Rotten Mango - #292: TikToker in Perfect Relationship Accused Of Cleaning Up Crime Scene For Her BF’s Alleged Double Murder
Episode Date: September 4, 2023She had the perfect “soft girl lifestyle” on TikTok. Kathy would share tidbits of her life on social media where she amassed thousands of fans who were all interested in her new luxury apartment, ...pastel-colored decor, and ultimately, her perfect relationship. Many of her TikToks were about how to find a partner that actually values you, cherishes you, and even showers you with the gifts that you deserve. She inspired a lot of viewers to want to have a perfect boyfriend and not settle for anything less. They were the perfect couple online. Till she was accused of cleaning up a crime scene. Till her boyfriend was wanted by Interpol for allegedly brutally killing two people. REMINDER: Please keep in mind that this is an ongoing case! This is just the information that we have as of the publication date, and things could easily change as the trial pushes forward. We will do our best to keep you updated on the case. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Better being better boot. There was a viral tweet recently. It's something along the lines
of a woman's notes app holds more mystery, more intrigue, more truths than any film. Listen,
I don't know exactly what it means, but I do know that
my Notes app is just like high security clearance level type stuff. I mean, I have my whole
brain is on there, grocery list, like new restaurants that I want to try out, directions on how
to fix my stove, the emotional text message that I never sent, but I redrafted 25 times.
Like all of that is in my notes app.
And I'm sure a lot of you guys can relate to that.
A lot of people speculate that a famous TikToker
and influencer by the name of Kathy Vu,
they speculate that she, like us, had a very colorful notes app.
So she mainly did voiceover TikToks.
I actually came across her page before I even
knew about this case before this case even took place. I felt like we had very
similar aesthetics like she loved everything pink pastell. She had this
moving out series that was actually very fun to watch and I think that's how her
social media just started blowing up like taking off. She had this very
sweet way of speaking. When I navigated dating before I met my boyfriend,
I literally used to think that I had to prove to the people
that I dated that I didn't need much from them.
And it just kind of made you feel like,
huh, she feels like an older sister,
or she feels like a sister telling me about her day.
She's also a little bit inspirational.
She would showcase her lifestyle,
which was, I wouldn't even say it's like normal.
It's just really nice.
Like she had a very nice lifestyle.
She had just moved into this new luxury apartment,
bought a ton of these cute kitchen wares,
and she would show everyone hacks on like,
how to do your laundry the right way.
Like, what to check before you move into a new place?
She also gave a lot of relationship advice.
She would post motivational workout videos.
I mean, it wouldn't be hard to imagine
that she had a lot of young girls
looking up to this seemingly perfect life online.
So in one TikTok, she talked about her relationship
and all the things that her boyfriend would do for her.
It's kind of giving the audience the whole,
this is what a man should
do in a relationship. This is how you should be cared for. If he wanted to, he would type
of advice video. She writes text in the TikTok while she shows off clips of him doing all
these things for her. And it says, things my boyfriend does that have forever raised my
standards. Always carries my luggage for me. Always down to travel and do
something spontaneous. Shows me his favorite things and is open to my interest even if they're
out of his comfort zone. Is the most practical and thoughtful gift giver and pays attention to my
interests. But most importantly, he caters to my emotional needs, which allows me to be my most
authentic, weird self. She even posted a
TikTok showcasing a MacBook that he had bought her for her birthday. And people were looking up to
this relationship. I mean, they were commenting about how this is how boyfriends should be
treating their girlfriends. This is the new standard. And then everything absolutely imploded. Kathy's boyfriend was wanted by Interpol for a double
homicide and Kathy knew herself was arrested for tampering with a crime scene.
Authorities would find a note-sap on her phone filled with a list of cleaning
supplies that they think was used in cleaning up the crime scene to a murder. A murder that allegedly, the authorities theorized
her boyfriend had committed.
They also believe that her boyfriend
bought her that MacBook very soon after.
Social media has now stated that was her thank you
for cleaning up the crime scene gift.
Let's get into what happened. stated, that was her thank you for cleaning up the crime scene gift.
Let's get into what happened.
As always, full show notes are available at Rottenminglepodcast.com.
This is still a developing case, and this is just what we know as of the production date,
or rather, like what we know of when this video is posted.
With the trial coming up, I'm assuming there's going to be a lot more information that comes
out with the legal process.
I will say that, okay? Nobody has been convicted of a crime.
People have been charged.
There are theories of why they've done things,
there are speculations, but this is just all theories
at the end of the day.
We're not gonna know if they're guilty
until it's proved in court.
Wait, so the boyfriend and Kathy are both arrested or bailed?
So basically, the boyfriend has another accomplice that was arrested for capital murder.
So the boyfriend and the accomplice, another guy, are arrested for capital murder.
They have not been granted bail and Kathy has been granted bail and she has much much
lesser charges of tampering with evidence, I believe.
I will say though that this case, even on the social media, but also the mainstream aspect
like the mainstream media front of this, has centered more around Cathy Vu.
She's become the main topic of discussion with this case because I think, you know, for
one, it's fascinating that someone can have such a quote-open or transparent public
internet life, if you will.
And then turn around and have such dark things happening behind the scenes, I do understand the fascination of that.
And even just the contrast itself of her being this very soft voice girl with like a love
for San Rio and then allegedly being involved in a brutal gruesome double homicide.
You know, I can understand that there's a lot of shock and intrigue, but it is important
to remember that there are two other parties involved. And I think because there's just not a lot of information on them, everyone has just
been laser focused on Cathy Voo.
And I will say that even this episode will have more information on Cathy as of right
now since she was the public figure when all of this went down.
But hopefully that will change as the trial moves forward and we will get more information
on the two other perpetrators.
But with that being said, let's get into it.
In 2009, a reporter, slash writer, named Evan Ratcliffe disappeared.
2009.
Okay, well he tried to disappear.
It was a challenge.
He wanted to see in the era of Facebook Instagram cell phone security cameras on every street
corner, he wanted to see if he could hide somewhere in the world without his readers
finding him.
He offered up $5,000 for anyone that could find him and they had one month to do so.
This was like a whole movement on social media.
People were forming groups like Watchdog Groups.
They were forming Instagram pages.
It was everyone was trying to find him,
not even just for the $5,000,
but for the fact that they could.
They wanted to prove something.
He was found three weeks later by a team of civilians,
civilians who were interested in the reward money.
Three weeks.
So did he post anything on social media during that time?
He left, yes, he left little nuggets
here and there, but not they weren't big. They were really not big at all. Yeah, you know
how to take talk that? Try to find where I am with the photo like you located geo located.
