# Her Jealous Ex Killed Her BEST Friend

An episode of [Outlore with Eleanor Neale](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1682504024), 10 Aug 2025, 58 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1151875220.mp3

Tokyo, 2016: One night, just as they were returning home from a long day, best friends Jiang Ge & Liu Xin suddenly found themselves being chased by Liu Xin’s stalker ex-boyfriend, Chen Shifeng. But only 1 of the 2 girls would make it into the flat, safely away from him, while the other would find herself locked outside, trapped. Afterwards, the surviving friend who’d made it safely inside was treated as China’s public enemy number 1. To the point she’d be forced into a tearful televised interrogation…but maybe though a victim herself, there were reasons for people’s anger. Maybe she and her words weren't all as they seemed… Resources: The Suzy Lamplugh Trust - https://www.suzylamplugh.org https://linktr.ee/eleanornealeresources Watch OUTLORE Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@EleanorNeale Follow Me Here for Updates & Short Form Content: Instagram TikTok

## Transcript

[0:00] Hello and welcome to Outlaw podcast.
[0:02] I'm Ellen O'Neill and in today's episode we're in Tokyo in 2016
[0:07] where after having stalked his ex-girlfriend relentlessly, a 25
[0:12] year old man is now hiding in the darkest corner of an
[0:15] apartment building with a knife packed in his bag waiting for
[0:19] her to return. Only the apartment building that
[0:22] he's waiting in isn't his ex girlfriends, it's her best
[0:26] friends. And though both girls will
[0:28] return to this apartment at the the exact same time, only one of
[0:32] them will make it inside alive. Outlaw Jianga and Liu Sin were
[0:42] best friends. They were 24 year old post grad
[0:44] students living and studying in Tokyo, Japan.
[0:48] Jianga was single. Liu Sin, however, had a
[0:51] boyfriend only this relationship would turn into a total
[0:56] nightmare and Jianga, being her best friend, would inherit this
[1:00] nightmare as well, just by proxy.
[1:03] So many of us have been there. You don't like your best
[1:05] friend's partner, you think they're unhealthy for them, but
[1:08] you reluctantly support your bestie through making her own
[1:12] mistakes in life, and you just try your best to give her a safe
[1:15] space for whenever she needs it. But the case that we're about to
[1:19] discuss turned that up to 1000 and left one of these girls
[1:23] brutally murdered. And before we continue any
[1:27] further, I want to warn you that we're going to be covering a lot
[1:29] of sensitive topics in today's case, including stalking,
[1:33] threatening, harassment, violence, domestic abuse, and
[1:37] murder. Viewer discretion is advised.
[1:39] This episode has actually been one of our most challenging, yet
[1:43] most rewarding cases to research, as the majority of all
[1:46] of our sources were in Chinese. And though neither I nor my
[1:50] research girls can speak Mandarin, we really wanted to
[1:53] dedicate the time to understand and translate everything
[1:56] ourselves. But fear not, we were able to
[1:58] cross check any bits of our wording or like interpretations
[2:02] that we were unsure of with a native speaker throughout.
[2:05] So let's start from the very beginning, shall we?
[2:08] I want to give you some background on our two girlies
[2:10] living in Tokyo. Let's start with Jianga, who was
[2:14] born in 1992 and raised by a single mother named Jiang
[2:18] Chulian in an area on China's most northeastern coast called
[2:22] Qingdao. Jiangga did have a dad, but her
[2:25] mom had divorced him long ago when Junga was still a small
[2:28] child, and after that, he never really made any effort to reach
[2:31] out. But that didn't really matter
[2:33] because the mother and daughter duo had each other and their
[2:36] bond was so strong. They really were each other's
[2:39] worlds. Junga would tell her mom, you
[2:41] have to live until you're 80, and I'll live just until I'm 70
[2:44] so we don't have to be apart in the afterlife for too long.
[2:48] So a sweet and caring child. She would always tell her mom
[2:52] that when she was older, she wanted to work so hard so that
[2:55] she could support the both of them one day.
[2:58] And as she grew older, Junga found a real love for anime in
[3:02] school. She wasn't particularly top of
[3:04] anything in the class, Top of class in anything, should I say,
[3:08] apart from when it came to Japanese.
[3:10] That was her best scoring subject and she was quite
[3:13] passionate about it, I think especially because she loved
[3:16] anime. And so her mom suggested that
[3:18] she should could consider going abroad to Japan to study.
[3:22] Realistically, they didn't have the money to actually make this
[3:26] happen, but her mom was going to make it happen.
[3:29] She always put younger 1st. And so despite their neighbors
[3:33] kind of judging her for trying to allow younger to live quote
[3:37] above their means, she sold their home in order to put her
[3:41] daughter on that three hour flight to Tokyo for the first
[3:45] time ever. This inseparable Mama and
[3:48] daughter would be apart, but it was for exciting reasons.
[3:51] In 2015, Younger enrolled at a language school for a year to
[3:55] complete a Japanese speaking course so that then she would
[3:58] have all the necessary qualifications to apply to Tokyo
[4:01] universities. The language school had a dorm
[4:11] where the students would all live, and it was there where
[4:13] Jianga would meet her future best friend, Liu Sin.
[4:17] The girls got chatting, and they realized they actually had so
[4:20] much in common. It turned out that not only were
[4:23] they both from China, but both specifically from Qingdao.
[4:27] They'd only lived about 20 minutes away from each other.
[4:29] What are the chances? Liu Shin had moved to Tokyo a
[4:33] year before to attend that same language course.
[4:36] However, it was going to take her two years to complete,
[4:39] unlike Jiang GE who was like super brainy and she was
[4:42] completing it in only one year. Just to note, going forward,
[4:45] we're going to be referring to the girls as just Jiang and Liu
[4:49] as that's how they're referred to in the reports that are
[4:52] retelling the case. But by 2016, the girls were
[4:55] super, super close. And although they were now
[4:57] attending different universities now that they'd finished the
[5:00] language course, they still hung out together all the time.
[5:04] Jiang seemed to be thriving out in Tokyo.
[5:07] Her grades were amazing. She would call her mom to catch
[5:10] up every single day. She was making friends.
[5:14] She was really happy. And things seemed to be going
[5:16] just as well for Liu as well. She was really happy at this
[5:20] point in time, especially because she had met a boy, a lad
[5:24] from her class named Chen Chiffon.
[5:26] He was also a Chinese national from Yulin and he was one year
[5:31] older than both of the girls. He seemed to be like a social
[5:35] butterfly and he really took a liking to Lou.
[5:38] Things went pretty darn fast for them.
[5:40] They started dating and within three months, Lou had moved in
[5:45] with Chen. But no kidding, after literally
[5:47] a week of living together, she realized that she had made a
[5:50] huge mistake because Chen was a nightmare.
[5:54] He was always picking fights with her.
[5:56] He was rapidly turning into a control freak over Lou.
[6:00] He was one of those people that thought or everyone else was the
[6:03] problem and never himself, and she really needed to get away
[6:06] from him. By the last week of August 2016,
[6:09] things reached a new height. During an argument, Chen grabbed
[6:13] Lou by the wrist and stared at her in a way that chilled her to
[6:18] her core. One of those stairs where you
[6:20] can just feel the anger, the insanity, the demonic energy
[6:24] radiating out of someone. This incident really scared Lou.
