Unclosed | True Crime

The Tai Kok Tsui Killings: His Parents' Heads in Fridges, and He Pleaded on Camera to Find Them

Unclosed — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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At noon on March 15th, 2013, police found the remains of a couple in their 60s inside a flat in Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong. The man arrested that day was their younger son, who had gone to the police 8 days earlier to report them missing. And before the police came for him, he had already told an online group of Tekken players what he'd done.
This episode is about Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui dismemberment murders. The victims were a married couple: the father was 65, and the mother was in her early 60s. The man later sentenced to life in prison was their 29-year-old younger son. The case went to trial twice. The court looked into whether he was ill, examined his IQ, and looked at a statement the other defendant gave at 2:30 in the morning. But why he did it, the court never answered. Even the judge said there was no obvious answer.
【Timeline】
Mar 1, 2013　After this day, the couple is never seen alive again
Mar 2, 2013　According to the son, his parents leave on a trip to mainland China this day, and after that no one can reach them
Mar 7, 2013　The 2 brothers go to Western Police Station and report their parents missing
Mar 15, 2013　Police find the remains in a flat; both men are arrested
Aug 2014　The first trial opens, with a jury of 7
Aug 13, 2014　After 2 jurors drop out one after the other, the judge announces that a new jury will be chosen
Feb 23, 2015　The case goes to trial again
Mar 20, 2015　By a vote of 8 to 1, the jury finds the son guilty of murder; his friend is found not guilty
【This episode answers】
・Why was the whole jury replaced partway through the first trial?
・The 2 defendants scored 126 and 84 on their IQ tests. Why did that gap become so important at trial?
・Why did the judge say he could not accept the way police got a statement?
・After the trial was over, why did the older brother still go to court over the inheritance?
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/大角咀肢解父母案
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The Wakayama Curry Poisoning: Arsenic in a Summer Festival Curry, Four Dead, the Youngest Just 10

Unclosed — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On the evening of July 25, 1998, a residential neighborhood in Wakayama City, Japan, held a summer festival, and people lined up for curry and rice. That night, 67 people were taken to the hospital, and four of them could not be saved. Two of the four were children: a sixteen-year-old girl and a ten-year-old boy. A little over two months later, police arrested a housewife who lived near the festival grounds.
This episode is about the Wakayama curry poisoning. The defendant was sentenced to death at her very first trial, and the sentence held at every level, all the way up to Japan's highest court. Yet there was no confession and no eyewitness, and the court itself wrote that no motive could be found. What held the whole ruling up was a scientific analysis. After the death sentence became final, another university professor recalculated that analysis, and his result pointed the opposite way.
【Timeline】
Jul 25, 1998　Someone puts poison in the festival curry; 67 people are hospitalized and 4 die
Oct 4, 1998　Police arrest a housewife who lived near the festival grounds
Dec 11, 2002　The first trial sentences her to death; the ruling admits no motive could be found
Apr 2009　Japan's highest court rejects her appeal; the death sentence becomes final in May
Jul 2009　The first retrial request is filed
Feb 2024　A different group of lawyers files a third retrial request
Nov 2025　Japan's highest court rejects the second retrial request
【This episode answers】
・With no confession and no eyewitness, what did the court base a death sentence on?
・What did that scientific analysis compare, and what two objections were later raised against it?
・How far has each of the three retrial requests gotten?
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/和歌山毒咖哩事件
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/和歌山毒物カレー事件
https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2025111300879&g=soc
https://www.ktv.jp/news/feature/250129-wakayama/
https://www.ryukoku.ac.jp/nc/news/entry-9357.html
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Knoedler Gallery: A 165-Year-Old Gallery Sold $80 Million in Fakes, Painted in a Queens Garage

