you think should happen to that person? Go to jail. What would be the possibility that an accident happened inside the restaurant? the possibility of an accident happening inside to where she got hurt really, really bad. I guess it's possible. I'm asking you because I have to look at every possibility when I'm doing the polygraph, okay? The child walks out the door and a very unfortunate thing happens.
30:28Someone picks her up and takes her and now they have their own child. Maybe there's an accident. She gets burned with grease or something and the next thing you know, she's laying lifeless. You're scared. You don't know if police are going to believe you or not. So you just take her body and hide it somewhere. I have to look at that possibility because unfortunately those things happen as well. But if you know what happened to your daughter, you need to tell me because there's an awful lot of people right now looking for her. A lot of people more than you can imagine. Highway patrols got helicopters, airplanes, they've got dogs, they've got all kinds of people looking for her.
31:01But if you know we're never going to find her, you need to let us know right now because these people are away from their families and they will be for days and days and days. And that's not fair to them if you know, in fact, where Ashley really is. The other possibility would be that you sold her. What? Unfortunately, a lot of people do this. They sell their own children. But if you know what happened, you need to tell me. We got to stop. You're giving me a lot of stuff and I haven't slept in a really long time right now. I don't think I want to do this. A lot of other people aren't going to sleep until they find her.
31:43We owe it to you. We owe it to everybody. We owe it to Ashley. I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open right now. I've had five minutes of rest since yesterday and I slept, I don't know how much. You ask all these tough questions and I'm starting to get scared. What are you scared of? Do you know something that you haven't told them? I mean, look, I'll be your spokesperson for you. I know those people. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to tell what you need to tell. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to. And I will go right beside you. I won't make you do it by yourself, but you've got to tell me what's going on.
32:12I'm scared if I continue with this test and it shows that I'm lying or I'm trying to fake the test or something, it's going to reflect badly. You're right. It will reflect badly. And we don't want that. No, we don't want that. And I told you I'm having a really hard time concentrating and sitting here. I can't even really keep my eyes open. I just keep blinking. Can you tell us where she is? Can you tell us what happened to her so we can at least go find her? Can you at least do that for us? I'm just afraid for my wife, that's all. Why? What did she do? Huh? What did your wife do? Did she make a mistake?
32:44No, her deportation, you know. I get that, but I don't care about that. It's not about your wife. It's about your daughter. We just want to find your daughter. No, my whole family is going to fall apart. Can I just go home first? I know you know something. I just want to be able to call off all these people if I can. If I can send them home, that's all I want to do. I just need a little more time. That's all. Do you have any idea where she is? If we just know where she is, you don't have to tell me the rest of the story. I just want to know where we can find her. I just need a little more time.
33:19Do you know where she is? Would you tell me that? Do you know where she is? The longer this goes on and then they find out all along you could have stopped it and you didn't, gloves are off. There's nobody that's going to deal with you. Nobody's going to feel sorry for anybody and it's going to get really ugly. And I don't want that to happen. There's no reason for that. I don't want it to happen. You don't want it to happen. You don't have to explain to me, but at least let us go get her. That's all we want to do so that we can send everyone home so they can at least spend their evening with their loved ones.
33:48I know. I know. I understand. Okay, I really do. But you know, it's not just my wife. It's my whole family that's going to... Can I just leave? Can I just leave for a little while? Just let me go back home to my wife and see my kid. I just want to see my kid. You're not going to tell us, are you? I just want to see my kid and my wife. I want to help, but I can't help if you don't help me. I'm going to reach my arm out to you. I'm going to reach my hand out to you and I take my hand. I'm here to help you. Look at my hand. It's shaking. It shakes when I'm nervous, but I'm putting my hand out to you.
34:22Please. I don't, it was an accident. We didn't mean for this to happen. What happened? Did she fall? No. Something gets spilled on her? No. Somebody fall on her? No. Was she playing and she got hurt? No. Just tell us so we can at least go get her. I mean, I'm still going to go to jail. But what did you do wrong? Why would you go to jail? Because I hit a dead body. The police are searching for Ashley in the woods and near the restaurant. They unlock the front door to Aang's cuisine. This is not their first search of this entire restaurant, but now they know for sure that they're looking in the right direction.