[6:28] She didn't know what Chen was capable of, but she didn't want
[6:31] to stick around and find out, so she told him it was over and he
[6:35] took it very badly. I mean like we said, he was a
[6:38] total control freak. So I mean they do tend to go
[6:41] insane when the subject of their control tries to break free.
[6:45] So he starts begging for her to stay.
[6:47] He's physically blocking the door and not letting her leave
[6:50] his place. She had to literally escape and
[6:53] run out of the door while his back was turned and even then
[6:57] when he saw her make a run for it he chased her out into the
[6:59] street. Lou had to like, scream for help
[7:03] and alert the neighbors, and this finally put him off of
[7:06] chasing her. And finally then she got away.
[7:09] Her plan was to go straight to Jiang's house, her best friend,
[7:12] but she forgot that Jiang's Mama was actually visiting from China
[7:16] at that point in time, so there wasn't enough space for her to
[7:19] stay over. So Liu crashed at a different
[7:21] friend's house for a few days until Jiang had finally gotten
[7:25] some space for her. And on the 3rd of September, Liu
[7:28] officially moved into Jiang's apartment in Nakano.
[7:31] Technically, Jiang wasn't allowed to have a roommate at
[7:34] this place, but this was her best friend and she was more
[7:38] than willing to help her in her time of need.
[7:40] But this would be a favour that Lou, unfortunately, would fail
[7:44] to pay back. According to Jang's mum, Lou
[7:47] didn't do a damn thing around the house to help out.
[7:50] Jang was the one that cooked and cleaned and did everything for
[7:53] both of them. Lou would even make little jokes
[7:56] here and there all the time about how she was fully aware
[7:59] that the workload was uneven, but she just kind of thought it
[8:02] was funny. She thought it was funny and
[8:04] cute that her best friend was doing it all for her, and she
[8:07] wasn't motivated to do any of it herself.
[8:10] Meanwhile, Chen hasn't given up on Lieu.
[8:13] In fact, he'd been relentless in his pursuit of winning her back.
[8:17] He pulled almost every trick in the book, and I think he could
[8:20] tell that none of it was working, but he had a couple
[8:23] tricks left up his sleeve. He still owed her some money.
[8:27] How could she possibly say no to meetings so that he could pay
[8:30] her back? He'd also bought her a designer
[8:32] wallet to try and win her over again, to try and like, Love
[8:35] Bomb from her. And she accepted the wallet.
[8:39] I mean, she is just a girl. But this made her think that the
[8:43] persisting and the relentlessness was slowly
[8:46] working. It was wearing her down.
[8:49] And so he kept going. He was getting more and more
[8:51] intense. His control was ramping up once
[8:54] again, and he began monitoring loose movements and routines.
[8:59] And that is how he discovered that she was now living at
[9:02] Jiang's apartment, which meant that neither of the girls were
[9:06] sick at home anymore. On the 2nd of November 2016,
[9:09] around 3:00 PM, Lou was home alone when the doorbell rang.
[9:14] Jang was supposed to be in uni all day, so she knew that it
[9:17] probably wasn't her. And that was when panic set in
[9:20] because the next person that Lou thought of it being was actually
[9:23] the landlord. And remember, Jang isn't allowed
[9:26] to have a rumor. It was kind of illegal for Lou
[9:30] to be staying there. So she froze and she didn't
[9:33] answer the door. But this visitor kept
[9:35] persisting, ringing the bell again and again.
[9:37] So now Lou is overwhelmed. She's panicking, and she texts
[9:41] Jang, who also believed that it was probably the landlord.
[9:44] And so she told Lou to just pretend to be her sister, who's
[9:47] over from China, said that you can't speak Japanese and just
[9:50] tell him that I'm on my way home and I'll deal with it.
[9:53] But just as Jang sent that message, Lou realized that it
[9:57] definitely wasn't the landlord on the other side of the door
[10:00] because he spoke to her. He said I know you're home
[10:03] alone. And she knew that voice.
[10:06] It was Chen, her ex, the control freak that had been stalking her
[10:11] for months. And so Liu texted Jiang asking
[10:15] if she could rush home anyway because she was really scared of
[10:18] Chen, Especially now that he's out there saying I know you're
[10:22] in there. Like that's like a horror movie.
[10:24] That's terrifying. So Jiang texted back saying go
[10:28] into the other room and shut the door so that he can't hear you,
[10:30] he can't hear your movements. And Liu did exactly that.
[10:34] But Chen wasn't leaving. Jang said that she would call
[10:37] the police, but Lou actually begged her not to.
[10:40] She thought that they would both get in trouble for her staying
[10:43] over there illegally. So instead, the original plan
[10:46] remained. Jang would come home to support
[10:49] her and hopefully clear Chen off.
[10:52] So by 4:15 PM, Chen had been stood outside ringing that
[10:56] doorbell for over an hour, just trying to intimidate Lou and
[11:00] scare her. And then Jang arrived home and
[11:03] an argument broke out between her and Chen in the hallway.
[11:07] Only after half an hour of arguing with his ex girlfriend's
[11:12] best friend did Chen back down and leave.
[11:14] The girls both had plans for the rest of the evening.
[11:17] Lou had work and Jang had to get back to class.
[11:20] I mean, she'd actually left 4 this to come and protect her
[11:23] friend. So together they both left the
[11:25] house again and walked the 10 minute journey to Shinjuku
[11:28] station. But they hadn't walked alone.
[11:32] Unbeknownst to them, Chen had tailed them the whole way there,
[11:37] and now that the girls were splitting into different
[11:39] directions, he was following only Lou.
[11:42] At 4:43 PM, CCTV footage actually picked up images of
[11:46] Chen following her while simultaneously sending her
[11:50] threatening messages telling her that he would send all of her
[11:54] intimate naked pictures to her parents if she didn't take him
[11:58] back. Lou tried her best to ignore all
[12:01] of these texts and just arrive at her shift on time to waitress
[12:04] at a Chinese restaurant. So she gets there and she gets
[12:08] to work, and about an hour into her shift at 6:00 PM, she
[12:12] plotted Chen lingering outside of her workplace.
[12:16] He really was trying every method at his disposal to
[12:19] intimidate and torment her, and so she decided that, well, she's
[12:24] going to try and do something to torment him back.
[12:26] She went and asked a male Co worker to pretend to be her
[12:30] boyfriend and she made sure that Chen could see them both.
[12:34] I even saw some people saying that she'd taken the Co worker
[12:37] outside to where Chen was standing and told him to his
[12:40] face, this is my new man. Which finally got him to leave.
[12:44] I mean we weren't 100% able to verify that but a few sources
[12:47] did say it and I thought it was great.
[12:49] I had to mention. An hour later Chen sent Liu a
[12:52] message saying if you chose to be with him, I will do whatever
[12:56] it takes. Essentially if I can't have you,
[13:00] no one can. While researching the prolonged
[13:03] stalking and intimidation that took place in this case, we knew
[13:06] that we wanted to shine a light on a charity that helps victims
[13:09] of exactly that. The Susie Lamplugh Trust is a
[13:12] charity that not only works with victims but also advocates to
[13:16] change the law and teach people personal safety methods, how to
[13:21] identify stalking and even how to be an active bystander if you
[13:25] witness harassment or stalking in real life.
