#403: White Lotus 3 Resort Death: Billionaire Playboy Wang Sicong's Uncle's Connection To 3 Murders
01:17:28 Share

Hello.

- Ramble. - If you're into true crime and horror content, a ton of great new content from leading Korean entertainment producers CJ E&M just launched on Samsung TV Plus, and you can watch it for free. Even better, I have two hit show recommendations for you. "Voice 4" is a series centered around an emergency call center manned by Kang Kwan-Joo, who has this incredible hearing ability, the ability to pinpoint exact voices and sounds that are missed by all those around her,

And Detective Derek Cho is a serial killer expert, called in when a new killer appears with Kang's exact same ability. The show keeps you on the edge of your seat as the killer toys with both of them while committing more murders. My second recommendation is Dark Hole. It skews a bit more horror. The series begins when a sinkhole opens up at the edge of a small city and something evil crawls out. With humans mutating into monsters, the series follows the survivors as they try to continue surviving.

Voice 4, Dark Hole, and more are available now for free on Samsung TV Plus in the U.S., meaning anyone with a Samsung Smart TV or Samsung Galaxy phone with the Samsung TV Plus app can simply search their titles and start watching. Happy watching!

Toyota has been building a legacy of excellence for generations. From pioneering hybrid technology to redefining the standards of safety and efficiency, Toyota is always innovating, always making progress. And with Toyota's legendary lineup of reliable cars in stock at your local Toyota dealer, you can experience the legacy firsthand. So check out the unparalleled performance of the new 2025 Camry with style, efficiency, and available tech to get you anywhere.

Or test drive a capable and affordable Corolla equipped with everything you need to stay cool and connected. And both Camry and Corolla are available with all-wheel drive, giving you the control to go beyond. Quality, reliability, efficiency. That's the legacy of Toyota. Visit buyatoyota.com, the official website for deals to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. Someone's going to die.

Someone is going to die at the luxury five-star resort. It's going to happen. It happened in Hawaii. The hotel manager at this luxury resort was stabbed to death by a wealthy hotel guest for, okay, to be fair, he did take a restroom break inside that guest's suitcase. He took a number two. He pooped inside of his suitcase. The wealthy guest catches the hotel manager, stabs him to death.

Then in Italy, it happened again. Another luxury five-star resort had to deal with a high-profile death of a wealthy woman who was set up by her husband to have her killed so that he could inherit her entire fortune. And now, the next death is likely going to take place at the Four Seasons Resort in Thailand. We don't know who's gonna die. We don't even know why they're gonna die yet. But we do know that someone is gonna die.

Because that is the setup of the White Lotus. The first season was set in Hawaii. The second one was in Italy. And now the third is going to be in Thailand. It's going to come out sometime in 2025, which if you haven't already seen, White Lotus is this dark comedy drama series that usually takes place in one of the fictional White Lotus luxury resort hotel chains.

And it's this fascinating mixture. You have all of these mostly obnoxious, slightly eccentric, wealthy guests with their own problems and secrets interacting with the hotel staff who likely hate their guts.

Season 3 is extra special because Lisa from Blackpink will be featured. This is her debut acting role. And it's filmed in her home country, Thailand, at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. Koh Samui is this secluded island off the east coast of mainland Thailand. It has a private beach. When you go to the Four Seasons...

There's so many trees. There's so many plants. You're almost on a cliff side. You have little pockets of buildings that are surrounded by nature with these mini little pools, infinity pools overlooking the cliffs.

There's 14 private villas. And one of the actresses, Carrie Coon, she says about the director of the White Lotus series, she said, okay, his vision with the third series. He had a season about money. He had his season about sex. This season is going to be about death. And not many people know this. And I don't know if White Lotus is going to use this as inspiration. But there actually was a very, very mysterious death at the Four Seasons Resort in Koh Samui.

This is the true story behind that death. In 2014, a post starts going viral in China. It's a long personal story posted onto this internet forum by a username named Uncle Bluebeard.

which is kind of a weird username, but the post is titled, The Risks of Being in a Wealthy Family. My Sister-in-Law's Sister. So it would be like my sister's husband's sibling. I see. Now, The Risks of Being in a Wealthy Family. My Sister-in-Law's Sister Died in Koh Samui, Thailand.

You click on the post and you start reading it. My sister-in-law has a beautiful younger sister named Lily. She married one of the richest men in China. I won't say exactly who it is, but after being with this man for more than 10 years, last year they went on vacation to Thailand where they own this massive Four Seasons villa, a private villa. They end up arguing, getting into a random standard couple's fight. The next morning, she was found dead in the swimming pool, floating.

They tried to claim that she drowned, that she had a bottle of wine, fell into the pool, and drowned. It was unfortunate, but that doesn't even make sense. Lily doesn't even know how to swim. Why would she have been swimming alone in the middle of the night? Besides, Lily, additionally, does not drink. She rarely drinks.

However, we found out sooner or later that there were clear strangulation marks on her neck. The local authorities briefly arrested her husband. I mean, they had to, but all he had to do was pay about $140,000 in bail, which is nothing for a family of his status. He's from one of the wealthiest families in China. Then they called back saying our family member had drank too much and fell into the swimming pool.

Now my sister-in-law and her parents have to fly abroad every month to fight this case. Their family used to be quite wealthy and even now they're not doing too badly. They own three houses. However, my sister-in-law can't work. All she does is focus on her sister's case. Her brother has no income now. Chinese authorities won't do anything about it. Even though both the deceased and the husband are Chinese nationals. I just don't understand why. Why can't legal proceedings be handled in China?

All our family want is some justice. That's it. Her official cause of death is an accident, but nobody in our family believes it.

Netizens immediately start searching for clues. What do you mean one of the richest men in China? I mean, that's only like a handful of men, right? We got to figure out who it is because how does one of the richest men in China kill their wife, allegedly kill their wife, or have a wife that dies in a very suspicious manner and nobody knows about it? So they didn't name anybody? No, they just left little hints and they used a little initial, which you could kind of connect to the surname.

And people are wondering, how is this person not in jail? So they start gathering all these little nuggets of hints from the post. And last year, the wife's name is Lily. He's one of the wealthiest men in China. This is his surname initial. He owns a villa at the Four Seasons in Thailand. And it just narrows down to specifically one person and one person only. A man named Lin Yu.

He is indeed part of one of the most well-known wealthiest billionaire families in China. Billionaires that are quite literally untouchable. I mean, speaking of, one of the most notable billionaires in China is Wang Sutong. His nickname is Wang Duidui. Wang Duidui. It literally translates to Mr. Wang Distus. Like he's most memorable for two things.

One, he has this big mouth that he almost never shuts. That's what people say about him. That's not what I'm saying. But he has made a career out of just dissing everybody online. It doesn't matter. You could be the private dog groomer for his husky that gets to fly on a private jet from city to city. You could be the A-list actress. It doesn't matter who you are. Wang Zitong will likely mock you on social media.

One time he was staying at this hotel, a massive hotel in this busy city, and he starts tweeting, "Changsha's Wanda Hotel is the most stupid hotel I've ever lived in and it's fucking opened by my own family. Amazing."

The second thing that he's most known for is being the son of the founders of Wanda Group, one of the largest conglomerates in all of China. They own a whole chain of massive shopping malls, 90 hotels at one point, a massive real estate portfolio. And most notably, they were known for owning AMC theaters, like the whole chain. Before they sold it. Yeah, they sold it. But at one point, that was like what they were most notable for international reasons.

Wanda Group is a massive conglomerate and Wang Sutong is a massive big mouth that has gotten them into a bit of trouble. And it doesn't matter that his dad is one of the wealthiest people in the country. Nothing and nobody can shut his baby son up. It's just not happening. Except in 2014, netizens find the one thing that you can say to shut Wang Sutong up. What did your uncle do?

