The Misery Machine - The Story of Ashley Zhao

Starting point is 00:00:00 On January 9th, 2017, Liang Zhao called Jackson Township Emergency Services to report that his five-year-old daughter Ashley was missing. He told dispatchers that his daughter had been sleeping in the back of his family-owned restaurant and that he hadn't seen her since 3 or 4 p.m. The father was quickly corrected by his wife who could be heard in the background claiming to have seen Ashley as late as 5 p.m. Leang was concerned that maybe she had wandered out the back door. Jackson, Thompson, Thompson, please. Yes, I need some help. What's going on? I can't find my daughter.

Starting point is 00:00:35 But in reality, something far more sinister had happened to his daughter. Ashley Zhao was born on December 20, 2011 in Brooklyn, New York, to Liang Zhao and Ming-Ming Chen. She has an older sister, Jo Lin, whom they called Jojo. Her father, Liang was a naturalized citizen originally from China, but had been in the U.S. for 20 years. Much of that time was spent in New York, and he considered the bronze. his hometown. Additionally, he had a lot of family in Ohio. Ashley's mother Ming Ming said she paid somebody $68,000 to smuggle her into the U.S. from China. Ming Ming was formerly an elementary school teacher and in 2009 applied for asylum due to religious persecution.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Ming Ming practiced Falun Gong, which in a nutshell is a spiritual faith that incorporates active meditation and has Buddhist and Taoist values. She has told immigration that she had flown to Mexico and that a snakehead had helped her cross the border hidden in a vehicle that had taken her to New York. Now, for those underwear, snakeheads are Chinese gangs that specialize in smuggling people into other countries. By 2010, Ming Ming was working in New York at Liang's sister's restaurant, which is how they met. Things moved fast for the couple. Leang and Ming Ming were married in March of 2010, and just a few months later in October, Jojo was born. In June of 2011, the couple opened Angs in the Gander Mountain Plaza in North Cane, Ohio.

Starting point is 00:01:57 which had previously been Liang's father's restaurant. He decided to rebrand and give it a fresh start. In that December, the couple traveled to New York where Ashley was born. According to Liang, when Ming Ming was pregnant with Ashley, they knew they couldn't run the restaurant with two kids. He asked his mother to come from New York to help them, but she refused. Instead, she agreed to take Ashley and raise her in New York. With Ashley now in her grandmother's care,

Starting point is 00:02:21 the parents continued to run their restaurant and raise Jojo. Ang's was open six days a week with only, Ming Ming and Liang running the business. When Ashley turned four, she returned to Ohio to live with her parents. According to locals, they seemed like a nice family. They always saw Ashley and Jojo in the restaurant coloring her playing on their iPads. Officers with the Jackson Township Police Department were dispatched to Ang's Asian cuisine. There, they met with Liang Zhao and his wife, Ming Ming Chen.

Starting point is 00:02:49 Jojo also verified that she saw her sister sleeping when she arrived after school. It was already after 9 p.m. and the officer's question, questioned the parents as to why it took them so long to call 911. Now, due to the fact that they had no other employees, they said they simply did not have time to check on their daughter. After a cursory search of the restaurant, the officers searched the other stores in the strip mall where Angs was located, then expanded their efforts to the wooded area surrounding the business.

Starting point is 00:03:17 The temperature outside dropped to negative 6 degrees Fahrenheit, and 75 officers searched throughout the night with the assistance of dogs and drones. authorities requested help from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations in the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment. The following morning, a statewide alert was sent out regarding Ashley. A roadblock was set up near Angs in order to pass out missing flyers to all the passing vehicles. But unfortunately, no one had seen the five-year-old girl. It was as if she had vanished in the thin air. But soon, there was a break in the case.