[13:28] The charity was founded by the parents of Susie Lamplugh.
[13:31] If you're not from the UK then you might not be aware of this,
[13:34] but Susie Lamplugh's true crime case is a huge one over here.
[13:38] She was only 25 years old when she had recently begun working
[13:41] at an estate agents in London when in 1986, after she showed a
[13:46] man around a potential new house, she never returned back
[13:49] to the office. It was believed that Susie had
[13:52] been stalked and chosen by this man long before he even booked
[13:57] her for a house viewing, which had been his final goal to get
[14:01] her alone. Susie Lamplugh has been presumed
[14:04] dead for a very, very long time and police are pretty damn sure
[14:08] they know exactly who did this to her.
[14:10] There was only one suspect, a man named John Canan, who had a
[14:14] history of abductions and murders and even more, but he
[14:18] died last year and Susie Lamplugh's case remains
[14:21] unsolved. At the time of her
[14:23] disappearance, Susie wouldn't have been equipped to recognize
[14:27] dodgy patterns and suspicious people, and although she might
[14:31] have felt uneasy, she wouldn't have realized the seriousness of
[14:35] someone's weird behaviour, which is why her parents began this
[14:38] charity in response to help as many people as possible.
[14:43] On the website you can find access to the National Stalking
[14:45] Helpline and a range of resources if you yourself are
[14:49] worried about being stalked or you know someone that is.
[14:52] This is AUK based charity but for international listeners of
[14:56] Outlaw Podcast. If you're worried about anything
[14:58] related today's case, I strongly urge you to look up stalking
[15:01] helplines and organizations in your own country.
[15:04] Please, please do reach out to one.
[15:06] That is literally what they're created for.
[15:08] No concern is too silly. You're not bothering them.
[15:12] Don't convince yourself that it's probably nothing.
[15:14] It's always better to reach out and be safe if rather than
[15:19] sorry. The link for today's charity
[15:21] will be in the description of this episode along with our link
[15:23] tree that has a bunch of useful resources in there.
[15:26] Now back to where we left off. So as I said, Chen's last
[15:30] message to Lou after seeing her with her Co worker read if you
[15:34] chose to be with him, I will do whatever it takes.
[15:37] And he was going to follow through on that because at 9:00
[15:40] PM that same night, he left his apartment, now wearing a hoodie,
[15:45] a cap and a backpack. And in that backpack he had
[15:49] packed a knife. About 30 minutes later, he went
[15:52] into a 711 to buy a bottle of whiskey.
[15:55] And then he went to the station and purchased a one way subway
[15:57] ticket, heading in the direction of Jiang's apartment.
[16:01] At 10:57 PM, he arrived at their stop.
[16:05] He got off the train and walked towards that building.
[16:07] And once he arrived, he just kind of hung around, scaling the
[16:11] place, figuring out entry and exit points, any hidden or blind
[16:15] spots. He found the perfect hiding spot
[16:19] on the 3rd floor, and he just sticked out there for a while
[16:22] with his bottle of whiskey until the girls returned home.
[16:26] Obviously, given what had happened that day already, the 2
[16:30] girls were on edge, especially Lou, and so she'd asked Zhang to
[16:34] wait for her at the station so that they could walk home
[16:36] together, just in case Chen was still following her.
[16:40] Zhang arrived at the station 1st and she was just going to chill
[16:44] and wait for Lou for a little while and bless her Jang went
[16:47] and bought some wontons for dinner for Lou and she texted
[16:51] her saying I'll find somewhere warm to wait.
[16:53] So Jang went and sat inside a shop and she called her mom for
[16:57] a while. They were catching up.
[16:58] She was telling her about the crazy events of today and all
[17:01] about her best friend Lou's crazy ex and Jang's mom told her
[17:06] not to get involved. Then they just kind of had a
[17:08] general catch up. Jang apparently talked a lot
[17:11] about moving back to China after her studies were completed.
[17:14] She was really excited to be back together again.
[17:18] Her mum and daughter Duo was going to be back.
[17:21] Meanwhile, Lou had finished her shift.
[17:23] At this point in time, she was on the train home ready to meet
[17:27] Jang at the station and she is still receiving texts from Chen.
[17:32] It's threat after threat, even in the form of voice notes.
[17:36] Now he's saying things like I will do anything recklessly.
[17:40] Lou ignored all of these messages, and she didn't tell
[17:43] Jang that he was still blowing up her phone.
[17:46] She was. I was just kind of hoping that
[17:48] Chen was going to run out of steam and give up soon.
[17:51] Little did she know, Chen had been sending those texts from
[17:56] his hiding spot in their building, waiting until they got
[18:00] home at midnight after Jang had waited a whole hour for her in
[18:04] the train station and Lou finally arrived and the two of
[18:07] them set off walking home together, it was going to take
[18:09] about 15 minutes. Their apartment was actually on
[18:13] the 2nd floor, which was one floor down from where Chen had
[18:17] been waiting, getting drunker and more angry as each minute
[18:21] went by. When the girls arrived at the
[18:24] building, both of them actually had to use the bathroom badly.
[18:27] Lou had apparently just come on her period during the commute,
[18:30] and so she said that she would run ahead to go and change and
[18:34] grab sanitary products quickly so that Jane could use the
[18:36] bathroom after her. So Lou runs into the apartment
[18:39] alone, and the front door shut behind behind her.
[18:42] Usually this wouldn't be a problem because the door doesn't
[18:45] lock automatically. Jang should have been able to
[18:47] just open it and follow her straight in when she got there.
[18:51] But that didn't happen. Jang found herself outside,
[18:55] unable to get into her own apartment, and what happened
[18:59] next is plain awful. As Lou finished up in the
[19:03] bathroom, she could hear commotion happening outside the
[19:06] front door. It was Jang screaming with Tara.
[19:11] She hadn't followed her inside, so Liu ran to the door and tried
[19:15] to let Jang in, but she couldn't.
[19:18] She managed to actually open it by about 30 centimeters, but
[19:21] then she said something, pushed against it, and slammed it shut
[19:24] again, and from that point she believed that something was
[19:27] leaning on the door to keep it closed to keep her from helping
[19:32] Jang. Liu had no idea what was
[19:35] actually going on out in the hallway, and she couldn't.
[19:37] I couldn't see through the peephole in the door either
[19:39] because it was always blocked. This was like a long running
[19:42] maintenance issue. But all she could tell from
[19:44] those screams on the other side of the door is that her best
[19:47] friend was in distress. Something bad was happening.
[19:51] And then Jang stopped screaming and stopped responding
[19:56] completely. And that was when Liu knew that
[19:58] she needed to call the police. And she had good reason to
[20:02] suspect that something very serious had happened.
[20:05] Because on the other side of that door, her best friend.
[20:07] And was being murdered by Liu's own ex-boyfriend Chen Chiffon.