Unclosed — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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In New York, there was an art gallery that had been open for a hundred and sixty-five years. It opened its doors fifteen years before the American Civil War began, and its customers were the major museums and the richest families in America. On November 30, 2011, it suddenly announced that it was closing for good. The day before, a lab report had reached the gallery: a painting a client had bought there for seventeen million dollars was a fake. In all, this scheme sold more than eighty million dollars' worth of fake masterpieces, and every one of them was painted in a garage in Queens, New York.
This episode is about the Knoedler Gallery forgery case, which has been called the biggest art forgery case in American history. Over more than a decade, sixty-three paintings came from the same hand: Pei-Shen Qian, born in 1940, who came to New York from Shanghai in 1981 and was paid only five thousand to eight thousand dollars a painting. The art agent who brought the paintings to the gallery pleaded guilty, and a court ordered her to pay about eighty-one million dollars. The Spanish businessman was arrested in Spain, and his extradition to the United States was refused. The painter went back to China before he could be charged; he was indicted in 2014 and has stayed in China ever since. What is still unclosed is the sixty-three paintings themselves. No one can say for sure whose walls they finally ended up on, or how many of them are still hanging today in the homes of the people who originally bought them.
【Timeline】
1981　A painter from Shanghai arrives in New York and paints portraits of tourists on the street
1994　An art agent walks into the Knoedler Gallery with a made-up history for the paintings
2004　A couple buys a "Rothko" for nearly eight and a half million dollars
2007　A hedge fund manager buys a "Pollock" for seventeen million dollars
Nov 30, 2011　The day after the lab report arrives, the old gallery announces it is closing for good
2014　The United States indicts the painter, but he is already back in China, which has no extradition treaty with the United States
【This episode answers】
・Why did the man who hired him want brand-new paintings instead of copies?
・For more than a decade, what held off every doubt?
・What one detail in the lab result made the whole story fall apart?
【Sources】
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8728596/de-sole-v-knoedler-gallery-llc/
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/newyork/press-releases/2014/three-defendants-charged-in-manhattan-federal-court-in-connection-with-33-million-art-fraud-scheme
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-80-million-art-fraud-anderson-cooper/
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/glafira-rosales-knoedler-forgery-probation-840923
https://www.arcsinfo.org/news-events/entry/2253/how-science-uncovered-80-million-of-fine-art-forgeries
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The Murder of Yin Ching-feng: Taiwan's Biggest Arms Scandal and a Navy Captain Afloat

Unclosed — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On the morning of December 10, 1993, fishermen found a man's body in the sea off Dong'ao, in Yilan, Taiwan, only about four hundred to five hundred meters from the shore. He was an active-duty captain in the Republic of China Navy. The morning before, he had disappeared at a soy milk shop in Neihu, in Taipei, and he never came back home. The first explanations the military gave came in two versions: one was suicide, the other an accidental fall into the water.
This episode is about the murder of Yin Ching-feng. He was the executive director of the Navy's weapons acquisition office, and his work was the purchase of the Navy's second-generation warships, a batch of arms deals that came to 115.2 billion New Taiwan dollars. One of them was the deal for six Lafayette-class frigates bought from France. The money trail did produce results. The man who was France's foreign minister when the contract was signed confirmed to a French newspaper a commission of about 500 million US dollars. High-ranking Navy officers were impeached. Kuo Li-heng, the Navy captain who arranged to meet Yin Ching-feng in Neihu, went to prison for taking bribes, but no court ever found that he was connected to this murder. France returned 875 million US dollars. But how Yin Ching-feng died, and who he was with after he left that soy milk shop, still has no answer after more than thirty years.
【Timeline】
Aug 31, 1991　The Lafayette frigate contract is signed, for just over 2.5 billion US dollars
Dec 9, 1993　In the morning, he disappears at a soy milk shop in Neihu
Dec 10, 1993　Fishermen find his body in the sea off Dong'ao, in Yilan
Around Dec 18, 1993　Kuo Li-heng, the section chief in the weapons acquisition office, is taken into custody on suspicion of taking bribes
Dec 20, 1993　Andrew Wang, an arms dealer connected to the warship business, boards a plane and leaves Taiwan
Aug 26, 2002　The Control Yuan votes to impeach high-ranking Navy officers
Jul 12, 2011　France returns 875 million US dollars to Taiwan
【This episode answers】
・He disappeared wearing a suit, but was pulled from the water in Navy uniform trousers and a white undershirt. What does that mean?
・In a contract of 2.5 billion US dollars, why was 500 million of it commission?
・The money side of the case produced results. Why is the murder still unsolved today?
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/尹清楓
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/拉法葉軍購案
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The Isdal Woman: A Spy Burned Alive? Eight Fake Passports, 50 Years Without a Name

