MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

In 1984, in a small city in northeastern China, a security guard stood outside of a warehouse, working an overnight shift. The guard heard a noise coming from some bushes nearby, but he didn’t think much about it. This was a safe town, and usually the hardest part of his job was staying awake. But suddenly, two thieves in ski masks emerged from the bushes, and rushed the guard. They grabbed him, and slammed his head against the outside wall of the warehouse, and the guard fell to the ground in a daze. One of the thieves quickly gagged the guard, bound his hands and feet, and said he needed to keep his mouth shut if he wanted to stay alive. Terrified, and struggling to keep his eyes open, the guard watched as the two thieves opened the warehouse door and ran inside. This robbery would shake the local community, but it was nothing in comparison to the horrific crimes it would set off, and the gruesome discovery the police would soon make on the outskirts of town.For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In 1984, in a small city in northeastern China, a security guard stood outside of a warehouse working an overnight shift. The guard heard a noise coming from some bushes nearby, but he didn't think much of it, because this was a safe town, and usually the hardest part of his job was just staying awake. But suddenly, two thieves in ski masks emerged from those bushes and they rushed the guard.

They grabbed him and they slammed his head against the outside wall of the warehouse, and the guard fell to the ground in a daze. One of the thieves quickly gagged the guard, bound his hands and feet, and then told him he would need to keep his mouth shut if he wanted to stay alive. Terrified, the guard laid there and watched as these two thieves opened up the warehouse door and ran inside. This robbery would shake the local community, but it was nothing in comparison to the horrific crimes it would set off and the gruesome discovery the police would soon make on the outskirts of town. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered

in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please replace the cream inside the follow button Zorios with toothpaste. inside the Followbutton's Oreos with toothpaste. Okay, let's get into today's story. It's been 80 years since World War II came to an end in Europe. And Wondry is marking the anniversary with three brand new seasons of British Scandal, The Spy Who and Legacy. In our podcast British Scandal, we uncover the bizarre tale of William Joyce, dubbed Lord Horhor, the plummy voice traitor who became Hitler's favorite broadcaster.

His radio catchphrase, Germany Calling, reached millions of British listeners. But behind the mic, Joyce's loyalties were anything but British. In the latest season of The Spy Who, we open the file on Hardy Ames, the spy who dressed the Queen. Fashion designer Hardy Ames lives in two worlds, one of elegance, where he dresses Hollywood icons and royalty, and another in the shadows, where he orchestrates assassinations in Nazi-occupied Belgium. And in our podcast, Legacy, we're talking about Joseph Stalin, a murderous dictator who saved the

world from another murderous dictator. The man who defeated Hitler but also the man who oversaw the deaths of millions of his own people. How did he get away with it and why is he so popular in Russia today? So whether it's a double agent, a dictator or a disgraced broadcaster, get stuck into Wanderys VE Day specials from British Scandal, The Spy Who and Legacy. Find them wherever you listen to podcasts or binge the full seasons early and ad free on Wondery Plus. Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The

official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. On July 25th, 1984, a 35-year-old woman named Zhao Xiaolian stood in her doorway talking to an agitated man in Liao Yuan City in northeastern China. The man was a friend of Zhao's husband, Li, and he kept pacing back and forth and he was

loud and very animated when he spoke. Zhao glanced over her shoulder and saw her seven-year-old daughter drawing a picture at a small table in the front room, and Zhao turned and asked her husband's friend to please keep his voice down. The man nodded and then did lower his voice, and then told Zhao everything was going to be okay. By the end of the night, she wouldn't have to worry or keep the secret she was hiding anymore. She just needed to follow the instructions he had given her. The man then said goodbye and wished her luck. Zhao closed the door and just stood there in silence for a second.

Then she forced a smile onto her face and turned and walked over to her daughter. Zhao was about 5'3'' tall with black hair and dark brown eyes, and her daughter looked a lot like her. Zhao told her daughter she could finish her drawing later, because for now, she was going to go stay with her uncle for a while. And right away, Zhao's daughter's face lit up and she ran to the door. Zhao followed her and slipped on her favorite pair of shoes. They were red sandals with a low heel. Then she took her daughter's hand and they both walked outside. The pair made their way through the neighborhood that lay on the outskirts of the city, not far from the surrounding mountains.