Suddenly, the biggest yapper in the world that is never quiet, never backs down from a fight, Wang Sutong, goes silent. How is it that this little phrase, "What did your uncle do?" How does it stop him? Why was your uncle's second wife found dead floating in a private pool at the Four Seasons in Thailand? Why is everybody calling him, your uncle, the Bluebeard of China? You know, Bluebeard, the story of the man who killed all of his wives? Which means if his second wife was found dead,

What happened to his first wife? This is the case of three deaths spanning across three countries, a billionaire, and a son who will search for his father to get answers.

We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. They provide free medical care and humanitarian aid to thousands of injured, abused, abandoned children and really any child in need. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. We'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support as we work on our mission to be worthy advocates.

As always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com. One brief content disclaimer for this case. It involves mentions of potentially abusive relationships. And additionally, there has been no official ruling. So we will try our best to keep you guys updated. There are some new developments, but everybody is innocent until proven guilty. And as always with foreign cases, I did work with our Chinese researchers and translators, but please let us know if anything was left out, mistranslated, miscommunicated. And with that being said...

Let's get into it. Marcus is three and a half years old when both of his parents die in a car accident.

He grows up with his grandparents in Sweden, and this is on his mom's side, and they all had these like little cassette tapes with old videos of Marcus with his parents, and those are the only memories he has. I mean honestly, the only memory he has of his mom is, he says, "I just remember a day we sat in the apartment, she was cooking chicken soup, and she kept feeding me chicken soup with this big spoon. I mean, I don't know how it would have tasted today, but it was the tastiest thing I've ever eaten, at least in memory."

That's his only memory, really, of his mom, unless he's watching those cassette tapes.

And then one day he turns eight. It's like around eight years old. And he decides, I am going to record some Disney Channel shows on a cassette tape so I can watch it over and over. I can rewind it or just keep it for an episode that I like. And the first step that he has to do is find a cassette tape inside the house that he can record on. He goes to his grandparents' giant stash of cassette tapes. Now, the problem is he can't re-record over a cassette tape that's important.

Because some cassette tapes are memories. Some of them are already like TV shows that people have re-recorded. So he grabs a cassette tape that looks like it's just a TV show programming, the local news. He pops it in just to make sure it's nothing important. And it's the news. He's correct. It's not like a memory. It's not a video camera of a vlog of their days. He's like, perfect. He's about to take it out. And he sees this familiar face pop up on the news.

His mom. Why is his mom on the news? Why did his grandparents record this? It's so strange. And the news anchor then says, An update on the woman who disappeared the other day. She was found dead and murdered. There is a motive, but the authorities are deciding not to make that information available to the public. Wait, 8-year-old Marcus stumbled upon the news back in the days? Yes. He was 8 when he realized his parents were not killed in a car accident. Right.

His mom was murdered and her case would actually be one of the bigger unsolved cases in Sweden. Nobody really goes missing in Gothenburg, at least not then. And if you do go missing, you would be found within 12 to 24 hours.

Until March 18th, Veronica drops off three-year-old Marcus at kindergarten and the timer starts. Her schedule is cutthroat. She's a mom. She's a student. So after dropping off Marcus at kindergarten, she's got to go to the university campus. She's got to attend classes trying to get her engineering degree. Once she's out of class, everything is timed to a T. She gets out of class. She goes straight home to where she lives with her parents and Mark.

in the apartment building she spends time with Marcus usually on the way home when she or when she finally gets a second to breathe she'll call up her best friend Jenny to catch up but that day the call never comes because Veronica doesn't go home that day by 9 p.m. her parents report her missing hi I'd like to report a missing person she's 30 years old about 5'5" long dark brown hair probably wearing a leather jacket and a blouse

Veronica's family explained how she's supposed to be home at 5 p.m. It's already 9 p.m. This is, I mean, it doesn't make sense. The police are like, 5 p.m. today? Like four hours ago? You're freaking out because your daughter was supposed to be home. Your 30-year-old daughter was supposed to be home four hours ago and she's not and you're calling us. She may have disappeared on her own free will. Yes, sure, whatever. But this is not like her. She has a three-year-old son.

Veronica's family are insistent. Okay, they're they're not giving up This is not normal not even in the slightest the police have to do something some sources state that the police are very intrigued by this case not because they had a little inkling early on but because um Nobody really disappeared in Gothenburg. So the police didn't really have that many things to do. Like it's a super safe city Yeah, so they grab their dogs

They shut down some roads and they're getting excited. They're like, search the vicinity. Let's get it done. And the police, all they really have to do is just one phone call now. They make one call and they could probably find Veronica. This is multiple days later. She's still missing. And now they know that one phone call and they could find her.

But that means one phone call. They got to do it right. Authorities are able to track Veronica's phone because they couldn't get this better, more precise location, this narrow scope of locations. They're looking at two separate apartment buildings across the street from each other. It could be in any one of these units, in both of these buildings that she was last seen in. Mm-hmm.

That's as close as the investigators are getting. Somewhere inside of these two apartment complexes, Veronica is inside. Interestingly enough, Veronica actually lives in one of the apartment units with her parents and her son Marcus. But of course, they likely searched their unit. So she's not in that one. But any other one, she could be in there.

The most effective way to get a better location would be to call Veronica's phone and see if it rings anywhere inside that building. But that means authorities really only get like one chance at this. If they keep calling or even if they just call once, it's likely that whoever has Veronica's phone is going to be tipped off and then the police are on to them. They're going to turn the phone off. And then what?

So they feel like, let's say one of the neighbor has her phone. They will only let the phone ring once before they shut it off. Yes. I mean, they might have already shut it off. They might have silenced it, but they can't take that risk. Right. They got to let it ring once. So what do they do? They have a police officer outside every single door in that apartment building, both. And they get one phone call. You're kidding.

One phone. Yeah, one phone. Do you know how many there are? I think there were like 100, over 100. Yeah. So every police officer is stationed outside each apartment unit and they will wait for the signal. If they hear a ring, they're one step closer to finding Veronica. They dial Veronica's phone. Get the crowbar.

They hear her phone ringing and they find the unit. It's time to break in. And it's a strange revelation or maybe it's like a coincidence because this is the apartment unit directly under Veronica's family apartment. So strange. One of the first investigators to step into the apartment, they say that they turn into the restroom inside the apartment unit once they break in and the grout on the tiles, the floor, the tub, the sink. I mean, there was blood everywhere. It was like a red restroom.

Around the corner, there's this hallway, and that's where they find Veronica. She had been there right under her parents' apartment this whole time. I mean, what was she even doing inside this unit? Investigators state, I take a step in, and on the right towards the bedroom in the hallway, there's a woman. She's lying in a very large pool of blood, and, well, she's dead.

And now there's even more questions. Who would do something like this to Veronica? Had she been under her family's home all this time? When did she pass away? How did she die? The last two questions are easier to answer. They send Veronica's body in for an autopsy. Cause of death is mechanical asphyxiation and the murder weapon points towards some sort of thin cord or perhaps even like a wire hanger.

Time of death being almost exactly the same time as the report of her being missing was made. So that night, March 18th, that night, around 9 p.m., which means she was likely killed in the process of coming home from school that day. She had almost made it up to the family's apartment unit on the second floor when somehow she ends up in this first floor unit.

I mean, it's clear from even a glance into the apartment that there had been this huge physical struggle. There's furniture flipped upside down. Things are broken. Belongings are everywhere, which only leads investigators to another question. Who the hell owns this apartment? And where the hell are they? Mr. Tang Ching Zong is priority number one.

find him the owner of the unit and likely the authorities will get the answers that they're looking for so far here's what they know about mr tang mr tang is a 44 year old man he has a wife and kids in china but he is working in sweden he rented that unit downstairs for the past few years now he lives alone and that's it that's all they know about him so if he's not at the apartment maybe he's at work

So the authorities, they rushed to the local supermarket where he was working and they got their handcuffs ready to arrest him. And they're told, sorry. Yeah, it's so strange. He took this unauthorized absence from work. He's been gone for several days. We don't know what happened. What do you mean? He just stopped showing up? Well, when exactly did he stop showing up to work? Oh, I think it was like March 18th, the day Veronica goes missing. He just stopped showing up for work.