Unclosed — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On the morning of November 29, 1970, in a valley just outside the city of Bergen, in Norway, a twelve-year-old girl hiking with her father and her younger sister saw the burned body of a woman among the rocks. As the police went through the things this woman had left behind, they found that every piece of clothing she was wearing had its label cut out, and that someone had scraped the prescription sticker off a jar of ointment in a suitcase she left behind. When she stayed at hotels, she had used at least eight different names.
This episode is about the case of the Isdal Woman in Norway. In the end, the police closed the case and wrote down suicide as the reason, and more than fifty years later, no one knows who this woman really was. What this case leaves unanswered is not only how she died, but why the labels on her clothes were cut off.
【Timeline】
Nov 18, 1970　She checks into a hotel in central Bergen; the next day she moves to another hotel
Nov 23, 1970　She checks out of room 407 at the second hotel, pays in cash, and asks the front desk to call a taxi
Nov 1970　Five days before the body is found, a man hiking on the mountainside sees a woman walking in front of two men in overcoats
Nov 29, 1970　A twelve-year-old girl hiking with her father and her sister finds the body among the rocks in the valley
Feb 5, 1971　She is buried in a Catholic service, in a coffin lined with zinc
1991　A taxi driver says that after he picked her up, a man got into the taxi too
2017　An isotope analysis of her jawbone points to a birthplace in southern Germany, in the area around Nuremberg
【This episode answers】
・What was recorded in the notebook filled with letters and numbers?
・Why was her coffin lined with zinc?
・More than forty years later, what did the teeth that were kept back reveal?
【Sources】
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isdal_Woman
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/伊斯達爾女子
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The CryptoQueen: No Blockchain, Nearly $4 Billion From 3.5 Million People, Then She Vanished

Unclosed — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On October 25, 2017, a 37-year-old woman walked into the airport in Sofia, Bulgaria, and boarded a flight to Athens. After the plane landed, she disappeared, and in almost 9 years no one has seen her since. What she left behind was more than three million victims. These people thought they were buying a cryptocurrency. The company selling it had an official website, had held events for thousands of people in stadiums, and had people joining from all over the world. But this cryptocurrency had no blockchain.
This episode is about the OneCoin scam. U.S. prosecutors added up the money: in just two years, from the last quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, the company's sales came to more than 3.3 billion euros, close to 4 billion dollars. The U.S. Department of Justice found more than 3.5 million victims around the world, and in the China branch alone, local prosecutors charged 98 people. What is still not over in this case: the person who actually built this whole thing has still not been caught, and most of those more than three million buyers will never get their money back.
【Timeline】
2014　OneCoin is launched, with the banner claim that it will beat Bitcoin
Aug 2014　Co-founder Sebastian Greenwood writes to her: get members to think that they are mining their OneCoin
Oct 2017　The United States issues a warrant for her arrest
Oct 25, 2017　She flies from Sofia to Athens and disappears after the plane lands
Mar 2019　Her younger brother, who took over the organization, is arrested at the airport in Los Angeles
Dec 16, 2022　Co-founder Greenwood pleads guilty in New York
Sep 12, 2023　Greenwood is sentenced to 20 years and ordered to forfeit about 300 million dollars; so far, the longest sentence in the case
Jan 2024　The American lawyer who laundered money for the organization is sentenced to 10 years
Mar 2024　Her brother, who pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution, is sentenced to time served: 34 months, most of it under home detention at his New York residence after he was released on bail
【This episode answers】
・With no blockchain and no listing on any exchange, where did that ever-rising price come from?
・If buyers were not getting coins for their money, what were they getting?
・Why, in those first few years, did the company happen to sit in a spot that was very hard to regulate?
【Sources】
https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/newyork/news/up-to-5-million-reward-offer-for-information-leading-to-arrest-and-or-conviction-of-ten-most-wanted-fugitive-cryptoqueen-ruja-ignatova
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-charges-against-leaders-onecoin-multibillion-dollar
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/co-founder-multi-billion-dollar-cryptocurrency-pyramid-scheme-onecoin-pleads-guilty
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/co-founder-multibillion-dollar-cryptocurrency-scheme-onecoin-sentenced-20-years-prison
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-law-firm-partner-sentenced-10-years-prison-laundering-400-million-onecoin-fraud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruja_Ignatova
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So Lo Pun: A Village Emptied Overnight, Dinner Still Warm, a Hiker Dead on His Knees

