Going West: True Crime - Yingying Zhang // 189

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

In 2017, a 26-year-old woman left her home of China to further her education in the US. But when she missed her bus on the way to view a new apartment, she disappeared forever. After sifting through various surveillance Illinois footage, investigators watched her miss her bus and proceed to get into someone’s car. This is the story of Yingying Zhang. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast Disclaimers and Disclosures (to be included in the show notes/description) • Note: The podcast ad for the IMPACT app is unscripted and being recorded live. It may contain some slight differences. Please visit https://impact.interactivebrokers.com/ for full details of products and services. Interactive Brokers, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. • The projections or other information generated by IMPACT app regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Please note that results may vary with use of the tool over time. • The paid ad host experiences and testimonials within the Podcast may not be representative of the experiences of other customers and are not to be considered guarantees of future performance or success. The opinions provided within the ad belong to the host alone.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. I've done some really interesting messages lately from people saying that they just are now learning what we look like and Are surprised at what we look like like people a lot of people have told me lately They thought I was like an old mom. Oh really? Yeah. Oh, I've gotten multiple messages like that lately I don't know if anybody thinks that I sound the way that I look or look the way that I sound I've been getting a lot of messages that people think you look like a nerdy guy, whatever that means. That I look like a nerdy guy or sound like one.

No, like that. They picture you to look like that. I see, I see. Well, actually, I am a 75-year-old man with a pop belly. Ha, ha. The pop belly part is true. Now, he's 33. I'm 27, so, uh, yeah, I'm not a mom. Now, you guys know. So, doesn't guess anybody wanted to know? Because I think it's funny, most people that listen probably don't know what you look like,

not that it matters, this show is about the victims, but I'm just saying, you know. Yeah, totally. So that's been funny. So anyways, hello, thank you guys so much for tuning in to yet another episode of going west. We hope you're having a great start to the week. So just for this case, by the way, Chinese names are usually written with the surname first, but to make it easier to understand, we're just going to switch that around. So thank you so much for tuning in. Alright guys, this is episode 189 of Going West. So let's get into it. Her daughter disappeared on June 9th, and investigators believe she is dead,

but her body has never been found. A former doctoral candidate is charged in connection with her disappearance, but denies he kidnapped her. We will never give up all her adder. I will protect her. And I will stay with her. Now, I miss the first one, but I will never miss the second one. 26-year-old Jingjing Zhang was abducted from the University of Illinois Urbana campus back in 2017.

Through a translator, Ying Ying's father talks about the child he calls the pride of his family and what Brent Christensen told his lawyers he did to him. If what that man said is true, it further confirms that he is a harmless and evil person. After killing Ying Ying Zhang on June 9, 2017, he placed her bodily remains in three separate garbage bags. Ying Ying Zhang was born on December 21, 1990 to parents Rong Gao Zhang and Li Li Fing Yi, alongside younger brother Zheng Yang.

She was born in Nian Ping in the Fuzhen Province of China, and Nian Ping is a city of 2.6 million people situated between the beautiful Wui Mountains and Hu Tan River. Ying Ying was an excellent student and like this insatiable learner. She was described by her mother as a good kid and her dad said that she thought about things that he never could have thought about. Her long-term boyfriend called her soulful, eager, curious, and positive. Ying Ying completed her undergraduate studies at Su Yatsun University in Guangzhou

about an hour and 30 minutes from her hometown of Nhan Ping, and she graduated in 2013. Yingying then obtained her masters in environmental engineering at Peckin University in Beijing, graduating in 2016. And upon her graduation from her master's program, she applied and was accepted to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is the largest research organization in the world. Outside of her research and schooling, Yingying was a vivacious and dynamic

young woman who brought joy to everyone she crossed paths with. Passionate about music, Yingying played guitar and sang in a band back home in China, whose name translates to cute horse. Her all-time favorite song was The Rose by Bet Middler. She and her boyfriend Shaolin Ho met on their first day of undergrad at Sunyat Sen University. Yingying spoke of him glowingly, saying that it forever felt like they had just started dating, that he spoiled her, and that she didn't know how she had gotten so lucky. They had been together for eight years in plan to marry on October of 2017, but before they

got married, Yingying had something that she needed to check off of her lifelist. She wanted to live in study abroad, so in the middle of April 2017, at 26 years old, Yingying traveled over 7,000 miles or 12,000 kilometers on her own. She arrived in the United States to study at the University of Illinois, Champagne, or Bonna, which is just about two hours southwest of Chicago. It was her first time living in a foreign country, her first time living alone, and her first time being away from family, friends, and her boyfriend. But while she was nervous, she was also thrilled to be at U of I.