One investigator working the case said, the question of where Mr. Tang was would haunt them. He says he disappeared. His passport, his clothes are all gone. Suspicions are raised. Like, where are you? Why did you leave? Why do you have a dead woman in your home? The police's first working theory is an affair.

I mean, it kind of makes sense, right? The person most likely to harm you is an intimate partner. Maybe Mr. Tang was having an affair, cheating on his wife and children back home in China with upstairs neighbor, Veronica. Now, to add some credibility to their theory, if you can call it that, authorities realized that Veronica used to live in China. She taught English in Dalian, China, which means...

There's a high likelihood that they bonded. In fact, Mr. Tang barely spoke Swedish. It's likely that Veronica would help him translate a few things here and there. She passed by his apartment unit every time that she came home to go up to the steps to the second floor. That is enough opportunity. And maybe one party wanted something deeper than just a neighborly affair. Maybe Veronica wanted more. She demands Mr. Tang break up with his wife so that they can get together.

No, that doesn't make sense. That doesn't sound like Veronica, according to every single person that knows her. So maybe it's the other way around. Maybe Mr. Tang wanted something more, but Veronica refused. And it's a case of if I can't have you, then nobody can have you.

That's the theory, and it is solely based on the fact that Veronica lived in China before and had an interest in Chinese men. That's quite literally it. The police are like, yeah, that's the conclusion that we're coming to. Veronica's parents, they rightly oppose this theory. There's zero evidence that the two of them were having any sort of affair, and this is just kind of bizarre. And so the police go back to exactly what worked. The easiest thing to do, what helped them find Veronica? The phone.

So they track Mr. Tang's phone. A fair or not, if you can find him, he can tell you exactly what happened. So investigators start tracking his phone. He's not picking up his calls. He's not picking up his texts, but his cell phone data shows that he's moving north quick. There is no way that he's walking. He must be on some sort of moving car, moving train. He's fleeing Gothenburg. It looks like he's trying to make it to Denmark. Wait, so this is so strange. He stopped now.

They're looking at the phone data. He stopped. He stopped at a train station. There is nothing in this area except for that train station. Is that his destination? Is that where he's going? Did something stop him? So they rushed the police to this train station. Somehow, they're able to track Mr. Tang's phone with a lot more accuracy than Veronica's. It leads them straight to the dumpster behind the train station.

They're standing there looking at this giant dumpster. This is where he is right now? I mean, it's giant. It could easily hide a Mr. Tang or 10 Mr. Tangs if need be. So they glove up, they jump into the dumpster, and they start dumpster diving. But instead of Mr. Tang, they just find his phone. Thrown into the dumpster, all the prints on the phone are wiped clean. That is so strange. So then where the hell is Mr. Tang?

The lead investigator is sent away from the train station because he gets an emergency tip. A tip from another resident at the same apartment complex. What is it? It's a family nearby that, well, they were walking their dog and the dogs kept tugging and digging near the backside of the apartment building. Okay.

incidentally, it happens to be right under the unit that Veronica's body was found. right under Mr. Tang's first floor balcony. his unit has this little balcony. I mean, you could hardly really call it a balcony since he's on the first floor. it's just a little slab of concrete and it's a few feet off the ground.

A family who lives nearby tells the police that something very strange happened. The dogs are going crazy and you know it kind of has a pungent scent reminiscent of fermented meat radiating out of that area and I don't know if that's normal, I'm just saying. When the investigating group duck under the balcony, it's very clear that there is freshly dug soil. They start digging and a little less than five feet beneath the ground, they find another victim.

Veronica is not the only one that died inside of this apartment. Perhaps Mr. Tang is on a killing rampage. Maybe he's a serial killer in the making. Authorities start digging and more and more because at first they just see a little bit of flesh. They see decomposing flesh. And then they find full human remains peeking out from the soil. But the fact that they find another body under Mr. Tang's balcony, the unit where Veronica was killed, would only make the case more complex.

Because the body they find belongs to Mr. Tang. Hmm.

Some of my favorite wholesome videos to watch online are the ones where people who speak multiple languages but don't look like it will randomly break out into full sentences surprising everyone around them. And almost always the unsuspecting native speakers in the videos are shocked but also happy, elated even, because learning a language is so much more than just communicating. It shows that there's a deep interest in the person's culture and heritage. I've

I've been learning Chinese from my husband's side of the family. And actually, I was talking with a friend and suggested totally unprompted that they should surprise their grandma for the holidays by learning her native language using Rosetta Stone. She just started practicing and is hoping to surprise her Nana by holding a full conversation in French by Christmastime.

With Rosetta Stone, this is a fun little holiday gift that you can give as well. Whether you're surprising a loved one with your own abilities or gifting a membership, brushing up on a past language, or even starting from scratch, Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app. It truly immerses you in the language that you want to learn, but most importantly, Rosetta Stone encourages families

fast language learning through an intuitive process designed for long-term retention. The built-in true accent feature gives you feedback on your pronunciation, which is basically a personal trainer for your accent. Because for 30 years, Rosetta Stone has been the most trusted language learning platform with millions of users worldwide. And don't worry if French is not your thing, they have 25 different languages to choose from, such as Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic,

Not that you have to choose though, because with Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership, you get access to all 25 language courses for the rest of your life. A lifetime supply of unlimited access to 25 languages for any future trips or language needs in life. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. Rotten Mango listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off.

Visit rosettastone.com slash rotten. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem for 50% off at rosettastone.com slash rotten today. My sister-in-law Tiffany's wedding is coming up soon and which we're all so excited and honestly so grateful that Zola, the sponsor of this episode, was able to help so much. A wedding is undeniably one of the most

fun, inspiring, loving, and definitely emotional events in someone's life, especially in my life. The ceremony, the after party, and depending on your culture, it could be days of unforgettable memories. But where do you even start? It's so daunting. My husband and I were engaged for a while before we had our official wedding. And honestly, a big part of it was we just put off the planning.

It's so daunting and I don't want Tiffany to feel any of that as she plans for her big day. So luckily she has been using Zola to put Tiffany on all of her wedding needs. With Zola, you can plan your entire wedding in one convenient place from the day you get engaged and search for the venue to the day you send out your save the dates mail.

make your registry, and even taste your cake, Zola has literally everything you need to make the whole process super easy and actually enjoyable. There's even a five-star app that helps you plan on the go or on your couch. Zola is also a female-led e-commerce company that proudly serves all genders and orientations on a personalized level. Their wedding pros are on call to walk couples from question to answer anytime with

tons of unique features and personalized recommendations based on a couple's preferences. Every Zola wedding is as unique as the couple planning it. Zola has everything you need to plan your wedding in one place. You can find your venue and all your vendors, design personal save the dates and invites, build a free wedding website, create your registry and stay on track and on budget throughout the entire process with their free planning tools.

Registering with Zola is also free, so start planning at Zola.com. That's Z-O-L-A dot com. Thank you, Zola, for sponsoring today's episode. Here are the key details of the crime scene, and you tell me the number one question that needs to be answered during the autopsy. I mean, aside from the obvious ones. First, Veronica and Mr. Tang were both murdered.

Second, there would have been no way to have murdered each other, obviously, but you have to rule everything out. Third, they were interestingly not disposed of in the same way. Like we just said, Mr. Tang is buried outside. I mean, not well, but he's buried. Veronica is left inside the apartment unit. Fourth, the blood inside the bathroom is a mixture of Mr. Tang's blood, Veronica's blood, and a third party unidentifiable DNA. Whoever it is, is not in the system.