So scary terrifying, right? And I imagine it's only getting harder now because that was in 2009
and this is 2023. I mean, think about what could have happened in like the past 14 years? Yes, 14 years. But if you had to,
right, do you think it would be safer to go to a densely populated city? Like would you
rather go to New York City, Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, like all these cities where there's
so many people that you can get lost in the crowd, that you can blend in, or do you go
somewhere where very few travel? Like the middle
of nowhere. Yeah, for sure. Middle of nowhere. Yeah. Less eyeballs, like somewhere wooded,
somewhere quiet. Yeah. Absolutely. Interesting. So Ho Chi Minh City actually has more people
than New York City. Did you know that? Really? Yeah. The city surrounds the Saigon River.
It's in Vietnam, which I heard it's really beautiful at night because the city lights reflect off the river. Yeah, and it's beautiful.
It's a city that also feels like it never sleeps.
Apparently their nightlife is really crazy. Like just rooftop bars, nightclubs, casinos, like no sleep, next club, back to back.
And it just feels like a big vagus, but better. Like you can blend in, you can feel like you can let loose
and no one will know.
No one will even remember by the time that the sun comes up.
Even in February, it feels like summertime in Vietnam.
So thousands of people, they're traveling from all over the world
to Vietnam to hide away from like the winter months
of the other countries.
And it's nice in the sense that everyone truly feels
like they go about their business. They don't really pay too much attention to what everybody else in the sense that everyone truly feels like they go about their business.
They don't really pay too much attention to what everybody else in the city is doing.
I imagine that finding your friend in a city like this would require back and forth communication.
You would need to have a meet-up spot. You would need to coordinate a time.
But imagine you have to find someone in the city that doesn't want to be found.
Someone that's hiding.
There were two young men hiding in Vietnam.
They're trying their best to blend in and be invisible.
You have 26-year-old Polly Fan
and 25-year-old Jaden Wen.
The two took very different approaches.
They landed in Vietnam on different planes
on different days, and Polly,
he tried his best to blend in with the crowd
in Ho Chi Minh City.
He's trying to stay under the radar.
He's trying to appear normal from the outside.
Like if you were to bump into him on the street,
you're like, oh, this is just another random resident.
He would actually go to the gym.
Sometimes he would have been go out on the weekends.
He would join the nightlife.
And every time he would go back to his place of residence,
he would look left, he would look right.
He would look over his shoulder to make right, he would look over his shoulder
to make sure that he wasn't being followed,
and then he would put his key in the door.
Jaden had a completely different approach.
He went to like the suburbs suburbs,
the place where very few go,
not even just like regular suburbs,
I'm talking like countryside.
He met a young woman, pretended to fall in love,
offered her a visa into his home
country, the United States, and her parents willingly took him in with open arms. And
for a while it worked. Nobody suspected that these two young men were wanted by Interpol.
Nobody knew that. Because just a few days ago before they landed in Vietnam,
they had allegedly brutally murdered two men in cold blood.
Let me take you to the day of the murder.
January 26th, 2023.
Let's talk about John, okay?
John is his fake name. He's anonymous, but he is a neighbor.
He's been trying to fall asleep for the past, I don't know, like three hours, he's tossing and turning,
he's trying to put his cushion over his head
and his damn dog just was going at it,
like barking nonstop, just would not give it up.
John is like, what do I need to do?
Do I need to show you every room in the house
to tell you that we don't have a home intruder?
Nothing is going on.
His dog is practically pacing around his house,
non-stop as if someone had lit a fire under its butt.
Side note, John doesn't really seem that nervous
that there was something going on
or that there was someone outside lurking
in the woods trying to get into his house.
He lived in a gated private community in Houston, Texas,
with only about like 10 other houses.
It's really safe.
The houses were also pretty close to one another,
so it's not townhomes, they're not stuck together,
they're not sharing walls, but they've got tiny little
slivers of side yards.
So it's really hard for someone to have a home invasion
and the neighbors don't notice.
Everyone sees everything.
So this is pretty much as safe as you can get
in a single family home.
There's a lot of ring cameras nearby, a lot of nosy residents, a lot of close proximity.
It would be very difficult for someone to even rob one of these 10 houses.
So he lifts up his head and he's like, okay, what in the world is going on?
Like, please, go to sleep. And he flips over and he knocks out.
He gets up a few hours later to start the day, and he looks at his window as he always does as he drinks his cup of coffee, and everything
is normal. Neighbors are walking their dogs as normal. He could see across the street into
his neighbor's house, James, James is his neighbor, and James's white Prius is in the garage.
I mean, everything seems like that morning bustle
before everyone's heading to work.
John picks up his dog to bring him to the front lawn
and he glances back up at James' house.
And it's strange because his white Prius is sitting
in his garage.
His garage door is open.
It's lifted.
Like he forgot to close it.
Yes, but now that he's outside,
he can actually hear the Prius is running.
The engine is on.
And it's parked and it doesn't look like anyone was inside of the car.
But again, would you really consider this some sort of like bombshell neighborly gossip
even?
It's January and Houston.
I mean, it's not freezing, but it's pretty cold.
If you're running into your house to grab your phone or run back out to leave after
you grab something, you would probably keep your car on so that you don't get cold on
the way out.
So John goes back into his home and he goes through the motions of his morning routine.
He heads back outside once more to hop into his car and leave.
When he's like, oh my god, James is Prius is still parked in the garage.
The garage is still open and the car is still on.
And there's no sign of James anywhere.
And again, he doesn't think anything
terrible happened. He's just thinking, maybe he doesn't know. I got to let him know like,
hey, but you left your car open, right? You left your car on. He called James his phone,
no response. He starts feeling a little curious, little anxious. So he makes his way over
to his neighbor's garage. And the engine is on, but not only that
this is where he starts feeling kind of like a unsettling feeling.
The windshield wipers are going.
Was it rainy last night?
Maybe.
It's really weird.
Why are the windshield wipers still going?
Even if you're running into grab something, you would probably turn it off.
Windshield wipers, even when it's drizzling, I like to turn it off and then I'm like,
okay, I need it again.
It's just like, it's squeaking, like,
back and forth, back and forth.
Almost like a creepy haunted manor.
The car is empty, the garage is empty,
the house feels eerily quiet.
You're just like, James, no response.
John walks around, goes to the front door,
because it's pretty rude to like open the garage door
and be like, hello, are you in here?
And he starts knocking on the door,
ringing the doorbell, no response.
And now John's thinking, either I move on with my day
and I go to work or I do something a little bit crazy.
And you know what, it's crazy, but I think it's okay.
He goes around the bushes and starts trying to peek in
through the front window of the house.
If James catches him, I'm sure that there would be
this awkward moment of explanation,
but something in his gut is like, I gotta do it.
I just don't feel good about this.
I don't think that I can go about the rest of my day
and not keep thinking back on this morning.
Don tries his best to balance and get us close to the window
as he can and his stomach drops.
I mean, the heavy gut feeling that he had was confirmed.
The house was totally ransacked.
Just things were thrown about everywhere
and there were some splatters on various surfaces
that were very dark and yes, it looked like blood.
Like it didn't look like someone was spilling water,
it didn't look like a water balloon burst, it was blood.