35:01They start going through, combing through the entire place again, but this time with a lot more patience. They go through the kitchen, the walk-in freezer, the messy storage room, the tiny closet with the mattress in there. And why is there a ladder propped up against the wall, leaned above where the walk-in freezer is. So on top of the giant commercial walk-in freezer, there's a crawl space. And they shine the light. Look, the tiles are not even even. Get the ladder. We've got to go up there. So the light detector test, when was that taken? The next day? The next day. So they've been searching.
35:38They call that 9 p.m. They've been searching all night into the day. And the light detector test is taken. And then after that, this is when the police is going back to the restaurant. I mean, I do think that the police were suspicious of the couple from the get-go. But they're honing in now. They're no longer focusing on the woods. They're inside the restaurant. The first officer calmly pulls down the first tile, places it on the ground. He shines his light into this tiny little crawl space. And it is storage. There's photo albums, wedding photos of Ming Ming and Liang. He starts taking some of them down.
36:14And in the back, he sees like these few plastic bags that smell. He grabs them and he opens them as gently and as quickly as possible. And inside he sees skin. Dried fish skin and dried chicken. He shines his flashlight deeper into the crawl space. And now he's like, there's really nothing left up here. I'm so confused. he sees in the very back shoved deep into the crevice of the cross space is a bussing container like you know those gray plastic containers that in restaurants they use to take the dishes off the tables those little plastic tubs oh oh yes like when you yeah so this is all above the ceiling you're saying it's like a tiny little cross like a mini attic but it's not even really an attic so the ceiling is flat it's one ceiling but because the fridge the freezer is not tall enough there's a cross space above it oh there's some duct like a little bit of space maybe like a cabinet so they connect the freezer to the ceiling and that's a little yes so they're going through that and he's just sees that bucket left so he starts slowly pulling it towards him it just looks like more storage.
37:31He pulls it closer and closer and he hears like a shaking noise. It's salt. It's like filled with salt and just placed up here. Kind of weird, but I mean, maybe it's not the most hygienic restaurant. They brush away some of the salt and inside is a black plastic bag. And inside of that, in a fetal position, is Ashley. All the major news networks in Ohio are reporting breaking news. We have confirmed here at the scene that five-year-old Ashley's body has been found inside of her parents' restaurant. So continuing with this timeline, people are just trying to add two and two together now. That means that for eight to nine hours, Ang's restaurant has been fully operating, serving customers cooking while the owner's deceased five-year-old daughter was in the back.
38:17The forensic pathologist has to remove all the salt covering Ashley's body, all those little white specks. They conclude that the cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head and the torso. A lot of the officers did not like the parents from the get-go. One even goes into detail in his report, eyes were not bloodshot, no crying and mucus from the nasal cavity. They just think, that's not how you act when your child is missing, unless you're not their parent. Ming Ming and Liang have been telling Ashley for months, I am your mom. This is your dad. That person is not your mom. Stop calling them your mom.
38:55I'm your mom. But it is not clicking with Ashley. Every time she sees Ming Ming and Liang get intense about all of this, she starts crying. She starts acting out. Ming Ming explains to the officers it's because Ashley was raised by Liang's parents, her paternal grandparents. Ever since she was young, Ashley literally thinks that Liang's mom, her grandma, is her real mom. Ming Ming says, I need to talk to her to explain to her, I'm your mom Grandma is daddy's mommy It's not your mommy I'm your mommy You are from me From my belly, okay? It's so hard to talk to her When she's not even four Mingming and Liang are sitting In separate interrogation rooms now In the police station Ashley's body has been found At first, Mingming tries to Not very convincingly But attempts to try and tell the investigators That maybe someone brought up the idea That perhaps Ashley was taken She says, I don't know The lady told me She thinks someone took her so this is next day the body has been found both parents are in the police station and she hasn't been told that the body is found no in Ming Ming's interrogation room there's a female and male interrogator as well as a female Chinese translator that will come in and out the detectives try to explain how he sat with Jojo alone to ask her questions and he asks Ming Ming and it's very interesting Ming Ming has her hands placed on the table they're folded it's almost like she's in a work meeting Do you know what I asked your oldest daughter?