If you were to picture this typical, idyllic American college campus, this would be the one. Yingying said that it was love at first sight. She had secured a year-long position at the University's Department of Nature Resources and Environmental Sciences. Her objective was to conduct research on photosynthesis and crop productivity with a special concentration on soybeans and corn. The department was also dedicated to testing how climate change affects the yield of in crop productivity with a special concentration on soybeans and corn. The department was also dedicated to testing how climate change affects the yield of plants.

She planned to stay in the U.S. for one year to complete her research and had aspirations of becoming a professor afterward. She was also considering pursuing a doctoral program at the University of Illinois upon completion of her studies. Yeah, so Ying Ying was clearly very smart. She was very academic oriented and yeah, oriented. So she was doing amazing things and came to the United States in hopes of pursuing her dreams

even further. So early on in her tenure at U of I, Ying Ying and a co-worker who grew to be a good friend named Guafong, I think it's Guafong. Travel to Nebraska for field work. Ying Ying said that she found the fields, farms, and open roads absolutely beautiful describing them to be like a dream. She was a gifted and diligent student. And the work seemed to actually come pretty easy to her. But the culture shock did not. Yeah, that must have been really hard being just so far away from everybody that you love. Well, and at 26, you know, she's, this is the first time she's had an experience like that.

So even though she is quite young still, you know, she didn't grow up in the US at all. So this is all very, very new to her. And she described herself feeling lonely, she really missed her family and her boyfriend, but she didn't let that slow her down. And she wrote in her journal that she wanted only to live a simple life and be effective. And to study, stay foolish, stay hungry. Yingying was an early riser with a regimented schedule and an iron clad work ethic. She began her mornings with English practice, reading a jog, studying, and breakfast,

all before many people were even up for the day. She was such a go-getter. Yeah, but that was another thing is brushing up on her English. And so that was a whole other part of moving to the US. That would be a huge culture shock that not only did she have to learn the language, but she also has to study in said language. Right, that's a lot. So, Yingying was navigating campus without a car, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to get to all of her commitments.

She was living alone in the Orchard Downs student housing apartments on campus and wanted to move closer to the research buildings. Friday, June 9, 2017 was a beautiful, sunny 95-degree Fahrenheit day in Champagne, Illinois. The weekend was coming and yinging had exciting plans. She was working with colleague Gua Feng, that morning in the lab sending damaged equipment to be repaired. Yingying told Gua Feng that she had to leave a bit early

to meet the building manager and sign a lease for her new apartment. She went home first and for a reason she didn't disclose to the person whom she was meeting, she was running behind to her 2 p.m. lease signing. It was a 30 minute trip in which she had to transfer buses. About to make the trek across campus to the one North apartments, she texted her new building manager, Tres.

At 1.29pm, she said, quote, �Hi, Tres. I'll be late for a while. He answered immediately with, OK, what time can you make it? And at 1.30pm, she responded back, maybe around 2.10pm. At 1.35pm, Trez said, okay, see ya then. At 2.38pm, he followed up with, hi yinging, just checking to see if you're on your way. And this went unanswered. And I mean this is 18 minutes, sorry, 28 minutes after she was supposed to be there. So she's almost 30 minutes late and he's kind of like, hey, just check it in, where are you?

And she doesn't answer, which is of course concerning. So Ying Ying once expressed frustration at herself at her own journal for missing a single class. So her classmate knew there was something wrong when she didn't show up or check in as she was notoriously dependable and punctual. So that evening at 5 p.m., Ying Ying had dinner plans with colleagues Guofong and Yan. So when she didn't show, they called her, but she didn't answer. They then stopped by her apartment at Orchard Downs, but there was no answer there either. Now, at this point, they knew something was wrong, and they contacted the police.

So police checked her apartment and found nothing out of order, and no signs of forced entry or a struggle. They also checked hospitals, jails, and airport passenger logs to no avail. What they did have going for them were the 2000 security cameras dotting the Champaign-Arbana campus, so they began combing the footage immediately. And for reference, yinging had only been in the US for six weeks at the time of her disappearance, so she was still very new to the US. Right. So meanwhile, the Chinese consulate got involved right away, helping Yingying's family travel to the US.