Starting point is 00:03:50 On January 10th at 5 p.m., just under 24 hours from, when she was reported missing. Ashley Zhao was found in her parents' restaurant dead. Her father willingly led investigators to where he had hidden her body. Inside of a wall, she had been stashed in container full assault and placed on top of the freezers. Liang and Ming Ming were arrested and taken to the Stark County Sheriff's Office to be interviewed. According to Liang's confession, when Ashley came back to live with them, there were many issues. He said she didn't know her last name, didn't know if she was a boy or girl, and wasn't potty trained.

Starting point is 00:04:27 At four years old, Ashley was still wearing diapers. But this wasn't everything. Liang's list of complaints with his daughter went on and on. He said that she didn't know how to stand properly. He demonstrated for the detectives what Ashley would do in his mind to intentionally irritate his wife. Now, according to Liang, she would stand on the balls of her feet, almost bouncing, while holding her arms out and halfway bends. She would hold her hands out in front of her body as if she was ready to play the piano.

Starting point is 00:05:00 He said that he would have to tell her to stand with her feet on the ground and her arms at her sides, but she would always revert to that stance. According to Liang, another huge issue was that his mother was constantly telling Ming Ming she wasn't doing it right when it came to raising Ashley. He said the police could check his phone records and see that he had very little contact with his family. But suddenly once Ashley was home, his mother, aunt, and grandmother were making daily calls to criticize Ming Ming's parenting skills. Before Liang explained what happened to Ashley, he started off by telling investigators that his

Starting point is 00:05:34 wife is a good woman, and he wouldn't have married her if she wasn't. He further justified this by saying how Ming Ming would never hurt their older daughter, Jojo. During the interview, Liang offered to take a polygraph test, but police didn't feel this to be necessary given Leang was fully willing to incriminate himself. Liang stated that only one month after Ashley returned, Ming Ming started hurting her. If Ashley didn't behave, Ming would twist her arm or hit her. He said he thought about calling someone, but Ashley had already had so many bruises that he simply couldn't. He repeatedly stated that he was afraid of losing Jojo and losing what they had worked so hard to build over the last six years.

Starting point is 00:06:16 One thing that really angered Ming Ming was when Ashley made a mess of her diaper. Now, this wasn't a problem in itself, but Ashley would take it off so that all of the contents would spill out on the floor. And instead of trying to get to the root of the problem, she would instead take out all of her anger on the little girl. Liang stated that on the morning of the 9th, he took Jojo to school. But when he returned home at about 9.15 a.m., he saw that his wife was hurting Ashley for soiling her diaper. He witnessed Ming Ming slam Ashley's head down hard on the carpeted living room floor twice. allegedly, Ashley was a little dazed, but in his words, seemed okay. But unfortunately, she was not.

Starting point is 00:06:59 The little girl started making a gasping sound at first, and then made what sound like a snore. Then she started to throw up. Liang and Ming Ming took her to the bathroom where she continued to be sick. There, they rinsed her off in the tub, and they were about to dress her when they noticed a green substance coming out of her mouth. After rinsing her off again and finally dressing her, Leang realized that Ashley's heart had stopped. He started CPR doing breaths and chest compressions for what he estimated to be about 15 to 30 minutes, but he was not able to revive her. By 10 a.m., Liying and Ming Ming showed up at the restaurant with a lifeless Ashley in tow,

Starting point is 00:07:41 and then they proceeded to stash her body away. The investigators asked Leang if either of them considered calling the police. Liang reiterated that they were concerned because Ashley had so many bruises on her body, that they were afraid of losing Jojo. He admitted to hatching a plan to call 911 to take the fall for Ashley's death. However, Ming Ming pointed out that the police would notice all of the bruises and would want to know why her mother hadn't done anything about it. Instead, they put her into her car seat and brought her to Ang's.