[20:13] It seems that during that brief moment that Liu had run inside,
[20:16] a head of Jang Chen had stepped out of the shadows and grabbed
[20:20] her. An argument and a struggle broke
[20:23] out between them. Jang was screaming for help and
[20:26] then Chen pulled out the knife. He began stabbing her over and
[20:31] over again in the neck around 12 times before quickly fleeing and
[20:36] leaving this young woman alone, phone bleeding out in the
[20:39] hallway. The police arrived on the scene
[20:42] and called for an ambulance while they instructed Lou to
[20:45] stay inside the flat. But by 2:25 AM, After being
[20:49] rushed to hospital on the 3rd of November 2016, Zhang was
[20:54] pronounced dead. She was only 24 years old, and
[20:58] her death was just so sudden. One minute she was calling her
[21:02] mom, excited to move home and be reunited, and now she was gone.
[21:07] The only reason that she'd ever crossed paths with her killer is
[21:11] because she had been a good friend, because she had
[21:14] protected Liu. She'd fed her, waited for her,
[21:17] no matter how long she took so that she could walk her home
[21:20] safely. Zhang had dropped classes and
[21:23] rushed home to defend her, and for all of this, Jang would now
[21:27] lose her life. That same day, Lou was taken to
[21:31] the police station and questioned.
[21:33] She told the police that she wasn't sure what had happened
[21:36] outside the door. She didn't see a single second
[21:39] of it due to the blocked people, but she swore one thing for sure
[21:43] that she never intentionally locked Jang outside.
[21:48] It wasn't Lou's fault that Jang couldn't get inside the
[21:52] apartment. Lou told the police that while
[21:55] she was in the bathroom, she heard the screams, and so as
[21:58] quickly as she could, she rushed to help.
[22:00] And like we said earlier, she told them that she had managed
[22:03] to open the front door about 30 centimeters before it slammed
[22:07] back onto her. And then she couldn't get it
[22:09] open again. After that, it seemed that there
[22:12] was something leaning against it, something blocking it from
[22:15] opening. So Lou called out to Jang, who
[22:19] was screaming in distress on the other side.
[22:21] She said, what's wrong? And she got no response.
[22:24] So then she called again, saying, where are you?
[22:26] Don't block the door, Open it quickly.
[22:29] But again, no response. Police also spoke to the girl's
[22:32] next door neighbor, who claimed to have heard everything.
[22:35] She was an older lady who was home alone that night and she
[22:39] said that she'd heard multiple people running in the hallway,
[22:42] then a woman screaming and since this neighbors people wasn't
[22:47] blocked she went over to her door and she had a look what was
[22:50] going on outside and apparently she saw a strange man standing
[22:55] there. She didn't mention seeing any
[22:58] violence or any blood or a knife or anything, just the strange
[23:02] man was standing outside on the 2nd floor landing while the
[23:06] screaming was also going on. I guess the neighbors story and
[23:10] Luz don't perfectly match up with timing and stuff.
[23:15] Does that mean that there's something missing?
[23:17] I guess we'll see. Back in China, Jiang's mum
[23:20] received a call from someone working at her daughter's
[23:23] language school informing her of the awful murder.
[23:27] At first her mom didn't believe it because how could Jang have
[23:31] been murdered? She was a good girl who minded
[23:34] her business, why would anyone ever want to hurt her?
[23:37] She also couldn't verify this person that was calling her from
[23:41] her daughter's school, so she thought well maybe it could be
[23:44] some kind of fucked up scam call.
[23:47] And so her mum came off the phone and she tried her best to
[23:50] text Jang and call her but she got no response.
[23:54] When she got off the phone, she tried to call Jang herself.
[23:57] She tried to text and call it as many times as she could, but
[24:01] Jang wasn't picking up anything. She wasn't responding to
[24:04] anything. And it finally began to set in
[24:07] for her mum that something bad must have happened.
[24:11] Knowing that her daughter was never far from her best friend,
[24:14] she began calling and messaging Lou for help now.
[24:17] But all Lou said in her response was I'm sorry auntie, I don't
[24:22] know how to reply. All I can do now is try my best
[24:25] to help the police solve the case.
[24:28] Now this wasn't quite confirmation of murder, but it
[24:31] certainly was confirmation of a police investigation.
[24:35] Something was seriously wrong. And as that day when on, more
[24:39] calls came in to Jang, who was home in China, including one
[24:43] from the Chinese Embassy in Japan, talking about her
[24:47] daughter. Later that same day, Jiang's
[24:49] mother and Liu's parents met up at the local police station, and
[24:54] a video call was set up between Liu and her own parents.
[24:57] But once she was on the phone, Jiang's mother grabbed it and
[25:01] desperately pleaded with Liu for answers.
[25:04] And all Liu could say through her tears was that Jiang was in
[25:08] the hospital. And it was finally, in that
[25:11] moment that it all felt real for Jiang's mom.
[25:14] And she collapsed in the police station.
[25:18] But something that stuck out to me as we were researching this
[25:21] case was that when Lou's parents got confirmation that their
[25:25] daughter was fine, they just went home.
[25:28] They left Jiang's mom there alone sobbing, just telling her
[25:34] don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing like why not wait and
[25:38] support this woman woman, Why not wait to find out that both
[25:42] girls are OK? I just can't imagine being a
[25:44] parent worried sick and seeing another parent in that exact
[25:48] same way and just leaving them all alone to fester in that
[25:53] worry. It just makes me so sad.
[25:55] That night, Jiang's mom was only growing more and more frustrated
[25:59] and devastated. Not only was she dealing with
[26:02] the raw agony of losing her daughter in this way, but she
[26:06] also felt like her daughter's supposed best friend, Lou,
[26:09] giving her the cold shoulder at a time when she needed it the
[26:13] most. At a time when she needed her
[26:15] the most, even she felt like Lou was ignoring her.
[26:18] Basically, she wasn't responding to Jane's mother's texts.
[26:21] She wasn't picking up her calls honestly.
[26:24] Lou also felt like Jiang's mother was blaming her for this
[26:28] and being so honest. She was also grieving her best
[26:32] friend. She was going through a very
[26:34] difficult time. Everyone was right now.
[26:36] But Lou could tell that Jiang's mum was getting frustrated and
[26:39] so the next day she text her saying I know your heart is
[26:42] broken right now and you hate me.
[26:44] It's OK for you to hate me. We'll resolve things later but
[26:47] right now we must stay united and find the murderer.
[26:51] I've been doing everything to help the police.
[26:53] I'll tell you everything after for two more days.
[26:57] Liu stopped responding to Jiang's mom, who was still
[27:00] growing more inconsolable and panicked and desperate for
[27:04] answers that she just wasn't being told.
[27:07] When Jiang's mom flew into Tokyo to identify her daughter's dead
[27:12] body, she also tried to contact Liu to meet up.
[27:15] She had a lot of questions, obviously, and she wanted to
[27:18] hear about the night that Jiang died, but Lou continued to
[27:22] ignore and avoid all of her attempts to reach out.
[27:25] Jiang's mother felt like this was very intentional and very
[27:29] suspicious. Above all, she felt like it was
[27:32] totally unfair and she hoped that the general public would
[27:36] feel the same way. And so with that, she took to
[27:39] social media. Jiang's mother began posting on
[27:42] Weibo, which is one of the biggest socials in China.
[27:45] She explained the situation and the murder story and added the
[27:49] murderer is still at large. It's suspected the murderer is
[27:52] the ex-boyfriend of Liu Sin who was her roommate.