The most important thing to ask here, if you only have the two bodies, what could help you narrow down the killers better? What helps you solve this case? What question would you ask? Like which blood was oldest in the bathroom? Like the order of the killing or... Or time of death for Mr. Tang.

Because if both Mr. Tang and Veronica were killed at the same time, it could likely be that they were ambushed by the mysterious third person. If Mr. Tang was killed after Veronica, either they were still killed by the same person or people, or Mr. Tang could potentially technically have killed Veronica and then someone came to kill Mr. Tang.

Now, if Mr. Tang was killed before Veronica, that would be very difficult. That would be very strange. So were they killed by the same person? What happened there? Yeah. What does that mean? Does that mean that perhaps Mr. Tang was the target and Veronica walked in on something that she shouldn't have seen? Maybe she walked in on the murder.

But if he was killed before Veronica, it would rule out Mr. Tang as any sort of perpetrator. Yes. So for a while, that is the main working theory of investigators, that Mr. Tang is the main target and Veronica walked in and saw something that she wasn't supposed to see. But the problem with this theory, aside from that, it's just a theory and there's no evidence that Mr. Tang is the target.

is that once you go a step further and try to work through the theory, you keep hitting dead ends. First of all, time of death on Mr. Tang shows he died the night before Veronica. Almost a full 24 hours. All of his close interpersonal relationships are residents of China. His family is in China. He doesn't have a large amount of hidden money or valuables, so this doesn't appear to be a robbery or burglary gone wrong. Whereas maybe Veronica would have been the more reasonable target.

Could it be that whoever wanted to kill Veronica needed a safe place to do it? So they killed Mr. Tang just so that they could kill Veronica? That would be a crazy motive. A crazy motive, very meticulously planned. Because that means Mr. Tang and his death, the only purpose that served was to vacate his apartment so that Veronica could be killed inside of it. And perhaps to frame him for Veronica's murder.

kill mr tang so his apartment can be used lure in veronica kill mr tang bury him lay and wait for veronica lure her into the apartment maybe say hurry come mr tang is in trouble he needs you strangle her kill her then leave her in the apartment dead take mr tang's phone drive it away from the scene towards the border of denmark to create the false impression that he's fleeing and the goal being to kill veronica frame mr tang and get away with it this person's blood is in the bathroom yes

So it's trackable. Yes, but who is that? We don't know.

Technically, the third person's blood is trackable, but you would need to find that third person first. Which is very difficult. Yeah. Because you don't even know where to start looking for them. I mean, we just kind of have the idea that maybe somebody wanted to kill Veronica. And if that's the case, that means this is very personal. This is not a crime of passion. This is a meticulously planned diabolical plot. It is done by someone who knows where she lives, is familiar with her daily schedule. They know that she didn't live alone, had to be lured to a different location to be killed.

Who would want her dead? The authorities start asking Veronica's classmates, friends, professors. Was Veronica being followed by anyone to class? Was there anything strange about her demeanor the day that she went missing or maybe a week prior, two weeks prior or anything? No, nothing at all. Not that we can think of. I mean, I can let you know if actually there is one person. One classmate explains,

She was going through marriage and custody issues with her husband. He lives in China, but he was in Sweden visiting when she went missing. He was? When Veronica's family is asked about this, when her parents are asked, they're so confused. Her husband was here? He comes a few times a year from China to Sweden, and he will always let us know in advance because he stays in the family apartment unit. Why would he be in Sweden? Why wouldn't he tell us? He always calls ahead and he always stays with us. Except this time?

Veronica was last seen March 18th. Her husband arrived in Gothenburg March 16th without letting Veronica's parents know. That is very suspicious, isn't it? Authorities search for Veronica's husband, but it's too late now because he's long gone. He's checked out of the Sheraton hotel that he was staying at. The police go in, they search that hotel room top to bottom just in case housekeeping missed anything in this very beige, very orange room. It's kind of depressing. Try to see if there's

Anything that could point to anything. They're getting into all the little crevices behind the mattress, wedged on the stilts for the mattress underneath the bed, behind the drawers of the restroom sinks. Every single nook and cranny is checked thoroughly. And they scream, what is that? What is that? They find a tiny speck of blood, blood splatter on the inner part of the armrest in one of the chairs.

The blood sample matches the third mystery blood found inside Mr. Tang's apartment. That's crazy. Who the hell is Veronica's husband? And did he kill her? Who the hell even is he? How did he and Veronica meet? Some people that the authorities talk to say, I don't know. I think I heard that he's like the son of a former emperor's line or something in China. Emperor's line? Yeah.

What? Others say, oh, I have no clue what he does, but I heard he's kind of like a, he was like an international playboy. But the sentiment by many of Veronica's peers is, I think I heard somewhere that he's like a billionaire. Marcus is now in his 20s when he sits down to write a letter for his dad. Hi, dad. This is not easy to write, but I'm your son.

It's been a long, long time since we last saw each other. I personally had to create my own image of you. I only have a few memories of you, but I've heard a lot about you from others over the years, both negative and positive things, and about the terrible incident. I wonder what really happened between you and my mother. I have so many questions I would like to ask you. I mean, how do you see me? Do you see me as your son? Is there any fatherly love for me? Or am I a person that you don't want to be reminded of?

I don't know if it's possible, but I would like to meet you. I would like to sit down eye to eye to get a chance once and for all to know who you are. When I try to create an image of you, it's really hard to put that into words. This letter would be addressed to Lin Yu of the billionaire Wang family.

Mr. Wang is technically a billionaire. He's Lin's brother-in-law, and he has one small piece of advice for future generations of entrepreneurs. In one interview, Lin's brother-in-law, Mr. Wang of Wanda Group, this is Wang Sutong's dad. Oh, Wang Jianlin. Yes. In one viral interview, he's actually having quite a heartfelt moment where he's talking about how people always come up to him telling him, I want to be a billionaire just like you.

Okay, he's like, what do you want to do? What industry? And they don't know. They're just like, I just want to be filthy freaking rich, just like you. And he says to them, I just have one message. He says for the young people out there listening, set a small goal first. Try to reach that before anything. A small realistic goal. So for example, I'm going to make $13 million in the next three years. And once you hit that small teeny goal, you can go from there.

$13 million is baby money to this guy? I mean, technically it is. So the way it translates, you know, the conversion in Chinese, it will be, let's say, a hundred million Chinese RMB, right? So that's like, like it's,

It's an unfathomable amount of money. Yeah. But he's like, you know what? Just set a baby goal, like $100 million. Start with that first. Start small. Yeah, start small. Hit that little number and then we can go from there. So that became one of the most viral, mean, viral thing in China. Anything with that number is like little goal.

Little goals, okay? And this is the leader of the Wang family. And to break down the Wang family, you have Mr. Wang, small little gold man. He's the founder of Wanda Group. Then you have his wife, Lin Ning. Now, for the purpose of this video, we're just going to call her Ning for clarity. And the two of them, they share a child, Wang Sutong. Ning is Lin's sister. So Lin Yu, the billionaire husband of these two wives that are found mysteriously dead, is Wang Sutong's uncle on his mom's side.

Ning, Wang Sutong's mom, did an interview once where she also goes viral. And she said, "Whoever I marry will become a billionaire."

Interestingly, a lot of people would assume that Mrs. Wang's background is at least lagging compared to that of her husband. And people thought like, you know, when you say something like that, you've got all the men rising up ready to start a war because they're offended. But actually, everybody agrees with her. Like the whole nation agreed with her. Because how do you compete with a billionaire husband, right?

Ning can compete. She actually grew up in the very privileged household of a high, high, high up government official in China, which it's similar and different than the United States. These are the type of people where you cannot Google their net worth. If you do Google their net worth, they'll probably give you a tiny little number and you're like, that doesn't feel right because what do they live in a $50 million house then?