40:22I asked her, I said, where's your sister at? Do you know what she told me? Mommy and daddy don't want me to tell you what happened. Ming Ming scoffs. No way. She's not going to say that. Can I tell you something else? Sure. We found Ashley. Okay. She's deceased. Ming Ming tilts her head a bit and says, what? Do you want me to tell you where we found her? or do you want to tell us what happened? I don't know. Ming Ming, I think you are a good caring person that was overwhelmed by a lot of things because that's what you were telling us. And I think you're a good mom. Life can be overwhelming at times.
41:01I've got four kids. I know. The female detective leans in. What happened at the restaurant? What are you talking about? We know something happened at the restaurant, so we're trying to figure out what led up to that. I don't know. I think accidents happen too. And I think that there could be something that happened that was an accident. And you didn't mean for it to happen. Or your husband didn't mean for it to happen. JoJo didn't mean for it to happen. So we need to figure out some sort of accident happened so we can understand. I just know what JoJo told me. How do you think she's feeling right now?
41:34This is the male detective. I don't know. You have to think about JoJo. You're a caring mom. And you got a little girl that looks up to you. Mingming sits there. Her shoulders go up. She sighs. It's like a mom that has to explain for the fifth time that why is the spaghetti noodle shaped like that? I'm not a caring mom. She said I'm not a caring mom? Yeah. Why do you say you're not a caring mom? Why do you say I'm a caring mom? Because I can tell you take care of Jojo. Yeah, I take care of kids all the time. She has a brief moment with the translator where the translator has to explain to her that caring means loving.
42:13So it appears that maybe she doesn't know what the word caring means. Then they just skim over it. Ming Ming, you're not even crying. You're not even crying. I can't. Why? Because I can't. I don't have any, I don't have any water anymore. Okay, I understand that. But what happened to her? How did she end up dead in your restaurant? What happened to your daughter? The male detective on the side starts getting aggressive with Ming Ming. He leans forward. He's raising his voice. Your daughter is dead, Ming Ming. She's dead. She's dead. She wasn't on the couch. She wasn't on the bed. She's dead in your restaurant.
42:46And now we can sit here and play games all night, but I don't want to do this. I know that you love your daughters. You told us. Do you think that Jojo wants to go through this and lose her sister? Do you want to sit and play whatever and say, I don't know what happened? What happened to Ashley? How did she end up dead in your restaurant? Silence. Your daughter is dead. I just don't understand. You said you have nothing left. Isn't that what you told me? You don't have any tears left. You have nothing left. Ming Ming, your daughter is dead. I just don't understand that. I'm to the point where I'm crying for your daughter.
43:15I'm not expecting you to cry, but there's the death of a five-year-old little girl. The energy in this tiny room feels like maybe it's a little bit much. Everybody steps out, leaves Ming Ming alone with her thoughts, and now just the male detective returns. He plops down across from Ming Ming. It looks like he's plopping down in front of his teenage kid who he just caught sneaking out. He looks disappointed. He looks disgruntled. He looks like he would rather be, I don't know, 50 other places. What are we going to talk about? Ming Ming shakes her head no. I'll listen. I don't have any more to say because I know that you're just going to tell me nothing happened.
43:51I just want to find out what happened to her. I can see it in your eyes that something happened. I'm so tired. Don't you think I'm tired? I was at home with my family last night. Okay, I didn't get no sleep. I woke up. I haven't been to bed since because that's my job. I take pride in my job. Okay. My job is to help people, but also give people closure. Your husband called me because your daughter is missing. That's the report I got. I left my family because it's important for me to come help find your daughter. They are facing off in the interrogation room. Usually the interrogators try to sit on the side.
44:25Sometimes you'll have one interrogator in front, but always someone to the side. This detective is closing in on her. He's sitting square in front of Ming Ming. He's got his arms reaching about halfway onto the table. It's a tiny little table. He's looking Ming Ming straight in the face. He's not letting her look away. She's resting her elbows on the very edge of the table and she is also not leaning back from his gaze or his very intense body language. She's just staring right back. What happened to Ashley? How did she die? I kill her. You killed her? Yeah. How did she die? I just killed her.
