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The Chinese Corpse Pit - Jia Wenge · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In the early nineteen nineties, people began disappearing from the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: small city of Nihi in northeastern China, often after passing
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: through its train station. At first, the cases seemed unrelated
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: runaways or migrant workers and travelers who simply never came home.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: But as the months passed, the numbers grew and the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: silence from authorities. Will it only deepen the fear? What
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: investigators would stumble into while shutting down a simple scam
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: would lead them to uncover something horrific. A dark pit
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: hiding dark secrets beyond the imagination, and it was sitting
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: beneath an ordinary house. This is a story of survival, manipulation,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: death and decay. And I want to warn you this
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: is one of the most, if not the most graphic
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: stories we have ever covered on this podcast. This is
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the story of Giowenge, the Man with the Corpse Pit.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingram.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: A true crime podcast.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Warning.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The following podcast material intend more mature audience listener discretion.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Well, if that's not going to get your attention, I
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: don't know what will.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I really don't Yeah, it's certainly something that's uh gonna
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: bring it right to the forefront of your mind on
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: holy shit, what did I get myself into?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And that's I'm gonna need this.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Ah, fair enough, That's what I was wanting to make
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: sure I do. Giving you a very big warning. This
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is not necessarily a case that gets graphic into murder
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: per se, but it gets graphic into death and decay.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: It gets very gross. Okay, Yeah, I needed to make
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: sure I put that out there today.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So if I was, if my stomach was feeling slightly
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: off before this, how's that going to to be for me?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: We might need to take a break or two, then
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: maybe get you some pepto bismol or who knows what,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: just some way to chill you out a bit, because well,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: gosh dang. And this is actually a Patreon suggested case too.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: This comes from our little case requested chat that we
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: got going on, and Katie Chastain suggested this one, and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: as soon as I saw it, I was like, what
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the fuck?
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Oh Katy, Okay, she can't warn you.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Not really creepy case with a bit of a crazy twist,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that's about all she said. And would love to hear
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a deep dive into it okay, right on, So I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: gave it my best shot, Katie. Hopefully you enjoy what
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I did. But before we actually keep moving on, we
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: got to thank our patrons who did sign up this
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: week over on Patreon, people who sign up just like
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Katie did. We have Jonathan Frazen, Erica Lapham, Carla Stillwell,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Jenny Ubiyah. I think I got it right. I had
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a little phonetic breakdown given to me for that one,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much, Jenny, and I hope I
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: got your name right. Hopefully I did it justice. We
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: also have Haley Littlefair, Michelle Plank, and finally someone who
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: signed up not with a name, but they signed up
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: instead with a little bit of I don't know, do
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: you want to say insight or advice to everyone out there?
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe just a quote they said, grow from the dirt
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: they left you in.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Hm. Okay, that's cool.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a shout out to them and everyone
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: else who joined up on Patreon. They get the behind
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the scenes extra episodes and all that good stuff that
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: comes out over there.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: M hm, that's awesome.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like most people just put their names,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: but there's the odd person that has something a little creative.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I suppose I want to.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: We'll get through. And I don't think it's ever happened
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: yet where someone has a pun that I read it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and it comes out with like, you know, Seymour butts
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Haven't had any of those yet,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure now that I put it out there,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it may happen sooner later.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: But I digress, well, you might catch that. I would
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: be one of those people that would not catch that
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: because I'm just too gullible touche.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, as long as it's not like offensive, yeah,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I'm fine with it, and I'll probably just read it
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: because it's funny.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I know. Sometimes those things are offensive and that's just
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: not okay. Rude yeah yeah, so and then it because
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: it makes the person saying it look like an ass
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and they are just literally reading you know.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But anyways, we've had a lot of really good
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Patreons who haven't made us do that, So I'm pretty
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: happy that we've got a good community of people.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love I love our Patreon.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: It's just I don't know, it's a good place.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Makes me feel good going in there, for sure.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Now, I did give Nicole a little bit of a
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: warning on this case. I didn't tell her much about it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I think I read you like one or two cent
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and says just in descriptions to give you a heads up,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: because there's a lot in regards to this. So I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: warned you off off, Mike, and I'm warning you guys
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: now too. It is very graphic descriptions.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I just have to ask sometimes I'm wondering if that
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: is a warning to me or just you need to
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: needing to get something off your chest, because it's the
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: latter sometimes to me, because I don't really need the
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: warning per se, and I'm like, no, I'm good, Like
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I'll just listen to it live or whatever. But then no,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I gotta tell you this.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: It's there's a mix of that. There's sometimes I got
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to get it off my chest. Sometimes it's like, oh,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I wrote something so good and juicy, I just I'm
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: so excited. I got to I gotta see what you're
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: going to say. You need a pat on the back
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that too. So there's a variety of reasons. Okay, but
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I think all that aside, we should get into the episode.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I think, so, yeah, let's let's rip the band aid
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: off here, all right.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So in the late nineteen eighties, the town of Nihi
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: in Heilongjang Province. I hope I got that right. This
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: is a Chinese case, so I'm going to do my
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: best for all the pronunciations which This province, of course,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: is in northern China, and it sits quietly near the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Russian border, surrounded by farmland, long empty highways and things
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: like that. Winters here well, they can be very harsh
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and endless, while summers are short and crowded with agricultural work.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Life moved according to the seedents, planting, harvesting, and freight
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: trucks moving crops through town. Most residents worked on farmland,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: They did food processing, or worked in small factories for potatoes, beets,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and grain that were the backstone of the local economy.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: During peak season, the railway station became the busiest place
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: in town, filled with strangers passing through, and many were
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: carrying cash and planning to stay only briefly. Housing here
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: was modest and tightly packed. Many families lived in older
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: brick homes and underground vegetable root sellers were used quite often,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and to store some of this food through the winter.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: These cellars were common and nearly ever household had one,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and no one saw them as anything more than a
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: practical necessity, because that's exactly what they were. This is
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a farmland area where people grew and stored food and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: kept it, and it was simple living. Now, social life
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: for many was limited to and their evenings were usually
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: spent at their home or with neighbors. News spread by
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: word of mouth, and personal problems were rarely shared outside
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of the family. Reporting conflicts or abuse or disappearances to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: authority was pretty uncommon, especially in working class neighborhoods. Local
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: police focused mostly on theft, small disputes in public order.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Serious violent crimes were pretty rare, and missing persons reports
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: were often even treated as temporary absences, since many people
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: left town for work without warning and returned weeks later.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Now the town looked like countless other rural communities in
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: northern China. It was quiet, hard working, and largely invisible
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to the rest of the country. Nothing about it suggested
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that within a few years it would become linked to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: one of the most disturbing criminal cases in the region's history.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And it all started on the afternoon of October twenty second,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. Officers were conducting routine surveillance at Sushoe
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Railway station as part of their broader provincial operation, which
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: was targeting theft, fraud, and extortion schemes. At the time,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the train station was among the busiest and most crime
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: prone public space in northern China. A lot of travelers
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: went through here every day, and many of them carrying
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of cash too, not to mention, they're unfamiliar
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: with the area and reluctant to report any minor crimes
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: that occurred. So pickpocketing and small scale robberies were pretty common,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and so were organized scams, particularly a scheme police referred
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to as the Badger game, which was a form of
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: extortion that relied on a combination of both sexual entrapment
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and intimidation. Officers assign to these patrols were trained to
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: watch very closely for any subtle behavior patterns, things like
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: mismatched companions, nervous body language and rehearsed sort of flirtation lines,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and people positioning themselves near conversations but yet not engaging.
