Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Okay, quick, quick, before we jump into things, if you are listening on audio and can give us a five-star review, nothing less,
That would be greatly appreciated. And if you are watching on YouTube, you have a couple more steps. You need to subscribe to the show. You need to turn on notifications and you have to leave a comment. I don't make the rules here, you guys. I am just the message deliverer. So don't blame me. I support this 100%. Well, January is over. We're already in February. And next thing you know, it's going to be 2026. The month of love.
It is. It's true. Valentine's Day is coming up. I used to always call it Valentine's Day coming up. You still do sometimes. Debatable. Very debatable. I will win the debate. Yeah, we hope everyone's having a good week. We've kind of just been hanging out. Nothing too crazy. I've just been relaxing. I can finally start exercising and going to the gym and playing sports again.
So I'm excited for that. Oh, I will say we got a couple of comments, I think, just to clarify. So the way a hair transplant works is they took the back of Garrett's hair and implanted it into the front. So what you're seeing now is not the hair transplant. That won't be around for like at least another. I mean, you're seeing the hair transplant. But yeah, what Penny's trying to say is it's going to take like six months for those new hairs to...
To then become good hairs. Yeah. And so a couple of people were like, I liked your old hair. I'm like, oh, it's not. Well, actually, it's supposed to just look like his old hair, but a little better, too. Yeah. Super Bowl this weekend. Oh, we've got that coming up and I'm torn. I don't like the Chiefs. This is so weird. I can remember old episodes talking about old Super Bowls. I know. I feel like we talk about it every year.
Kinda. Yeah. Who's playing? The Chiefs versus the Eagles. I don't like the Chiefs, but can't deny the fact that if they did win three in a row. Is it the Eagles? That's amazing. The old Kelsey brother used to be on there? Correct. What? Yeah. They're good. They're a great team. I mean. Oh, wow. So I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. I don't know how many people even care, but that's what we'll be doing this weekend. We're just going to kind of chill. Actually.
I just realized this episode comes out after the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. Who won? So it depends who won. We might take stands. I don't know who won.
honestly i'm pretty indifferent this year i don't know if i really care i think that's all i got for you guys i'm sorry honestly sitting inside it's driving me insane i can't do it i can't sit inside anymore can't not move my body anymore but i can finally start doing that here so i'm excited to get back in action i'm going a little stir crazy in my house maybe some people like doing that but i just i can't
It's been almost three weeks of me just sitting inside, twiddling my thumbs and hanging out with my wife. Hanging out. All right. Our sources for this episode are A&E TV, Columbia Tribune.com, South China Morning Post, CBS News.com, Columbia Family Law Group, AP News.com, Columbia Missourian.com, KRCJTV.com and Komu.com. Okay, Garrett.
Give the listeners the quickest version of our proposal day that you can. Go. What? Just tell them how you proposed to me. Part of the story? Yeah. Let me think. There's a cabin up in the mountains that they set up that has a fire pit. And I put a bunch of roses and flowers around it. And then we went up in the middle of the day, around 2, and Peyton and I were both already dressed up. I brought her over.
I led her by the roses and one of our friends was in the bushes with the camera taking pictures and I proposed to you. That quick enough? That was great. I mean, you could have taken as long as you want. I just know you don't love telling a long story. Oh, you said quick. I could have done more detail, but you said quick. So I thought the point of it was like, give me a count ASAP. Let's go. No, I was just wanting you to tell them because I think getting proposed to is a very like surreal day for me. Was it surreal for you to propose? Yeah.
Oh, for sure. Like it's definitely one of those days that like doesn't feel real while you're living. It was pretty, even though I knew Peyton was going to say yes.
I guess still, I was still really nervous. Right. Even though we had been talking about it. So I think it is safe to say that it can be one of the best days of your life, whether the spot is in your parents' backyard or some scenic hike or below. Which that's where it was. It was in my parents' backyard. Or below the Eiffel Tower. It can be one of the most special, maybe important places in your life story where you get proposed to because it's the starting point for the rest of your life.
What no one ever imagines, though, in that glowing, happy moment where they say yes, is that this will also be the place where they end up buried after being viciously murdered. And that is what happens in the case today.
So our story today actually begins overseas in a city in central China known as Xi'an. And that's where Meng Shijie is born in 1991. Now, at the time, the nation was still enforcing their one child policy.