Starting point is 00:08:12 There, they put her in the bed in the back where she normally took naps. He explained to the police that they wanted Joe. Jojo to see Ashley sleeping when she got back from school. They didn't want to have Jojo lie to the police. At 6 p.m., while Jojo and Ming Ming were at the front of the restaurant, Liang carried her body up a ladder and stashed her above the freezer. The panel above the freezer was always off, and they used it for storage. After placing her body in a restaurant container full of salt,

Starting point is 00:08:45 Liang stored his daughter away like clutter. allegedly, she was laying close to where their wedding photos were stored. Liang stated several times in his interview that he was sorry that they wasted everyone's time. He said they had no idea so many people would help to look for Ashley. He and Ming Ming thought that they would simply report her missing, and then they would just be looked at as one of those families that had a missing kid. This is why Liang led investigators to Ashley's body. He felt guilty.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Now, during this point of the interview, Liang kept referring to his daughter as his it. He was asked what they planned to do with Ashley's body. He stated that they weren't sure. They had gone over three methods, but none of them seemed to work. The first was to put Ashley in the ocean, but he said the tide would wash her back ashore. The second was to bury her, but he reasoned that wild animals could dig her up or that people would find her. And the third was to burn her, but they'd have to do it under the cover of night and a big fire was likely to be seen. Leang added that he realized there was something wrong with his wife and that she needed help. He said that he was trying to get a relative to take care of Ashley.

Starting point is 00:09:51 He wanted Ming Ming's mom to take her, but she was already taking care of Ming's brother's kids at that time. However, as soon as the kids went back to her brother, Ashley was going to stay with her in China. But fortunately, Ashley never made it. At the end of Liang's interview, he asked if they knew what would happen to his wife. He suggested that she needed help instead of normal prison. He also asked about Jojo and requested, that she be placed in the care of social services. He did not want his family to have custody of her at all.

Starting point is 00:10:24 Ming Ming was interviewed as well. She was completely emotionless and did not have much to say. She admitted to killing Ashley and went on to state that she used her hands to hit her. Always say something, you know, the bad things, let me be angry. And I can't kind of tell myself in that trouble. When the officers asked why she wasn't crying over what she had done to her daughter, she stated that she didn't have any waters or tears left. Your daughter's dead.

Starting point is 00:10:54 I just don't understand. I know that you're not crying. You said I don't have nothing left. It's never you told me. You don't have no tears left. You don't have nothing left. Ming Ming, your daughter is dead.

Starting point is 00:11:08 When pressed further, she stated, I need to hear everything from the restaurant. I only have two hands. I'm not four-hand girl. I'm two hands. Even though Ming Ming killed Ashley, Liang covered up his daughter's death. He also allowed his wife to batter his little girl so badly that in his words, she had so many bruises that he couldn't call it in anymore. Now don't forget that the couple cooked and served food, all while their dead daughter was lying just a few feet away in the back room. And then they stashed her body above the freezer while they served the dinner crowd.

Starting point is 00:11:42 We should also note that in several sources, Ming Ming's lawyer claimed that Liang harmed both his wife and his daughters. These are only allegations as no reports were filed and it was never brought up in court. On January 11th, 2017, Liang and Ming Ming were arrested. Ming Ming was charged with homicide, endangering the welfare of a minor, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and gross abuse of a corpse. Leang received the same charges. However, there are conflicting, that say he was charged with complicity to commit homicide. Due to the fact that they were both considered a flight risk,

Starting point is 00:12:19 their bail was set to $5 million each. On January 12, 2017, the State of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was granted custody of Jojo. She has a guardian ad litem who agreed to stay with her until she's 18 years old. On September 11th, 2017, Liang Zhao signed a plea deal where he agreed to plead guilty and provide testimony against his wife. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison on January 10th, 2018.

Starting point is 00:12:47 On December 29th, 2017, Ming Ming Chen also signed a plea deal. She pled guilty on all counts and her homicide charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 22 years in prison. As Ming Ming was never granted asylum, she will be deported to China after she finishes her sentence. So what do you think of these seemingly light sentences for the death of a young girl? Do you think that Liang should have received the same sentence as his wife? Additionally, do you think it was right for Ming Ming's homicide charge to be reduced to involuntary manslaughter? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.

The Misery Machine - The Story of Ashley Zhao

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