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  Speaker 1: On this afternoon, one police officer noticed a woman approaching
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a lone male traveler near the platform. She was well dressed, confident,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and very direct with him. Within minutes, the two were
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: laughing and standing unusually close. Her manner was openly flirtatious,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and to trained officers this looked a lot like some solicitation.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Now what true The officer's attention further, though, was that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a short distance away were two men that were watching
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the pair very closely. They didn't interact with them, but
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: they maintained constant visual contact. When the woman and the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: traveler moved, the men adjusted their position, and when they stopped,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the men stopped. One of the men looked quite large
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and physically strong, dressed in thick work clothes, and he
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: had a posture of someone who was used to manual labor.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: The other man, however, was noticeably different. He was clean cut,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: dressed nice, and well groomed. The officer watched for a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: moment and quietly alerted his partner that he likely found
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a badger game in progress. Now, these groups typically worked
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: in threes. A woman to lure in a target into
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: a private space. One man would then appear and pretend
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: to be angry, be the husband or the partner of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: this woman. The second man would act as a mediator,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: offering a resolution or resolve to the situation in exchange
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: for money. Just pay him off and like that's fine.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So the goal it wasn't exactly to end in any
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: sort of violence, but instead to use embarrassment or fear
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to end up with the victim paying his way out
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of the situation. So most victims in the scenario, they
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: do just that, they pay, they leave without reporting the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: US whatsoever.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Hmm okay, I haven't heard anything like that before.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: It's it's a unique scenario. It's something that's definitely clever
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: when you think about it, because it puts a lot
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of stress and embarrassment on the victim. So you have
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a woman who's, you know, soliciting sex to him for money.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I was going to ask. So she's coming
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: across like she.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Yeh sex worker. Yes.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: So they actually I talk about this here in a minute,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: but they predetermined a price. They're talking about price and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: they agree, like, yes, sex for money, what's the price?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: That's what these two are talking about.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Oh shit.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: In that is when the second guy is like, hey,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: that's my wife, Like what are you doing? And then
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: it gets like this confrontation coming and then the third
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: guy comes in and he kind of separates everyone, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: he's like, okay, miss it just paid, you know what,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: instead of like going to police or escalating this, just
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: give him a couple hundred whatever and we move on.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, Because I was thinking, like, the victims not necessarily
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: doing anything wrong per se, like to be super embarrassed about.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: But then I guess it is probably illegal and they
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: could go to the cops, and yeah, okay.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So if he's soliciting sex, then that puts him in
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a scenario where he doesn't want to contact authority, right, Okay, But.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I mean the woman wouldn't also either, right, So I
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But it's not about the woman. It's about putting pressure
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: in the victim because that woman is part of the team,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: so she already.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Knows okay, interest, So now you.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Have three people against one person who the one person's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: put in a generally bad situation, right, Yeah, just wants
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to just get out of the situation and just move
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: on totally. So the officers watched this, and they watched
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: as this woman led the traveler away from the main
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: concourse area and towards a narrow alley beside the train station,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and the two men followed, but at a little bit
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of a distance. Now, once inside the alley, that's when
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the situation unfolded according to the pattern that officers already
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: recognized and they knew was coming too. The woman stood
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: close to the traveler, touching his arm and speaking softly,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and after a brief exchange, that's when the larger of
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the two men stepped forward and forcefully pushed this traveler
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: against the wall. And that's where things changed. The larger
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: man raises his voice and he accuses the victim of
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: molesting his wife and like, what are you doing, Like,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: that's my wife's sort of thing, like yeah, And so
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the sudden confrontation, it catches the traveler off guard. And
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: now he tried to explain that the woman presented herself
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: as a sex worker and that the money had already
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: been discussed, right predetermined. But the explanation, of course, to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: this bigger guy goes unanswered and basically ignored. So that
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: bigger guy, the large man, continued shouting threatening violence at
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: this individual. He even slapped the woman and accused her
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of betraying him, building up this facade. Now. Moments later,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the second man then stepped in and he positioned himself
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: as the calmer presence. He claimed that the woman's he
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: was the woman's brother in law, and he suggested that
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the conflict could be resolved just privately, right, like it's okay,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Like we can just resolve this here. And he warned
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that this guy, this big guy, had recently been released
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: from prison and was unstable, implying that, you know, any
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: further resistance could lead to some serious harm. So not
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: only can you not go to police, but if you
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: don't give us what we're after, you're likely going to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: get hurt. So pay now and just end it well.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: And they're also very much so aware that this person
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: has money, because they were just about to pay for
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: this act, right exactly, So now they're having to pay
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the money, I guess without getting anything in return exactly.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: So this is all this psychological build up and pressure.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Now that's when this business man or whatever he says,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: three hundred I'm probably gonna get this wrong, going to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: try my best, you on, I think, is how you
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: pronounced the currency there, So three hundred dollars basically in
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Chinese currency in exchange for resolving this confrontation. Pay up,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: you know what, we'll move on. It's all good. You
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: can go on. Everyone's happy now. The officers were watching this, remember,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and they were preparing to intervene. But before they could act, however,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: this is when things went a little different than normally.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: The victim reacted in a way that was unexpected. Instead
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of simply complying like everyone how else generally does, he
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: actually challenged the men and suggested involving the police. Oh okay, yes,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: now this response went against the group's typical routine. People
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: usually just pay up. They're not used to this. Uh huh,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: So now off their usual script to act. The second man,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: who had been acting as the mediator, the business guy,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: He became visibly angry right away, and he struck the traveler,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and the larger men joined in. They jumped him there
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: on the spot, and it was no longer just a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: stage confrontation. It had turned into a genuine assault. So
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: officers moved quickly and identified themselves, ordering everyone to stop.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: All three suspects attempted to flee the scene as fast
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: as they could, running all in the same direction. However,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: backup units had already been called and positioned nearby, so
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: they were intercepted within minutes and taken into custody. Without
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: any sort of further resistance. All three of these suspects
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: were transported to the local police station and placed in
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: separate interrogation rooms. Immediately, officers began their routine inventory check
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of the personal belongings that were on all three of them.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: The woman's bag contained a modest amount of cash, cosmetics,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and personal items. The larger man's belongings were similarly unremarkable.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: It was the bag carried by the well dressed man, however,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: that began to raise some questions. Inside, officers found a
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: large amount of cash, far more than would normally be
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: associated with, you know, just a low level street scam group.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: They also discovered multiple identification documents that did not belong
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to this individual. These included foreign issued IDs and traveler
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: papers that bear different names and photographs on them, none
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of which matched the man in custody. Even more concerning
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was a collection of pharmaceutical substances that he had. Some
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: were sedatives and others were drugs commonly used to induce unconsciousness,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: made for incapacitating someone very quickly. Now they definitely weren't
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: recreational drugs. I need to clarify that. This immediately shifted
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the tone of the investigation because people running these schemes
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: relied on intimidation, not on drugs, so this actually suggested
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: they were running something else, something a lot darker, involving,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: you know, isolating victims and rendering them helpless. Even officers
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: quickly decided to contact regional databases to check the foreign
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: identification documents that they had, and the results were unsettling.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Several of the names they found on these IDs were
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: associated with missing persons reports. In some cases, the individuals
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: had been reported missing months earlier after traveling through northern China,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and none of them had been located whatsoever. They've not
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: been found. So these are all ideas associated with missing people.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty alarming.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Fine, there it is now. The two men were the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: first to be questioned. The larger man, who had acted
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: as the muscle you know in the alleyway conferdence. He
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: remained mostly silent. He answered basic identity questions but didn't
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: offer much else. When it came to the well dressed businessman, though,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: he spoke calmly and very confidently, presenting himself as someone
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: who just made a poor choice. He admitted to participating
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: in this extortion scheme. But he denied any violence, saying
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the group was just harmless scammers and playing down the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: role of it. But neither Man's accounts explained the sedatives
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: or the missing person's connections with the IDs and their possession.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, I just have to say, that's kind of funny
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: because now he's like, yeah, I just want to be
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: like part of a little minor scam and not open
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: this like big can of worms that they discovered in
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: his bag. Now.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Investigators then turned their attention to the woman to see
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: what she would say, and from the very beginning her
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: demeanor was well, it was different than the other two.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Unlike them, she appeared anxious rather than defiant, and she
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: avoided eye contact and often hesitated before answering even simple questions.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Initially approached her very gently, they figured that maybe she was,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you know, a minor participant or possibly even being exploited
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: by the other two, and after several hours of questioning,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: her answers to questions grew shorter, her hands began to
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: tremble even more, and at one point, well she started
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: to ask some questions of her own. First, she asked,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you know, can she get some feminine hygiene products? And
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: some other things like that, and she's trying to talk
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to investigators, and eventually she told them, I need to
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: talk to the director of homicide. This statement alone made
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the hair on the back of the investigator's next stand up.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: On end. It suggested that she believed her information, whatever
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: it was, involved deaths, not just financial crimes. Investigators immediately
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: paused the interview and contacted their superiors. When questioning resumed
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: with the senior officers, the woman told them that the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: two men that were with her not just scammers. She
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: said they were connected to multiple different murders. According to her,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: dozens of people had been killed and buried beneath the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: house in Nihe. She claimed the bodies were hidden in
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: pits beneath the kitchen floor. Now, at first, officers struggled
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: to understand what she was even saying her story sounded
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: so extreme, even implausible. Mass murder on the scale that
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: she was talking about was almost unheard of in the region,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and sensing officers hesitation, she tried to explain her urgency
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: in a flat, resigned tone, even as if she's already
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: accepting her fate. She knows what's going to come of this,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: but she's still blatantly needing to get it out. Quote.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: If you listen to me, you will be a hero.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: You will save people, but I will be executed. Quote.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: It sure's not taking very much for her to come
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: about all this, though, hey and share her story. I
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: guess she just realized she's fucked. It's going to come