John runs back to his house.
He calls 911 and within minutes at around 8.30 a.m.
officers arrive at the house for a welfare check.
I think officers were expecting to walk into a potential home
invasion or some sort of burglary.
Maybe a domestic issue, but I don't think that they were prepared to come across a scene
that looked like it was out of a scene of breaking bad.
They walk into the house, furniture, turned over, thrown everywhere, doors, cabinets, all
swung open, blood splattered on the walls, floors, bullet fragments throughout the house, and
in the middle of the chaos, there was a man laying in a large pool of blood
He had been clearly shot multiple times
To get a better idea of who this was and how they were killed
Authorities searched the rest of the house and found several packages of marijuana packed in airtight wrappings
129 pounds of marijuana
type wrappings, 129 pounds of marijuana. 129 pounds, that's like a human.
That's like, yeah.
So in Texas, marijuana is not legal.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So that would be, that would probably possession with intent to distribute.
Okay.
Wow.
Yeah.
So they also found 10 pounds of hash oil.
So I think of like a dog, like the weight of a dog in actual oil.
What is a hash oil. So I think of like a dog like the weight of a dog in a hash oil. What is a hash oil? It's like a CBD oil that is like more potent than
marijuana. Okay. And when they opened up the freezer, the freezer, they found
$36,000 in cash staring back at them. But nobody took this? No. I mean, the
marijuana itself is worth a lot of money. but then $39,000 just in cash.
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. And you say all the cabinets were open. Yeah. So it seems like someone
was trying to find money or find drugs or find something. But what happened? Like how did they not
take any of this and why is there someone dead? Yeah. Because this just doesn't make sense. Like what
the hell happened here? Was this a drug-related murder?
If so, why did they not take anything?
Why didn't they take the marijuana?
Why didn't they take the frozen cash?
Authorities, they quickly piece together
that the dead man in the living room was not James.
He was not the homeowner.
What?
So, how is he connected to all of this?
The man in the house was 35-year-old Dana Ristow.
He was actually from Oregon, but James was a very close friend of his that he was visiting
in Houston.
So, James had actually lived in Oregon prior to all of this, and this is kind of pertinent
because both of them were in the marijuana business, and it's completely legal in Oregon.
So, they were legal distributors of marijuana, and then James decided to kind of take a step
back from this business.
He stopped working with all of his companies in Oregon.
He moved to Houston to focus on being a father and his best friend Dana was visiting him.
Now it does seem like maybe he hadn't cut all of the ties because like I said there were
129 pounds of marijuana in his home and I don't want to see people victim blaming
because it doesn't really matter if you have possession
of drugs, if you're murdered, that means nothing.
You can't be like, oh, well, they had drugs.
It's a very weird way of thinking.
So it seems like they hadn't fully cut the ties.
Now, the problem is marijuana is illegal in Texas.
Dana seemed to be visiting his close friend in Houston.
And people said that
the two were just like as thick as thieves. They had very similar energies. They had these
larger than life personalities. They were also the type of friends that very much valued loyalty.
What does it mean as thick as thieves? It's the same. It's the same. Yeah, where they're just the type
like when you're friends with them, you know they have your back. where they're just the type, like, when you're friends with them, you know, they have your back.
And they're just really best buds.
They would never betray each other.
There's no way that anyone could come between them.
Like thick as thieves, you know?
And it sounds cheesy.
And in today's case, loyalty might not seem like such a positive thing anymore.
You're going to see why.
But these two, they were very loyal and they were very honest with one another.
Like, you know, those friends that will stick by you no matter what.
But if you do something, they'll be like, hey, that was dumb.
Why did you do that?
That was kind of their friendship.
So why was James' close friend Dana, who was presumably there to meet and visit James?
Why was he found dead in his house and where was James?
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Police had a few leads to follow.
One being Dana's car.
Neighbors reported seeing a Dodge Ram with Oregon license plates.
It's like a pickup truck parked in front of James's house.
And now it's missing.
Clearly Dana wasn't the one to drive it off the property, so who did?
It seems like whoever the killer was stole Dana's car afterwards as like a getaway vehicle
of sorts.
So this car could potentially provide them for the answers that they're looking for.
The issue at a, be on the lookout, a bollo for the 2002 white Dodge Ram.
Additionally, authorities reported James missing.
They tow the Toyota Prius, so the Toyota Prius is James's car.
It's in the garage.
They tow it to their in-pound lot.
This is like police evidence slot.
This is not just like a random tow truck lot.
This is police evidence.
This is where they're going to take your car
if they confiscate it.
And they go back to following the rest of the leads.
Dana's pickup truck was found two days later abandoned.
The truck was completely empty.
James was nowhere in sight.
They towed Dana's truck to the police station to be processed for possible evidence as
well.
And other officers that are working on this case, they used find my iPhone to track down
James' phone.
It was just left at the white oak by you.
So it looked like either someone discarded it to get rid of evidence or maybe James himself could
have thrown it out the window or thrown it away himself to avoid being
tracks and throw officers off his trail. So now authorities have Dana's body,
Dana's car, James's car, James's phone, but where is James? Now this is the
part that I cannot wrap my head around.
This is truly bizarre.
Five days later, investigators find James's body
in the Toyota Prius.
What?
In the trunk of the Toyota Prius,
that they had confiscated and impounded
to the police lot five days ago.
I don't know why.
You're kidding me.
And it's not like he was hidden somehow
in this very intricate manner in the Toyota Prius.
He was in the trunk of the Prius.
Wow.
There's even a very eerie picture of a police officer
with crime scene tape all over James's home.
And you see the Toyota Prius still parked in the garage.
And the officer is kind of like looking at it.
At that moment, James' body was in the trunk.
What?
Yeah.
I just...
So, I guess they just started processing the Prius for evidence and popped open the trunk.
So that's on February 1st of 2023.
They found James Martin's body.
I mean, it's just so confusing to me.
Nobody knew why, nobody knew why they didn't
search the car earlier because it seemed like
they had multiple officers working this case clearly.
I saw some arguments that said that they weren't able
to get a warrant until five days later.
But I highly doubt that.
Like, you're talking about a very gruesome murder.
I think the judge would have prioritized the warrant
to a degree and they also, I think the judge would have prioritized the warrant to a degree, and they also,
they had so much probable cause to get a search warrant,
like stat, ASAP.
Wait, there's a murder,
and you need a warrant to search the crime scene?
Yeah, that doesn't make sense.
That doesn't make sense.
And people, okay, please,
someone who's more familiar with the legalities of this,
but if they're already searching the home,
and the car, They took the car.
Yes, if you have the authority to move private property
like a car from one location to another,
I feel like you could search the car.
I mean, also, if they already...
You don't need to search the car.
You're already in the car.
Just pop the trunk.
They're already driving the car or take, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I just don't understand.
Okay, and another thing is, if they're already searching the home
and the car is technically on property,
would it not be a part of the search warrant?