45:07And then she died. What happened? What do you mean what happened? What happened to Ashley? I killed her. Okay, what happened? I don't understand. That's what I'm trying to understand. Yeah, I kill her. Did you hit her? Did she trip? Did she fall? Did you hit her? Yeah. Okay, how did you hit her? How? She looks at her right hand that's balled into a fist. How? I used my hand to do that. How many times did you hit her? I don't know. What happened after she died? After she died? She just died. What did you do with her after? Nothing. Just leave her there. That's all. but what happened after that because she didn't just lay there what happened to her after that I told my husband to take care of it so you're telling me that you told your husband I told my husband to take care of it what happened what made you hit her huh I forget I just got angry did something happen that led up to that did something happen or did Ashley say something to you that made you mad I think so I think so because kids always say something and I can't control myself and not kill her.
46:23What did you kill her with? My hand. How many times did you hit her? I don't know. Was it more than once? I guess. She says, I told my husband to take care of it. I need to take care of everything from the restaurant. I only have two hands. I'm not four hands, girl. I'm two hands. I don't want to do that to Ashley, but you can't control yourself sometimes. Sometimes if you do it one time, that means you have to do it two times. If you do it two times and you have to do it three times. I don't want to do that, but I can't control myself. Meanwhile, Liang, the dad, is in the next interrogation room over explaining my wife, she's not a bad person.
47:06I mean, I married her. I wouldn't marry her if she was physically abusive in the beginning because see, my daughter, she's six years old, Jojo, took care of both of us for six years. Not once did my wife physically abuse Jojo out of anger or anything like that. We spanked if she did something wrong, but nothing like the bruises on her or like all over the place that you found on Ashley. My wife is a good person. I know it's very hard to believe seeing Ashley, but look at Jojo. Look at Jojo. Mingming is a good person. She's a good mother. She just has problems. Why didn't you ever report your abuse, abusive wife to law enforcement?
47:40I was worried. I was scared, scared that they're going to take my wife away. It wasn't initially so bad. If it was initially so bad I would have probably reported it but it just escalated and then at that point I was like she has so many bruises on her I can't call it in anymore everything that Ashley does she just I tell Ming Ming to forget about it to just let it be but there's got to be so many bruises on Ashley so many bruises I mean this is for a long time you'll find so many bruises and you're gonna put my wife away you're gonna put me away because even knowing what my wife did those things I didn't do anything about it I just Ashley has a lot of well what would Ashley do what would Ming Ming do to Ashley?
48:15Would Ming Ming twist her arm, kick her? Would she hit her? What happened? Pretty much all of it. He explains that Ashley was raised by his parents for the first four years of their lives, her life. And since Ashley got back, maybe not even a year ago, they just, it's been rough. He says that his parents call nonstop. They send relatives over to tell Ming Ming that she's a horrible mother. He says, my mom started telling my wife that she's doing it wrong, that she's raising Ashley wrong. That kind of got to my wife because it's, you know, your own daughter. And then your mother-in-law's telling you that you're not doing it right.
48:48You're not supposed to be doing what you're supposed to be doing. That's one thing. And then you got to look after your own daughter. She's four. She's not potty trained. She doesn't know her last name. She doesn't know if she's a boy or a girl. And the list goes on and on with all these things. And she finally knows that she's a girl because we taught her that and we taught her her last name. But initially when we got her back from my parents, she didn't know. And combined with the fact that my mom kept telling my wife that she's doing it wrong and seeing how Ashley was actually raised. The combination of the two just made my wife really angry.
49:17And the more my wife saw Ashley being that way, not being able to be potty trained and just getting angry. It's always when Ashley does something that Ming Ming gets triggered by. He tries to argue that every time Ashley would not be potty trained, it's a reminder for Ming Ming about her mother-in-law criticizing her. What? Yeah.