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: out anyway.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe, but it's I don't know.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised that she's just like ooh right away. But
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: maybe she also needs to get off her chest.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Like you said, or maybe there's more to it that
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you don't know yet.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Touche. We we're very new into this, aren't we.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Dunt dun duh. Okay, I'm going to continue now. As
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: she went on, she wasn't vague but very specific in
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: her detailing. Investigators took very careful notes and asked her
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to repeat all these details, and each time her account
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: remained consistent, it didn't change when they asked her to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: repeat it. At this stage, police could not confirm whether
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: she was telling the truth or not, but they couldn't
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: dismiss her either, So after the statement was formally recorded,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: investigators faced an immediate problem. Her account pointed to a
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: mass scale murderer. Operation in Nihi, but there was no
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: active case on record that matched what she was describing.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: So before committing to you know, spending resources such a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: serious allegation, they needed to confirm with the local authorities first.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: So an officer contacted the Kniehe City Police Security Bureau
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and provided the details, the suspect's name, the alleged address,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and the claim of these multiple bodies in a residential house. Now,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: this responding officer in Nihi reported that they had no
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: major homicide investigation open and that there were no registered
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: cases involving dozens of missing persons connected to a single address. Now,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: this directly contradicted what investigators in Suso had been seeing
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: for months. Missing persons reports had been circulating informally, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: rumors about people vanishing in Nihei had spread beyond the region,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and business travelers had begun to even avoid the area
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: almost entirely. Nihei had a reputation of if you want
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to disappear, that's where you go. Yet none of this
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: had translated into a coordinated criminal case. This disconnect highlighted
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: a very major weakness in the system at the time.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: You see, in the early nineteen nineties, information sharing between
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: local police departments in China was extremely limited. Records were
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: kept on paper, databases were fragmented, and cases were not
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: formally classified as major crimes and often remained isolated within
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: local offices instead. So if reports were dismissed early on
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: or never escalated, they effectively disappeared from the system. Now
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: in Nihe, many early disappearances had involved transient workers, sex workers,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and visiting merchants, and these cases were often treated, as
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, voluntary departures rather than potential crimes and
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: missing persons cases.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, so are they thinking that you kind of go
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: about this area just to kind of start a new
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: life and you just disappear.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Well, it started off with people going to the area
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: for work essentially, okay, and then it also started to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: turn into something where well, people going into the area
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: looking for work never came back. But a lot of
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: these cases are not actually being reported missing, and even
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the ones that are reported missing are not being communicated
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: within departments. So one department might know of two missings
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: persons cases, another one knows of one, and really there's
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: already a dozen out.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: There, Okay, I mean it's kind of you can see
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: how that happens quite easily.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: For sure. So when they're on the phone here talking
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: to these authorities in the area and NIH, they're like, oh, yeah,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: we have a report of a mass freaking murderer hiding
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: bodies in a house. The other people are like, what
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: do we only have like two missing persons reports? How
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: do you mean a mass amount of bodies?
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, so it almost seems unbelievable exactly.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: So as a result, the SOHO team to them this
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: was all alarming. The woman in custody had described physical details.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: She knew the house layout, she knew the seller in
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the home where it was, and she knew about its
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: concrete cover. Yet according to official records, none of it existed.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: So this left the investigators in a very difficult position.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: If they dismissed her claims and release the suspects, well,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: they risked ignoring a very possible mass murderer case. If
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: they pursued it without any sort of confirmation, they risked
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: overstepping jurisdiction and wasting resources. So after internal discussion, they
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: had their decision they wouldn't let this go and that
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: they would instead move forward.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, thank goodness. If there was any other conclusion I
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: was going to be like, what the fuck?
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So they decided that the only way to resolve
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: this was to verify her story for themselves. If the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: house existed and matched her description, they would have grounds
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: to escalate the case, and if it didn't, then the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: matter could be closed. So the woman was asked once
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: more to repeat the address and the directions to the home,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and she did so without any sort of hesitation. So
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: within hours plans are being made to send investigators to NIHI.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: While preparations were being made to verify these claims, investigators
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: continued questioning the two men who'd been arrested with as well.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: They were kept in separate rooms, still questioned by different
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: officers and prevented from communicating with one another, and for
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: several hours, neither gave investigators anything useful. But that changed
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: when officers began confronting the bigger man with specific details
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: from the woman's statements. You see, instead of asking broader questions,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: they focused on physical facts. They asked about the house,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: about the kitchen, about the pit beneath the floor. Investigators
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: noticed a shift immediately in him where his answers became slower,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and he started asking what the woman had said. They
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: told him that the woman had already provided a full account,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: and they suggested that the leader was blaming him. The
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: leader being the businessman, they kind of framed him in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: that position. They implied that he would carry the worst
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: legal consequences if he stayed silent, and they made it
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: clear that cooperation was this guy's only realistic one.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Damn that's good.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So gradually his resistance weakened and the man began admitting
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: limited involvement, but he stopped short of confessing of murder.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: He admits to helping transport victims and as well to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: disposing of remains. Up until this moment, investigators were relying
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: entirely on the woman's testimony about all of this, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: now the independent suspect was confirming what she said. His
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: description matched hers. It seemed like there was in fact
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: a potential seller and a burial site. After all, officers
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: at the Sioux's host station contacted their immediate supervisors and
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: reported that they now had two suspects independently describing a
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: concealed burial site beneath the residence in Nihe. The information
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was forwarded to provincial authorities and to the local public
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: security bureau responsible for Kniehe. Within hours, a temporary task
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: force was assembled to coordinate the response and a identify
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the target house, and they did so. It was a
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: small rented property in a residential neighborhood. The convoy reached
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Niehe later that morning, and the neighborhood streets were narrow
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and quiet, lined with small brick homes and simple courtyard fences.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Most residents were already awake, going about their regular everyday routines.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: The house in question was a single story brick structure
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: with a small yard and a metal gate in front.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: The exterior showed signs of neglect, with paint peeling in
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: places and sections of brickworks stained, and weeds that had
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: grown along the fence line. However, it did not appear
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to be abandoned. When officers stepped out of their vehicle,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: several neighbors began watching from a distance. Commanders instructed residents
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: to remain inside and cordoned off the immediate area. As
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: officers began to approach the front door, another detail became noticeable.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: There was a faint but very persistent odor hanging in
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the air. It was difficult to define. It didn't resemble
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: ordinary garbage or spoiled food, and some officers described it
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: as sour, metallic and very heavy. Neighbors reportedly previously complained
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: about the odors from the property, but often attributed it
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: to pickling vegetables or just food storage. Things like that.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I would just be hoping that I was on
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: a holiday. We're not having to deal with this shit,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: because this is already a lot.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I gave you a good warning at the very beginning
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: for a good reason, h okay. With authorization from supervisors,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: police forced entry into locked home through the front door.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Inside the house, it was dim and sparsely furnished. There
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: was little decoration and almost no sign of any ordinary
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: domestic life. The living area contained only basic furniture, and
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: much of it was torn or damaged. The floors were
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: stained red in places, and there were signs of poor maintenance.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: As teams moved through room to room, the smell that
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: they smelled outside only intensified, and it was strongest in
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the kitchen. Now, this kitchen itself was small, with the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: concrete floor and simple counters. There were pots and storage
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: containers and sacks of grain, and then there was a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: rectangular concrete slab that had been fitted into the center
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of the floor. It was roughly two by three feet
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: in size. The edges were uneven, and the surface looked
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: newer than the rest of the room. Investigators gathered around it.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: The suspects had mentioned that this pit was beneath the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: kitchen floor, something that was in fact typical for many homes.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: There was a root seller right that was normal, but
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: this one it seemed to be different. Forensic staff were
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: called in before anyone touched it. With the report of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the bodies hidden beneath that slab, they wanted to be careful.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: They wanted to document everything, so photographs were taken, measurements
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: were recorded, and the area was marked off and secured.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Officers even checked for traps or hidden mechanisms just in case,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: but they found none. Eventually, using crowbars and heavy tools,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the team began prying at the edge of the concrete slab.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: As the tools began to wedge between the crack and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: lift it, a strong wave of the foul odour rose
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: from beneath it, spilling into the room. Several officers instinctively
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: stepped back to fend off the foul odor and ease
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: their stomach. Soon investigators removed the slab covering the kitchen
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: floor entirely, and they were able to see directly into
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the space beneath the house. Below was a narrow, vertical
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: pit roughly nine feet deep, reinforced by compacted soil and concrete.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: The smell was immediately overwhelming. Several officers reported feeling light
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: headed and nauseous within seconds of approaching the opening. Forensic
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: personnel were forced to wear additional protective equipment before they
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: could even continue. The confined space beneath the floor had
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: trapped gases produced by deep composition, creating an environment that
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: was difficult to tolerate even for experienced investigators, and when
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: flashlights were lowered into the pit to take a look,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the scale of what was inside finally became clear. There
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: below the floor were dozens of human remains stacked in
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: layers compressed by time and by repeated use of the space.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: This root cellar. This pit was supposed to be a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: cold storage, but the sheer volume of bodies inside, decomposing
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: over long periods of time increased the temperature inside the whole,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and now it was sweltering with decay and rot. Some
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: bodies had even decomposed to the point of partial skeletonization,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: while others still remained with their tissue, and some newer
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: ones even remained with bloating. Fluids were leaking from the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: decomposition process of the human body, and it had pooled
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to the bottom of the pit too. Coated bones, clothing,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and personal belongings all were left in this foul, putrid sludge.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: In many areas, individual bodies began to merge and meld
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: together due to such serious decomposition, making it difficult to
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: distinguish one victim from another. Several skulls showed fractures consistent
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: with blunt force trauma to the head. The positioning and
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: condition of the bodies indicated that this pit had been
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: used repeatedly, over and over for an extended period of time,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: with bodies simply being dumped on top of each other
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: left to rotten this hole no matter how much time
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: had passed between each of the murders. This was a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: long term disposal site and it was nearly full.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: What the actual shit is this?