Streets were lined with small gray wooden houses and Zhao basically knew everybody who lived in these houses. This was a neighborhood where multiple generations of families had grown up right alongside each other. Usually, that was something Zhao loved about this place, that sense of community, but now all she could imagine were her neighbors staring at her from their windows trying to figure out the secret that she was hiding from everyone. After walking for a few more minutes, Zhao's daughter let go of her mother's hand and

ran down the street to her uncle's house and then knocked on the door. As this happened, Zhao prayed her brother was actually home. In 1984, nobody where Zhao lived had a car. In fact, even bicycles were seen as a luxury. If people needed to travel for work, they could catch a bus or train from the city center, but typically, they just walked everywhere. The people in this area at the time also did not have telephones, so if they wanted to get in touch with somebody out of town, they wrote letters.

And if they needed to talk to someone close by, they simply walked over to their house to see them. So it was not uncommon to show up at somebody's house unannounced and to find that nobody was home. But luckily, Zhao saw her brother open up his door, and he hugged Zhao's daughter, and as this happened, Zhao felt like a huge weight had been lifted. She got to the house, and before her brother could say anything, she told him that she needed him to watch her daughter, while she walked to the clinic in town to see a doctor. He said of course he'd love to watch his niece, but he asked Zhao was she okay? Zhao said it was no big

deal, she just had a little stomach ache and wanted to get some medicine for it. Zhao then thanked her brother, hugged her daughter tight, and said she loved her. Once her brother closed the door behind them, Zhao turned and started walking. But she did not head to the clinic. Instead, she rushed back home. When Zhao got there, she immediately walked to the back of her house and found her bicycle leaning up against a wall on the small back patio. Zhao's husband, Li, had a good job at a supply company, and Zhao had a well-paying job at a government textile factory. So together, as a two-income family, they were able to afford certain things, like bicycles,

that many of their neighbors could not. Zhao rolled the bike to the street in front of her house. She saw the sun beginning to disappear behind the mountains, and she knew it was going to be dark soon. So she put her red sandals on the pedals and rode off as fast as she could. The following day, around noontime, an old farmer wiped the sweat dripping down his forehead. He'd spent hours doing backbreaking work, and he needed a rest. He walked south and could hear the running water of the Weijin River nearby. The farmer made his way to the edge of his land, and the river came into view. But suddenly, the farmer stopped.

Part of the riverbank, about ten feet from the water, was overgrown with trees and bushes. But through the weeds, the farmer saw something strange laying near one of the trees. He tried to block the sunlight to get a better view, but he still couldn't quite tell what he was looking at. He walked closer and stared at the ground right near the tree, and suddenly a look of pure horror crossed his face. He took off running across a shallow part of the river and headed toward the city center that was over 12 miles away. He left the river and farmland behind running faster than he had in years, and he kept on

running for the entire 12 miles until he got to the city center and arrived at the local police station. The farmer walked through the door and tried to catch his breath and as he did, two officers quickly walked over to him and asked what was wrong. He told them they needed to come with him to the river right away, but the officers told the farmer to just rest for a minute and explain what was going on here. However, the story the farmer told them was so shocking they thought the old man must be confused. But the farmer insisted he knew what he was talking about and begged them to follow him. So eventually the officers called over a few other cops and told the farmer to lead the way.

The farmer, still exhausted from his run, led the police out of the station and then they all walked 12 miles back to the river. When they finally got there, the two officers followed the farmer to a tree on the riverbank, and right away they could see the old man had been telling the truth. But they still didn't want to believe what their eyes were seeing, because laying on the ground, the officers saw a naked charred corpse. They could tell it was a woman who was maybe a little over five feet tall, and she had severe burns all over her body.

The burns were so bad that it was impossible to make out her facial features, let alone see any identifying marks. The officers tried to stay calm, but they had never seen anything like this before. They spent most of their shifts breaking up fights in town or occasionally investigating robberies, that was it. The two officers walked away from the body and joined the other cops, who also had no experience in a case like this. But they did know they had to search the area for potential clues.

So they split into teams, with one group searching the riverbank and the other searching the nearby farmland. On the riverbank, about 20 feet from the body, something caught one of the cops' attention. It was a woman's burned blouse and pants and a pair of red sandals. Just then, another officer called out, and the cop staring at the clothes and the sandals snapped to attention. Then he joined the other group and saw them looking at a single set of footprints on the riverbank.