49:47As for what happened yesterday, Liang tells the full picture, whereas Mingming doesn't. Liang says that he went to go drop off Jojo from school. He comes home and he recognizes that Ashley had defecated in her diaper. So she pooped in her diaper because she's not potty trained. And which, by the way, I've got a very firm stance. If your child is not potty trained, that's on the responsibility of the parent. It's not the child. The child does not potty train themselves. She pooped in her diaper. And then I think she was so uncomfortable with the poop in her diaper because obviously it's very not a great sensation.
50:22She took off her diaper, which led to some of the poop falling onto the floor. Liang walks in. Mingming is smashing Ashley's head into the carpet. In the restaurant or at home? At home. She stops. they let her be she's making these snoring sounds and he says this isn't the first time that her head has been smashed into the carpet so he didn't think anything of it he thought it would just be fine that he she was hyperventilating which that snoring sound we talked about that in like the previous episode that's not you're not sleeping like he thought that she's sleeping or she's hyperventilating so about a good five minutes pass and all this vomit starts coming out of ashley She starts having green fluid come out of her nostrils.
51:05They take her, rinse her off in the bath. They still, I guess, don't think anything of it. They bring her back to the living room and she's still breathing. And then a few minutes later, he goes to check up on her on the living room floor and she is no longer breathing. He starts freaking out and that's when they decide they need an alibi. So they're going to dress her in her clothes, put her in the baby seat, take her from their apartment door to the car, buckle her into the car seat, drive their deceased child to the restaurant, unbuckle her. That's when the roofer saw her. She was already deceased by this point.
51:42They're going to keep her in the back of the restaurant while they open up for business, business as usual. And then he's going to go pick up Jojo. Jojo's going to see her sleeping in the mattress on the back so that she doesn't have to lie so that she can tell the truth and they look more credible as a family. And then after Jojo leaves for a second to get a tooth pulled out in the front, Liang moves Ashley's body on top of the cross space. It's sick and twisted that they're using their eldest daughter as an alibi. But he also says, you know, I didn't know it was going to be this serious. He just thought that he was going to call 911 and they were going to say, okay, your daughter is missing.
52:18He said, I didn't know the procedure. We didn't think that I was going to be coming down here taking a polygraph. I was going to be asked so many questions that it was going to be involving so many people. If we knew that there was going to be a hundred people searching, maybe even more. I don't even know. I'm just sorry. Getting back to that night, you guys actually cooked and served meals while your daughter was laying there. Yes. And went on business as usual. Yes. I kind of wish this didn't happen this way. My wife and I were both afraid that we were going to lose our daughter. We were going to lose our family, the restaurant, the house that we were buying, everything in our lives that we worked so hard for in the past six yours was going to be gone see he is so acting like he's so nice right he's saying i i didn't know my wife is nice i'm just cleaning up i'm scared this and that this and that he doesn't even care the daughter died yeah later he keeps calling ashley it did you and your wife both agree on putting her there in that container i mean we talked about places and i said this is probably the best place to do it.
53:18You know, it's well ventilated with the salt in it and we're not going to be worried about the temperature because it's cooler up there. Now, side note, there are speculations by netizens and as someone who knows a lot of people close to me that are autistic, there are speculations that perhaps Ashley was on the spectrum. At one point in the interrogation with Liang, the dad, he shows the police how Ashley was standing, which seems to irk him to the point where it sounds like he's almost justifying their abuse to Ashley in some regard. He says, this is how she would stand. I don't know where you get that.
53:48I don't know how she did that. But my mother never corrected her. And this is not how a person stands. So he stands up in the interrogation room. He takes off his hoodie for this demonstration. He stands on his tippy toes and his arms are bent. And a lot of people with autism call them like T-Rex arms. And they could be indicators for younger children where maybe diagnosing is a little bit harder. this seems to be something that some doctors who specialize in the diagnosis look for and that her hands would be kind of bent at the elbows and then bent at the wrist with her hands kind of flapping forward and then sometimes she would put all of her weight on just one foot and then the other one would just be tippy-toeing and again tippy toes is another sign that a lot of parents with autistic children look out for this is liang we would tell her to put both feet down both hands down and she would just do that pretty much we correct her she would do it we correct her she would do it a lot of it just there are a lot of things that we felt like my mom had her for four years she should have corrected these things because they're not normal so every time Ashley would do something like that it would trigger my wife and he says that's the reason that Ashley was getting abused whereas Jojo wasn't because when they got Ashley back from his parents they said there were so many quote problems that Ashley could not feed herself she was still in diapers.