[27:56] Please seek justice for Jianga. I mean, it probably wasn't the
[28:00] best best idea to start posting online so quickly, especially
[28:03] using full names, because one, obviously the murderer is still
[28:07] at large and he is unpredictable at this point in time.
[28:11] But also two, because obviously it caused the general public to
[28:14] prejudge this whole situation and prejudge Liu as being guilty
[28:20] or at least having some sort of connection to Jiang's murder,
[28:23] having some sort of fault there. This put her in the firing line
[28:28] and put her in people's suspicions.
[28:30] And now Lou was catching heat online.
[28:33] So soon after witnessing her best friend's murder from the
[28:37] other side of a door, it hardly seemed fair.
[28:41] But at the same time, Jiang's mum's world was imploding,
[28:45] consumed by unimaginable grief and frustration.
[28:49] You can understand her haste to get answers and justice.
[28:54] It's really tricky. This situation is awful for
[28:56] everyone, but in some ways it is being made worse.
[29:00] But after all of these postings on Weber, it did actually
[29:05] trigger a response from Lou, who sent Jiang's mum a long message
[29:09] asking her to stop harassing her with texts.
[29:13] She said that she is helping police in every way that she can
[29:16] and she isn't allowed to talk to anyone about that night or the
[29:20] investigation. Lou also pleaded with Jiang's
[29:23] mum to stop posting about her on Weber.
[29:26] She explained that it's inciting him it against her, it's causing
[29:30] extreme stress that she didn't need after already dealing with
[29:34] the trauma of that night. But the Internet and the public
[29:38] seemed firmly on Jiang's mom's side with this.
[29:41] Although everyone obviously thought that Chen was
[29:44] responsible for the murder, everyone knew that, but people
[29:47] still wanted Liu to take some kind of responsibility as well.
[29:51] They speculated that maybe she had intentionally swapped places
[29:55] with Jiang that night on purpose, that she had sacrificed
[29:59] her friend to save her own life and locked her out to die.
[30:03] The public didn't know these girls characters and so to them
[30:06] anything was possible. They were theorizing about
[30:09] everything. After more Weibo posts, Lou
[30:12] texted Jiang's mum once again, saying.
[30:15] I am doing my best to cooperate with the police every day.
[30:19] Now the murderer is still unknown.
[30:22] I'm not meeting with you, not because I'm hiding or because
[30:25] I'm afraid to see you, but because there's too many details
[30:28] I can't give you and I can't provide any explanation until
[30:32] the murderer is caught. If you know details of the case,
[30:36] I know you will spread it online and the more information you
[30:39] spread, the harder it is to to catch the killer.
[30:42] And now because of everything you're posting, I'm physically
[30:45] not allowed to meet with anyone but the police.
[30:49] You're causing people to be suspicious of me, which is
[30:51] causing harm. Since you came to Japan, I've
[30:54] been so worried about you and asking the police how you are,
[30:57] but you let netizens slander me like this.
[31:00] I don't hate you, but you've really hurt me and I'll never
[31:04] see you again once all of this has been resolved.
[31:07] Don't worry, I will fight to the death for Jang.
[31:10] I will find the murderer. This is the only thing I can do.
[31:14] Jang's mom replied, expressing her frustration that she just
[31:18] wants to know what happened, and Lou tried telling her.
[31:21] Well, I'm a victim in this too. But it just wasn't enough for
[31:25] Jiang's mum who kept pressing her.
[31:27] She wanted Chen's personal information, which the police
[31:30] had told Liu that she wasn't allowed to give out.
[31:33] It got to a point where Liu was so frustrated that she actually
[31:36] told Jiang's mum that if she persisted posting online then
[31:40] she would have to stop helping the police to solve Jiang's
[31:44] murder. Liu then blocked Jiang's mum and
[31:48] stopped responding. Liu's whole family also blocked
[31:51] Jiang's mum from being able to contact them as well.
[31:55] And then Lou started to speak out online herself.
[32:00] She felt like she had to share her own perspective now, to take
[32:03] back some kind of control. She begged people online to stop
[32:07] speculating and harassing her, asking them to try to find
[32:11] sympathy for her as well. But people seem to have already
[32:15] made their mind up. They decided that she wasn't
[32:18] emotional enough, she wasn't the perfect griever, so she must be
[32:22] guilty of something, or at least suspicious.
[32:25] I mean, I actually hate when people do this, when people over
[32:29] analyze someone's grief, because grief can look very awkward and
[32:34] ugly and that's not anyone's fault.
[32:36] It doesn't mean that they're hiding something or that they
[32:38] secretly don't care. It just means that that is how
[32:42] the grief and the trauma has affected them.
[32:45] Before being blocked, Jiang's mom had actually invited Liu to
[32:49] attend the funeral, which was being held in Tokyo on the 11th
[32:52] of November. She'd invited Liu to actually
[32:55] say goodbye to Jiang privately before the cremation as well.
[32:59] But Liu never showed, and this was the final straw for Jiang's
[33:04] mom. She kind of thought, well, how
[33:06] can you really care about my daughter if you don't even want
[33:09] to say goodbye? Well, Liu claims that she did
[33:13] actually attend the funeral, but apparently she stayed outside
[33:18] out of sight of everyone else as the police were stressing that
[33:21] she would draw media attention. And honestly, they were all so
[33:25] nervous how Jiang's mom would react when she saw Liu in
[33:29] person. Bearing in mind what I said
[33:32] about not judging how someone grieves, but Jane's mother had
[33:36] been a little explosive in her emotions, so there's no doubt
[33:39] that it would have been better to keep her away from Lou for
[33:42] the sake of peace. On the day of Jane's funeral, on
[33:45] the 24th of November, a few weeks after Jane's murder, Chen
[33:49] Chifung was arrested. He had been the main suspect
[33:52] since the days after the murder. Police had been investigating
[33:55] him this entire time. They had discovered the string
[33:59] of threatening messages that he'd been sending in the days
[34:02] leading up to and on the day of Jiang's, and this was enough to
[34:07] bring him in for questioning. But they did need a little more
[34:10] time and a little more evidence to officially arrest and charge
[34:14] him with the. And when that arrest came,
[34:17] Jiang's mum went into OverDrive wanting information from Liu.
[34:22] And after a lot of persistence, Liu gave in.
[34:25] She told her where Chen's family were living at.
[34:28] She said that he had a brother, that he had a sister as well,
[34:32] and she even helped Jiang's mum to find an image of Chen online.
[34:36] But after doing all of this, which would have been against
[34:40] police's orders I'm sure, Liu stopped replying and went called
[34:44] on Jiang's mum once again. By the 14th of December, as
[34:48] Jiang's mum returned to China with her daughter's ashes in
[34:51] hand, Chen Shifung was officially charged with the
[34:54] murder. Liu also returned to China
[34:57] around the same time, but despite moving back home and
[35:00] being so close to where Jiang's mum lived, Liu continued to
[35:04] ignore her requests to meet. Instead, Jiang's mum spent the
[35:09] Lunar New Year alone in an empty house, listening to the sound of
[35:13] firecrackers outside all night, desperately trying to find the
[35:17] will to stay alive through all of this.
[35:20] As the days passed, she had experienced waves of wanting to
[35:24] give up, but then she would be hit with the intense
[35:27] determination to seek justice for her daughter.
[35:30] It was a purpose that she needed to stay alive for.