And it didn't take them long to match those prints to the red sandals. The police continued to search the area, but they didn't find anything else that stood out. And since they had a body and only one pair of footprints that matched the red sandals they'd found, they thought they'd figured it out. This woman had come to the river alone, set herself on fire on the riverbank, and taken her own life. The following day, July 27th, a detective named Soon Eugene sat at the back of a small

brightly lit meeting room at the local police station. Detective Soon was in his early 30s and had black hair and dark eyes. He listened to a group of officers talking to the police chief about the autopsy report they had received for the body they had discovered by the river. Soon had not been a part of the group at the river, but he needed to speak to the chief, so he sat there and waited. The officer said that the autopsy report did not identify the woman, but it gave a pretty clear picture of how she died.

The body had not been burned after death, she had black carbon foam in her lungs and blood vessels and that indicated she had been breathing while she was burning. This meant the fire and related smoke inhalation had killed her, and so these officers were saying they felt like that confirmed their theory, that this woman had basically lit herself on fire to commit suicide. And at this, Detective Soon, who had been quiet to this point, sat up in his chair and shouted, I disagree. The officers immediately turned and just glared at him.

Some people in town said Detective Soon was smarter than everybody else, but a few of his colleagues thought he was just plain arrogant. One of the officers pointed out that Soon had not been at the river, so he couldn't possibly know what had happened. But the police chief chimed in and asked Soon why he disagreed. Soon nodded and walked to the front of the room. Then, with the captive audience in front of him, he said, first, self-immolation, setting yourself on fire, was a rare way for somebody to kill themselves. And often when self-immolation occurred, the person doing it was doing it to make a political statement of some kind.

And so Soon did not think this woman, who was found in the middle of nowhere and didn't leave a message behind, was making some sort of statement. Before the other officers could argue, Soon said there was actually an easier way to prove this woman didn't kill herself. He said the officers had searched the entire area near the river, but they hadn't found a gas can or any other container that could have held the fuel that burned her. So either this woman doused herself in gasoline and then walked for miles before lighting herself on fire, or, and Soon said this was way more likely, someone else doused her in some sort of fuel,

murdered her by setting her on fire, and then ran off with the gas can. The officers just stared at Soon. Even if he was arrogant, most of them admitted he had made a good point. But an officer asked him, well, okay, if somebody else killed her, why was there only one set of footprints, which appeared to be the dead woman's footprints? Detective Soon said that was a great question and they would need to look into that, but it was hardly a reason to chalk this whole thing up to suicide. Soon told the police chief he was sure they had a murder case on their hands, and he knew

he could solve it. And the chief didn't hesitate. He said okay, they would treat the woman found at the river as a homicide victim, and Detective Soon would lead the investigation. Later that day, Soon walked to the river with several other officers. He held a file folder of photographs that had been taken at the scene the day before. Soon knew that some of his colleagues wished he had kept his mouth shut. It would have been a lot easier if they deemed this a suicide, closed the case, and simply moved on. But Soon was sure he had made the right call.

He refused to believe that a woman could just set herself on fire and not leave any trace of how she'd done it or why. And when Soon stared down at the footprints that were still on the riverbank, he knew he was right. He crouched down and took out a photograph of the red sandals the police had found there the day before. He glanced between the footprints and the photo, and he knew the officers had been right. The prints matched the sandals.

But soon caught something else the others had missed. He gently pressed his hand down into the ground not far from the footprints, and he was able to make a handprint. However, the ground was so wet that the moment and he was able to make a handprint. However, the ground was so wet that the moment he removed his hand, that print quickly vanished. It was like the ground kind of ate it back up, like water had washed it away. Soon looked at the photo again and fixated on the heels of the red sandals. They weren't high heels, but they were thick and solid, definitely heavy enough to leave a deeper

footprint whereas a lighter flatter shoe might not have left a mark at all and they would have just vanished like his handprint. Soon Still did not have a clear picture of what had happened here, but he knew things would become a whole lot clearer as soon as he identified the victim, the dead woman who had worn those red sandals. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild.

Like, there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung. Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled

sometimes for years. And so that's why I created Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Last year, long crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation. She's accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe with her car.