Unclosed — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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The food on the table was still warm, everything was neatly in its place, and a whole village emptied in a single night. This is a Hakka village in the northeast of Hong Kong's New Territories, often called the most famous haunted village in Hong Kong. In the 1950s it had seventy households and more than three hundred people. Take each strange story apart and check it, and every one of them turns out to have an answer.
This episode is about So Lo Pun. A compass that spins wildly as soon as you walk in, a whole village on a boat that capsized on the way to a wedding banquet with almost no one surviving, villagers who vanished overnight, a hiker found dead on his knees inside the village: four stories in circulation, taken apart one by one, and not one of the answers has anything to do with ghosts. The village chief describes the village today as having no water, no electricity, and no road. Back then, the village school only went up to third grade, and beyond that there was no more schooling. What is really still unresolved is not the legends. It is bringing the village back. What drove the villagers out was no road, farming that could not feed them, and no school for the children. Of those three, the road was still stuck on its last section when the chief gave his interview.
【Timeline】
1932　The village opens Kai Ming School, which only goes up to third grade
1950s　Seventy households, more than three hundred people
1960s　The peak of emigration; many go to the United Kingdom, and some to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France
1965　A boat from Sha Tau Kok to the village of Ngau Shi Wu goes down; four of the twelve on board die. Ngau Shi Wu is abandoned that same year, and the accident is later misattributed to So Lo Pun
Early 1970s　The village chief says the last household leaves around then; some media write that by the 1980s no one is left in the village
May 1998　A forty-seven-year-old hiker goes missing after a group hike in Hong Kong's northeast; rescue workers find him in So Lo Pun with multiple injuries and unconscious, and he does not survive
Sep 20, 2007　Wong family members set up the So Lo Pun Village Committee, hoping to bring the village back
Around 2017　Of the road the villagers applied for years earlier, the first section, from the pier to near the village entrance, is finished; the second section is stuck
【This episode answers】
・Does the village name really come from a locked compass, and has anyone formally measured it?
・Which village lost people in that shipwreck, and how many actually died?
・If the village did not empty overnight, how did it empty, and where did everyone go?
・How far did the road into the village get before it stalled, and what is blocking it?
【Sources】
https://cco.gov.hk/tc/project-sites/so-lo-pun
https://www.am730.com.hk/%E9%AB%94%E8%82%B2/%E9%8E%96%E7%BE%85%E7%9B%86%E8%A1%8C%E5%B1%B1%E8%B7%AF%E7%B7%9A-%E9%AC%BC%E6%95%85%E4%B9%8B%E8%AA%AA%E4%B8%8D%E6%94%BB%E8%87%AA%E7%A0%B4-%E6%A6%95%E6%A8%B9%E5%87%B9%E6%9B%B4%E8%8D%92%E6%B6%BC/322345
https://www.hkcd.com/content/2020-01/06/content_1172976.html
https://hk.epochtimes.com/news/2021-02-10/65154583
https://www.thenewslens.com/article/176231
https://belief.elchk.org.hk/?p=2401
https://www.thinkhk.com/article/2021-12/30/53305.html
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The Huugjilt Case: He Reported a Body at 18, Was Executed 62 Days Later, Cleared 18 Years On