[35:35] In May 2017, the tension between Jiang's mum and Liu reached
[35:39] ahead once again, and Jiang's mum decided to dox Liu and her
[35:44] whole family, posting their home address and personal information
[35:48] online for anyone to find. By now, the case had quite the
[35:53] online following, so this post went viral.
[35:56] I have a feeling that Jiang's mum knew that that was going to
[35:59] happen. Maybe she hoped that it would
[36:01] force Liu to meet with her. Of course, Liu's family
[36:04] immediately received a wave of abuse, and they called Jiang's
[36:08] mom up, threatening legal action.
[36:10] Lou's mom even snapped down the call, saying something along the
[36:13] very shitty lines of maybe it was just her destiny to have a
[36:17] short life, She's not dead because of my daughter.
[36:21] And that was it for Jiang's mom. After months of them refusing to
[36:25] help her, refusing to talk to her, and now saying this, she
[36:29] went one step further once again.
[36:31] And what's one step further than doxing someone online?
[36:35] Well, printing out all that personal information on Flyers
[36:40] and literally handing them out in public.
[36:42] Like, I know that we said that we can't judge people's grief,
[36:46] but this is becoming undefendable at this point.
[36:48] Like, I really I do not approve of Jiang's mom's methods.
[36:53] By August 2017, Lou was under so much stress.
[36:57] Not only had the public and the Internet turned on her, but now
[37:00] they knew her fucking home address and she feared that she
[37:04] was in danger at all times. She'd even lost her job at this
[37:08] point over how viral this case had become and how hated she was
[37:13] in the nation. And only now that she was at her
[37:16] very lowest, everything crumbling around her, did she
[37:20] agree to meet up with Jiang's mum.
[37:22] And this meeting would be filmed by a production company.
[37:26] Lou turned up to the meeting kind of a wreck.
[37:29] There'd been so much sentiment online saying that she lacked
[37:32] emotion, she wasn't emotional enough.
[37:34] But from what I see here, she is full of emotion.
[37:37] She was wearing a cap and they blur a lot of her face for
[37:41] privacy, but you can very clearly see her distraught
[37:44] expression through Jiang's. Mum tells her take off your cap,
[37:48] which she does. Lou's grabbing and scratching at
[37:52] her arms, rocking back and forth nervously, and she's telling
[37:55] Jiang's mom that she's so sorry. Mama is insisting that Lou must
[38:01] have seen something on the other side of the door.
[38:04] What did she see when she opened it and eventually left?
[38:07] Lou tells her. I was really scared I didn't go
[38:10] out. I really didn't know that it was
[38:13] Chen Shifung who was killing her outside.
[38:16] I've got to be honest, I am really struggling with this
[38:18] because I don't believe Lou when she says that she didn't know
[38:22] that it was Chang who was being violent outside.
[38:24] I mean he's literally been stalking and incessantly
[38:27] threatening her all day. Sure she couldn't see anything
[38:30] through the people, but she swore that she never locked that
[38:34] door, which is what everyone had been saying online, that she
[38:36] locked her best friend out there as bit for her violent
[38:40] ex-boyfriend. And Jiang's mum was one of the
[38:43] people that was quite convinced of this.
[38:45] She demanded answers from Lou, asking why was Django killed.
[38:49] I just want the truth. I just want to know what her
[38:52] final moments were like. I only exposed all of your
[38:55] information because you refused to ever tell me.
[38:59] She's trying to point out that it took a public smear campaign
[39:03] and doxing to get any real answers or a face to face meet
[39:07] like the one that they finally had.
[39:09] Jiang's mum told Lou. I never wanted to hurt you or
[39:13] hate you, I just wanted you to tell me what happened.
[39:16] Why not do that? Why block me and have your
[39:19] family do the same? By this point in the meeting,
[39:22] Jiang's mom is stood up. She's yelling, Lou's cowering
[39:26] and crying. But Jiang's mom held a brave
[39:29] face, telling her you're not crying right now over Jiang,
[39:32] you're crying over yourself because you care more about your
[39:36] reputation than my daughter's life.
[39:38] Towards the end of the meeting, Lou hands Jiang's mom a key ring
[39:42] and some polaroids of Jiang from when they'd live together in
[39:45] Japan, and Mama just breaks down.
[39:49] It's honestly such a hard watch. Is this meeting between Lou and
[39:52] Jiang? Me and my research girl?
[39:54] He's genuinely had like tears in our eyes as we watch the full
[39:57] meeting. Lou tries to hug her at the end
[40:00] but Jiang's mom is telling her through sobs.
[40:03] I want you to leave now. I'm begging you, leave now.
[40:07] And after that, in a one-on-one with the journalist, Lou
[40:11] admitted that she had never gone outside once.
[40:14] She ran indoors that night, even after Chen had run away.
[40:18] Even when police arrived, she remained inside the apartment,
[40:22] which apparently police had instructed her to do.
[40:25] She only left that apartment after they had taken Jang away
[40:29] to hospital. Maybe this could explain her
[40:31] saying that she had no idea what the hell was happening on the
[40:34] other side of the door. But I just, I just think she
[40:37] must have known. She must have known.
[40:39] In August 2017, with Chen's trial set for December in Tokyo,
[40:44] back home in China, Jiang's mom had begun campaigning for him to
[40:48] receive the death penalty. And very quickly, she got 4.5
[40:53] million signatures from people both in China and Japan. 4.5
[40:58] million is a crazy number. But when the trial actually
[41:02] began later that year, things were unpredictable, to say the
[41:06] least. So now it's time to talk about
[41:08] Chen Shifung. I know that most of this episode
[41:10] is focused on Liu and Jiang's mom.
[41:13] We've barely actually spoken about the killer, but that's
[41:15] because this is genuinely how the case unfolded in real time
[41:19] as well. He was pushed to the background
[41:21] in some ways, but let's bring him into focus for a moment.
[41:24] Let's start with how he actually implicated his ex-girlfriend
[41:29] Liu. Everything I'm about to tell you
[41:31] is what he told the police during the investigation and his
[41:34] questioning. He said that the 2 girls had
[41:37] been walking to their apartment when they had both noticed him
[41:41] following behind and that was when they both started sprinting
[41:45] for the door. He said that Lou got there
[41:48] first, and as soon as she entered, she turned around and
[41:51] pushed Jang out of the way out into the hallway and slammed the
[41:57] door shut, locking her out there with the man who would soon
[42:03] murder her. He said that Jiang began
[42:05] screaming, even more so when she noticed the knife in his hand,
[42:09] and so he just grabbed her and held her as he banged on the
[42:12] door, waiting for Liu to open it.
[42:15] It seemed like he was almost using Jiang like as a threat, as
[42:18] a ransom. But when he realized that Liu
[42:20] wasn't going to open the door and when he realized that she
[42:23] was calling the police in there, he began stabbing Jiang to the
[42:27] point where he knew that that she was going to die.
[42:30] He then didn't stick around. He ran away immediately to avoid
[42:33] being caught. I mean, I wonder how that worked
[42:36] out for him. Hey, so that's everything that
[42:38] he said in the police interviews.
[42:40] But now that he was at trial, he changed his story quite
[42:43] drastically. He was actually about to start
[42:46] claiming self-defense. He said that the knife that he
[42:50] used to kill Zhang wasn't even his knife.