Karen Reed is arrested and charged with second degree murder. The six-week trial resulted in anything but resolution. We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case. But now the case is back in the spotlight. than anything but resolution. But now the case is back in the spotlight. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reed kill John O'Keefe? I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law and Crime and host of the podcast

Karen, The Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be. I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial, exclusively and ad sitting at his desk studying the crime scene

photos when he heard somebody call his name. Soon looked up and saw an officer standing next to a man who looked like he had not slept in a long time. Soon asked if this man needed his help, and the man told him he was really worried. His older sister, Zhao, had been missing for days. Soon looked around and saw there was an empty office in the corner, so he scooped up the file folder with the crime scene photos inside, and then led Zhao's brother into the office and closed the door behind them. Once they sat down at the small table inside the office, Sun asked the man when was the last time he had seen his sister.

He said Zhao had dropped off his niece a couple of days ago before going to the clinic, but she never came back. So he'd brought his niece to his other sister's house and then spent a whole day walking everywhere and talking to everyone to see if they had heard from Zhao, but nobody had. Sun looked at the man with pity in his eyes. The man was already so upset and Sun hated that he was about to cause him a whole lot more pain. Sun opened the file folder and pulled out photos of the woman's blouse and the red

sandals that had been found at the river. He asked Zhao's brother if he recognized the clothing. Zhao's brother stared at the photos and started shaking his head like he didn't want to accept what he was seeing. But eventually, he looked up and said, yes, those are definitely Zhao's clothes. Sun told the man he was very sorry to say this, but they had recently found his sister's body near the river, and he believed someone had murdered her. Zhao's brother immediately broke down sobbing.

Soon gave the man a couple of minutes to compose himself, and then he apologized for pressing him at a time like this, but he wanted to know why Zhao's husband had not already reported his wife missing. Zhao's brother wiped the tears away from his face. Then he said that Zhao's husband, Li, was on a business trip hours away, so he wouldn't have had any idea about what was going on. Detective Sun promised he would find whoever had done this, and then he asked Zhao's brother to please not speak publicly about his sister's death.

Sun believed holding back information could be crucial in identifying the killer. Zhao's brother nodded and said that he and his other sister would not say a word. Later that day, Detective Sun walked through Zhao's house to her and her husband's bedroom. Now this was not a crime scene, but Sun hoped something there might point him in the right direction. He searched the dresser and bedside tables, but didn't find anything that stood out. He crossed the room and opened up the drawer of a wooden desk that was pressed against the wall. Inside, he found playing cards, photos, and a blue hardcover notebook. He opened up the notebook and looked at the first page, and quickly realized this was Zhao's diary. Sun flipped through

the diary and found the last entry. It was dated just a few days before her death. He read the entry and it really took him by surprise, because basically it was one complaint after another about her husband, Li. And all these complaints basically boiled down to the same thing. Zhao clearly believed that Li cared more about money than about his family. Detective Sun bagged the diary as evidence. Now he just needed to track down Zhao's husband. A few hours later, Detective Sun and members of his team met with Li's boss at the supply

company where he worked. And Soon got right to the point, and said the police needed to find Lee right away. They knew he was traveling for business, so Soon asked where Lee had gone and where he was staying. But the boss got this confused look on his face. He said Lee was not on a business trip. Lee had been away from work, but because he had said he had this family issue that he needed to attend to.

Soon didn't say anything in response to this, but this seemed like a major revelation. It meant Lee had very likely lied about where he was, at least to his boss and to his brother-in-law. Soon asked to see where Lee worked, and the boss led the police to an office filled with several desks. He then pointed them to Lee's desk and then left the cops on their own. Soon began rifling through Lee's desk, and under a stack of papers, he found a photograph of a woman. And it was not Zhao. Then, Detective Soon caught a break that could only happen in a small tight-knit community where basically everybody knew each other. One of the other officers who was with Soon looked at the photo of this woman and said he recognized her. He couldn't remember her name, but he was sure

she had been Lee's girlfriend when they were younger. Detective Soon felt like he was onto something big. He already suspected Lee in this murder, and now this piece of evidence helped him come up with a theory. Maybe Lee murdered his wife and then went on the run to be with his old girlfriend. And lying about the business trip would have given Lee cover to be out of town for a couple of days before anybody thought something suspicious was going on. For the rest of the day, investigators spoke to Lee's friends, and finally, they found a man who could identify the woman in the photo. The man told them that the woman was definitely Lee's ex-girlfriend, but she had gotten married years ago and moved to a city that was about

a three-hour train ride away. So, the following morning, two days after Zhao's body had been found, Sun took a train ride, and he found Lee's ex-girlfriend at her house. But he realized pretty quickly this was a waste of time. Lee's ex answered all of Sun's questions, but she said she had not seen Lee or even exchanged letters with him in over a decade. So Soon turned right around and hopped back on the train for the long ride back home. And during this ride, Soon felt frustrated. He felt totally lost.