That doesn't make sense. You don't even know exactly how much money they're worth, but you can imagine. I mean, these are the types of people that have yards in Beijing. That's like having a yard in the middle of Manhattan. It is a level of power and wealth that most people cannot even understand. And that is Ning's upbringing.

So when Ning marries Mr. Wang, Wang Jianlin, he's actually the one with less to offer in their marriage. In fact, Lin and his sister Ning are surrounded by high-ranking families and Wang is just this random entrepreneur, which even there, some would argue, he's not even as good as his wife, okay? By this point, she had her own investment group and it had 18 other companies that it was invested in. It owned one of the most affluent private entertainment clubs.

the oriental club in beijing, this company would later merge with wanda group, her husband's new company. so to put it simply, yes, as ning said, whoever she married likely would become a billionaire. because that's who she is. some would even argue that mr wang's biggest fortune in life is not founding the company wanda group. his real fortune was marrying his wife ning. but ning's brother lin was maybe not... not really the same.

like there's nothing inherently weird about lin it's just it's not like you can meet him once and just know "oh this guy is strange" like there is something off about him i mean i bet he's been accused of murder like you you wouldn't get that feeling nothing like that at all in fact he grew up upper class to a prestigious family i mean they know a thing or two about etiquette he would usually abide by those laws one former acquaintance said "he's very open, very easy to talk to, easy to become friends with, he's very kind, he never said anything that could be deemed crazy

I mean, not at all. He was incredibly polite. Not that it really matters, because you're part of the Wanda Group family. I mean, they're a big boy company. They're a big boy conglomerate. Anyone doing business in China knew that having Wanda Group on your side would open doors. They are the big whales in the industry. But they also have their weaknesses, like Lin Yu and his new nickname as the Blue Beard of China.

Have you ever seen anyone with a blue beard? It's literally blue. I mean, it sounds magical. It's beautiful. But it's also kind of unsettling. Like what makes it naturally blue? Is everything okay? That is why they call him Mr. Blue Beard. His beard is blue. His wallets are green. That's the story. It's a fictional story. This is interesting because everybody in China is now calling Mr. Lin the Blue Beard of China. This is where it originates from.

The blue beard makes up for having this creepy blue beard by being a rich nobleman. But it's still, for some reason, very difficult for him to find a wife because his beard is so strange and it's off-putting. And furthermore, there are these little rumors. You know he was married before, right? He was. Then what happened to his wife? Nobody knows. Vanished. What? Same with his second, third, fourth, and fifth.

It takes a while, but with patience, he wins over this young woman from a neighboring family to marry him. With one caveat. One rule. Bluebeard will be going on this extended business trip. His new wife will be left in his estate to do whatever she pleases. And he hands her this huge ring of keys. What are these?

The keys grant you access to every single room inside this castle, except he starts clinking through them one by one until he arrives at the smallest, tiniest little key.

His new wife promises, "'I will never open that door.'"

After Bluebeard leaves, his wife naturally has zero interest in that room until she spends most of her time going through every single other room. The rooms in this castle are stunning. Gold gilded mirrors, massive marble statues intricately carved. Why would she need to open...

that stupid little door at the end of the hallway with a tiny little key. I mean, there would be no reason for her to do that, right? Like for what? When she could lounge in the fine riches of her new husband, there would be no good reason for her to open that door.

Which is precisely why she is standing in front of that door with her hand holding that tiny little key, hesitating. Because if her husband finds out, he will be so angry, his beard will probably turn red. But if she does not open the door, she's going to lose sleep for who knows how long. I mean, that's it. Just do it once. Get it over with. Just open the door. Take a little peek. She will never have to wonder or think about what's behind this door. She pushes open the door, steps one foot in. It's dark.

But there is a scent, rusty metal. She looks down. Floors are clotted with blood. And when her eyes trail upwards, now she knows what happened to his former wives. They're all here, hanging. Hmm.

She covers her mouth to cover up the scream, drops the key into the blood accidentally. She picks it up, closes the door behind her, runs back to her room. She needs to get herself composed ASAP. Her husband is going to be back home. They're in the middle of the countryside in his estate. There's nowhere she can run, which means she has to act like she didn't see a single thing. She's splashing water on her face. Oh, my God.

Oh my god, the key! She grabs it, she's running it under the water in the sink, the blood's not coming off, and when the husband gets home, it is so very clear what she's done. He doesn't even need to guess. She's shaking like a wet dog. Finally, he tells her that it's time to take your place with the other wives in the closet. Go on now.

Because the story of the blue beard and his wife, it is unclear whether he was going to kill her or not had she not opened that closet door. But because she did, because she knew the fate of his previous wives, now she knows too much and now she has to die. The estates at the Four Seasons Resort in Thailand make the most sense for married couples. I mean, as much sense as $7 million makes.

Each private villa on the Four Seasons Resort comes with their own home, first of all, with all the designer finishes, an infinity-edge pool overlooking the breathtaking views, custom bathtubs, rain showers, fully equipped kitchens, state-of-the-art facilities. It's like living in your own dream house mansion in Thailand while still having a private butler and full access to all the Four Seasons Resort facilities, restaurants, spa, water sports activities, all here on the premise.

On the estate, you have about 2 million plants made up of 1.5 million different precious species, along with 867 naturally occurring coconut trees. It is described as, quote, the perfect blend of modern and Southeast Asian Thai style. Villas are each around 11,000 square feet, and the best part is there's only 14 of them.

Rich people love that. Sure, limited edition is great. Numbered edition, where there's a finite number and everybody knows, even better. Wow. A few years after Veronica is found murdered, a massive purchase is made at the Four Seasons estate in Thailand. One of the exclusive 14 luxury villas has been sold, purchased by none other than Lin, the brother of Mrs. Wang of Wanda Group.

It is at that $7 million vacation estate that the Thai police will be called in. They see a Chinese man sobbing, heaving over a woman's limp body. How many years after the incident was the call made? Like a decade. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. His wife, Lily, had been found dead, floating in the pool. She had drowned.

At least that's the original story. That is the original version. They were at their estate in Thailand to get away from the busy city, to get away from work. It's supposed to be a romantic little trip. But now his wife Lily is dead. She's drowned. Maybe she drank too much wine and slipped into the pool.

Lily's body is brought in to be autopsied and suddenly the story doesn't even make sense. I mean most of her autopsy findings don't indicate that she drowned. In fact, they indicate that she was strangled. That is her official cause of death briefly. Adding to this bizarre situation, Lily has been dead for the past eight to ten hours. Sure, the estate is 11,000 square feet, but it's not that big and the infinity pool for each villa, you can imagine that they're like the focal point of the estate.

You're going to see it. How did Lynn not realize that his wife was not only missing for eight to 10 hours, but also floating dead in the pool? These are the questions that Lynn seems to have a hard time answering with the Thai police. I mean, there's a lot of questions, in fact, that Lynn cannot answer, or perhaps he doesn't want to answer them. Like, why did you and your wife refuse to have the private butler consistently come during this trip? Was it because you had plans?

It should also be noted that during Lin's initial interrogation by the Thai police, he had multiple scratches, deep scratches on his shoulder. It's pretty far back. It's basically on his back. When questioned about that, Lin allegedly initially tells them, "'I mean, I also was drunk that night, and obviously I didn't notice that my wife had drowned, so perhaps I injured myself and I was scratching myself or something.'"

Thai police have every intention of figuring that one out. They say, oh, okay, that's a very cool explanation. That's actually riveting. Let's do it again. They bring him a bucket of paint. They have him dip his fingers into it and ask him to reach towards the back shoulder area to see just how far he can reach to scratch himself. He could not replicate reaching far back enough to give himself those wounds. Lin allegedly changes his explanation a little later. Look.

Obviously, the injuries are from when I jumped into the pool to pull my wife's body out. That's crazy. The authorities state that he was a suspect, but he saw himself as a victim because his wife lost her life. That's how they phrase it. But it doesn't matter because Lynn would pay a $140,000 bail and the case would be deemed closed.