And I also believe it is much, much easier
for police to search your car versus your home.
Like the amount of probable cause
that they would need to search a car is like here.
Maybe they went in the car and they're like,
oh, it seems totally normal.
There's no blood, there's nothing so we should be fine
Wow
It's just a very strange detail to this case
I hope it's explained later during the trial because I just don't I personally don't understand it
If you have more insight, please let me know in the comments
I tried looking more into it, but I'm like no this makes sense everyone seems confused
So back to the case James was was found beaten, tied up,
and dead in the trunk of his car.
His feet, ankles, and hands were bound with duct tape.
There was also duct tape wrapped around his head and face.
It was also clear that he too died from multiple gunshot
wounds just like his friend Dana.
So please now, now they have a double homicide on their hands.
And honestly, it's a very weird situation.
They have a little bit to go off of, but it's not a lot.
The sheer amount of marijuana found in the house along with the money in the freezer,
it gives them potential insight on the type of crime that it could be,
on the type of people that might be involved, but it doesn't really answer who exactly is still involved.
They had no eyewitnesses to go off
of none of the other neighbors saw anything.
Yeah, sure, John was like,
my dog was barking up a storm that night,
but he didn't see anything.
He didn't hear anything.
All James's neighbor said was,
we saw that pickup truck, the Dodge Ram, Dana's car,
and then it was gone.
That's it.
We didn't see any people go in and out of the house.
We didn't see someone drive off in that car.
We don't know. So the police, they of the house, we didn't see someone drive off in that car, we don't know.
So the police, they went to their favorite eyewitness,
security cameras.
They canvassed the area to see if anyone had ring cameras,
home security cameras, businesses with security systems,
and eventually they found videos from different cameras,
different angles, and they were able to piece together
somewhat of a timeline.
Eventually, these little videos, like little breadcrumbs,
like, you know, the tape on the forest,
like when you leave little breadcrumbs,
it's like that.
It would lead them straight to the suspect's door.
And I think, you know, with a case like this,
I'm sure the police don't have a suspect image
in their minds, or at least they shouldn't,
if they're good at their jobs,
like you shouldn't have a preconceived notion
of who the suspect is, right? But with everything they were presented with thus far, the evidence, the bread crumbs, the clues,
I imagine that they had a vague idea of the type of person that they were looking for.
You're like, okay, maybe you could see them and be like, I could see how these two are connected.
Maybe the suspect has some drug charges in the past, or maybe this person
has some sort of criminal history, maybe some dealing charges.
I could see that, right?
But they ended up at the door of a Sanrio loving past-style obsessed TikTokers slash influencer
Kathy Vu.
They're like, what the hell is going on right now?
For example, Kathy posted a TikTok where she gave dating advice and she said,
it's okay to be independent, but don't make it the main reason why someone should date you.
She talks about how before she met her current boyfriend, she used to feel like she had a proof
to all these boys that she was independent and that she made her own money and she felt like it was
it was a good thing to show men that she didn't need them
But instead she said she realized she was only attracting bombs. That's what she said, bombs
With that kind of attitude
Basically saying as a woman you should be taken care of
This is paraphrasing but she said she never really received false flowers from anyone before she started dating her boyfriend
Because she just she just wanted
to show men how chill and indifferent and laid back she was.
She wanted to make herself digestible.
And she advises young girls that they should take up space, that they should be as irritating
as you want to be.
Like don't change your personality for men.
Like don't do these things for men.
She said that now she doesn't want to go through relationships
dumbing herself down to make herself convenient for others.
Mainly men.
The only men that you attract by proving that you don't need much are bombs.
They foam at the mouth when they find out that you don't need much from them to be happy.
The only person I was hurting by not requiring much from my partner is myself.
Bum asked men, love, women that are really independent because most of the time, this
hyperindependence comes from some type of trauma.
Now we don't know too much about Cathy Vood's relationship.
Other than what she puts out there, which is it's pretty clear that she's very selective
and what information she puts online about her boyfriend.
There are parts of their relationship that now in hindsight people have been picking
apart, yes, there are, okay?
So Kathy stated that her boyfriend was shy, and that's why she never really showed his face
on camera.
I don't even think people knew his name.
Her boyfriend's name is Polly Fan, and in hindsight, netizens now believe that she never shared his face because he was heavily involved in illegal activities.
But it does seem like he showered her with monetary gifts.
He would take her on trips by her designer stuff, but Kathy still prided herself in having
this very successful career.
So yeah, from the outside, they seem like a very perfect couple.
Well, now, video evidence showed two men, presumed to be Polly and Polly's good friend,
Jaden, arriving at Kathy Vue's apartment complex.
When did they arrive at Kathy's?
The day before the murder, like the night of the murder.
Also they met up there first before they, okay.
The police are trying to reverse track the movements.
All they know is that Dana is dead and
James was found dead and his white Prius that was parked in this garage
So they're trying to see when did the Prius pull up to the garage?
Where was the Prius coming from who was driving the Prius?
So they get all these little CCTV clips and the last time that James was seen alive was entering Kathy Voo's apartment
release the apartment building.
But on the CCTV cameras, they don't see Kathy Voo.
They see Kathy Voo's boyfriend and their friend,
Jaden, when.
So you've got Polly and Jaden meeting up with James
at Kathy Voo's apartment building.
Mm, so we never saw James driving home.
No, they actually see other people driving home.
So the white Prius was driven by someone else.
Yeah. So the white Prius is driven by James into Kathy Vood's apartment building.
So James is alive at this point and he's driving his car and he's meeting up with Polly and Jaden.
Yes. That's what it seems like, right?
Because what they're kind of guiding him into the garage,
motioning him to park in the garage.
Now, this is where I have questions.
All reports indicate that this was a regular,
regular apartment building garage,
meaning like a parking lot.
Maybe there's a gate,
maybe you need like a beeper to get in,
or some sort of like tag to get into the garage,
but it's pretty public.
Like the rest of the residents can use it,
maybe guests of the residents can use it.
I don't know how all of the next series of events
plays out if this is just a regular,
regular parking lot.
Because soon, someone's gonna transport James'
his body into the trunk of his car.
Yes.
How was that done, right?
We don't know yet.
And I'm sure maybe they're saving that for the trial.
Some people have speculated online
that there are certain
apartment complexes that have private garages for residents to lease.
So it's like a home garage.
It's weird.
It's like a home garage.
It's closed off.
It doubles as like a storage unit.
But I couldn't tell if Kathy Vood's apartment offered that type of service or even had that.
So all we know is that James is seen driving up in his Toyota Prius.
He meets up with Polly Fan, Kathy Voodoo's boyfriend, and their friend, Jaden Wen.
This is the last time that James is seen alive.
The last time he's seen is walking into the apartment with the two men.
There is no movement.
And then nothing happens.
There is no movement.