Lee really seemed to have fled, but now Sun had no idea where to look for him. And he knew Li had at least a couple of days' jump on him. Moreover, traveling by train through smaller towns in this region would allow Li to almost completely disappear, because a lot of those trains didn't require a passenger to provide identification. Sun could ask for help from other police departments, but Li could be almost anywhere in China by this point. Hours later, Soon got back to the police station, and he was surprised when the chief greeted

him with a huge smile on his face. Soon asked him if there had been some miraculous break in the case while he was gone. The chief said no, nothing like that had happened. However, he did have something exciting to show him. The chief walked with Soon out back behind the station, and immediately, Soon's face lit up. The other officers were all out there, standing next to a row of brand new bicycles. The chief told Soon he had met with members of the city government and discussed the murder case they were dealing with, and he told them it was larger in scope than anything they had ever dealt with. And so the city government wanted to help the police solve the crime, and they figured by giving them bicycles, that would help them

cover more ground and also just generally speed up the process. Even though Soon had spent most of the day feeling really bad about his investigation, feeling like it was going nowhere, now he couldn't help but feel rejuvenated. These bikes were a huge deal. It meant his team could travel much farther and talk to more people far more efficiently. And Sun reminded himself that this was a community where almost everybody knew everybody. So someone out there had to know something about Lee that could point the police in the right direction, they just had to go out there and find that person. Over the next several days, Soon and his team were out in force on their bikes, speaking to Lee's friends, his family, and just people all over the community.

And finally, about a week after the discovery of Jow's body, their work paid off. Police got a tip from a factory worker in town. The man didn't say much, but he told them to take a closer look into a robbery that had taken place at the factory's warehouse. Soon was quite familiar with this robbery. It had been a big deal in town. A large quantity of expensive steel pipes had been stolen from that warehouse, but the case had gone unsolved for months.

Soon didn't see how stolen pipes could possibly connect to Jow's murderer, but he'd been desperate for any new leads, and now he felt like he had one. So he took his bike and rode right over to the warehouse. So he took his bike and rode right over to the warehouse. When Sun walked inside, he saw men driving lifts through this vast open space transporting materials across the floor to get ready for shipping. One of the shift managers waved it soon and then trotted across the floor to meet him. The guy was in his late 20s and he introduced himself as Ho Le Cheung. He led Soon into a nearby office that he said would be quieter than the warehouse floor. Once inside, Soon took a seat at a desk across from

Ho and right away asked him what he knew about the missing steel pipes. Ho said he didn't know much, just that eight tons of steel had been taken. And also, he said whoever pulled the job must have had access to the warehouse equipment, trucks, and a team of people. Ripping off that much steel was not a fast or easy job. The detective agreed, it must have been an enormous undertaking. So he asked Ho if there was anybody he could think of who might have been capable of pulling something like that off. All of a sudden, Ho seemed nervous.

Sun picked up on it and asked if he was okay, and in a quiet voice, Ho said he did have an idea about who was behind the robbery, but he was afraid to say. Sun leaned forward and told Ho he needed to talk, because otherwise, people would think he was covering up for a criminal. Ho nodded and then said there was a man police needed to look into. He was a guy who worked for a local supply company, and his name was Lee Xiangdong. Detective Sun felt like he had just been given a huge gift. It looked like he could have a clear connection between the warehouse robbery and Lee, his murder victim's husband who apparently had gone on the run.

Hey, listeners! Big news for true crime lovers! You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Bolland's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash Bolland. That's amazon.com slash B-a-l-l-e-n

dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today hey it's mr ballin here if you haven't discovered redacted declassified mysteries yet well you're in for a fascinating journey through history's hidden files as a fellow military veteran i can tell you that the host of the show luke lamanna brings a very unique insider perspective to these wild stories. From covert operations to historical deceptions, Luke examines verified stories that sound almost too incredible to be true. Like Ana Montes, the defense intelligence analyst who maintained a perfect cover while secretly working for Cuba for nearly 20 years.