[42:53] He said that Liu had opened the door and handed Zhang the knife,
[42:58] presumably to use on Chen. But he said that he grabbed it
[43:01] and during an explosive argument, Zhang got hurt.
[43:07] What do you mean Jang got hurt? She was stabbed 12 times in the
[43:10] neck. That will likely never be
[43:12] considered an act of self-defense, and I think it's
[43:15] egregious to even try and claim that.
[43:17] Despite his change in plea, the evidence was stacked against
[43:21] him. He had sent threats, he had
[43:22] stalked, he had argued. There was CCTV images capturing
[43:26] his every move, even outside the apartment that night.
[43:30] The neighbor had identified him. He had identified himself.
[43:34] He was guilty, and that early detail about Liu pushing Jang
[43:40] out of the door so that she could lock it quicker was kind
[43:44] of skipped over and lost. By the time that the trial came,
[43:47] everyone was so focused on Chen's changing story that they
[43:50] forgot about that one detail that Liu supposedly pushed Jang
[43:56] out into that hallway. And maybe this is what Jiang's
[43:59] mum had known on all along, or maybe not known, but clearly she
[44:04] always felt that something wasn't adding up about Liu's
[44:07] story. And maybe this detail could be
[44:10] exactly it. On the 20th of December 2017,
[44:13] Chen Shifeng was sentenced to 20 years in a Japanese prison for
[44:17] Jiangu's murder. He would then be deported back
[44:20] over to China after his release. And I think he kind of got like
[44:24] the minimum sentence that he was potentially looking at.
[44:27] I think it was 20 years to life. The death penalty was never
[44:31] really on the cards for this case, despite Jiang's mum's
[44:34] campaigning. They do have the death penalty
[44:36] over in Japan, but it's very rarely given out.
[44:38] It's reserved more for like, multiple murders, serial
[44:42] killers, ones that were totally like, planned and aggravated,
[44:46] which they couldn't fully prove that Chen had done here,
[44:49] especially given the fact that Liu had probably been the person
[44:52] that he initially wanted to kill.
[44:55] She was probably the person that he brought the knife out to do
[44:58] something with. So his murder of Jang could be
[45:01] interpreted as more of a last minute choice.
[45:04] But 20 years regardless is in no way enough.
[45:08] He was planning to kill someone that day no matter what.
[45:11] And 20 years for Jang's entire life is far too short.
[45:16] During his time in prison, there's actually been more
[45:19] history of Chen's that's come to light.
[45:21] Other violent relationships were uncovered.
[45:24] Liu was not the first and only woman to fall victim to Chen the
[45:28] control freak boyfriend. And you're probably thinking
[45:31] around this point in the episode that this is where the case
[45:34] ends, right? He's in prison.
[45:35] It's all solved wrong. Loosen.
[45:39] The woman begging to be seen as a victim was actually about to
[45:42] be exposed for some very sinister behavior.
[45:47] In February 2018, Jiang's mom's phone rang with a message.
[45:51] It was from Liu. It was the first time that she'd
[45:54] heard from her since that meeting that was filmed about
[45:57] six months prior, and we know that that hadn't ended on a good
[46:00] note. Liu had unblocked Jiang's mom
[46:03] specifically to send her a message wishing her a happy
[46:06] Lunar New Year. She wished prosperity on her
[46:09] whole family, which could be interpreted as a little bit
[46:13] backhanded because Jiang's mom didn't really have any family
[46:17] left, her only family, her daughter, had been brutally
[46:21] murdered. But you know, regardless, Lou
[46:23] wishes prosperity for her family and even added some extra love
[46:27] on the end for all of Jang's mom's wishes to come true and
[46:31] for money to roll in. This entire text was so out of
[46:35] the blue, and it felt in very poor taste to Jang's mom.
[46:39] She responded to Lou, asking. Why are you sending me this?
[46:43] How can you be wishing lots of money for me when you know that
[46:47] I'm devastated, stated and grieving.
[46:49] My daughter has been murdered. And from there, the two of them
[46:53] got into a huge argument of a text about what is the right
[46:56] thing to do in this situation. And once again, Jiang's mom was
[47:00] blocked by Liu. But it gets even darker and
[47:03] quite cryptic. Around that same time, Liu
[47:07] allegedly sent Jiang's mom a delivery of a duck neck and
[47:12] pigeon meat, which is apparently very fucked up to do.
[47:16] You see, in Chinese cultures, gifts and actions often contain
[47:20] a lot of different meanings. For example, you can't gift
[47:23] someone an umbrella, especially in relationships, because it's
[47:26] considered really bad luck. And so sending grieving families
[47:30] the correct gifts with the correct meanings is not only
[47:34] super important but also widely understood and known.
[47:38] And so to send any sort of meat to a grieving family anyway is
[47:42] considered completely torn deaf, given the fact that meat
[47:46] signifies things like indulgence and richness and celebration.
[47:51] But to pick these two exact meats, pigeon and duck neck, is
[47:56] what's specifically twisted about this, because Jiangu's
[47:59] name in Chinese is said to sound a little bit like pigeon, and
[48:03] the cause of her death was multiple stab wounds to her
[48:07] neck. It's almost like Liu is taunting
[48:10] Jiang's mom. I know I'm partial to do a
[48:13] little bit of reaching sometimes personally, but this is actually
[48:16] a bit fucked up. On Weibo, an account that
[48:19] appears to be Lou's has also messaged Jiang's mum, asking
[48:24] her. Are blood wantons delicious?
[48:27] Another message read. I see your popularity is fading.
[48:30] I came here to help you, otherwise you won't be able to
[48:33] write any more articles. What a pity.
[48:36] It's the blood wantons thing that gets me the most.
[48:38] Because that is the food. The specific food that Jiang had
[48:42] purchased for Lou on the night that Jiang was murdered.
[48:45] That was an act of care that she it's just so randomly dark and
[48:50] unprovoked if this was Lou sending these messages.
[48:53] She even started calling Jiang's mum horrible things like foul
[48:57] and vile in her posts on Weber. She was so nasty about her.
[49:02] And unbelievably, these kind of posts were actually gaining Lou
[49:06] some favor online. It seemed that a small table had
[49:11] turned. While it used to feel like the
[49:13] whole Internet hated her, now more and more people were
[49:17] hearing her out and soon Lou was gaining fans because she was
[49:22] being shitty. During 2018, Lou was chatting
[49:26] with a supporter of hers online when she revealed a brand new
[49:29] detail in the case that had never been heard before.
[49:33] Apparently, after she called the police that night that Jang was
[49:36] murdered, Lou then called her place of work to ask for advice
[49:41] from a senior. Lou wanted to know if she was
[49:44] liable for anything bad that might have potentially actually
[49:47] happened outside of the door, but I thought she had no idea
[49:52] what was going on outside of the door.
[49:54] Why would she need legal advice in that minute?
[49:57] Just think like her best friend is actively bleeding out,
[50:01] brutalized, her body is still warm on the other side of that
[50:05] door and Lou is checking herself legally.
[50:10] But I guess no one spotted that detail other than us.
[50:12] Because Lou was only gaining more and more supporters.