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: This is fucked up? Is what this is?
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: These poor souls that have to go dealing with this,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Like I I don't I think I would quit my job.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I couldn't blame you for that.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: This sounds horrible. I know, I should ever have to
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: deal with something like this, let alone. There should not
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: even be something like this in the world.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: What the h I know now. Investigators also noticed signs
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the pit had been managed carefully, as bodies had been
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: arranged and arranged to conserved space. So they're dumping them
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: in there, but they're also kind of like pushing them
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: aside and trying to make room for more.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: They're like techasing these dead bodies in a sense.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Household debris and organic waste had also been mixed
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: into this pit too, like a composts. They're dumping garbage
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: in there, likely in an attempt to reduce the odor
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: or slow decomposition. It's not really clear, Okay, I.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Actually can't even imagine that something like this exists with
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: and people like being able to live in this house
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: or have neighbors, you know, without this being a serious problem.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: The smell, well, it was beginning to be a problem,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and I think that's why they were throwing the garbage
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: in there or different things products and chemicals to try
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and you know, cover that smell up. But clearly it
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: was you could smell it outside the house, so people
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: knew it was there, not necessarily the bodies, but they
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: knew the smell was there. Signs were starting to show.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: They couldn't have gotten away with this for much longer, clearly.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and these poor victims, this is their final resting place.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Well, not necessarily.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Well for the time, I guess. Yeah.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Now, while forensic teams continued documenting the pit, officers searched
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the rest of the house, and in another section of
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the kitchen floor, they discovered a second opening. This pit
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: was similar in design, but slightly shallower and appeared to
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: have been dug later. It too contained multiple bodies arranged
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: in layers, decomposing in a mound of rotten flesh. Since
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the other one was nearly full, this one was dug
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: for more room.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: So there's two. There's two. Their problem solving is just
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: let's make another one.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now. The house was immediately quarantined and sealed off.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: A security perimeter was established and log entries were created
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: just for access and egress. Photographers and forensic teams documented
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: every single detail before any remains were removed. Now, although
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: police did not release details about all of this publicly
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: at the time, news of the discovery spread quickly through
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: the community. Residents soon realized that beneath an ordinary kitchen
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: floor in their neighborhood was a nightmare. Investigators had uncovered
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: one of the largest concealed burial sites that region had
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: ever seen, and now, given the depths and narrowness of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: this pits, well, standard excavation equipment wasn't going to be
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: able to be used to remove the bodies either, which
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: meant all of the remains inside the pits had to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: be removed manually.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, that is just a fricking nightmare right there.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: So teams worked in rotating shifts to prevent exhaustion and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: reduce prolonged exposure to toxic gases from the decomposition. And
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: because the pits were only wide enough for one person
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to enter at a time, recovery work was slow and
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: physically demanding.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: I couldn't imagine being down in that pit.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Investigators descended into those shafts, wearing protective suits and respirators,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: carefully separating remains without causing additional damage or at least
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: as much as possible. Conditions inside these pits were extreme,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: to say the least. The air was thick and hot,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: with decomposing gases. Visibility was limited, and in some areas,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: bodies and fluids had formed dense layers that made movement
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: extremely difficult. Tools frequently slipped out of their hands, they
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: were dripping with sweat inside their suits, and workers had
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to maintain balance while handling fragile remains in a confined
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: space rightfully, so, several team members experienced dizziness, nausea, and
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: respiratory distress during their shifts. At times, some even became
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: disoriented and even lost consciousness while working, and their colleagues
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: had to pull them from the shaft and transport them
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to hospital for treatment. Medical staff later reported that high
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: exposure of high concentrations of decomposing organic matter had caused
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: serious respiratory and systemic reactions to those who did not
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: get treatment.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Oh so, like you were in this pit and you
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: like pass out, Yeah, and you're falling onto things. Yeah,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: oh okay, like this it's too much. This is just
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: this is something I just never needed to hear.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: I warned you several times.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Holy shit, I can't get this visual out of my head.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I know. Now. Many team members had worked homicide scenes before,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and they've seen some horrendous things. But none had encountered
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: anything on this scale. The volume of remains, the prolonged
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: recovery period, and the sheer number of decayed human beings
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: was extreme. And now because of these extreme conditions of
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the bodies, authorities decided to conduct preliminary examinations on site
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: rather than transporting all remains to distant facilities. So temporary
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: shelter was erected in the yard where forensic teams could
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: conduct initial assessments to control conditions. This whole recovery process
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: lasted several weeks. Each body or fragment of body was cataloged, photographed,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: assigned an identification number before it was even removed from
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: the pit. Clothings, personal items they were preserved separately. In total,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: dozens of bags contained remains were transported for further examination
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: once initial documentation was even completed. By the time the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: last remains were finally removed, many members of the investigation
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: team were physically depleted. Several required extended medical leave, while
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: others continued work despite chronic symptoms.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't even imagine, because some of those bodies too,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: as you're lifting or trying to recover them, they would
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: be just falling apart. They would be, and like, wouldn't
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: there probably be, I don't know, bugs and stuff in there.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: There definitely was. Yeah, don't get me wrong, there's I
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: go through some more descriptions on it a little bit later,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: and you'll understand why I kind of redescribe it, because
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: there's more to it than what we already know. Okay,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: but for now, for now, with the recovery operation complete,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: investigators face their next major challenge determining who the victims were. Now.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, forensic identification and rural China relied
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: heavily on physical records, personal belongings, and even family reports.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: DNA profiling was not exactly available or for routine use
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: at least, and many other remains had been severely damaged
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: by the decomposition process and the environmental exposure too, so
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: in several cases only partial skeletal remains or dismembered limbs
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: were even recovered. Facial features were often unrecognizable, and fingerprints
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: couldn't even be taken. This limited investigator's ability to use
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: visual identification or standard biometric methods, so forensic teams began
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: cataloging every item that they recovered from the pits. Clothing, fragments, shoes, jewelry, watches,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and personal accessories were photographed and logged. These items were
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: then circulated to police departments across the region, along with
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: descriptions of estimated age, height, and distinguishing physical traits wherever possible.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Authorities also reviewed missing persons reports that were filed and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: all around the area and in neighboring provinces too. For over
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: the last two years. Even many victims had been migrant workers,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: traveling traders, sex workers, all groups of people who disappeared
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and were often reported late or not not even at all,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: And in many cases, families had assumed their relatives simply
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: moved on for work, like we talked about earlier, but
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: that was clearly not the case. Investigators cross reference the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: recovered identification cards and personal documents with regional databases too,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: But despite all of these efforts, full identification proved impossible.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: In many cases, according to official figures, only slightly more
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: than half of the victims could be positively identified as
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the victim identification began, though, investigators also started focusing on
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the house itself. Land records showed that the property was
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: not owned by any of the suspects who had already
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: been in custody from that train station. It was, however,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: leased under the name of Gia Wengey, the man the
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: police now believed to be the leader of the group.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: The guy and the business attire. Neighbors described the home
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: as poorly maintained and that he gioenge kept to himself.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Police all learned that Gia had lived in the house
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: with multiple associates over the time. At different points, witnesses
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: recalled seeing couples staying there, followed by several men who
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: appeared to come and go irregularly. Now inside the house,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: investigators documented signs of blood residue that was found in
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: several rooms, partially near the bedroom, and even the kitchen
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: well of course the kitchen. Financial records and rental agreements
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: showed that Gia paid rent regularly and in cash. Landlords
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: reported no miss payments and no major disputes, which reduced
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: any sort of scrutiny. Right, why keep this guy under