Or the Tic Tac incident, where a decorated Navy pilot encountered something in the skies that the Pentagon couldn't explain. Luke and his team dive deep into declassified documents to bring you thoroughly researched, eye-opening stories from the darkest corners of history. Follow redacted, declassified mysteries with Luke Lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. A couple weeks later in early August, Detective Soon and his team continued to collect more information on Lee's possible involvement in the warehouse robbery. But they still weren't any closer to tracking him down. Soon sat at his desk, pouring over his notes from the robbery and the murder case like he did every day, and suddenly he heard someone run into the building screaming. It was a man who was dripping

with sweat and looked like he might pass out. Soon ran over to him, grabbed the man a chair so he could sit down, and asked him what was wrong. The man told him he had been out walking in the mountains just outside of town and he saw these four guys pour gasoline over another man and then light him on fire. For a second, Soon just stood there in shock. But then he snapped out of it, got the exact location of where this man had been, and then rallied his team together. of it, got the exact location of where this man had been, and then he rallied his team together. The officers all ran outside, got on their bikes, and rode off to investigate their second burned body in a matter of weeks. The area where this man had come from, where he had seen this guy get lit on fire, was about nine miles away from where Zhao had been

found. And when the investigators arrived there, they left their bikes and walked down this long tree-lined path toward a clearing near the foot of a mountain. And as they got closer, the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Eventually, the investigators walked into a clearing, and there they were quite surprised to find four men still standing over a body that had smoke rising from it. The men's heads were bowed, almost in reverence. Detective Sun immediately began to approach these men to

potentially apprehend them, but none of the men tried to flee the scene like he expected them to. Instead, when they noticed him coming, one of these men just told the detective that nothing illegal was going on here. The police had simply stumbled onto a sacred ritual. Now Detective Sun was not the most religious guy, but he was pretty sure no legal rituals included burning someone alive. But the man explained to him they were not burning someone who was alive, they were burning a dead body. All of them were miners, and their friend had died in a mining accident.

They believed that someone who died in an accident should not be buried in a cemetery. Instead, the body had to be burned. Sun just stared at the man. He had no idea what to think about this. He would need to check with the mine to see if someone really had died in an accident, and he would need to research religious customs to see if these men were telling the truth. And on top of all that, he now had absolutely no idea if this burning body had any connection to Zhao's murder. But as Sun stood there looking at the burnt body on the ground, something hit him.

It was so obvious that he got mad at himself for taking this long to think of it. Just like with Zhao, the man on the ground was so badly burned that it would be impossible to identify him by his looks. Sun turned to one of the other officers and he could barely contain his excitement. He said he had just realized that the reason Zhao's killer had burned her was so she would be totally unrecognizable. And more importantly, because police had kept the news of Zhao's death out of the media, the killer probably believed Zhao still had not been identified.

And suddenly, Sun had a plan to draw the killer out of hiding. Other members of Sun's team dealt with the body that was found near the mountain, and they would quickly discover the miners had been telling the truth about what they were doing. And as bizarre and unsettling as the ritual had seemed to Soon, it had actually been a huge help to his investigation, and he quickly put the first part of his new plan into action. Soon visited with Zhao's brother and sister. He asked them to start talking publicly about how they were both going to be interviewed

soon by the police about a possible murder. Soon felt certain that the news that Zhao's brother and sister were going to meet with the cops would get back to the killer, and Soon believed that the killer, at that point, would reach out to Zhao's siblings in an attempt to keep them from speaking to the police. And it would not take long for Soon to be proven right. Three days after Soon set his plan in motion, Zhao's sister walked out of her house and found a letter taped to her window. She read it and immediately ran to her brother's house and then together they brought the letter to Detective Soon.

The letter was from Zhao's husband, Li. It said that he and Zhao were together and they were okay, but they had gotten mixed up in something pretty bad, so they had to flee the city for now. They knew their daughter would be taken care of for the time being and they'd get back in touch as soon as it was safe. Lee closed it out by telling his sister-in-law to burn the letter. When Soon read this letter, he knew they were close to solving this case. It would take Soon and his team a bit more time to tie everything together, but Soon, Soon would figure out exactly what happened to Zhao. Based on the letter that Zhao on July 25, 1984.

The killer stood next to their bicycle at the end of Zhao's street as the sun set behind the mountains. They heard bike tires on the road and saw Zhao coming their way. The killer smiled at Zhao, got on their bike, and started riding right alongside her. As it got darker, the killer pulled in front of Zhao and led her towards the river, not too far from their neighborhood. As the killer did this, they told Zhao they wouldn't have to ride much further, and soon they would both be able to forget about the secret they were both hiding. The killer and Zhao reached the riverbank, and from there they could see farmland on the other side of the river.