55:09She didn't know how to use the restroom by herself. She was not potty trained. She didn't even know how to go into the refrigerator to get something. One family friend said, I've seen Ashley. If she was thirsty or wanted something, she would walk to the refrigerator, point. They would have to walk to the refrigerator, open it, and then she would point to what she wanted. She was still in a high chair because she didn't know how to use eating utensils, hold a cup. And again, I just don't know why any of the adults, even this family friend, is talking about it as if it's something wrong with Ashley.
55:36I don't think anything's wrong with Ashley. And if someone is upset by, I guess, maybe her development, it's up to the parents to work on that. I think it's crazy that they're talking about her like she's weird, like something's wrong with her when nothing is wrong with her. They would say things like, so Ashley was almost like an infant in a five-year-old's body. And again, they're almost placing the blame on Ashley when it's on the parents. Liang says, we would have to feed her like even a regular piece of sliced bread. It would take her over and half an hour to eat. My mom had her on a liquid or semi-liquid diet.
56:07She has problems processing solid foods. That's why it takes her so long to eat. Clearly, they have no intention of getting her help though because he says, we didn't take her to the doctor. We were afraid because the doctor would see, you know, that she's bruised all over the body. Interestingly enough, people, a lot of people don't even know that they have two daughters. A lot of them only know Jojo And there are speculations that because maybe Ashley was not what they perceived as neurotypical, they didn't want people to know that she was their daughter. And it's kind of gross because in Liang's interrogation, he continues to state that, yeah, okay, fine.
56:43Ming Ming's going to jail. I'm going to jail. But guess what? I don't want Jojo to be raised by my family. I want her to go into foster care. He said if Jojo is raised by his family, they're going to turn out the way Ashley did. He says jojo's gonna turn out the way ashley did he says I just don't want my family to raise my kids I'm, just afraid they're gonna turn out like ashley and then my wife is gonna hate her And even as he's being taken to prison He says I just don't want my mom to have contact with my oldest daughter jojo Okay Not that she's a bad person. It's just what happened with ashley.
57:14I'm really afraid she's gonna raise jojo the same way In prison in jail the couple have turned on each other Ming Ming's attorneys have accused Liang of harming both Ming Ming and their two daughters Those allegations did not come back up in court But Ming Ming confided in a psychiatrist in prison That Liang was the one responsible for Ashley's death She claims that she was instructed by him to tell the investigators That she was the sole person responsible for Ashley's death With some people, some netizens actually can agree with this theory Because the way that she's confessing in the interrogation It's vague And it's like, I killed her, let's get it over with I did it get me oh you're saying she did all she said was I she killed her with hen yes and she didn't give any more details every detail is from him yes and then some netizens are digging deeper psychologically and saying perhaps even her flippant attitude so a lot of people when they first see the interrogation it's like wow this lady is crazy and she is crazy right but some people think what if she thinks she's doing something for her eldest daughter like she's taking one for the family yeah i think she's clearly crazy but i think the husband's more scary yes terrifying everything the whole way he carried himself like my wife is such a good person but also she murdered our daughter in cold blood yeah he's in his mind he the story he tells is oh i love my wife and i'm protecting her yeah but truly if you think more he's like yeah clearly messed up so the argument by this people that believe and again nobody is feeling sympathy for mingming but they're saying that maybe liang is the one that killed the daughter and perhaps mingming took the fall because mingming is not in the u.s yeah legally so she doesn't have her papers yeah yeah and so maybe she thought either way if he goes to prison I'm going to get deported and then Jojo's going to have nobody.