Within a few days, her father, brother, and her aunt, Li Qin, had flown to Chicago to aid in her search. Her father, who was a factory driver who had never before left China, said that he wouldn't go back to China without knowing where his daughter was. And with them too, you can't even imagine how hard this is. Her father has never left China. Yeah, and this is a completely foreign country. And he has to look for his missing daughter who just got there a month and a half earlier Absolutely horrifying horrifying

So throughout the course of the search He would wait for her outside of her apartment and hopes that she would just show up He described the situation as quote Hopeless and frustrating and said quote I'm an old man if I lose yinging, I lose everything." While yinging's mother was reportedly too distraught to even travel, I mean, they were living every parent's worst nightmare. Students rallied around her before her family was even able to get to the states,

creating missing posters alongside police, and a go-fun me for the the family raising over $100,000. So this is really amazing because these students... That's a lot of money. Yeah, they'd only known her for about six weeks. Yeah. But they were able to raise this much money. I feel like just from GoFundMe's that I've looked at for more recent cases that you and I have covered,

maybe 20,000, maybe 30,000, but I've never seen that much. So that is very, very just awesome. So concerned faculty and students at the University of Illinois held a march and a vigil for yinging alongside of her visiting family. And actually, her boyfriend wrote and performed a song for her on his guitar, calling it, to dream like a child. And little did they know the only person in the world who knew Yingying's whereabouts

was also in attendance that day. Oh geez. Alright, so in the days after her disappearance, police went through hundreds of hours of footage, and were finally able to pinpoint Ying Ying's last known location. So she had to take two buses to get across town to her new apartment, and surveillance footage clocked her boarding and departing the first bus. So she took the tealine Champaigner-Bana-Mass Transit District or MTD bus, and then got off to transfer.

Now footage showed her departing the tealine bus and then running to catch her next bus. But as she was on the opposite side of the street, it took off without her. After crossing the street to the bus stop at about 2 PM, so 10 minutes before she was set to meet her new apartment manager, she waited in a glass vestibule at the corner of West Clark Street and North Goodwin Avenue.

Meanwhile, as she is standing there, a black Saturn Astra 4-door hatchback can be seen on security camera footage driving by. And then three minutes later, it circles back around and pulls over next to this vestibule where Ying Ying is. So Ying Ying and the driver chat for a minute, and then Ying Ying can be seen getting into the car before it drives off. Likely frustrated at running late, which was very out of character for her and at the mercy of the bus schedule, she took a ride from a stranger. And that eerie footage is the last that yinging was last seen on surveillance footage speaking to someone in a black vehicle before getting inside the car.

Well, the first lucky break in the case came when police tried to identify said vehicle that picked up yinging. And it turned out to be a fairly rare make and model, a black four-door Saturn Astra hatchback. And there were also only 18 registered in the county. So there's not a lot of these specific cars within this region. Right. And upon closer inspection, the front passenger hubcap was cracked. So that's even more specific. Yeah, more distinct. Right. So with some legwork, they located the car registered to a 27 year old former student named Brent Christensen, who lived nearby. Police obtained a search warrant and were able to search Brent's home and car.

But while there were no direct links to yinging yet, they did find some chilling leads. Brent was a frequent visitor of the fetish website, FETLIFE, and specifically the forum, Abduction 101, which is like, how does this exist? How the fuck does this even exist? I mean, I guess the internet just has some very dark places. And this was detailed with elaborate kidnapping, rape, and murder fantasies. I just feel like, you know. Anybody who goes on that site, just flag them. Just flag them.

I don't wanna say psychos, but, you know, this, somebody who would go onto such a forum, I mean, not only is that a huge red flag for Brent, but also like you said, anybody else who visits that shit, like are you kidding? Exactly. Murder fantasies? Yeah, it's just not good.

Also, I mean, rape and kidnapping, this is all just awful. Yeah. So on June 15th, 2017, six days after yinging went missing, Brent Christensen was questioned about his involvement in her disappearance. So Brent was a PhD program dropout and current teachers assistant. And got this, he was freaking married to a woman named Michelle Zortman, whom he'd been with for almost a decade. But they were in an open relationship,

and Brent also had a girlfriend named Tara, whom he'd met on the dating site, okay, Cupid. So Brent claimed that on the Friday of Yingying's disappearance, you know, this is during his questioning with police. Right. He said that he was either playing video games or napping and that he didn't leave the house all day. Except for we got you caught on camera.