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: a microscope A He's a prime tenant to have. Police
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: also recovered several documents, notebooks, and contact lists belonging to Gia.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: These materials suggested that he had been recruiting many people
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: from outside the town and coordinating activities across multiple locations,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: so phone numbers and traveling notes linked him to nearby cities,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: railway hubs, and including the Shozo station. By this stage,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: investigators were confident that the house had served as the
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: operational center for this group's criminal activity. It was where
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: victims were brought, where they were restrained, robbed, killed, and
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: then hidden belief beneath the floor. So with this foundation established,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: police turned their attention directly to gionge himself, seeking to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: understand how someone with no prior serious criminal record had
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: become capable of orchestrating such violence. Now, Gea was described
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: in school records as intelligent and capable. As a child
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and teenager, He performed well academically and held leadership positions
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: in both primary and middle school. His parents reportedly had
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: high expectations for him, and his name itself well it
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: reflected those hopes. Teachers remembered him as serious, reserved, but
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: not violent or disruptive during his early years at all.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Now that changed, however, after both of his parents died,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: including his mother's suicide, which Gia reportedly witnessed. Even after
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: this loss, people noticed very sharp shift in his behavior.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: He became withdrawn, angry, and very unpredictable. Neighbors were called
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: frequent outbursts and verbal abuse, and even property damage. But
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: despite those problems, Gia secured work at a local factory
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: while still quite young. Coworker said he was charming when
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: he wanted to be, and was considered physically attractive, which
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: helped him socially in some settings. Female employees even reportedly
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: referred to him as the melancholy Prince, reflecting his mix
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of good looks and emotional detachment. During this period, Gea
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: would meet you Mei, the adopted daughter of one of
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: his supervisors. Their relationship, you know, in the workplace and
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: everything was a little bit controversial within the factory management
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: opposed their eventual marriage. And after it did take place,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: when they got married and Gea was, you know, now
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: happy with a job and trying to move on with
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: his life, well that's when he was fired from his job.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Now without state employment and carrying growing resentment, he began
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: drifting between short term work and increasingly risky behavior. He
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: later worked as a butcher, slaughtering livestock. While this was
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: common work in the region, neighbors noticed that Gia often
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: returned home from work covered in blood and made very
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: little effort to clean himself.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Oh that's gross.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: During these years, Gia developed severe financial problems. He spent
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: much of his income on gambling and sex workers, and
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: frequently exhausted his earnings within days of receiving his paycheck.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Now to compensate, he began stealing, sometimes even with the
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: help of his new mistress. Together they committed small burglaries
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and theft in nearby communities, accumulating stolen goods that were
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: difficult to resell. His marriage deteriorated under this pressure, and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: his wife eventually filed for divorce. By the time Gia
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: rented the house in Knihe, he was already financially unstable
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: and engaged in a lot of criminal behavior. However, shortly
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: after ga began presenting himself as a small business owner
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: with plans to open a candy factory. He obtained some
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: basic paperwork stuff that allowed him to appear legitimate, and
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: with this he introduced himself as a company director or CEO,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: looking for employees, giving him a story just credible enough
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: to avoid any sort of suspicion. He focused his recruitment
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: efforts at railway stations, where large number of travelers and
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: workers and job seekers passed through every day. Many people
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: at the station were unfamiliar with the area, They are
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: short on money and what they did have they were
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: carrying on them, and they're actively searching for work. Gea
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: targeted individuals who appeared vulnerable in these spaces, especially young
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: women and travelers carrying luggage with them. He would strike
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: up casual conversations, ask where someone was headed, and gradually
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: steered the direction of Hey, you're looking for work.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Okay. I was wondering how he was going about getting
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: these victims.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was offering positions, basically promising like steady wages
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: and easy work along with it.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, who wouldn't want to work in a freaking
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: candy factory?
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Right exactly. So, once a potential victim showed interest in
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: these jobs or the work, Gia invited them to his
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: rented house to discuss details or sign paperwork under any
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: sort of ruse he could, you know, something too, like hey,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: come on over, we'll go through this and rest before
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: you start working. Even so early on, Gia primarily used
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: this strategy to commit the robberies. He would bring people
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: to the home, intimidate or assault them while they're there,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: take their money in valuables, and then force them out
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the door. And because many victims were travelers or temporary workers,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: few reported the incidents, and even those who did often
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: lacked precise information about location or suspect they don't know
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: the area. Can they remember the street or the house
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: or where it was, things like that. Now, over time,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Gia realized that this method didn't actually pay all that much.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: In the end, many of the people that he victimized
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: carried carried cash, but not all that much. And he
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: repeated all these repeated robberies, well, they increased the risk
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: of attention. The more you do it, hey, the more
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: that you're going to be under scrutiny. So as his
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: debts and spending continued, he began seeking wealthier targets, businessmen
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: traveling for agricultural products and stuff, people that would have
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: more money on them me. He was that regional center
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: for potatoes, beats and all that sort of farm trading,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: which attracted buyers from over other areas, and these visitors
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: often arrived with much larger amounts of cash, and Gea
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: adapted his story to fit for them, offering business connections,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: introducing them to different and new suppliers or shared meals
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: to discuss different deals, and it was this shift that
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: marked the beginning of his transition from robbery into murder.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: According to Gia's later confessions, his first murder happened after
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: he had already been emitting robberies for quite some time. Eventually,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: he began to see violence not just as a tool
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: for intimidation, but as a way to eliminate resistance entirely.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: One of the earliest documented killings involved a father and
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: son who traveled to Nihi to sell grain. Gea approached
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: them under the pretense of helping them find wholesalers. He
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: invited them to his house, offered food and drink, and
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: encouraged them to relax while discussing business. After the meal,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Jea abruptly changed his tone and he began demanding that
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: they leave all of their money behind before they left
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: his home. Now. When these two refused, Gia retrieved a
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: hammer and attacked them. Without a second of thought, he
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: coldly beat both these victims, the father and son, to
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: death inside his house and then simply disposed of the
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: bodies in the cellar beneath the kitchen floor. Despite the
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: disappearance of these two people, No police came looking for them.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: No police came looking for Gia either, and the absence
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: of consequences confirmed to him that he could, in fact
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: commit murder without being caught. This had a very powerful
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: psychological effect on him. Gia later described feeling emboldened by
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: how easily he had avoided any sort of suspicion. He
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: interpreted the silence as proof that authorities were ineffective and
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: that victims, especially outsiders, could vanish without a trace.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: You know, this is so sad because the way he's
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: doing this, it's like he's giving people a whole bunch
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: of hope m m and then just like I don't know,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: within an hour or whatever, just smashing their frickin' dreams.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Like even before he goes about killing them, he was
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: like brings them to their house and robs them and
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: stuff like. That's sad.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: It is. He's heartless, he's a monster, and what he's
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: doing is just cruel and gross, over the top. Like
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I can go on on words, I need a phosaurus
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: and I'll just like read all the negative shit and
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: it'll fit perfectly with what he's doing.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure would, Now he.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Didn't stop with those two, of course, He began doing
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: this over and over, and as disappearances began to accumulate
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: at his hand, rumors started to spread quickly. Word began
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: circulating that people who visited the town sometimes never returned home.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Business travelers were more cautious, They asked more questions, and
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: were less willing to follow strangers. Some even stopped coming altogether.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Now this reduced Gia's access to wealthy targets and made
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: his original approach less effective. In response, he adjusted his strategy.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: He began targeting people who were already marginalized or less
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: likely to be reported missing quickly, which included sex workers,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: migrant labors, and individuals who were traveling alone along the way.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: He also began recruiting accomplices. Others would watch from a
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: distance while a victim was being approached, making sure no