Unclosed — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On the night of April 9, 1996, in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, a young man who worked at a factory found a woman's body in a public toilet, and ran to report it to the police. The man the police took away that night was him. On May 23 he was sentenced to death, and on June 10, sixty-two days after he reported the crime, he was executed by firing squad.
This episode is about the Huugjilt case. It took sixty-two days to go from the report to the execution, and eighteen years passed between the execution and the day a court declared him not guilty. The not-guilty verdict came, the state paid compensation, and twenty-seven people were held responsible. And in 2019, the Supreme People's Court refused to count this case against Zhao Zhihong, the man arrested nine years later who described it himself. Huugjilt has been declared not guilty, Zhao Zhihong was not held responsible for it, and to this day, this case has no killer in the eyes of the law. And there is one note whose contents were not made public.
【Timeline】
Apr 9, 1996　Huugjilt reports a woman's body to the police and is taken away that same night
Apr 20, 1996　The local evening newspaper runs a story saying the killer is Huugjilt
May 23, 1996　The court sentences him to death; on June 5, the high court upholds the sentence
Jun 10, 1996　Huugjilt is executed by firing squad, more than three months short of his nineteenth birthday
Oct 23, 2005　Another man is arrested; he describes this case four times
Dec 5, 2006　On toilet paper, that man writes an application to pay with his life
Dec 15, 2014　A retrial overturns the original verdict and declares Huugjilt not guilty
Dec 30, 2014　The state compensation decision comes to 2,059,621.4 yuan
Jul 30, 2019　Zhao Zhihong is executed; the Supreme People's Court does not count this case against him
Oct 2019　The former head of the criminal police team at the Xincheng District police bureau is investigated; he is later found hanged
【This episode answers】
・What had to be squeezed into those sixty-two days, and how many real working days were there?
・What did the man arrested nine years later say, and what did he do?
・What were the three reasons the retrial verdict gave for overturning the original verdict?
・Zhao Zhihong described the case four times, and a lie detector test found him more than ninety-eight percent credible. Why did the Supreme People's Court still not count it against him?
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/呼格吉勒图案
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Eight Immortals Restaurant: A Family of Ten Slaughtered, Rumors of Human-Meat Buns

Unclosed — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 13:01:00 GMT

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Around noon on August 8, 1985, the sea washed a batch of human remains up onto Hac Sa Beach in Macau. There were four right feet alone. For the next eight months, no one reported anything and no one was listed as missing, while a restaurant in the northern part of the Macau Peninsula opened for business every day, as usual.
This episode is about the Eight Immortals Restaurant murders in Macau. Ten people died, ranging in age from seven to seventy. The most famous part of the case is the "human-meat barbecue pork buns," yet not one official record and not one piece of physical evidence points to it. And the half of the case that was never actually solved ended up buried underneath it.
【Timeline】
Nov 1973　In a residential building in Hong Kong, a man asks a resident named Li for ten thousand Hong Kong dollars, is turned down, and drowns him in a bathtub
Aug 8, 1985　Human remains wash up on Hac Sa Beach in Macau; eleven pieces in all
Aug 1985–Mar 1986　Eight months with no one reported missing, while the restaurant stays open
Apr 1986　A letter from a man looking for his older brother reaches the police; a fingerprint matches one of the victims
Sep 28, 1986　He is stopped as he gets ready to leave Macau; his safe holds the Zheng family's ID documents and the children's student cards
Dec 4, 1986　He kills himself in his cell, leaving a note and asthma medicine; Chinese and English sources each quote a different passage of the note
1989　Another set of remains is dug up at a garbage dump in Macau, the last part of the case ever found
【This episode answers】
・Where did the story of the pork buns come from?
・How were the ten bodies actually disposed of?
・Chinese sources say he was held in custody to await trial, while English sources say he was convicted. Where exactly do they disagree?
【Sources】
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3320664/when-family-and-servant-were-murdered-their-macau-restaurant-1985-scmp-archive
https://www.plataformamedia.com/en/2020/08/04/one-of-macaus-most-macabre-crimes-occurred-35-years-ago/
https://www.chinatimes.com/hottopic/20150604005405-260812
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EightImmortalsRestaurant_murders
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2020/09/07/the-gruesome-tale-of-murder-and-human-char-siu-bao
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The Liu Pang-yu Massacre: Nine Taped Up, Ten Shots to the Head, Eight Dead

