Rotten Mango - #292: TikToker in Perfect Relationship Accused Of Cleaning Up Crime Scene For Her BF’s Alleged Double Murder

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

She 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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Starting point is 00:00:00 So much of our lives, okay not just like our lives, but you guys as well. It is focused on creating content, which sounds kind of strange, but even if you're not a content creator, there are websites that need to be made presentations for work or for school or maybe you're like me and you just want to start your social media journey, I have a tip for you. So Campbell was one of those things that I wish I learned about sooner and I was so stubborn about it for no reason. When I was just starting off, I remember being told by all these other creators that were way more experienced than me that Canva was amazing.
Starting point is 00:00:32 And I was like, no, I want to do everything myself. But once I joined Canva, I mean, if you are not someone who enjoys the creative process, Canva will do it for you. But if you are like me and you like the creative process, Canva will also help you enhance your creativity and bring these projects to life. It's literally for everyone. Canva is a design platform that makes it easy for anyone to create stunning content and any format, social media posts, videos, presentations, websites. I love that they have premium fonts, photos, graphics, and videos that help me out my video game.
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Starting point is 00:01:29 help turn that inspiration into design in no time. And you guys know that we've been expanding our Rotten Mango team. There is Canva Teams, which is great if you're working with other creatives on the same project. There's a feature that's called Canva Whiteboards. I live and die on this feature, okay? It's like an infinite space to brainstorm and collaborate with other people and it is perfect since our team is fully remote. So design and collaborate with Canva for teams. And this is just like
Starting point is 00:01:52 one of their many features. I wish I had 20 minutes to talk about Canva. So design and collaborate with Canva for teams. Right now you can get a free 45 day extended trial when you go to Canva.me slash rotten. That's C-A-N-V-A dot M-E slash rotten for a free 45 day extended trial. Canva.me slash rotten. 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
Starting point is 00:02:36 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
Starting point is 00:03:05 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,
Starting point is 00:03:34 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,
Starting point is 00:03:52 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
Starting point is 00:04:11 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
Starting point is 00:04:40 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
Starting point is 00:05:26 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.
Starting point is 00:06:04 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.
Starting point is 00:06:26 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.
Starting point is 00:06:48 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.
Starting point is 00:07:22 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.
Starting point is 00:08:00 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
Starting point is 00:08:25 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,
Starting point is 00:08:47 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
Starting point is 00:09:10 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,
Starting point is 00:09:51 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.
Starting point is 00:10:31 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.
Starting point is 00:10:54 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.
Starting point is 00:11:18 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.
Starting point is 00:11:33 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.
Starting point is 00:11:49 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
Starting point is 00:12:12 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,
Starting point is 00:12:47 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,
Starting point is 00:13:06 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.
Starting point is 00:13:25 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
Starting point is 00:13:44 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.
Starting point is 00:14:22 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.
Starting point is 00:14:39 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.
Starting point is 00:14:54 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.
Starting point is 00:15:21 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.
Starting point is 00:15:52 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,
Starting point is 00:16:10 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?
Starting point is 00:16:29 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
Starting point is 00:16:51 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.
Starting point is 00:17:12 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.
Starting point is 00:17:34 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
Starting point is 00:18:07 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.
Starting point is 00:18:32 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
Starting point is 00:18:50 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?
Starting point is 00:19:27 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.
Starting point is 00:19:43 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.
Starting point is 00:20:16 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.
Starting point is 00:20:41 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.
Starting point is 00:21:10 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.
Starting point is 00:21:30 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? This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Do you guys feel overwhelmed? Like everybody is pulling you in different directions lately, or do you feel like your schedule has been just so much more jam packs and you can't even find time for yourself? I feel like every single person that I've been talking to recently has felt this way in one shape or another and one thing that's really helped me stop over scheduling myself. I feel like this can apply for a ton of people so whether you're
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Starting point is 00:24:15 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.
Starting point is 00:24:37 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.
Starting point is 00:24:57 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.
Starting point is 00:25:15 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.
Starting point is 00:25:46 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.
Starting point is 00:26:06 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.
Starting point is 00:26:24 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.
Starting point is 00:26:43 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.
Starting point is 00:27:01 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.
Starting point is 00:27:16 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...
Starting point is 00:27:36 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?
Starting point is 00:27:49 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
Starting point is 00:28:08 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.
Starting point is 00:28:35 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.
Starting point is 00:29:03 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,
Starting point is 00:29:18 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,
Starting point is 00:29:32 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.