Well, right. So when he was pressed further, he claimed that on Saturday he got bored and was going a little stir crazy. So he went for a drive, but that it was uneventful. He then, you know, just suddenly claimed that, oh, I got my days mixed up. And then he said that maybe he had gone out on Friday. It's not convenient. He had gone out after all. Very convenient, yeah, I got my days mixed up. And then he said that maybe he had gone out on Friday.

It's not convenient. He, he, he, he had gone out. Very convenient. Yeah, exactly. So then he remembered that he had picked up a young woman like this is suddenly coming to mind. We're talking about the disappearance of a young woman and you are suddenly remembering, oh, yeah, I did pick up a woman that day. Yeah. After you just said that you were napping or playing video games. Idiot. Yeah, so he said that he didn't remember where he picked her up, but that she spoke in broken English, and he never caught her name. Brent also said that he couldn't recall the exact time, and that it had been in the early

afternoon, and that he spotted her because she seemed sort of distressed and he wanted to help her out. So that's a weird thing, is all these things are suddenly coming to his memory, you know, so that's never a good sign. Yeah, trying to explain away this, you know, whatever lie. Yeah, so he said he gave her a short ride and she, in his words, freaked out when he took a wrong turn and got nervous about where he was taking her. So he let her out on the side of the road a few blocks away. And I want to talk about this for a

second because I always think it's really interesting in situations like this where you're questioning somebody their story changes and then they act like, oh the last time I saw them they were fine. So he's painting the picture of, I letter out on the side of the road, which means any old Joe could have come and abducted her and it wasn't me. Right, he's putting suspicion elsewhere. He's basically saying, like, oh, you know, when I left her, she was good to go,

and I had nothing to do with this, because some other weirdo out there probably picked her up. But while Brent was detained for questioning, a roommate granted police permission to search their shared residence. Which is funny, like the roommates like, yeah, go ahead. Get after it. Do what you gotta do.

Fuck this guy. Right. So while police had released him after questioning, he remained their only suspect, and the FBI began monitoring his every move. Because at this point, this is the guy who was last seen with her and even worse. You gotta do your due diligence. Even worse, she got into his car and they don't know each other.

So he could have taken her anywhere and done anything and the FBI knows that. Exactly. So on June 29th, 2017, exactly 20 days after Ying Ying's disappearance. A walk, as well as a concert, were organized to raise awareness about her case. And over 350 people were in attendance, including her family. Still the only suspect, it was a bold move for Brenta to join, but he did, and so did his girlfriend Tara. I don't know if he was trying to make himself look good. Like, oh, I didn't do anything and I want to be a part of this to help look for her and support her.

Or what? Yeah, but this girlfriend Tara was also not alone. Police had approached her to wear a wire in order to coax a confession or more information from her boyfriend. Love it, Tara. Amazing. She's like, yeah, I'll do whatever you guys need me to do. So Tara agreed to do this and hopes that it would exonerate Brent, but instead,

it revealed the horror of what Yingying had endured. Tara was able to make nine different wire recordings for the FBI from her conversation with Brent that horrifyingly took place at the march to bring Yingying's kidnapper to justice. When she later testified against him in court, Tara recalled being afraid of him and said that he was drunk, openly drinking during the entire event, even telling Tara to go drink for drink with him, which she said was inappropriate and disgusted her.

So this guy's just like getting shit faced at a walk for a missing young woman. Yeah, what the hell? So in addition to the recordings, at one point in the evening, Brent grabbed her phone and typed a chilling confession in her notes app. It was me. She's number 13. She's gone forever. So here's the problem.

Tara said that she was so disturbed that she deleted this note immediately. So I don't know why she did that if she's trying to help the FBI. Maybe like you said, she was just hoping to exonerate him. She wasn't necessarily trying to catch him because she probably didn't think this was true. This is much as he's a piece of shit. This is also still her boyfriend. Right, exactly.