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: police or witnesses were nearby. Now this pattern explains why
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the killings that he were doing were going unnoticed for
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: so long. Each disappearance. They seemed separate, involving different people
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: from different places in different areas, and without centralized records
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: or coordination, coordinated investigations, authorities failed to connect any of
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: these cases. Now, by the time Gia met the woman
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: who would later become central to the investigation, he had
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: already killed more than twenty people.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: Holy Moley, just like that, twenty people, twenty and no
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: end in sight really exactly.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: His routines already established at this point like his confidence
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: is high. He feels untouchable, and he believed that he
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: understood exactly how to control every single one of his
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: victims that he would run into. What he did not expect, though,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: at this point, was that one of them would survive
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: long enough to change the entire course of this case.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: The woman later identified as you Liha had grown up
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: in extreme poverty. Her parents died when she was young,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: and she was raised by her older sister. As an adult,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: she married quickly in search of stability, but the relationship
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: was unhappy and marked by frequent arguments. By nineteen ninety one,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: she felt trapped and emotionally exhausted. One night, after a
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: serious fight with her husband, Julie Ha left her home
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: clear to go clear her head. She's walking to go
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: by the nearby train station without a clear destination, just
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: moving her feet one step after another, with thoughts racing
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: in her mind. Trying to collect herself, and that's when
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: Gea noticed her. She was attractive, she was alone, and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: she fit his victim profile well. He approached her calmly
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: and introduced himself as the owner of a small candy factory,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: and he told her he was looking for employees, suggesting
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: that she could come earn money and leave her unhappy marriage.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: When he invited her to see his factory to discuss work,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: she agreed. She followed him away f in the station
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: and towards his rented house in Nihe believing she was
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: walking to a possible new beginning. Once inside, that's when
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: things changed, just like they always did. Jias stopped pretending
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: to be a businessman and he attacked her, and he
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: dragged her to his bed and strangled her until she
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: lost consciousness. Then, believing that she was dead, he searched
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: for her belongings, going through all that she had on
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: her for money and everything, and he sort of valuables,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: and after taking what he wanted, he took her body
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to the kitchen and dropped her into the cellar.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, and she's not dead.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: When Julieha regained consciousness, she had no immediate sense of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: where she was.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: She probably thought she was in hell.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Probably all she knows at this point is her head spinning.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: She's lying in complete darkness, She's disoriented and struggling to
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: try and breathe normally. The air there was so hot
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: and heavy and stale. The smell around her was grotesquely overwhelming,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and at first she maybe she thought she was in hell,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: or maybe she's dreaming or drifting in and out of consciousness.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: She had no idea, but as she tried to move,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: her hand touched something soft and wet. Didn't feel like
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: dirt or concrete. It felt organic, slippery and uneven. As
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: her fingers pressed and sinking in and her eyes slowly
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: adjusted to the dark space, that's when she began to
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: make out vague shapes around her. What she saw didn't
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: make sense at first, but eventually she realized she was
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: surrounded by bodies. Dozens of decaying corpses were piled all
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: around and beneath her. Insects and maggots, as you mentioned earlier,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: were crawling all around the bodies, weaving in and out
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: covering many of them. She tried to move away, but
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: her hands and feet slipped off the rotting skin into
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: a thick, foul smelling liquid sludge that filled the bottom
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: of the pit. Later investigators would describe that sludge as
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: corpse mud created by months of that accumulated decomp Oh
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: my goodness, gracious. The cellar was narrow and deep, dug
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: straight down beneath the kitchen floor, and its walls were
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: made of packed earth and offered no proper handholds. There
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: was no ladder, no rope, and no obvious way out.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: The opening was above her, and a faint trace of
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: light filtered down. Julie h panicked, but she forced herself
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: to stay quiet. She knew that if an attacker heard her,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: he would return and finish what he started, so she
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: composed herself as best she could and focused on escaping.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: After several minutes of looking around, she understood that the
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: only way out was climbing on top of the bodies
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: and out from the top.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, she I don't know how the hell she's
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: going to get out of this.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Some of the corpses were stacked higher than others unstable layers.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: She carefully placed her feet and hands on them, trying
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: not to look at the faces of these people or
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: who they had been thinking of what their lives were like.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: She's tried to climb, and the remains shifted under her weight.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: Several times she nearly slipped back down, and eventually she
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: reached to be close enough to the opening. She grabbed
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the edge of the concrete slab and with one final push,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: she moved the lid open enough to pull herself out
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: of the pit and collapse onto the kitchen floor. She
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: was exhausted, filthy, and shaking uncontrollably, but she was alive.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: And then she looked up and Gia was standing right
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: in front of her, staring in disbelief. Gia had just
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: witnessed one of his victims crawl out of the very
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: corpse pit that he had beneath his kitchen floor. Julie
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: Ha was still alive, and Jia quickly reached for a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: shovel and raised it over his head, preparing to kill
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: zu Leieh. As she crawled on her knees and began
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: begging for her life, she told him she had only
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: come because of a fight with her husband. She's just
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: trying to clear her head, and she promised she would
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: never tell anyone what she had seen or experienced. She
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: pleaded with him to just let her go.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: Oh well, okay, I am shook that she was even
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: able to get out of there.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: I know, imagine being thrown in that pit.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: That is just a fricking nightmare and a hash. So
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: she basically used like all these dead bodies as.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: The ladder, essentially speaking, yeah.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: Is something that I have never heard in my whole life.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I know, it's Oh, I can't believe it. So she
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: is officially a survivor at this point through this right okay, Now,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: with her begging for her life though, and Jiah holding
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the shovel over his head preparing to kill her, well, and.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: She's tired as hell, she exactly you know, made her
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: way out of there.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He didn't respond immediately, He didn't swing, he didn't
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: say anything. He just kind of froze and studied her.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: The fact that she actually survived and escaped the pit, well,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: it impressed him. He slowly lowered the shovel and rather
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: than killing her, he decided he was going to keep her.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: He made it clear though, that letting her live came
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: with conditions. He told her that if she tried to
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: escape or to report him, he would track down her
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: husband and her child. Oh no, and from that moment on,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: her life was no longer her own. Now, remember he
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: went through her belongings, identification, you know, address, He has
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: all that information. He knows immediately all about her because
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: of that, so he kept her inside the house and
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: limited her movements. At times he locked her in rooms,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: and on other occasions he even forced her back into
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: that pit as punishment when he felt that she was
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: not cooperating enough. So she didn't crawl out of that
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: pit once, she had to do it multiple times.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, that is just terrifying.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Jia made her help find victims because she appeared
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: harmless and respectable. She could approach people without raising any
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: sort of suspicion. She was told to persuade victims to
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: come back to the house, and once they arrived, that's
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: when Jia would, you know, be with his accomplices and
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: they would take over. Julie Ha initially refused. She cried, begged,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: and asked to be killed instead, but Jia gave her
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: no choice and began threatening your family once again. Each
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: time she went out to find a target, she lived
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: with constant fear that it would be her family's last
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: day alive. She was allowed occasional contact with her family,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: which Jiah carefully monitored, mostly to keep her from being
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: a missing person, missing persons, missing missing person.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: There we go o kay, oh my goodness, I had
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: said earlier. I was like, wow, like she was really
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: quick yep to just like spiller beans really and this
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: is freaking' why she is a victim.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: And I told you you don't know much about her yet,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: you don't know all of it. And this is why,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, because there was a lot more to this story.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: Wash because here I was like, gosh, she's three, there's
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: just a piece of shit and they're scamming these poor people,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: blah blah blah, and wow, she is like completely a
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: victim of all this.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: She's doing this against her will, she's being forced to