Starting point is 00:29:50 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.
Starting point is 00:30:16 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,
Starting point is 00:30:48 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
Starting point is 00:31:23 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
Starting point is 00:31:47 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.
Starting point is 00:32:20 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.
Starting point is 00:32:49 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.
Starting point is 00:33:16 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.
Starting point is 00:33:45 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.
Starting point is 00:34:08 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,
Starting point is 00:34:32 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
Starting point is 00:34:47 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.
Starting point is 00:35:02 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.
Starting point is 00:35:16 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.
Starting point is 00:35:43 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,
Starting point is 00:36:18 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.
Starting point is 00:36:51 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.
Starting point is 00:37:25 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?
Starting point is 00:37:56 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?
Starting point is 00:38:18 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?
Starting point is 00:38:37 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.
Starting point is 00:39:04 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,
Starting point is 00:39:35 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.
Starting point is 00:40:12 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.
Starting point is 00:40:36 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.
Starting point is 00:41:05 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...
Starting point is 00:41:33 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
Starting point is 00:42:14 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?
Starting point is 00:42:34 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.
Starting point is 00:42:49 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
Starting point is 00:43:12 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
Starting point is 00:43:55 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,
Starting point is 00:44:20 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,
Starting point is 00:44:51 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
Starting point is 00:45:13 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?
Starting point is 00:45:38 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.
Starting point is 00:46:02 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.
Starting point is 00:46:36 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
Starting point is 00:47:01 to happen and she was planning to help assist and have somewhat of an active role in the crime. We care about the future just like you. We have the same concerns about climate change protecting our communities and the planet. That's why every day we're taking action to develop Canada's energy resources sustainably. Sonobis is a Canadian-based oil and gas company, working with our peers, governments, and scientists to find innovative ways to reduce our emissions and water use, reclaim the land we work on, and much more. See how we're taking action at sustainabilitythroughaction.com Enter our new ScannenpedeWin contest. Simply toggle on Scannenpede all on the Tim's app.
Starting point is 00:47:46 Every time you use Scannenpede, you get automatically entered for a chance to win amazing weekly prizes. Set up Scannenpede today. Contest runs till October 15. Terms apply at participating restaurants in Canada. See the app for details. 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.
Starting point is 00:48:09 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.
Starting point is 00:48:29 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
Starting point is 00:48:53 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
Starting point is 00:49:25 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,
Starting point is 00:49:42 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.
Starting point is 00:50:22 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,
Starting point is 00:50:51 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.
Starting point is 00:51:15 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.
Starting point is 00:51:45 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,
Starting point is 00:52:24 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.
Starting point is 00:52:48 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
Starting point is 00:53:18 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.
Starting point is 00:53:42 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,
Starting point is 00:54:09 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
Starting point is 00:54:30 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.
Starting point is 00:54:53 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
Starting point is 00:55:25 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,
Starting point is 00:55:46 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?
Starting point is 00:56:02 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.
Starting point is 00:56:23 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.
Starting point is 00:56:43 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
Starting point is 00:57:19 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.
Starting point is 00:57:44 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
Starting point is 00:57:59 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.
Starting point is 00:58:26 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.
Starting point is 00:58:50 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
Starting point is 00:59:21 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
Starting point is 01:00:05 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.
Starting point is 01:00:23 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
Starting point is 01:00:50 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.
Starting point is 01:01:09 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
Starting point is 01:01:29 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
Starting point is 01:01:41 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.
Starting point is 01:01:56 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,
Starting point is 01:02:23 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.
Starting point is 01:02:48 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.
Starting point is 01:03:09 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.
Starting point is 01:03:28 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.
Starting point is 01:03:47 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.
Starting point is 01:04:10 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
Starting point is 01:04:31 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.
Starting point is 01:05:12 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
Starting point is 01:05:39 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
Starting point is 01:06:11 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
Starting point is 01:06:35 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
Starting point is 01:07:07 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.
Starting point is 01:07:38 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
Starting point is 01:08:11 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!

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