59:14So what exactly did she say? She said he killed the daughter. Yes. And that he has been abusive to not just her, but also the daughters. And he threatened her. If you don't take the fall, you're going to get deported. And Jojo's going to go into foster care and I'm going to go to prison. And then she says that she originally took the hit for it until she realized that he requested Jojo to be sent off to foster care regardless. and the netizens who believe this theory not again no sympathy for ming ming but they have scoured through the ang's chinese cuisine um restaurant facebook page there are just back to back posts of liang running that page and saying sorry we're closed today because my wife is sick my wife is sick so people are commenting very odd that this place was closed so many times due to his wife being ill they thought maybe he was being abusive now october 12th 2017 initially Ming Ming pleads not guilty to murder by reason of insanity.
1:00:10She ends up taking a plea deal. She pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges and under that plea deal she has been sentenced to just 22 years in prison. The judge says the horror of being beaten by her own mother. I use the word mother with great pain when talking to you. It's insulting for mothers who do what they're supposed to do for their children. 100 years would not be enough. So why 22 then? It's likely because she is going to be deported back to China Right after her sentence In 2040 Still Yeah Meanwhile, Liang is serving a 12-year sentence For his part of the crime He will be eligible for release in 2030 Which netizens are very upset by Because during his own interrogation with the police He says Let's say I went through with this And I didn't get caught I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for I don't know how long because a dead body is there that I eventually have to get rid of.
1:01:08And if you put it in the ocean, the tide can wash it back. If you bury it, animals can get at it. Someone can find it. If you burn it, there's a chance someone is going to see you because it's going to be a very big fire. You're not going to do it during the day. You're going to do it during the night. So when you're burning a big flame at night, someone is going to see it. We thought about all of this. And honestly, we weren't really too sure what to do after that. One officer writes in his report. During the interview with Liang Jiao, he shows no remorse for Ashley. The only time he showed remorse for was when he found out that he would not be able to see his daughter Jojo.
1:01:42Even during his sentencing, he tells the judge, a year ago yesterday, I lost my daughter. And he says nothing of any substantial value or emotional substance. He continues and takes a weird turn. No one is going to remember my daughter. No one. The people in my family, I don't want to be rude, but none of you remember her. None. It's so strange. and it's just left netizens with like a really bad taste in their mouth. There are a lot of people from the community that are confused, writing, they look so nice. They seemed like good people. Others writing, I remember this case. I was a new mom, and I couldn't even fathom someone being able to do something like that.
1:02:20We all prayed together in front of the restaurant and left flowers and stuffed animals. They actually demolished and rebuilt the strip mall not too long after it happened, but we're never going to forget that poor baby girl. Another comment reads, If your child isn't potty trained at five, that's completely on you. That is the responsibility of the parent, not the child. She's probably under constant stress that she had that little bladder control. Others are traumatized by their Asian parents actually using this case against them. One netizen writes, My mother would probably would have loved to use this case to tell me how good I had it.
1:02:55Weirdly, she always tells me to read child abuse books and tell me how good I have it. Others write, it sounds like poor baby Ashley was autistic and needed early intervention This breaks my heart, I hope they get buried in jail The fact that they use their other daughter and let her see her sister quote sleeping as an alibi Makes me want to throw up The reviews to the restaurant now just read, not child friendly And that is the case of Ashley Jow What are your thoughts? let me know in the comments be safe and I will see you in the next one
From the publisher
There are only a few ways of getting out of it alive. The one rule - no matter how good it feels - DO NOT let sleep whisk you away.
The only options are as follows:
1. Cover yourself completely in plastic and only stick your head out to breathe when necessarily.
2. Crawl into a cardboard box and try your best to stay awake.
3. Take the frozen goods and stick them into your clothing.
That is how you stay alive if you are trapped inside of a commercial walk in freezer. Or at least that’s what they say but the odds of survival do not look good.
The police are concerned that, that is where 5 year old, Ashley, is going to be. Maybe she accidentally locked herself in the freezer with no way out?
The officers look through the freezer bins, cardboard boxes filled with packaged meats, and grocery bags…
She’s is not there.
But that’s the thing about humans - we all have a blind spot.
They looked left, right, under the tables of the restaurant… but have they looked up?
Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com
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