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: do all this.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: Wow. Okay.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Now, as this lure system continued to work, the group
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: began killing more frequently and with new victims sometimes being
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: brought into the house even to every few days. That
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: was the frequency.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: No wonder that pit was getting full, I know, the
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: pit of hell.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: So with more victims, though, came practical problems. The original
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: seller the original pit. While it was beginning to fill,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: like you're saying, so the group dug the second one,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: and during this period the violence also became more extreme.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Statements and later reports described many acts of mutilaition, necrophilia,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: and abuse of bodies after death. Some remains were dismembered,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: some parts were reportedly burned, discarded, or fed or eaten.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: There were even reports, as I'm just saying now, eaten
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: of cannibalism involving organs and genitalia taken from the victims.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: So they take them, fry them up in a pan
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: and eat them.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: WHOA, Okay, So this case just has it all and
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry about how much of a shitty human being
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: are you to be like, Oh, our pit's full, and
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: maybe you know, step back and be like, wow, I suck,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: Like let's change our life. No, we're just gonna dig
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: another pit.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it just blows my mind. I don't know.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: I just can't fathom this, like this thought process.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: I know there's gonna be something else that you're not
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to understand too, something else that's going
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: to piss you off. But we'll get to that, don't Okay.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the fun ain't over.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Nope. By mid nineteen ninety one, the crimes had reached
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: their most extreme stage and the group was killing at
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: a pace that was becoming difficult to sustain, and life
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: in Nihe had changed. As a result, words spread that
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: something was wrong. People were not coming home when they
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: traveled here, so they're beginning to avoid the area, and
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: the steady flow of easy targets that Jihad had relied
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: on had slown down dramatically. Even when he's trying to
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: defer to different targets and change his tactics, it was
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: becoming overwhelming, to the point that that it didn't even
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: work anymore. And inside his home, conditions were becoming unbearable
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: due to the smell that was coming from that pit
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: or the pits, not to mention the bloodstains, the filth,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: and the structural damage accumulating over time to the home.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: Maintaining a normal appearance became harder, and the group also
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: began to fracture a bit. Some members grew anxious, and
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the constant pressure of hiding dozens of murders well, it
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: was starting to take its toll. Eventually, Jiad decided that
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: continuing to kill in Nihi was too risky, as he
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: had outgrown this area and it was just unstable, so
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: he and his group began to shift away from murder
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: based robberies and towards scams and extortions instead. This is
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: when most of the group members left town and only
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: a small number remained behind to monitor the house and
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: guard what was left of their operation. Some of those
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: who stayed later died by suicide or were arrested in
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: unrelated cases, further weakening the group. Still, Jia himself reduced
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: his presence at the property. He focused more on traveling
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: and organizing scams in other cities, and the group adopted
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: a variation of what the officers would call the badger game,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: the very one that brought this all to light. In
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: some cases, the group even used sedatives to knock victims
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: unconscious before robbing them, making it easier to start to
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: steal larger amounts of cash now. Of course, once those
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: arrests were made at the Suso's train station, the case
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: began to move quickly from there, and with the confession
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: secured and physical evidence recovered from the house in nih
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: the investigation moved to its final phase. Prosecutors worked closely
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: with police to organize witness statements and forensic reports and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: confession transcripts into a formal case, all of it to
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: try and put these people behind bars and get them convicted. Now,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: given the scale of the crimes and the number of
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: victims involved, the proceedings were handled at a high administrative
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: level and closely monitored by provincial authorities. By early nineteen
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: ninety two, charges were formerly filed against the woman Julie Ha,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: the larger man whose name was Sun Wen Lee, and
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: the man dressed in the business tire. The leader of
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: it all well, his name was Gioegei himself. Others were
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: identified to There was accomplices that were charged as well.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: In fact, in total, six people were ultimately linked to
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: the operation, though as I mentioned, some had committed suicide,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: some disappeared. Regardless, the defendants were charged with multiple accoutunts
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: of international homicide, robbery, illegal detention, and participating in organized
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: violent crime. The trial was scheduled to begin on January eighth,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. News of the case had already spread
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: across the country and public attention was intense. During the proceedings,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: prosecutors laid out the full timeline of the crimes. They
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: presented evidence from the seller financial records showing stolen money
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: and detailed confessions from each defendant. Investigators testified about how
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: victims were lured, restrained, killed, and how their bodies were hidden.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Survivor's statements and family testimonies were also introduced, reinforcing the
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: human cost behind the numbers. The defendants roles were clearly separated.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: Jiha was portrayed as the organizer in the primary decision maker.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Sunwn Lee was described as the enforcer who helped control
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: victims and intimidate accomplices, and Julie Ha was presented both
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: as a participant and someone who had acted under extreme coercion,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: being a victim herself. Large crowds gathered outside the courtroom
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: each day in nihe schools and businesses reportedly even adjusted
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: schedules so people could follow developments. By the end of
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: the hearings, prosecutors concluded that the group was responsible for
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: at least forty two murders, including twenty four women and
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: eighteen men. The court accepted this figure as the official count,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: though investigators acknowledged that the full identification of all victims
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: remains incomplete, meaning there were at least forty two and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: likely many more.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah that is a huge number.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, it's massive. Following the trial in January of
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, the court moved to sentencing. Given the
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: number of victims, the organized nature of the crimes, and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: the extreme brutality involved as well, prosecutors sought the macxmum
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: penalty for all principal defendants, and under Chinese law at
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: the time, mass murder combined with robbery and organized criminal
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: activity while it almost always resulted in capital punishment, and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: so in this case, as a result, Gio Weenge was
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: sentenced to death as the leader and primary perpetrator. Sun
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: Wen Lee and the other male accomplices who had actively
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: participated in the killings and robberies also received death sentences.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: But the most debated sentence of all was that of
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: Julie Ha, the woman who had survived being thrown in
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: the pit and later cooperated with police opening this case
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: from the very beginning, despite evidence that she had been
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: coerced and threatened. The court determined that her repeated participation
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: in luring victims and assisting in murders made her criminally
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: responsible as well, and so she too was sentenced to death.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: Really yes, okay, I don't really know how I feel
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: about that one.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough pill to swallow that one, because.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: She, yeah, like, what was she supposed to do, because
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: this person was threatening her like family, and she would
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: believe that those threats were real considering what she knew.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, they ultimately came to the conclusion that there were
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: times where she could have contacted police or left or
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: ran and it went on too long beyond coercion and control,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: and that she had opportunities to stop it but didn't.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: Huh really Okay.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Now, executions here in China at the time, they're much
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: different than in North America and many other parts where here,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Like for example, right now, if someone receives the death
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: sentence in North America, they're generally sitting on death row
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: for like years. Yeah, yeah, that is expedited in China
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: in the nineties. Here we're talking may be a week
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: or two, Okay. So executions were carried out that very
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: same month of sentencing, and on January twenty fourth, nineteen
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: ninety two, all condemned defendants were taken to a designated
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: execution ground where they were killed by firing squad, which
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: was the standard method in China at the time.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, Okay, I'm just so sad about this one.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: Well, hold on, let me say one more thing before
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: you say anything, because there's one more detail I got
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: to put in here with this.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: Now, this detail cannot fully be proven, but there are
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: several reports that state this is true. There were allegedly
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: forty two shots fired during this execution, symbolically representing the
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: number of confirmed victims. In this case, it was the
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: final gesture that gave any amount of power back to
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: the victims that they could. Every bullet fired was one
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: for one of the victims.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, I guess I do kind of like that.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Now, as I mentioned that is allegedly so sorry, what
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: were you going to say?