Really? Yes. So is it like corruption, you think? Seems to be that way. Now, more alarming, though, is that nobody knows about this. Not until that online post comes up by the username Uncle Bluebeard stating that they are a family member of Lily. Lily was married to one of the wealthiest men in China who killed her in his estate in Thailand. Netizens are quick to figure out who the hell this post is about. Lin of Wanda Group family.

Netizens are not only digging up the fact that he might be the husband that killed Lily, allegedly, but also his first wife was murdered too, almost 10 years before Lily. And it feels like to some netizens, maybe he really is the blue beard of China. Some netizens even take it a step further. They're digging up information on Lily and Lin. And they know that Lin used to have his own barbecue restaurant. And they say, but get this.

He ends up closing up shop one day and just never coming back to his barbecue restaurant. Just abandoning it. Okay? Because the restaurant collectively poisoned all the customers. It was a really big case of food poisoning. Okay, so not the best businessman or the chef, but got it. Is that really the worst thing in the world, you know? Compared to having your wife suspiciously die on vacation. Okay, the part that gets weird though is the restaurant was in Nanjing. And this was during the Nanjing dismemberment case.

What? The Nanjing University dismemberment case is about a 19-year-old student who was killed, dismembered. Her body was broken up into 2,000 little pieces. Her remains then were boiled and scattered across at least eight separate locations near the university campus. There are parts of her body that were never found, including her internal organs and potentially more because she had been dismembered so many times.

Now, here's the crazy part. There were rumors of cannibalism that started. When a sanitation worker initially discovers a bag of meat in the dumpster, they thought it was pork. This was like one of the biggest, most infamous case in China. Yes. And this is related to Linh?

According to netizen rumors, you know, he happens to be in the same city and there are rumors of cannibalism. You know, the sanitation worker sees the dismembered body remains, thinks it's pork, takes it home to eat. And it's in the process of trying to cook the meat that they discover that's a human finger. That is not pork. They call the police.

Which then of course has people wondering what if the other parts of the victim's body were never found because they were sold to local restaurants as meat because they look like meat. Which brings us to the internet conspiracy that perhaps Lin served human flesh at his restaurant. Which resulted in collective food poisoning. Or rather, they take it a step further and wondering if he was the Nanjing killer. Because to this day it's unsolved.

which is normally a very wild, unhinged conspiracy to make. And it likely still is, but not when you consider that he has been accused of at least three murders.

I will say, though, there is no definitive connection between the two, the Nanjing dismemberment case nor his food poisoning case. There is no evidence that he was selling human meat or that it got people sick or that he killed anybody. It is a wild conspiracy indeed. But if this man really is being accused of killing his first two wives and Mr. Tang, then could he be a full-blown serial killer?

Other netizens are more focused on the very strange marriage between Lin and his wife, Lily, his second wife. According to the Post, Lily was 21 years old when they got married, and she was Lin's private secretary, which a lot of netizens find so interesting. They thought, I mean, as horrendous as this sounds, this is what netizens are saying. And sure, there might be cases where it's unique and there are always exceptions that don't fit the mold. But most of the time, people with that level of status

These billionaire families who come from government official families, they typically marry someone that's somewhat comparable. Yeah, yeah, that's big in China. They typically don't marry their secretary.

Which one could argue that with Veronica, Veronica and Lynn weren't technically on the same level financially, but it does appear that he didn't take their marriage very seriously. She lived in Sweden. He thought it'd be nice to have a family in Europe. And then when he came to China, nobody really knew that he had a whole other family in Sweden. But with Lily, if you marry your secretary, a Chinese national, it would be very hard to keep that a secret.

which netizens ask why would he even marry his secretary? why not just date her and then marry somebody else keep her as a mistress which again crazy as it sounds people are like that happens more often the only answer that made sense to chinese netizens was maybe she knew something that she wasn't supposed to know maybe she knew too much

And the only way that she would never betray him was to marry her. So then other netizens argue, well then it really depends on when they got married, the timing, that'll tell us a lot. They get married a few months after Veronica was murdered in Sweden.

Maybe she knew something that Lin never wanted to get out because the timing of that is very strange. And Lin was never someone who wanted to get married. At least it does not appear that way. Even well into his 30s, he was consistently a single playboy. I think Wang Sutong probably gets it from his uncle. Even in his 30s, Lin chooses with all that money and freedom, I'm going to go to the clubs to be surrounded by young women. You could do anything you want, but he's like, I'm going to go clubbing. And

And then he would get bored of his girlfriends, drop them, move on to the next. And then in China, in Dalian, he meets Veronica. Interestingly for work.

Lin had to take an English class where the teacher there is this Swedish woman named Veronica. She's in China teaching English whilst simultaneously learning Mandarin, and this is back then, this is not in 2024. Albeit I do still think it's insanely difficult now, but back then, it was incredibly difficult. China was not that easy to navigate for foreigners. Veronica's parents were confused.

They're like, why are you suddenly deciding to move to China? Like, why not Denmark?

Why not somewhere closer? That's like me telling my mom I'm going to move to the middle of Europe and she'd be like, why not Canada? Like what's wrong with Mexico or Canada? Like somewhere bordering us, like nearby. But Veronica would tell them, if you want to learn a language fluently, there is no better way than to go to the country. Go alone to the country. You're forced to speak the language, especially China at the time, you know, where very few people speak English. There's no better way to communicate.

There was a lot of anxiety for Veronica's family. They say, I mean, I felt a certain anxiety, but also a certain joy because Veronica was really making her own journey. She's confident, a good self-confident. She has this conviction that never fails.

but China is still very foreign to her which is why she goes to class and she's got this new student Lin she has no clue who he is or who the hell his family is and the fact that they're connected to one of the biggest companies in China people who knew both of them said she had no clue what he was doing I mean she's just out here bossing him around putting him in his place whenever he steps out of line and he seemed captivated by that intrigued that someone isn't walking on eggshells around him

And within six months, Veronica is sitting in front of Lynn's dad explaining how they are pregnant. Allegedly, Lynn tried to pay Veronica to terminate, but she refused. I mean, perhaps in need of advice, the two of them, they go to Lynn's dad, who was a higher up in the government, who tells them, keep the child. Why? Because I'm very excited to have a mixed race grandchild.

This is so crazy, allegedly. But according to Lynn, he denies that. He says, no, no, no, we didn't have to do all of that. Veronica called me, said that she was pregnant, and I decided to take responsibility. He said, that's why we got married so rushed. For Veronica and the child, and for my own sake, I decided to go to Sweden immediately, get married in the town hall.

I think the way he explains the relationship to others is pretty telling. For example, Lin describes it like a shotgun wedding. She's pregnant, have to take responsibility, end of story, that's what happened. Whereas Veronica would write to her friends, "I have met the most wonderful man on this earth. He is handsome, nice, humorous, wonderful, fantastic, Chinese, exciting, different."

her friend said that she saw it like a real marriage. i mean to describe their relationship, she's so invested. like there were these naturally very giggly feelings. they said there's a certain uncertainty, you know? does he like me? does he like somebody else? is he in love with me? what is he doing right now? why doesn't he respond to me? all of those things. veronica was feeling it. and if lynn did not feel that with veronica, veronica's family had no clue. he came to sweden and the first time he makes a first impression,

They like him. Veronica's sister remembers him rolling up with this giant bedazzled Rolex on his wrist with diamonds. She says, I think he wanted to show us that he was wise, like he had his life together because he was wearing a suit, a full on suit. And it was kind of off putting, but also kind of cute because at that time we were living in like the countryside and he just stuck out like a sore thumb. But I guess it's a good sign, right? Because he's trying so hard to win Veronica's family over and he cares, right?

Veronica's dad said, oh, he did not fit in here at all. He looked a bit funny, honestly. But he liked my daughter and that was enough for me. They got along well. That was enough for me.