The killer said they would need to cross the river and get to that farmland. So Zhao got off her bike and laid it on the ground, asked of the killer, and then she and the killer walked across the river, which was very shallow, and then when they reached the other side and were on that riverbank, the killer's footprints very quickly disappeared from the wet ground. However, Zhao's did not. Zhao began to head up for the farmland, but the killer grabbed her by the arm, leaned in close, and whispered something in her ear. And as soon as they did, Zhao's eyes went wide and she began to tremble in fear and she shoved the killer and tried to run, but the killer grabbed her from behind, threw her to the ground, and ripped off her shirt and pants. The killer sexually assaulted Zhao. The whole time, Zhao remained quiet and submissive, perhaps hoping that when this was over,

she'd be let go. But no. When the killer was done, they wrapped their hands around Zhao's neck and began choking her. Zhao coughed and fought for air, but eventually everything went black. The killer tossed Zhao's clothes right next to her and then walked to the nearby farm where they'd hidden a gas can. They returned to the riverbank and poured gasoline all over Zhao. Then they stepped several feet away from her, put the gas can down, lit a match, and threw it on Zhao. Suddenly Zhao woke up screaming. She felt her skin burning and peeling away from her. She was engulfed in flames.

Zhao heard the river running nearby and on instinct, she got up and ran towards the sound. Her red sandals fell off and she stumbled forward. The killer looked on in shock. They couldn't believe Zhao had woken up. Eventually, the killer just ran towards her, not really sure what they were going to do. But before they reached her, Zhao had collapsed on the riverbank near a tree, still engulfed in flames. Zhao would let out one final scream, and then she would die. The killer waited several more minutes and just watched Zhao's body continue

to burn. Then they grabbed the gas can, walked back across the water, picked up the bikes, and disappeared into the darkness. It would turn out Hou Lei-xiang, the warehouse worker who told Detective Sun that the steel pipe robbery could have been committed by Zhao's husband Li, was telling the truth. Li really had robbed the warehouse. But Hou was his partner in crime. Hou had masterminded the robbery, and then Li had sold the goods directly to a company he often worked with as a supplier, making them both a ton of money. Zhao's big secret, the one she had been desperately trying to hide from everybody, was that she knew what Hou and her husband had done.

Because a couple of months after the robbery, Lee had panicked and told Zhao everything. Zhao was disgusted and couldn't believe he had put his family in jeopardy just to make a quick buck. When Ho caught wind of all this drama, he decided he would step in and try to handle it. So he came up with this plan for Li to tell everybody he was going on a business trip, and then in reality he would just go on the run, he would disappear from town. Zhao was aware of this plan, and she was under the impression that at some point,

she and her daughter would also basically go on the run, connect with Li, and they would start a new life somewhere else. That's basically what Hou had promised them. But on July 25th, the day Zhao was killed, Hou went to see Zhao at her house and he told her that Li had actually come back into town undercover. Hou said he could lead her to him and then she and her husband could escape before the law got up with them and then once they were safe they could send for their daughter and start their new life. However, later that night, when Ho and Zhao got across the river, it was Ho who whispered in Zhao's ear that Li wasn't there, and that in fact,

he'd lured her here just to make sure she never told the police anything about the robbery. Then it was Ho who sexually assaulted Zhao and burned her to death. But that was not the only horrific crime Hou had committed. Because Li had followed his advice and planned to leave town and go into hiding like he suggested. But right before Li was about to leave town, which was days before Zhao was killed, Hou met up with Li, beat him to death with a hammer, and then disposed of his body outside of the city. So after all of this, Hou believed he'd gotten away with two murders.

But when that letter that was supposedly written by Lee arrived at Zhao's sister's house, Detective Sun compared it to other letters Lee had written and he quickly realized the handwriting didn't match. So Sun began working with a handwriting analysis expert and compared the letter to documents and correspondence from Lee's family and friends and from employees who worked at the warehouse that had been robbed, and that's how Soon figured out that Ho had actually written that letter. Police would eventually locate Lee's body, at which point Ho would confess to everything.

Ho was sentenced to death and was executed, all to cover up some stolen pipes. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Bollin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts. There's this one, of course, the Mr. Bollin podcast, and there's Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, Redacted, and Late Nights

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