[50:15] She gained enough traction online that he's actually able
[50:18] to monetize her posts on Weibo now and make money out of all of
[50:22] this. Out of being shitty to Jane's
[50:24] mom, she actually began directing all of her followers
[50:27] to join her in questioning and harassing Jane's mom online.
[50:31] Like that is just senseless bullying at this point.
[50:35] Eventually Liu's own account was banned at the end of 2018, I'm
[50:39] assuming for inciting all of this bullying.
[50:42] A criminal investigation was even opened into some of the
[50:45] biggest trolls who were working on behalf of Liu.
[50:48] Two of her Die Hard supporters were sent to prison for a year
[50:53] each for all of their abuse towards Jiang's mum.
[50:56] It was that bad. Chang's mum also ended up suing
[51:00] Lou so publicly that she actually had to change her name.
[51:04] And then in 20/21, she had her in court again to begin the
[51:08] trial of Louise Culpability in Jane's death.
[51:12] This wasn't a trial to send Liu to prison.
[51:14] That wasn't possible. The criminal investigation was
[51:17] over. It was all solved.
[51:19] All of that happened back in Japan, But now back home in
[51:22] China, a civil case was able to happen, meaning Jiang's mom was
[51:27] suing Liu for a lot of money, claiming that she was partially
[51:30] responsible for Jiang's death and therefore needed to pay a
[51:33] compensation. Now, when this civil case began,
[51:38] Liu didn't turn up to the trial, but that didn't affect the
[51:41] proceedings. And, and something big was about
[51:44] to be released, the calls that Lou had made that night to
[51:48] Japanese police. She made two calls to the
[51:51] police, the first at 16 minutes past midnight and a second call
[51:55] 6 minutes later. But it's that first call that
[51:58] really threw Lou's credibility into question.
[52:02] In it, she is shouting through the door.
[52:04] And what she says can be interpreted in two different
[52:07] ways depending on the context. But she's either saying the door
[52:11] is locked, stop being a nuisance, or the door is locked,
[52:16] don't try anymore. Either way, she's telling
[52:19] whoever's behind the door with Jang that it's locked and to go
[52:23] away. It's locked.
[52:25] Like how many more times do I need to say it?
[52:27] She has confirmed with her own words that she had locked the
[52:31] door. Jang was locked out there in the
[52:34] hallway with her murderer. Something also very important to
[52:38] know is that she's shouting all of this through the door in
[52:41] Chinese, yet they're living in Japan and she's always said that
[52:45] she had no idea who the attacker was on the other side of that
[52:48] door. So surely you would assume that
[52:51] any unidentified stranger in Japan would be more likely to
[52:55] understand Japanese than Chinese.
[52:57] Yet she spoke in Chinese, almost as if she knew that she was
[53:01] speaking to her Chinese speaking ex-boyfriend, Chen Shifong.
[53:07] And so on the 10th of January 2022, it was ruled that Liu,
[53:11] through her actions, had some culpability in Jang's murder.
[53:16] That she essentially didn't do enough to warn Jang of the
[53:19] threat that Chen had become. Remember, she hadn't informed
[53:23] her about all of the voice notes that she was still receiving on
[53:26] her commute home that night, all the texts or anything.
[53:29] The court ruled that Liu hadn't done enough to help Zhang to get
[53:33] into the apartment once the attack began, that she didn't
[53:36] act enough to save her life. They even publicly noted that
[53:40] Liu had definitely locked Zhang outside her home to protect
[53:44] herself, ignoring Zhang's safety.
[53:48] Liu was fined nearly 700,000 RMB altogether, which is basically
[53:54] $100,000. She had the chance to appeal,
[53:57] which of course she did do that, and a couple of months later,
[54:00] this time Lou actually turned up to the hearing.
[54:04] But it was a pointless effort because the verdict was upheld.
[54:07] And now Lou had a problem. She had to find $100,000 quick.
[54:12] So what does she do? She sets up crowdfunding for the
[54:17] money and believe it or not, people fucking paid.
[54:20] She actually raised $10,000 from this from her supporters online
[54:24] who wanted to help her pay her fines.
[54:28] That was until the crowdfunding platform cancelled and banned
[54:32] her account. So she wasn't actually able to
[54:34] withdraw a penny of that money and use it to pay the fines.
[54:37] But in China, if you're ordered to pay up by the courts, you pay
[54:41] up. And by 2022, Jiang's mom had
[54:44] received all of the compensation money, which she actually
[54:47] donated to a local charity that helps low income families
[54:51] support their kids through higher education.
[54:54] It was a charity that her daughter Jung GE had actually
[54:57] volunteered teared for while she was alive.
[55:00] And As for Lou right now, well, she's an influencer.
[55:05] God help us. She is actually a fucking
[55:07] influencer. She's changed her name now, but
[55:10] she's always selling shit on TikTok live.
[55:12] People gift her stuff. They're putting that cowboy hat
[55:15] on her and shit. She's in her Jason Nash era.
[55:17] She obviously receives very mixed responses from people
[55:20] online. She says that she still
[55:22] struggles leaving her house because of the anxiety, and she
[55:25] actually claims that she has hearing problems that she still
[55:29] suffers with to this day as a result of all of the crying that
[55:33] she did during that period of losing Jiang Chen, Shifong
[55:37] Jiang's murderer, is up for release in 2037.
[55:41] He will be 4546 years old, and Jiang's mom plans to waste no
[55:47] time in suing him the way that she did Lu.
[55:50] After all, he was the person who went to the apartment, knife
[55:53] packed, hiding, waiting and then acting on his threats.
[55:58] He is the only person truly responsible for Jiang's murder.
[56:02] I think we need to keep that at the forefront of this.
[56:05] Despite Lou's cowardice and her really messed up way of speaking
[56:09] to Jiang's mother. Even if she had locked Jiang out
[56:13] there, Chen Shifung is the murderer and to be released at
[56:17] 45 years old is way too kind. Men can have entire families at
[56:22] that age. They can restart their life as
[56:24] if nothing ever fucking happened.
[56:26] He still has half his entire life ahead of him, while he took
[56:30] Jang's when she was only 24 years old.
[56:34] Jang was a sweet and kind soul. She loved her mom and she never
[56:39] went a day without speaking to her.
[56:41] She was even really close with her grandma and she had plans to
[56:44] look after the two of them for the rest of her life.
[56:47] Jang looked after everyone, especially her best friend Lou.
[56:51] When she was in need, Jang was there.
[56:54] She sat waiting at the subway station for an hour to walk her
[56:57] home safely with a take away of wontons in hand, ensuring that
[57:01] Lou had something to eat after such a stressful day.
[57:05] That detail and that picture of Jang is so symbolic of what a
[57:09] beautiful, kind woman she was, and it breaks my heart.
[57:14] Even in her final moments on this earth, Jango put someone
[57:18] else first. Thank you so, so much for tuning
[57:21] into this episode of Outlaw Podcast.
[57:24] If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe.
[57:26] Leave us a like, leave us a comment so that we can continue
[57:29] the conversations. Me and the team love reading the
[57:31] comments. If you're listening on a podcast
[57:34] platform, please write as five stars.
[57:36] Follow the pod, give us a thumbs up.
[57:37] I don't really know what they do on the different podcast
[57:39] platforms, but I'm willing to learn anyways.
[57:43] I will see you in the next episode.
[57:45] Bye.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.