So the two try to play house in Sweden. But like that's the problem with playing house with billionaires. They can afford multiple houses. So he's not even just into the Sweden house. He's going to China for work nonstop where he is just cheating on her in a string of different affairs. He's only coming home a few times a year to his wife and child.

He always calls ahead. He stays with the parents every single time except the last time. He didn't want Veronica to be in China? No. So I'm assuming like he kind of wanted her to be away and... Yes. And like none of the news was broken in China. Nobody knew that he had like a whole Swedish family. I see.

According to Lin, the reason that he came to Sweden around the time that Veronica was murdered, I mean, it was a whole last-minute business trip. In fact, the original plan was always to go to the UK and Italy, but he thought, "I have a few days open on my schedule. Why not pass through Sweden, visit my wife and my baby?"

He was recovering from jet lag. That's why he went to the Sheraton Hotel instead of, you know, hanging out with his in-laws. He had met with a business partner before, you know. So all of Lynn's movements could be tracked. He was indeed with a business partner around the time that Veronica went missing. And they're just going through the city being caught on different CCTV cameras. Really? Yeah. The authorities actually get to ask Lynn because they extradite him 13 years after the murder to stand trial.

Yeah, we'll get there. Yeah. He ends up standing trial for the murder later on. But it took 13 years? Yes, because immediately after Veronica was found dead, they realized that Lynn had gotten back to China. The Swedish authorities went to China, but there's no extradition treaty. And Lynn was like, I've got my lawyers. I'm not talking to you about anything.

There was no way to force him back to Sweden. Okay. So technically, one of the wealthiest members of a Chinese billionaire dynasty family was an international fugitive for decades. Okay. And kind of still is.

Keeping up with the latest trends can be a lot, but it doesn't have to be stressful. Amazon's here to help you keep up with the hottest fall trends without breaking the bank. From the fashion and beauty must-haves to decked-out home decor, Amazon's got low prices on just tons.

of items all season long. Whether you're gifting your bestie, your fam, or treating yourself, Amazon has everything you need to make this fall fit your vibe. No more stressing over where to shop. Amazon makes it easy to find everything you need in one place. Whether it's the coziest home essentials for some well-deserved me time or fun recipes and games to level up your holiday hangouts,

Amazon has it all. And don't sleep on Amazon for great prices on the latest tech, fashion, and more. Amazon's your one-stop shop for everything you need to slay the holidays from gift giving to hosting. So why wait? Start shopping now and make this holiday season totally stress-free with Amazon's deals and endless selection. Amazon, where joy meets savings all season long.

Updating your fall look? Give your smile a glow-up at Tend Dental this season. Now's the time to use your insurance benefits before they expire. Tend offers easy online booking and soothing, relaxing studios designed to put you first. A free cleaning covered by insurance? That's something to smile about. Go to hellotend.com slash dcpodcast.

That's hellotend.com slash dcpodcast to book your appointment. He says,

And as for why the relationship fell apart, he tells Swedish authorities, you know, at the time I really liked Veronica, but then I discovered some really negative things about her. She's very emotional, very impulsive, but I wasn't so sure about her feelings for me. Although we discussed the marriage plan, you know, we weren't sure. So the decision to marry initially anyway was not unanimous.

Veronica took advantage of me. If I didn't pay child support according to her demands, she wouldn't let me see my son. She took advantage of my love for Marcus to satisfy her own needs, which is a very strange thing to say considering he doesn't even make it to the birth of his son, Marcus. I mean, he's so busy cheating on his wife. So he's like never present, but I digress. Furthermore, he's not even sending much money. For Veronica and Marcus to survive comfortably, he was sending about $1,000 a month.

Which, okay, I get it. That's not no money, right? But this is, his nephew is Wang Sutong. Yeah, yeah. This guy spends double, Wang Sutong spends double that on dog food for his husky every single month. He spends like $2,000 on dog food for his husky.

And now Lin is over here sending half of that for his wife and child living in Sweden. That is nothing for Lin. In fact, it's almost insulting because even if he gave Veronica and Marcus two times that, three times that, he won't feel a single dent. But Veronica and Marcus would likely have exponentially, drastically changed lives.

And somehow he still finds a way to be demanding. He demands that with as little effort, with as little money as possible, I want Marcus for three months of the year in China without you, Veronica. Just me and Marcus.

Veronica was like, well, I do want my son to have a dad, so fine. It's a big demand, but she would let it happen until she found out that every time Marcus would go to China, Lynn would just drag him around to clubs, exposing this little infant to alcohol, letting random young girls hold the baby, watch the baby. And she's like, that's never going to happen again. So just three months prior to Veronica's death, she files for divorce. In the divorce, she demands three things. Lynn should pay the child support that is owed.

Lynn should split assets that he owned. And three, she wants full custody of Marcus. 48 hours before Veronica goes missing, Lynn emails her. Be careful of pressuring me. I love Marcus more than you do. I will go to Sweden and have a serious talk with you. Veronica responds, if you want to fight with me, that's up to you. To which Lynn responds, do not force me and bully me too much. I believe I love Marcus more than you do.

Wait, so after Veronica passed, Marcus was in Sweden or? Marcus is in Sweden. So after Veronica passed, Marcus just stayed in Sweden, never went to China? No, he stayed with his grandparents. Okay, so he didn't take Marcus away after Veronica passed? No. Okay. Because I don't think he could. Because the minute that he goes back to Sweden to try and get Marcus back, he's going to get arrested probably. Okay, I see.

48 hours after that email, Veronica is found dead, just one unit down from her family home.

And Lin technically walks free. He's back in China. And it wouldn't be until many, many years later that he changes his passport name, travels to the UK with a different name on his passport. So it's not a fake passport. It's not illegal per se, but he did change his name. Now, British authorities recognize him through facial recognition technology and promptly arrest him. You're kidding. He's wanted? Yes. 13 years later. What?

So he's been wanted the whole time. And nobody in China knew. And they literally couldn't get him. No. Until he travels aboard. Yes. Wow. So the British authorities, they extradite him to Sweden for his trial. If he hadn't by this point in the trial, his second wife is already dead. Veronica was murdered in 2003. His new wife, Lily, was murdered.

found dead in 2013 in Thailand. He gets extradited in 2014 and stands trial in Sweden. So by the point that he stands trial for his first wife's murder, both of his wives are dead. Okay. If he hadn't left China, he likely would have never even stood trial for Veronica's murder.

Now, Lin has been accused of conspiracy to commit murder by hiring a hitman to kill Veronica because the blood that was found in the Sheraton Hotel is not Lin's. And Lin has an airtight alibi and people cannot wrap their minds around the idea that Lin himself would commit the murders. It seems like he had hired somebody to do it.

So he hired someone, allegedly, this is the prosecutor's argument, that he hired someone, a hitman, to go kill Mr. Tang, bury him, then kill Veronica, then frame Mr. Tang, and that hitman came to his hotel to either clean up or tell him the job is done, provide proof, allegedly. Okay, so that blood found is not Mr. Lin. To this day, we don't know who that blood belongs to. What? They have not found a hitman in connection.

I think it's also very difficult because Swedish authorities cannot get all of his bank statements from China, likely any transfers of cash. I think that there's a huge culture and investigation clash that they're unable to access. I see. So to this day, they don't know who actually did the killing. The prosecutors do not believe that Lin was the one that was holding the knife or strangling someone. Now, Lin tells authorities that he was in Europe for business.

But that's a lie because after leaving Sweden, remember how he said he was going to go to the UK and Italy for business? He goes straight to the UK and the next thing he does is book a flight to China. He just stops by the UK. That's it. Two, Lin's last messages to Veronica prove that he has a motive to kill Veronica. Three, on the night of both Mr. Tang and Veronica's deaths, hotel employees at the Sheraton Hotel state Lin had this tall Asian man entering Lin's hotel room twice.