No significant happenings on camera,
and half an hour later, you can see the garage doors
to the apartment complex open, and the CCTV camera show,
two men backing out of the garage in James' Prius.
James is nowhere to be seen.
And the police track the Prius all the way back to James' home. So it seems like James' the theory is, James was murdered inside this apartment.
He was put into the trunk of his car and then his car was driven back to his house.
The two men are suspected of being inside James' house and within that hour,
Dana arrives in his Dodge Ram.
And a little while after that, Dana's Dodge is seen driving away from the house.
And once again, there's two men in that Dodge. So from the footage, it's easy for authorities to
piece together a theory of what they believe took place. And again, this is just a theory no one has
been convicted. Authorities believe that James was lured to the apartment complex where Cathy
Vood lives by Cathy's boyfriend and their friend Jaden. He met up with the two men.
There are some rumors that Kathy helped lure James to the apartment, but I don't see any
proof of that.
James was most likely ambushed, tied up, and murdered in the apartment.
Authorities felt that it was clearly premeditated.
And just going by the officer's theory moving forward, they believe that the suspects, Polly,
Jaden, right? they place James in the
trunk of his own car. They drive to James' own house where they parked the car in the garage,
kept the car running for whatever reason. I'm not sure entirely why, maybe they were in
a rush, maybe it was just the chaos of the situation, but it is the strange detail. Authorities
believe now they went inside to ransack the place looking for drugs, money, and or both.
But while they're in that process, Dana comes home, sees what they're doing, and officers
theorize that Dana was killed to avoid any eyewitnesses to this crime.
And since they had just escalated from a homicide to a double homicide, and the idea that perhaps,
you know, the murder of James was premeditated to agree, they might have felt like, now this
is getting out of control. Like we had planned to kill James, premeditated to agree they might have felt like now this is getting out of control
Like we had planned to kill James. We had planned to do this
But now now this is like a shit show. This is a mess
Maybe there was even a struggle that broke out. This is the theory, right?
Authorities believe it was a spur of the moment decision to kill Dana
Maybe they were so shaken up that they fled right away without taking any of the drugs or money
Or maybe they believed that the gunshots could be heard by the neighbors.
They drive away in Dana's car because they can't take James' car, James' in the trunk
of that car.
They drive away in Dana's car, abandon it on the side of the road, and then they run
on foot.
Is the theory?
Is the allegation?
I mean, the movement kind of makes sense.
If this theory does come to be true, it's genuinely terrifying that two people's lives
were taken so abruptly and brutally
for some drugs and money.
Like, I get it, it's a lot of drugs,
I get it, it's a lot of money,
but like, where's the humanity?
Like, these are people.
Now, I know a big argument of this case is gonna be,
why were there drugs in James's house in the first place?
And like I said, James and Dana were said to be commercial marijuana farmers from southern
Oregon, where it is very much legal and they were licensed.
But more recently, James had moved back to Houston just to be closer with his family.
And it seemed clear that both of these men wanted to distance themselves from this line of
work.
They were kind of pulling away from the industry.
James, he wanted to focus on being a good dad for his son.
Meanwhile, Dana, he started kind of hanging out more in Portland.
He wasn't a father yet, but he had a nephew and niece in Colorado and in Washington.
He would take time out of his busy schedule, travel across state lines, just to spend like
a day or two with his niece and
nephew. It's like he would, people said he came alive whenever he saw his family. You
could just see how proud he was to be a part of their lives and just to watch them grow,
which is a pretty big sacrifice for Dana. Dana was, Dana was big with work. It really
was his passion before he started kind of pulling away. So in 2016 he started a cannabis
distribution company called LTMRN. It was pretty successful. A lot of people said
that Dana just had this crazy networking ability. Like if you had an aerial view
of a networking event, people would all kind of like ebb and flow around, but
there was always a circle just gravitating towards Dana.
People really liked him. He was hilarious. He was a good natured man.
And people could see that within just like five minutes of meeting with him.
It was so easy to talk to him. He had all this life experience and a lot of
stories that he would share with people and it was just so fun.
He would be out one day partying in Vegas and then the next day he is hiking
through your semit. I mean, this was a man that loved to experience life
and just go on these new adventures
and just really challenge himself
to see what else is out there.
It was something that he had in common with James.
A friend of James said,
you could see this man in a meeting with Fortune 500 CEOs.
He would fit right in, he would be comfortable
in his own skin, and then that night,
he would fit right in at like a crazy rock concert. He also loved rapping. He self-produced a fun
rap song called Hustle Hustle Ball. And like some of his friends kind of poked fun at him because
he's shirtless and he's got sunglasses and a backward cap on in the video and he's like
rapping. It's posted on YouTube and they thought it was very very silly.
But it's also just what made him so lovable.
He was very free-spirited, he didn't care, he never took himself or anything that seriously.
He just did what he liked, he just did what made him happy.
He also founded a Portland-based Edibles company in 2016 and in the end by 2023 both of
these men were starting to pull away from the cannabis industry in Oregon.
James, he wanted to do it for his family.
Dana, he wanted to try experimenting with different businesses.
But I don't think that, you know, it's...
It's something that you can just wake up and wash your hands off.
Just be done with the industry. Maybe they had a lot of
inventory left over. Maybe it was, you know, something else. It was a business that they had built for years.
So most likely, it seems that a few ties had remained. Now the problem is marijuana is not yet legal in Texas.
So police, they execute a search warrant on Kathy Vu's apartment. Now if I'm not mistaken,
this is the same apartment that she did the whole series of moving into my new apartment on.
Like the one that kickstarted her career on TikTok.
And everything had been so wholesome online and it is now believed that this very apartment
is allegedly where a murder took place.
So it's kind of jarring.
I do want to clarify that Kathy was never seen on CCTV cameras,
lowering James into the garage.
And that's not to say that she's not involved
in some way, shape or form,
but authorities clearly believe that she was.
Do we know if she was home inside or no?
It doesn't seem like it from what I can gather,
but we haven't received like a firm statement.
At least that, myself and my researchers
haven't been able to find where it was like,
she was not home.
It's kind of like all these different things lead us to believe that she wasn't home at
the time.
Okay.
And I'm sure if she was home, it would be shown on CCTV.
At one point, she arrived home earlier of the day.
Yeah.
That would put her at the crime scene, which will change her charges for this case.
Right.
She'd probably be an accomplice to Capitol murder.
Right. So, okay. Yes, yes for this case right should probably be an accomplice to Capitol murder right so okay
Yeah, so authorities clearly believe that she was involved in some way shape or form
They found an H.E.B. Store receipt. So this is like your Ralph's or your Kruger
They found a receipt that showed that Kathy purchased items the day of the murder and
You know the items were they were suspicious. She bought
bleach peroxide trash bags on top of that police found bleach and iodine bottles in the
the back of the catapult. I'm sorry bleach and what iodine? It's like salt basically it's
like a cleaner you can use it as cleaning found in the back of Kathy's car. And yeah, to buy that on the day of the murder
is kind of suspicious when someone is seen
coming into your apartment and then never seen coming out
and then you buy cleaning supplies
before the murder took place.