So police really were never able to determine if this note was a thing and if there were other victims, since you know Brett had allegedly hinted at 12 others. So it's assumed that this was just baseless bragging, but it was revealed during the trial later that we're going to go into that he idolized Ted Bundy and had a fascination with bondage and torture. And apparently he and Tara herself had explored BDSM, which I'm sure most of us know what this stands for, but if you don't, it stands for bondage, dominant, satism, maschism.

But let's go back into Brent's confession. So, disgustingly, and this part is a bit graphic, but it's what he said, he claimed that he brought yinging into his room and, quote, just it's what he said. He claimed that he brought Ying Ying into his room and quote, just started doing stuff to her. Ultimately admitting that he raped, choked, and stabbed Ying Ying in his own bedroom before dragging her to his bathroom, beating her with a baseball bat, and decapitating her. So if what he's saying is true, this was incredibly gruesome and brutal.

Yeah, oh my god, like I can't. And well, here's even worse. Tara claims that he spoke excitedly with wide eyes and pride, which is so disgusting because this is this really is so brutal. So the next day on June 30th, 2017, on Brent's 28th birthday, he was arrested for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Yining Zhang. His wife, Michelle, was one of only three defense witnesses called to the stand, and she stated that he had long suffered

from alcoholism and depression. It was also revealed that Brent had sought help for these issues from the school psychologist and that in his intake forms, he indicated that he had thoughts about harming others. So that's really disappointing too, that there was record of him stating that he wanted to harm others

and there really wasn't anything done about that. Yeah, right, exactly. I know it's a hard situation because what can you really do if somebody isn't directly threatening a specific person, but it's upsetting. Yeah, it's very upsetting. So by July 12, 2017, Brent Christensen was indicted on charges of kidnapping with his trial date pending. Less than two years later, on June 24, 2019, Brent was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was an eight-day

trial that included the chilling confessions he made so cavalierly about his involvement and the evidence of Ying Ying's blood on the baseboards in his bedroom under the carpet of his floor and on his mattress. So there was all this actual physical evidence that a murderer occurred there. Yeah, exactly. So the weekend everything went down, Michelle had been out of town with another man in Wisconsin, Dell's, where Brenton Michelle had honeymoon. She claims that he had been jealous and upset, and that this may have been a factor in his actions, and sadly, despite bulletproof evidence, investigators were never able to find Ying Ying's body, which is so crazy to me, because they know that he killed her about where is she.

I know, and he's confessing, and that's what's even more frustrating. So Brent claimed that he had divided her into three pieces, wrapped her in duct tape and plastic bags, and esposed of her and her belongings she was wearing at the time in different dumpsters around campus. And it is presumed that they likely ended up at the dump in Vermilion County, Illinois. But because so much time had passed, the dumpsters had long since been emptied, and the trash had shifted and been compacted so much that it would make her remains pretty much impossible to find. Which, like you said, I mean, so they were there, but why would police have known they

were there? I mean, I do wonder if they did check campus dumpsters just to be safe because that's where she went to school You know, maybe that would be an obvious place to check, but obviously they probably didn't or else they would have found her and this honestly Reminds me of the Lauren Giddings case, you know When the you know the suspect Stephen. He was trying to get rid of her body and he almost got away with it But they were able to find a part of her torso in a dumpster. Right, because I mean, after it's taken to the dump, it's just the man, that's too tough.

Right, but the DNA in Brent's apartment doesn't lie. No, and no, absolutely not. And even with his confession, it is really matching up with what he said he did, but the fact that her family can't bury her, it's just so sad. It's very, very sad. So a jury of 12 took less than two hours to deliberate his fate, and Brenda peered unresponsive as they read his sentence. He's currently in jail in Florida, where he will remain for the rest of his life. Yeah, so he was found guilty, sentenced to life, and God, I just, I really do wonder if

he did kill other people. Because to write or supposedly write a message and say that she's number 13, and such a weird cryptic message as well, it just makes you wonder if he had done it before, because if it really wasn't for the security footage though, I don't think he ever would have been caught. Yeah, definitely. And you know, he seems like the type of person who would probably brag about people that killed. That's true, because he was. He was too. He was his girlfriend. He was just a dirtbag in that way, but you know, it is possible that he was responsible for other

murders, so they should really look into that. I agree, and we can assume that Brent was probably out there looking for a victim for his horrific interest, since we know he was on that abduction 101 forum, so he was probably just very interested in finding somebody, and he also likely, you know, charmingly coaxed yin-yin into his car, offering her a ride somewhere, likely able to tell that she needed one, and then once she was in the car, she wasn't able to get out, and she was at his mercy. And this is extra devastating, knowing that she had literally just missed the bus to

see this apartment. She was across the street when it drove away. Like seconds away from not getting killed by this guy. Also Brent was around her same age and he just looks like one of her peers. Someone that she would go to school with. Right. Yeah. That's true. So she probably didn't have too many concerns getting into his car because she's like, oh, it's just a classmate.

