Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Killed His Best Friend - The Kwang Chol Joy Story

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Kwang Chol Joy was a California man who became infatuated with 37-year-old Maribel Ramos, an Army veteran and college student who had taken him in as a roommate in her Orange County apartment. Over time, his obsession with her deepened, but she rejected his romantic advances and eventually asked him to move out. In May 2013, shortly after a heated argument about rent, Maribel disappeared. Weeks later, her remains were discovered in a remote canyon

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Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with acrobat So this guy actually fell in love with his roommate And she didn't love him back And so he got revenge on her Now the guy's name is Quang, and Quang is 55 when this story starts and he's living in Tennessee. Here's the thing about Quang. He's got some serious anger issues, and once he snaps, it's like he turns into someone else completely. So one day, around 2012, he decides that he wants a fresh start, and he moves from Tennessee all the way over to Orange County, California.

Once he's there, he needs a place to live. So he goes on Craigslist to look for an apartment. And that is where he finds an ad, an ad that says, I'm looking for a nice, normal roommate. Now, that ad was placed by this woman, Maribel. And Marbell's around 35, and she's an army veteran, and she's currently in college. So Quang sees this ad, and he's like, it's perfect. I'm a nice, normal guy.

So he replies, and he asks if he can come see the apartment. And Marbell's like, all right. And so later, Quang shows up to her place, and they meet, and he seems nice. You know, he's a little older than her, but he seems mature and stable and not the kind of guy to bring drama like a younger roommate might.

So Marbel agrees, and Quang moves in, and a few months go by, and everything's going smoothly in the Quang Maribel apartment. Quang mostly keeps to himself, he pays his rent on time, and he doesn't cause trouble. He's like the perfect roommate.

But then Marbel starts to notice a few things are a little off about him. Like, he doesn't, He doesn't seem to have any friends. He rarely goes out, he mostly stays indoors, he barely talks to anyone. And Marbell, she's a good-hearted person, and she starts to kind of feel bad for him. Like, why doesn't anyone want to be friends with him? And so she starts inviting him along to things, like when she has dinner with her family. So he tags along and he meets her family, and they all get along well.

And pretty soon, he becomes like part of the family. And over time, he and Marbell become legitimate friends. They hang out, they walk their dogs together, they pick things up from the store for each other, all of that. But then, we're in 2013 at this point. Then something happens to Quang. He starts to catch feelings for her. He starts looking at her differently, like she's kind of fine. And soon he starts thinking he wants to marry her, even though they've never once been romantic.

So instead of keeping his feelings to himself, he just straight up tells her, I want to marry you. And Marbel, I'm sure she's nice about it, but she apparently shoots him down real quick. Like, she tells him that she doesn't see him in that way and that maybe they should just be friends. And Quang is devastated by this news. I mean, after all the time they spent together, the dinners, the hangouts, everything they shared, he thought there was something there. But no, he was wrong. She's just not that into you, bro.

But Quang, he's not ready to give up. He starts doing whatever it takes to. make her fall in love with him. Like he goes and he gets a big tattoo on his arm because he remembers she said that he'd look good with a tattoo. Here's an actual picture of it. You can kind of see it's a bengal tiger. He also changes other things about himself. Like he starts dressing younger, he starts going out more. He even spends $10,000 to get plastic surgery on his face to make himself look younger. I guess he's trying to match her age. But even after all that, Marble still doesn't see him in a romantic way.

She just wants to be friends. Now, I'm not entirely sure if he does this because he's mad at her or why he does this, but one day, Quang just stops paying rent. Like, he completely stops. So Maribel starts covering his half because, you know, she's not trying to get kicked out, but eventually she confronts him about it. And Quang, he doesn't like this. And so they get into a huge argument.

And she tells him that they're no longer friends. And also that by the end of the month, he needs to. move out. And that is when shit gets really crazy, because Quang finally just snaps. Like how dare she try to evict him from the apartment? He can't let that slide. And so he starts yelling at her and threatening her. And Marbel, she doesn't like where this is headed. So she calls 911 and she tells them that she's afraid of her roommate and that she wants him gone for good. And soon the police show up and they mediate and they talk to the both of them and Marabelle is nice. So she tells them that she doesn't want to press charges. She just wants Quang gone.

And I guess Quang agrees to leave. So days pass. And now we're in a new month. But Quang still hasn't moved out like he said he would. He keeps stalling. He says he's job hunting and that he needs more time. But eventually Maribel has had enough of his excuses. One night, she confronts him and she tells him that he needs to be gone by tomorrow. Then, Quang starts cussing her out, and so now Marvell's all pissed off. So she calls up her friend, this guy, Paul. And she asks him for help. And Paul, he gets on the phone, and he warns Quang that if he doesn't move out by tomorrow,

that he'll come over there and he'll make him move out. And I don't know if Quang agrees or where that conversation with Paul leaves off, but what I do know is that deep down, he's really pissed off. and he's decided that he's going to get revenge on Maribel. So that night, he waits until she's asleep, and he sneaks into her room, and while she's laying there, sleeping, suddenly, boom, he grabs her,

and he starts strangling her. And this, unfortunately, unalives her. Then he takes her and he buries her in a local canyon. And within about a day, her family realizes that they haven't heard from her. So they go to her place, and she's not there either, and so they contact police. So then police start investigating, and they end up questioning Quang. And immediately, his story doesn't add up.

And so now they're suspicious of him. But without solid evidence, they can't really do anything. They certainly can't arrest him. Meanwhile, Maribel's family keeps trying to find her. They post her pictures on social media. They even organize a candlelight vigil. And strangely enough, Quang even joins in on the search. Like he's always posting about how he misses his roommate so much.

But that is where he starts to screw up. At one point, he posts a long message about Maribel on Yelp for some reason. And he's calling her his best friend and he's saying she was his only family and he's talking about how he would give his life for her. But immediately, people notice something in the message is. off because he's talking about her in the past tense, like he knows that she's dead. But even so, police, they have no definitive proof that he's committed any crimes or done anything wrong. So it's starting to look like Quang might actually get away with murder. Until...

Until one day he goes to a public library and he rents a laptop. And while he's there browsing, he sees a post about an aware-neigh-neigh- walk that Maribel's family is organizing in her honor, and it's going to be held near that local canyon. And Quang, he starts freaking out, like, oh my God, what if they find the body? So he types the address of the walk into Google Maps. Then he zooms in on an area right near a tree, the same spot where he buried Maribel. I guess he's checking for the distance from the spot to the walk, and he's making sure that it's far enough so that people won't stumble upon the burial spot,

so when he sees it, he's relieved. Then he deletes his search history and he moves on. But what Quang doesn't know is that the police have long been suspicious of him, and they've been monitoring everything he's been doing on this public library computer, and they can see that he has zoomed in on an area in Google Maps. And so they head out to that area,

and of course they end up fond. finding Maribel's remains. And so, bam, police arrest Quang. Here's his mugshot. And eventually he's found guilty of murder and he's sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.