Oh, this was before not after not during,
but it was before James was last seen alive.
But to be fair, I mean, you could argue that maybe she was just a clean freak.
I mean, there was a take talk that she posted that stated that she loved cleaning.
She was insinuating that she was kind of a bit of a clean freak.
I will play it for the visual watchers, but for the audio listeners,
she's kind of doing a day in my life as a corporate marketing girl in the alcohol industry.
She walks us through her day of getting ready for this promotional event at a club.
She's got to go to Michaels, get some gift bags, set up a backdrop, photo booth.
It shows her being incredibly hardworking, but the part that has definitely been picked
apart, like to hell in back, is at the club.
During her day in my life, TikTok, there is a moment where she talks about
how this particular club has a wet rag scent
because a lot of the workers use wet,
wet rags to clean the countertops
and she talks about how she even brought her own cleaning supplies
and is literally seen in the TikTok cleaning the counters
while people around her are partying.
Okay, so heart, the club that we were at,
sometimes has this like musty smell because of the wet rags they use. They're not entirely clean. around her are partying. Okay so heart the club that we were at sometimes
has this like musty smell because of the wet rags they use they're not entirely
clean and so there's always this really bad lingering smell. My friends that
would be funny to record me cleaning. I actually didn't know they were
recording at first but I did bring my cleaner bottle from home to wipe down
my section. So people picked it apart because she was cleaning?
Some people stated that she posted this
because she wanted to kind of have something to fall back on.
Like, you know, when you're in that state of like,
I'm about to, this is purely speculation from netizens,
not even police, okay?
Some netizens were saying maybe she posted it
because she knows she's about to buy cleaning products
for a murder and now she's like slipping that in there to be like, look, I actually love cleaning.
I'm just a clean freak and that has nothing to do with anything.
It's not out of the norm for me.
Some people were saying it's just a coincidence.
So this TikTok would be dragged to the depths of hell and back and analyzed.
So it could no longer be analyzed.
And some people argue that she truly maybe was just a clean
freak. And while most of us probably don't buy bleach iodine peroxide trash bags all at once
and coincidentally on the day of the murder that allegedly took place in your own home.
But maybe she's a clean freak like we won't know until there is a trial. Authorities stated that
they found a note on her phone which was a list of items to purchase, including but not limited to bleach, towels, and iodine.
Is iodine a very common cleaning supplier?
I don't think so.
Because I feel like I would kind of consider myself a bit of a clean freak.
And I don't even use bleach.
When's the last time you saw bleach in our house?
Yeah.
Yeah, because, I mean, you know, you can use a little bit, I mean, not saying that everyone
with bleach in their house, I know that there's a lot of uses for bleach, but I guess it's
just a very hard substance I tried to stray away from.
It's like a, just a cleaning my apartment type of girly.
They also believe that this indicates that Kathy had prior knowledge of what was about
to happen and she was planning to help assist and have somewhat of an active role in the crime.
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They also ran her phone records and they found that Kathy was messaging her boyfriend
Polly during and after the suspected time of the murders.
Authorities think that she was coordinating using her garage in apartment and then coordinating
the cleanup.
So just to clarify, it seems like officers believe that she was helping coordinate and
clean up the crime scene.
So we don't know what she said.
This is from police.
Police saying we feel like this is what was going on.
Yeah, I'm sure police know kind of what we said.
Maybe the text messages, maybe not the phone calls, right?
Like there were multiple FaceTime calls.
There were some speculations that she was calling
to verify over and over again
that her boyfriend had closed the garage
when they left her apartment.
That's kind of what we know as of right now.
After Polly and Jaden left her apartment in James' car, she facetimeed him six times in the
span of 25 minutes.
They also texted each other to verify that the garage door had been closed.
So she at least know that they are there and they left.
But you could argue that she didn't know that James was there.
You could argue that she only thought that her boyfriend was there and was like, hey babe,
did you close the garage door because I'm not home?
Multiple times or?
It says that she called him six times or she was face timing with him six times
in the span of 25 minutes.
So I think more than the cleaning supplies
of the text messages and the phone calls
are probably a worse look in my opinion.
It just, you know, the cleaning supplies,
you could try and twist it and argue and be like,
you know, she works in a corporate sphere,
she maybe she bought it for this or that,
but the text messages are interesting. Now, I have seen some online discourse and right now it's all speculations and
rumors, this whole case is, but some people have posted online that Kathy was a very sweet,
trusting, almost naive to a fault person that probably was too scared to say no to her boyfriend,
which I'm not sure how to feel about that because she's 23, I believe.
So when you're 23, maybe there's some things I'm a people place where I have such a hard
time saying no to people, trust me, I understand that feeling, I relate to it like on a spiritual
deep level.
But if you asked me to clean up a crime scene, that's a solid no.
So I don't know where that argument comes in.
Some people say that she didn't really know what she was getting into and maybe thought
that because her boyfriend was potentially allegedly involved in some harsh illegal
activities, she was scared for her own life.
She got roped into it because she was terrified.
And then I see the argument that people are saying, no, she's 23.
She was actually benefiting from her boyfriend's alleged illegal work.
She was constantly, she wasn't afraid to spend as money going on trips,
getting all these gifts. She was benefiting in some way.
And now she's cleaning up a crime scene.
You can't really say that she was so scared and terrified.
So it's just kind of an argument.
I do think that it does rub a lot of people the wrong way,
that she was kind of preaching online about having a good relationship and having a boyfriends
that respect and cherish you.
Meanwhile, she is accused of doing something absolutely heinous for her boyfriend.
I also see a third group of people, a very small tiny group of people that believe
if the series of events are true, they like Kathy even more now.
What?
I actually saw a lot of Reddit comments that said,
Gotta get me a writer die like Kathy Vu.
Oh, come on.
Yeah, which is truly unhinged if you ask me.
Yeah, this is not a movie, this is not nothing to romanticize here.
Kathy Vu was taken into custody and she started giving her version of events.
She claimed the night of the murder she had a work related dinner planned and she actually wanted to invite her boyfriend
Polly to go with her. He didn't show up and said he messaged her saying,
Hey babe, sorry I can't go like emergency happened. So he couldn't be there.
She stated that that's all she knew. She didn't know what the emergency was. She didn't know emergency was murder. He just couldn't show up to her
work event. That's all he said. Now I'm not sure if she did this as a self-preservation argument
or if she was still looking at for her boyfriend, Polly, but she told officers that James,
the victim and the trunk, was the problem. She stated that he had a history of threatening people,
including her own boyfriend, and she said,
quote, if anything were to have happened,
it would definitely have been self-defense.
That's what she told the police.
Yes, after being arrested.
She told officers that James owed her boyfriend Paulie
about $40,000.