Yeah. And especially having just moved to the States, maybe assuming that, you know, this is a safe American town or something. Right. Obviously can't blame her at all. She just needed to get to this apartment and she probably thought that this guy could do it and wasn't going to do something so unthinkable to her. So the aftermath of this case is just so heartbreaking. Ying Ying's family were never able to bury her and they'll never know true closure or peace from her case. And of course, visiting students from around the world mourned Ying Ying and worried about their own safety.

The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana has the largest population of Chinese students in the United States. Wow, I did not know that, but that's extremely interesting. Yeah, I know. And many parents of students visited to comfort their own children after this crime occurred. So it was just very traumatic for everybody affected, this whole school, just knowing that there's this guy that looks like one of their peers

who has such horrible intentions. But this is one beautiful piece of yingying story. So there's a documentary about her called finding yingying directed by Jian Shi, who goes by Jenny. And she was in the same graduating class as yingying at Pecking University in Beijing. And was also a journalism student in Illinois at the time of Yingying's disappearance. So Jenny traveled down to Champaign-Urbana from Northwestern University in Evanston and aided Yingying's family in their search, and sometimes acting as a translator, which is amazing, and she recorded the journey to locate their beloved yin yang.

So she put together clips of the search amongst interviews with yin yang's friends and family, home movies, and even narrated herself reading pieces from Yin yang's journal. The film was actually set to premiere at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March of 2020, but of course due to the pandemic, the event was canceled.

Right. But despite missing its premiere, the film still won the special jury prize for best documentary feature. So that's pretty amazing. Yeah, and that's just really cool that she was able to help out Yingying's family so much. Like, yeah, because they really needed it.

Absolutely. Tragically, Yingying's family so much like because they really needed it. Absolutely. Tragically, Yingying's mother revealed later that she had begged her daughter not to leave for the US, but that fiercely independent Yingying was determined to further her education and explore a different country and culture and told her mom not to worry. And even after everything happened, Ying Ying's parents claimed that they would forgive Brent, and Brent claimed that she had never stopped fighting. Ying Ying wrote this in her diary shortly before her disappearance. Life is too short to be ordinary. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into.

You know, I'll never really understand why somebody feels compelled to take another person's life. I just, I can't fathom that in my own mind, but it's just like, leave your fucking hands to yourself. Like stop bothering people, let people live their lives, and leave them the fuck alone. I agree, I completely agree. This case is so devastating. Just knowing that she had just gotten to the US,

she was just trying to pursue her dreams. I mean she had come here for that and just knowing that her mom didn't want her to go to the US. And she and her boyfriend were gonna get married in October of 2017. I know. I know. It's just it's such a sad case and so we really appreciate you guys for listening to this one with us today while we could share ginging Story. We really appreciate you guys just tuning into all of our episodes. It means the world to us. But if you are all cut up on going west and you do want some more content, I know even though we do two episodes

a week, maybe you listen more than that a week and you want more. We have, is it 63 now? Oh, yeah. So many. 63 full length episodes, they're ad-free on our Patreon. So basically you can either spend $5. Like, if you spent $5 today, you would get access to about 36 full length ad-free true crime episodes that we have not covered on going west. And if you pay 10, you get 63 episodes.

That's so many episodes. And counting. We're releasing them every month. Yeah, so we're gonna have a couple more coming out this month in April that I think you guys are really gonna be interested in. So go check that out. We actually just released another patreon episode last week on the crossbow killer in Canada. That case is so devastating and just insane. I mean, it's very bizarre. Yeah, he made some very hilarious sassy comments throughout it. You know, I be sassy. You know, you be sassy.

made some very hilarious sassy comments throughout it. You know I be sassy. You know you be sassy. So that episode was just insane. So thank you for everybody that does go over to the Patreon and help support the show. We just love all you guys so much. And appreciate your support. So thank you again.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you