Unclosed — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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On the morning of November 21, 1996, nine people inside the official residence of the county magistrate of Taoyuan County, Taiwan, were taken into the guardroom by the gate. Their eyes and mouths were covered with tape, and then the killers opened fire. Eight people died, one of them the sitting county magistrate. The only survivor, a county councilor, had a bullet go through his brain, and from that day on he was never able to tell the whole story of what happened that morning.
This episode is about the Liu Pang-yu massacre in Taiwan. Nearly thirty years on, the killers who fired those shots that morning have never been found. It is not like a typical cold case: most cold cases have no witnesses, but in this one, two people were up close with the killers. Yet what one of them said was discounted by the police, and the other cannot tell it.
【Timeline】
Nov 21, 1996　Nine people are taken into the guardroom at the residence; eight die and one is seriously wounded
Mar 15, 1997　By-election for county magistrate; Annette Lu wins
Jan 15, 2008　The residence has been torn down; the police administration building built on the same site opens
Nov 16, 2016　After a tip from the public, prosecutors and police call in a man nicknamed Lao Shan; after a search and DNA comparison, he is ruled out
Nov 2016　The twenty-year statute of limitations is reached; prosecutors say the task force will not be disbanded
May 29, 2019　An amendment to Article 80 of the Criminal Code is promulgated: cases resulting in death are no longer subject to a time limit
【This episode answers】
・Why the police could not even determine who the killers had come to kill
・How the two men both nicknamed Lao San were ruled out in the end
・The twenty-year limit has passed, so why prosecutors say this case can still be prosecuted
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/劉邦友血案
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Pang-yu
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The Kornhill Gardens Case: She Sawed Up Her Husband, Boiled Him Dry, Baked the Rest

Unclosed — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:02:00 GMT

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On the night of March 31, 1988, a daughter walked into North Point Police Station in Hong Kong with a lawyer, and said her father had been missing for more than a month. Early the next morning, the police made an arrest at another address. But from the day of the report to the end of the High Court trial, no one found any part of the body, and the blood found in the apartment could not be proven to be anyone's.
This episode is about the 1988 Kornhill Gardens case in Hong Kong. The man who died owned a plastic dye shop in To Kwa Wan, and it was the first time in Hong Kong that someone was charged with murder when the victim's body had never been found. His wife, her younger brother, and two workers were brought before the court, and in the end not one of them went to prison. What was never really resolved is this: in court, the only source for the picture of those two days was the defendant herself, and psychiatrists for both the prosecution and the defense agreed that she could not tell what she had imagined from what had really happened.
【Timeline】
Feb 21, 1988　Three people enter the apartment and tie the owner to the four posts of a metal bunk bed
Feb 22, 1988　He breaks free, and his wife kills him with a hammer. How the fight started, there is only her own account
Mar 31, 1988　The daughter reports him missing, with a lawyer beside her; the wife is arrested early the next morning
Apr 4, 1988　The wife and her brother are brought before the Magistrates' Court
Jun 1, 1988　Prosecutors drop the charges against the two workers, who are released in court
Late Sep 1988　The High Court trial begins; the question is whether she is fit to stand trial
Early Oct 1988　The jury returns a verdict of manslaughter; she is sent to a treatment center
1995　After more than seven years, doctors consider her recovered and let her out
【This episode answers】
・With no body and no weapon, on what basis did prosecutors charge murder?
・Why did the charge end up as manslaughter and not murder?
・Why did no one go to prison in a case where a man died?
【Sources】
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/康怡花園烹夫案
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/康怡花園
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Busang: A $6 Billion Gold Mine With No Gold, and a Body With No Hands or Feet