And when asked why, she said, after a narcotics-related transaction that didn't go as planned.
Which authorities didn't believe. Because according to James' mom, Polly was the one who owed James
money. So while officers state that they had knowledge of a history between the two,
it seems like they were inclined to believe that Polly was actually the one that owed James money.
And maybe theorizing this is pure speculation,
potentially Polly had Lord James out under the guise
of like, I'm gonna give you your money back.
And instead of giving his money back,
he murdered him so that he could be absolved of that debt
and then went to his house to ransack it and steal stuff.
And maybe it could even look like he was just targeted
for the drugs.
But the plan is really not smart.
Yeah, so I don't see how they think they can get away with this for even a day.
Yeah.
See, that's the weird part.
I genuinely feel like if they found James' car in the trunk, this is my personal opinion.
If they found James' body in the trunk sooner, potentially they wouldn't have been looking at a fugitive situation.
Because like, like they will catch them immediately.
Before they flee to Vietnam.
Right, right, right. Even that, they still caught them very quickly.
So.
So Tuesday, March 21st of 2023, Kathi Vu was officially charged with tampering in the deaths of James
Martin and Dana Ristal.
She appeared in court with the most Texan-looking lawyer I have ever seen in my life,
like I'm talking cowboy-hattern everything.
Yes.
Her attorney focused on getting her out on bail.
He tried to draw sympathy from the judge stating that Kathy Vue had lost her job after
her arrest, which I don't know why he said that.
I don't know why certain attorneys say things like that because it's kind of a situation of read the room, sir.
Two people were killed.
I don't think losing a job is the end of the world
and I don't think anyone is going to dig deep
into their hearts right now to find sympathy
for something like that.
But her attorney continued to argue
that Kathy had only been dating Polly for a few months
and she quote, only did what her boyfriend told her to do.
That did not sit right with a lot of netizens because ultimately she's not a minor, she's
a 23 year old woman who works a corporate job.
Wait, wait, I'm so sorry.
Before you go, before the lawyer says she only did what the boyfriend told her to do.
So is she, are they admitting that she did something for the boyfriend relating to the case?
Yes, and I think the speculation online right now is that she's working with the prosecutors and is going to get out on
Probably no time as long as she can testify
Mm-hmm is the speculation we don't know yeah, so I mean
It's just kind of a weird thing to argue when she's a 23 year old woman who has a corporate job
Who lives on her own is very independent also a lot of her brand identity was on weird thing to argue when she's a 23 year old woman who has a corporate job, who lives
on her own, is very independent.
Also, a lot of her brand identity was on being independent.
And now it's like, no, no, no, no, she's not independent at all.
She was manipulated.
Has no idea what she's doing.
Not saying that she can't be manipulated, but it's just, it was a weird argument to make
in court.
Netizens in the prosecutor argued she messaged him before, during, and after the murders,
she bought the cleaning supplies
and allegedly cleaned up the crime scene.
To make matters worse, she went right back
to posting TikToks the very next day,
talking highly about her boyfriend,
about how he's a great gift giver.
And now, yeah, we don't know.
The next day of the crime?
Yes.
Now, we don't know if maybe her, this is like a pre-filmed TikTok, but she does go back to
posting TikToks after the murder before she's arrested.
About the boyfriend.
Yes, and she showed off this new MacBook that he had gifted her, which, you know, a lot
of people feel like it's her.
Thank you for cleaning up a crime scene gift.
That's what a lot of people said online.
The thing that's really sweet about my boyfriend is that he thinks that he's a bad
gifter, so he always overcompensates his gift to and actually gets me really good things.
He saw my raggedy as 8-year-old MacBook and would please sit for me.
This isn't my birthday present.
I'm so grateful.
Wow.
Yeah.
Like, wow.
Even if this was pre-filmed,, like this event just happened in your house
last night.
So I see the argument that either she's incredibly heartless and if this is all true, if the
police theory is true and they're all found guilty, she's incredibly heartless.
I do see the other argument of like she is trying to
appear as everything is normal
because maybe people would question if she suddenly stopped posting or if her content was suddenly a different a shift
She was no longer talking about that. She was talking about other things. I
Don't know either way. It's very unsettling, I think and it's not really even about the MacBook
You know, it's very unsettling, I think. And it's not really even about the MacBook, you know.
It's just the fact that people argue
Kathy doesn't seem affected by anything.
And that is just not normal behavior for someone who allegedly
was forced into doing something they didn't want to do.
Judge Lori Chambers ordered Kathy to wear a GPS
angle monitor while released on a $40,000 bond.
She is not allowed to have any communication
with Polly or Jaden.
Like I said, a lot of netizens were very confused
about how she got off so lightly,
but it is speculated that she's most likely
working with the prosecutors to testify
against Polly and Jaden later.
Because while Kathy was still in the US
to face the legal battle herself,
Polly and Jaden were nowhere to be found.
Side note, I do see a lot of discourse that this,
this is a learning moment for a lot of people.
There is this romanticization amongst certain couples,
like the writer-die couples, the Bonnie and Clyde couples,
and sometimes that adds this romantic main character element
to committing, you know, literal crimes, like drug dealing.
But this is a good learning lesson that even if you think that your partner is your writer
die and you could really feel that in your heart and soul, you would do anything for
this partner.
They are the Clyde to your Bonnie or vice versa.
It might just be one sided.
You had the guy left.
Yeah, because if this is all true, if Kathy did indeed clean up a crime scene for her
boyfriend, her boyfriend left her in the US to deal with the aftermath while he fled to Vietnam without her.
And he used her apartment to do the crime allegedly, allegedly.
Like they know what's coming.
Yeah, this is not.
This is not Bonnie or Clyde.
This is Bonnie and the fugitive who doesn't care about Bonnie.
If this is all true
So just be careful who you think is your right or die or just be careful if you think that you'll do anything for your partner
There is a chain of events though that gets triggered when interpol sends out a red notice
The first step is any of the member countries of interpol there's a
195 member countries each country can request a red notice be sent. A red notice is essentially a global international be on the lookout for this
fugitive on the run. Interpol, international police, will check the request to make sure
that that government, that country is not hunting down a refugee, is not hunting down
a whistleblower, and once approved that red notice will be sent to authorities in
195 different countries, which it sounds like you still have places to hide, but not really. Almost every single country in the world is involved in
Interpol and will receive a red notice on their desk.
So do they know that they went to Vietnam or they have, or they knew they use their past
parts?
Oh, okay.
So they just need to go to Vietnam.
Exactly.
Then each country will decide how to handle that red notice.
Vietnam's Interpol received a notice.
The United States were looking for two citizens involved in a double homicide, US citizens,
Polly, Fan, and Jaden Wen.
Now, again to clarify, they're both US citizens,
and I'm not sure if they're born citizens or have immigrated. So it's unclear if they have family
in Vietnam, and even if they did, where they staying with family, where the family helping,
we don't know. But we do know that the two fled to Vietnam. They're on the run.