Prosecutors believe that that is a hitman. And four, prosecutors argue that Lin changed his name multiple times to receive documentation so he could travel without being extradited to Sweden. Lin's defense argued, which side note, he had three highly compensated attorneys repping him, which is very rare in Sweden, where most defendants, they opt to be represented by public defenders. On top of that, every day in court, Lin is rolling up to the defense table with a better suit than all of his high-powered attorneys.

They argue, first of all, lying to the authorities about your business plans is hardly evidence of intent to commit a double homicide. Besides, he could have just had a change of plans. Second, he has a solid alibi and that tall Asian man that came to his hotel room does not prove anything. That feels a little racist. The

The courts were unable to find that man. Any transaction that would indicate that Lin hired a hitman, they couldn't find any proof of that. So the defense claims all of this is circumstantial. Also, he changed his name frequently because in China there are provincial rules like each individual can only own a certain number of properties. So he's trying to bypass those.

those regulations. Like many other successful businessmen in China, they have 5 million different names. And all those questions that he cannot find appropriate answers to during this trial, well, that's because the murder happened so many years ago. You know, that's a very long time. He can't remember those details. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Veronica's dad said this completely changed how he saw Lynn as a person. He said, "My relationship with him changed overnight from maybe never liking him but accepting him because my daughter loved him and finding him quite nice to me and then again to really hating him. Really, I found him guilty."

That's crazy. So what did the juror do?

This juror went on to tweet about Lin, sharing articles about Lin directly, talking about how Lin was evading arrest by changing his name multiple times. He would tweet something along the lines of several different identities. But hey, what do I know? That is like the most reckless thing a juror can do. But naturally, it gets worse. The same juror posted pictures on Facebook of Hitler.

Lin's attorneys argue, Lin believes that the image on the juror's Facebook profile suggests that during the trial, the juror intended to publicly align himself with the values historically associated with those in the photo. Hitler was namely racist, xenophobic, and that is particularly concerning given that the juror was handling a case involving Lin, an Asian defendant on matters that touch upon these issues. Ultimately, the court upholds Lin's objection and the case is thrown out.

Just like that? Just like that. What? Since Lin is technically acquitted for his charges, he is released on the spot. He goes straight from the courthouse directly to the airport, boards a plane, and heads back to China. Where again, there are no extradition treaties.

The authorities were really shocked too because yes, one juror is bad, but still. They say, when you look at the crime, you understand how big the planning must have been for this. He's going to need an alibi. He's going to need someone else to carry it out, a hitman. There's so much planning involved. Veronica's sister said, it was not an impulsive action. This was very well planned. And now he's just going to be free? Even though he's a bad person?

Not only that, but Lin is also entitled to financial compensation. He will be paid $400,000 in taxpayer money from Sweden for his legal fees because he was acquitted. He actually requested $800,000 but was awarded over $400,000, which is still unbelievable.

Technically, I guess one could say that Lin, one of the most high-profile businessmen in China, linked to a billionaire family, is an international fugitive because Sweden, they want to retry him. When he was released and headed back to China, Veronica's dad said, "I became weak. I was angry at my own incompetence. I couldn't do anything. It's very hard to explain. I was angry at myself. I was angry at the whole world."

In China, the online post from 2014 from the alleged member of Lily's family has been deleted, and most of the reposting and commenting forms have been wiped, if you will. There's barely any information on Uncle Bluebeard, or Veronica, or Lily for that matter. It wasn't until this year that things started gaining traction again, because Lin has been questioned by Chinese authorities, who have stated that they are investigating him for a homicide.

One of the homicides? Yes. It seems like it's Veronica's. Really? So we don't know if China is going to extradite him, even though there is no extradition treaty. We don't know if he's going to be tried in China. We don't know if they're going to investigate Lily's death. So we don't know.

Many netizens do believe that the Wang family are using money to suppress the conversation around this case, though. They've noticed that just six months after... Oh, this is also crazy. Just six months after Lily's death, Wang Sutong brought a group of influencers to the exact villa in Thailand for a party. But even when people post about that, it gets taken down. You're talking about the Lotus 3 resort? Yes. They're like, hey, did you know Wang Sutong was there six months after his aunt died in the pool?

And it just gets taken down. People are like, ooh, let's just not talk about this. Shady. Mm-hmm.

So earlier you mentioned Marcus, the son, right? He was writing a letter to his dad? Yes. So Marcus was told that both of his parents died in a car accident. When he turns eight, he discovers that cassette tape. He does not tell his grandparents. In fact, it's not until years later when he's in his teenage years that his grandparents sit him down to tell him the truth. And he tells them, I already knew.

So then he tries to process these emotions once again. And recently in his 20s, he's worked on a documentary in Sweden called Veronica Lin and the Chinese Millionaire, where he is just...

This is how he describes it. Marcus says he's confused. He said for so long he just tried to deny half of his life his Chinese side, but now he just wants answers. He's hired a Chinese researcher to help him track down his dad in China. He's learning Mandarin. So once he reunites with him, he can ask him all the questions he wants. And he said the whole thing was just shocking.

You know, it turns out that Lin is not even behind the scenes in his companies in China. He's invested into multiple large pharmaceutical companies. He does seminars where he teaches others on how to do what he's done. Marcus says, I was a little surprised. I thought he would have had a bit of a lower profile and not be in the picture. But because of the whole trial and the fact that he was internationally wanted, we were able to get a phone number that was connected to Lin. And so he reaches out.

He calls that phone number. Someone picks up. Hi, can I speak with Lin Yu? I think you have the wrong number, sorry. But it sounded exactly like Lin. Does Lin... Okay, if it was Lin, does Lin know this is Marcus? Yeah, he said this is Marcus. Wow, that's...

Marcus says, I am relatively certain that it was my father that we got in touch with. The fact that he doesn't want to have any conversation at all but just denied that it was him is of course a little sad. But it was very shocking and maybe he just wasn't ready to take the call.

Marcus says, you know, you can say what you want about my father. I myself know that the world is not black or white. You don't choose who you have as a father. You don't choose who you have as a son. But you still want to hear from that person's perspective and try to understand that person.

So it seems like he just wants closure, answers, something. Now, as for Veronica's dad, he says, I feel differently. You know, every single month I write down the number of days that has passed since Veronica has left. Every month I write down how many days have passed. I still have this fantasy where I retire and I travel to China and I kill Lin. I probably never will, but I could and I almost want to.

Because I have to vent my feelings of hatred towards him somehow. When they take your child away from you, there is probably no end to the nasty thoughts you can have. And one can imagine that there's three separate families out there feeling this way. Again, not stating that Lin is guilty. He's been legally acquitted as of right now. But Mr. Tang, Veronica, Lily's families, they're all left without answers. And Lin is somewhat still free, rich, and with a daughter.

Marcus's half-sister. From another wife? Yeah. Oh, he's remarried a third time? I believe so. In China? In China. Wow. And that is the story of Wang Sutong's uncle, the Bluebeard of China. There's really no answers.

That's crazy. So he's around. He's in China. He's free. Chinese authorities have stated that they are investigating him. They're kind of wishy-washy. It doesn't seem like they've detained him. But it seems like we don't know. I mean, China's pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this. So that's where we're at. And Marcus is just... In Sweden, he just wants answers. I think maybe the older he gets, the more he just wants to know. Mm-hmm.

And he's technically Wang Sutong's cousin? Yes. Wow, that's crazy. And he saw videos of Wang Sutong and he said it's so weird to think that that's my cousin. Yeah.

And so many people in China don't even know that Wang Zitong has a Swedish cousin. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that is potentially maybe the next plot of White Lotus 3. We don't know. Maybe there are other mysteries to be explored, or maybe it's completely fictional, but it should be interesting to see. What are your thoughts? What do you think happened? And what do you think is going to happen to Lin now? Let me know in the comments and be safe. And I'll see you in the next one.