Unclosed — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:01:00 GMT

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In 1997, the test results came back for a gold mine in the jungle of Indonesia: the gold content was close to zero. Before that, the company that owned the mine had been worth more than six billion Canadian dollars, and forty thousand investors had put their money into it. And one week before the results were announced, the mine's man on site vanished from a helicopter flying over the jungle.
This episode is about the Busang gold fraud. The reserves the company announced went from two million ounces all the way to seventy million. The share price started at thirty cents, the company's value shot up to six billion Canadian dollars, and in the end forty thousand investors, plus three public pension funds from two provinces, lost billions of dollars. According to the investigations afterward, the man on site first scraped gold off his own wedding ring, and later bought panned gold dust from local people, adding it bit by bit to the drilled rock cores for two and a half years. From buying the mining rights in 1993 to the collapse, the mine never produced a single gram of gold, and to this day no one has spent a single day in prison for it.
【Timeline】
Early 1993　The owner and his wife declare personal bankruptcy
May 3, 1993　He buys the Busang land in Borneo
1994　The first reserve figure is announced: two million ounces
Apr 1996　The owner moves to the Bahamas
Early 1997　A fire at the Busang camp burns the office and the geological records
Mar 19, 1997　The man on site vanishes from a helicopter twenty minutes after takeoff
May 4, 1997　An independent consultant's report concludes the cores had been tampered with
Feb 2001　New Canadian rule: reserve figures must be signed off by a qualified professional
【This episode answers】
・No one caught it for three years. What kind of division of labor kept this scam going?
・How was the body identified as his, and why is there still no conclusive evidence today?
・When his body was found, both hands and both feet were missing. What do the records say?
・Why did this one case change how mining companies in many countries report their reserves?
【Sources】
https://www.osc.ca/en/news-events/news/ontario-court-justice-finds-john-bernard-felderhof-not-guilty
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bre-x-collapses
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/felderhof-acquitted-on-bre-x-securities-charges-1.680227
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-rise-and-fall-of-bre-x/article1085866/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeathofMichaeldeGuzman
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The narration and music in this show are AI-generated. The content is compiled from public sources, and the show contains no recordings of any real person.
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Daegu Subway Fire: The Driver Took the Key, the Doors Stayed Shut, 142 Died Inside

Unclosed — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:00:00 GMT

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At 9:56 a.m. on February 18, 2003, a train pulled into the opposite platform at Jungangno Station in Daegu, South Korea. The people on board did not know that a car on the other side was on fire. The doors opened for a few seconds, the driver glanced outside, and at 9:57 he closed them again. In that same minute, power to the whole section was cut.
This episode is about the 2003 Daegu subway arson. 192 people died and 151 were injured, and 142 of the 192 dead were found on the train that pulled in afterward, the side where the fire was not. Almost all of the more than two hundred passengers on the train that caught fire walked out. This episode is not about the fire itself. It is about the reports and radio calls, the doors, the materials inside the cars, and a count of the missing that different records still cannot agree on today.
【Timeline】
Feb 18, 2003　9:53 a.m., a fire starts inside a train car
Feb 18, 2003　The train pulling into the opposite platform opens its doors, then closes them again
Feb 18, 2003　The fire is put out at 1:38 p.m.; 192 people are dead
Aug 6, 2003　The arsonist is sentenced to life in prison; he dies of illness while serving his sentence the following August
Oct 21, 2003　Jungangno Station reopens; at first, trains pass through without stopping
Apr 1, 2005　Daegu's subway finishes replacing the interiors of all its cars
Dec 2008　A public safety theme park opens, with one of the cars inside
May 29, 2009　Full-height platform screen doors are installed at Jungangno Station
【This episode answers】
・The doors opened once. Why couldn't they be opened later?
・Daegu paid only about sixty percent of what other cities paid per car. What did that saving cut?
・Why did Japan and China also change what their subway cars are made of?
【Sources】
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daegusubwayfire
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/대구지하철화재_참사
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/大邱地下鉄放火事件
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The narration and music in this show are AI-generated. The content is compiled from public sources, and the show contains no recordings of any real person.
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