And the police have no official leads. They don't know if they went to Vietnam and then went
on the run crossing borders, not using their passports.
Here's a very interesting detail.
One of the two perpetrators actually applied
for an emergency passport reissue in the US
like immediately after the crime.
And then fled to Vietnam.
What does that mean?
Why is that?
So that I think goes again to bolster the theory
that they thought that they could premeditate a murder
against James, kill him and get away with it.
But once Dana came in and the whole thing flew out of control, now they're like, okay,
shit is hit the fan.
I need to leave the country.
They apply for a emergency passport to leave the country.
They don't have a passport.
Maybe it was expired.
Oh, I see.
So that just goes to show like the train of thought
they thought that they were gonna get away
with James' murderous allegedly.
What you're saying is, I'm sorry.
What you're saying is the emergency passport
meaning he wasn't planning on leaving.
Yes.
This is very last minute.
It's like, let me get my passport renewed
so I can leave right now.
So they didn't plan that part.
Exactly, in like 48 hours.
So I think that's why a lot of people believe the police
theory that they premeditated James's murder,
thought that they were gonna get away with it.
It flew out of control when Dana walked in
on them ransacking the house.
But what if that murder also is not premeditated?
Yeah.
That's why they didn't get the passport.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Interesting, right? Yeah. Now the two have fled and they're dealing with Kim Bryant.
Kim Bryant is the unit manager of the fugitive apprehension team in the Harris County DA's office.
She was tasked with locating Polly and Jaden. So when this case comes onto her desk,
she moves it up to the top of the priority
just based on the shocking nature of the crime. She was told a few times by
superiors and other people that had been working this unit, they're like, okay,
the suspects have fled to Vietnam. Most likely, you might be looking at years. A
few years before you can get them into the US again and formally charged for
their crimes. Like it's hard to find them.
Hard.
It's hard.
There's a legal process to extradite them.
It's going to be messy.
It's going to be a long time, but just truly to find them.
I mean, it's not like they're the most wanted on FBI's list.
It's not like we can pour all of our resources into this one case.
It's going to be lengthy.
But Kim said, it's not hard to be tracked
in some way, shape or form.
And right now, with the time and age
of digital footprint and surveillance,
it will thankfully and hopefully always get harder
and harder for criminals to go on the run
and not be identified.
So this little cat and mouse game begins.
And as of right now, it's not entirely clear
how poli and jaden were caught.
I think that this is gonna come out during trial.
So we don't know what tactics
that the fugitive teams or potentially
interpol use to catch them,
but there is a running theory on TikTok, only on TikTok, okay?
That Vietnam, like most Asian countries,
they've got a lot of adjumas, they've got a lot of moms,
if you will, that love to gossip.
So a lot of people think that there was a train of gossip or word of mouth that really
was the nail in the coffin caught the suspects, which would be fascinating.
So the locals kind of helped.
Yeah, the locals were like, did you hear?
Did you hear?
Apparently they're in Vietnam.
And I'm sure that this was a huge case
for Vietnamese Americans, because think about it.
For Korean Americans would be a huge case.
And then I'm sure that there would be a lot of Korean
American to Korean discourse,
because there's connections.
We have family in Korea.
The conversations would keep going.
So June of 2023, Polly fan and Jaden were caught. Polly was found living
in Ho Chi Minh City. Authorities stated that he seemed alert, he seemed aware of his
surroundings, yes, but he still tried to live a normal life, which is shocking. It's
crazy. He would go to the gym, he would go out at nights on the weekends, he was actually
arrested at the gym. Like how do you go to a gym while you're a fugitive on the run? He should be like hiding in
that room, curtains close. Yes. Wow. Never going outside. As for Jaden, he was found in the countryside,
allegedly living with a woman in her family after telling them that he was going to marry her and
get her a green card into the US, which I don't know how he thought that one was gonna play out because so you're a fugitive.
They were extradited back to Harris County,
July 19th and July 21st, respectively.
They have both been charged with capital murder,
meaning that death penalty is on the table.
So typically when you're committing a crime,
and then you murder someone while you're committing a crime.
So in the state of Texas, if you're robbing someone
and you end up killing them, if you're having a drug deal and you end up killing them,
if you're assaulting someone and you end up killing them, it's automatically capital murder.
Which is worse than just murder? So just homicide, first degree homicide, you're looking at life
in prison. Capital murder, it could be death penalty. All signs point to the fact that they will be facing potential death penalty charges.
Both Polly and Jaden have been refused bail.
Jaden's attorney have stated that they may be able to indict my client,
but they absolutely do not have enough to convict him.
Which I understand that this is an ongoing case,
and that lawyers have a job to do, but I just feel like, again, not the best statement.
It feels like, at least from a public perspective,
they have video surveillance at the crime scene
from two separate crime scenes heading from one
to another, then you fled to Vietnam.
It just doesn't feel like it's not absolute.
You think you have absolutely no evidence.
I don't know if it's absolute,
maybe it's circumstantial, you could argue that, right?
So right now, people are speculating that Cathy Vue will be throwing
Polly and Jade in under the table, and now it seems like Jaden will be throwing Polly and Cathy
under the table. Jaden's going to try and be like, no, it was all the couple. I don't know what
is going on. The couple, it's like body and Clyde masterminds and I is just like a bystander to it
That's the speculation of how people think that it will play out in trial
I'm not sure how Poli will be approaching this case with this attorney
I guess we will just have to wait and see how the trial goes and again just to clarify
We don't know the absolute facts of this case yet. We have a supposed motive
We have a supposed theory
But we don't know the exact reason that two individuals' lives
were cut short and exactly who was involved in what? But it has been a huge
relief for the victims' families that the fugitives were caught. James's
family said, we are thankful that we had James walk with us for the past 37
years. He's our sunshine and is now our shooting star out there in the
greater universe, shaking things up. God star out there in the greater universe.
Shake him things up. God will take him in the fold of super angels.
Dana's father said it's so hard to grasp that he was just visiting a friend in Houston.
He didn't even live there and he was murdered.
Dana's stepmother emotionally stated he did nothing wrong.
He walked in in the wrong door at the wrong time and
it has devastated our family. Dana's dad said, for five and a half months I
prayed for them to be caught every day. I'd like to meet the woman that's the
head of the fugitive task force next time I come to Texas so that I can shake
her hand and if she'd allow me I'd buy her a steak. He went on to state that his
son Dana was one of the better human
beings that you would ever meet. He said, we had a lot in common and now that's gone
and he's gone and I don't know how to make up for that. And that is the very viral case
of how a TikToker is allegedly involved in a double homicide. This has been highly requested. Yeah, it's just
everything is kind of up in the air though. Please let me know in the comments
what are your thoughts on this case. Did you watch Kathy Voo's TikToks before all
of this happened where you a viewer of hers? Let me know and please stay safe. I
will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!
on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!