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I just think that just sucks. Okay. Her name
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: is Julie ju ju leha Julieha. So I just feel
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: terrible for her because she like survived something and it
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: was kind of just like, now, well, what was the
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: point I guess of surviving that, you know, but she's
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: just dead anyway.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: She stopped it from happening for more, She stopped more victims.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: She put an end to it. Well, yeah, like she
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: survived to stop them. Even when she was initially talking
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: to police. She knew she wasn't going to survive, She
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: knew what her fate was going to be, but she
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: still chose to tell investigators to put these guys in
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: under the microscope and tell them what they were doing.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: If she didn't do that, she may have been killed. Eventually.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: If she didn't do that, there might be double the
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: amount of victims. They might have found another house and
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: dug more pits, and who knows.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: I guess I'm just struggling with the fact that she
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: was treated like the other two, you know, the same
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: consequence she got, and I.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: Just it is a tough pill to swallow. Yeah, there's
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of debate around that. So now after the executions,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: public attention it slowly shifted away from Jiha and towards
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: the woman who had survived, the seller to Zuliha, just
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: like what you're talking about. Most people agreed that Jiha
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: and his male accomplices deserve their sentence, but her execution
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: became the most controversial part of this case. During the
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: investigation and trial, it became clear that she had originally
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: been targeted as a victim. She had been attacked, she
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: had been strangled, and she had been thrown into that
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: cellar where she narrowly escaped and survived. And when she
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: did escape, Jiha threatened, you know, death of her family.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: So he tracked down her husband, child, learned where they lived,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. And these these were continuous
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: threats that went on, and he made it clear that
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: any at tempt to flee or to report him would
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: result in their death. If he got wind of anything,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: they were dead. So, according to her later statements, these
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: threats were reinforced repeatedly. She was even punished at times,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: but being thrown back in the pit. These things, if
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: she ever showed signs of resisting, and under this pressure,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: is when she began cooperating. She lured men to the house,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: watched them walk into danger, and in some cases was
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: forced to even participate directly in the violence. One of
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: the most disturbing details of this in her confessions was
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: that Jia once made her stab a victim while he
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: was taking pictures of it, so he ensured that she
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: could never claim innocence. From that point on, she believed
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: she was trapped permanently. Supporters argued that her actions will
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: result of prolonged captivity, psychological terror, and very credible threats
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: against her life and her family's life. They pointed out
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: that she had no realistic way to escape, lived under
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: constant surveillance, and had been conditioned to believe that disobedience
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: meant death for her loved ones, and from this perspective,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: she was not a willing accomplice, but someone forced into
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: criminal behavior under extreme dress. Now critics, though, saw it differently.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: They focused on the length of time she remained involved
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: and the number of victims that she helped lure. Over months,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: she brought in more than a dozen men, and in court,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: prosecutors pointed out that she had opportunities to flee or
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: seek help and did not. In their view, the fear
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: didn't fully excuse repeated participation in the murder of over
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: a dozen individuals. Now, as you're not really liking this,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: and I can see them by the look in your.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: Face, I'm thinking about it. It's processing.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: There are points on both sides, There certainly are, and
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: debate has continued over this for years. It's not something
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: that people have ever stopped debating. Some saw her as
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: a tragic casualty and others, you know what, as a
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: murderer herself, as an accomplice regardless of opinions. Though, when
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: the executions were over and the courts, you know, all
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: the records were finalized, the case officially ended. But for
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: the people of Nihi Well, their town's name remained tied
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: to the horrific murders. In other parts of the province.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: People no longer thought of it as an ordinary rural
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: community known for farming and trade. Instead, they thought of
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: that brick house, that root seller, and the dozens of
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: people who had vanished without explanation and only being found
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: in a pile of decomposing flesh. Business travelers continued to
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: avoid the area for a very long time even after
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: the crime stopped. Some families moved away, unable to live
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: with that association. Others stayed but rarely spoked about what happened.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: The psychological impact on investigators and forensic workers was severe.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: Many of those who had participated in the recovery described
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: it as the most difficult assessment of their lives. Working
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: in confined spaces filled with decomposing remains for days at
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: a time left very long lasting emotional scars on them.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: I don't even know I'd sleep after that.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: Well, several officers, they said that they suffered from recurring nightmares,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: long term stress related cases, and a lot of mental
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: health stuff. But obviously, like in the nineties, mental health
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: support isn't exactly what was today, so they were just
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: expected to carry on, which is rough. Families of the
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: victims were left with mixed emotions too. Some felt relief
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: that people you know who were responsible for all this
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: had been punished. Others struggled with anger and grief, especially
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: those who never recovered identifiable remains of their loved ones,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: with only parts of the victims formerly being identified or claimed,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: and many families were left without clear closure. In some cases,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: relatives never received confirmation of what had happened beyond official notice,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: and that was it. In the end, the case left
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: behind more than a list of victims and court documents.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: It left a community permanently changed, a generation of officers
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: shaped by trauma and a lasting nightmare of a deep
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: pit somewhere in the world, one with rotting flesh, with
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: corpse mud and lost lives. And it begs the question,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: how big and cruel is this world? How many pits
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: exist out there right now? How many cruel murderers are
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: getting away with mass killings and dumping bodies simply because
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: they can. Unfortunately, I don't think those are questions we'll
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: ever find answers to. And that's the story of Geonge,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: the man with the corpse pit.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: Brutal. Yes, And to say the least, just to clarify,
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: there's no candy factory.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: No, there's no candy factory.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, Like, holy shit.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: He basically got like a buss this license, just register
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: the name or something like along those lines. I'm not
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: saying that's exactly what he did, but he did something
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: like that, just enough to get some official paperwork saying
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: he had this business and then use that as credentials.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, And what are they calling this pit? This is
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: a smut.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: Well, there's the sludge at the bottom, the fluids and
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: the decomposition. What corpse mud?
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: Corpse mud, that's.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: What they were calling it. Okay.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot in here that is just so
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: mind blowing to me, and things that I just would
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: expect to have never heard.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: I know, and honestly I could have I could have
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: described a lot more.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm sure you could have.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: I didn't go into any cannibalistic descriptions or anything like
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: that or much more of the abuse that people went
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: through or the murders themselves. And this is a heavy
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: fucking case. And if you got through it to this
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: point so far, you got through to the end, you
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: deserve a drink. Whether you drink booze or not find
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: your favorite comfort drink, you deserve it.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, I'm kind of like, I think I need
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: a blizzard or something.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: Go get some ice cream or whatever.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like a serious treat because that I mean, you know,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: that was a long time agost though, So I'm just like,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: in my brain nothing like that exists anymore. But if
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling that, don't know, it really does.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: But I also I still have very mixed feelings about
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: that one execution. I'm leaning I can understand both sides,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: I suppose, but I'm definitely leaning towards I do not
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: think that she should have been executed and held at
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: the same like criminal standard as the others.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: I agree, And I mean that the consensus seems to
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: be as such that majority says that she did not
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: deserve it.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and she was in such a hard position. How
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: the fuck was she supposed to get out of that? Really?
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: For sure? For sure? And I don't know how she
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: would have got out of it, but I do. I
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: do understand that she knew, she knew she was going
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: to die, and she still chose to say something. She
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: still chose to get these people put away, she still
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: chose to bring this to light. And because of that alone. Yeah,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: she is responsible for some stuff too, but she she
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: is the badass the day I'm going to say that
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: she survived literal hell yeah, unfortunately had to be an
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: accomplished in certain aspects, and I feel so terrible for her.
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: Well, then as soon as she got this opportunity, like
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: she was like, no, listen up here, this is what's happening.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So because of her, I mean, if she didn't
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: speak up, what would have happened?
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have just well.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: Eventually it would have been found, But would it have
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: never been traced to him? Would he have been left
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: the country or something by then would have known?
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: It could have gone on for longer. So really, like
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: she saved so many people. I feel like in like
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: the North America justice system, she would have gotten way
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: more lenient.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but the justice systems, no matter where in the world,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: are never perfect.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I know, and I'm saying, and that was a
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 2: long time ago too, so I feel like maybe in
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: the nineties here that that same thing could have happened.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but I just feel like today I
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: couldn't see that happening so much.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: I know, but either way, that was the result. And
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: if you guys have opinions on if you have thoughts,
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: feel free to shoot us a message. We'd love to
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: know what you thought of this, not only of her
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: perspective and whether she got what she deserved and justice
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: was served, but also your thoughts in this episode. This
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: was definitely much more of a graphic one. As I
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: said in the intro, it's one of the most graphic,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: if not the most graphic story we've ever covered on
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: this podcast. So let us know your thoughts. You can
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: check out our description for email, Instagram face. All the
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: good stuff is down there if you want to give
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: us a rating. It goes a long way for the show.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: Because we are just a independent podcast. I know Nicole
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: hates it when I say we're just We're just. We're
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: it's us. We're an independent podcast. No one's pulling the strings.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: It's us and you and we love it that way.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: So thank you.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: So much for being here, and until next time, stay wicked.