And so Mung-Shee's parents poured everything into their little girl because it was the only child they were allowed to have. And within the first few years of Mung-Shee's life, it was clear she stood out. She was someone special. Not only was Mung-Shee proving to be exceptionally smart, she was a great artist, a painter and a calligrapher to be exact. Skills she started perfecting at the age of five.
So in elementary school, Meng Shi even began learning English. And by the time she was a teenager, she was also taking on photography. She had started singing and was playing a traditional Chinese instrument called the Arhu. So needless to say, Meng Shi proved she could do it all before she had even graduated high school.
And when the time came for her to choose her next steps, she actually decided to fly the nest to get her bachelor's degree in engineering at the East China University of Science and Technology. But that meant a 14-hour drive whenever she wanted to go back and see her parents. So leaving college, she ends up being...
Quite a ways away from home. So despite this, Mung-Shee's parents embraced all of her dreams, no matter where in the world they were going to take her. So when Mung-Shee was accepted to a student exchange program at the University of Missouri, she took the bull by the horns with her parents' full love and support behind her.
By December of 2014, the now 23-year-old Mengshi had earned her master's degree in mechanical aerospace engineering. The following year, fresh out of college, Mengshi landed a job working as a supervisor at a company called Nenova, which makes high-tech biomaterials mainly for dental products.
It was there that Mungshe was told she would be managing an all-American boy from Kansas City, Missouri, and his name was Joseph Elledge.
Like Mung-Shi, the 20-year-old Joseph also attended the University of Missouri for engineering, but it seems the two didn't officially meet until that job at Nanova in September of 2015. And even then, it took a little while for a work relationship to turn into a friendship.
and then to turn into a full-on romantic relationship. But in January of 2016, these coworkers, Joe and Mengshi, went on their first date. In China?
In Missouri. Oh, sorry. She's already come over and she's in Missouri. So things seemed to go well for the couple over the next year because in the summer of 2017, Mengshi asked Joe if he would come with her to visit her parents back in China. And Joe says yes, but he also has his own motivations for coming along. He wanted to ask Mengshi's parents for her hand in marriage and
And apparently, Joe really won them over on that trip because they gave him their blessing. So when they returned back to Missouri, Joe and Mung-Shee went for a hike in Rockbridge Memorial State Park in Missouri on September 8th of 2017. And that day on this hike in this park, Joe got down on one knee and asked Mung-Shee to marry him.
And Mung-Shi said yes. They wasted no time. 14 days later. Whoa, did they get hitched or what happened? The two were married. Like in Vegas or something? Some people who knew the couple believed that this 14-day engagement was
was because Mung-Shi's visa was about to expire. Oh, so 90-day fiance. And that the marriage would help her secure a green card easier. So if they're going to get married and they can make this process easier, why not just get married in 14 days? Okay. This is important to Mung-Shi because about five months after tying the knot, she was offered a fancy new job opportunity. And while I don't know the details, I know it was something Mung-Shi was really excited about.
And Joe apparently was too, because he had since quit his job at Nenova, where they met, to go back to school. So because Joe is going back to school, Mung-Shi ends up being the sole breadwinner of this newly wedded couple. But life had other plans for Mung-Shi and Joe. Just as she was about to accept the new position, Mung-Shi learned she was pregnant.
So now the tables would have to turn. Mengshi wanted to stay home and be a full-time mom, which meant Joe would have to find a way to juggle school and work to support his growing family. This is something that definitely put pressure on their marriage, especially when their daughter, Anna, arrived in October 2018. So the issues in their marriage actually started with small cultural differences.
And it was actually mainly due to communication. Joe often tried to describe his feelings and frustrations with metaphors that Mung-Shi had a hard time understanding. The way the two expressed themselves was entirely different due to their radically opposite upbringings. And when Mung-Shi's parents came to stay and help out with their new baby, they
Joe began to feel outnumbered. In fact, he also claimed he felt blindsided. It is actually traditional in Chinese cultures for the grandparents to come say and help out the parents for 100 days after a new baby arrives. But Joe said he had no idea Mung-Shi's parents would be living with the couple until the day that they arrived at their doorstep to come help.
And Mengshi and Zhou disagreed on a lot of different things when it came to how to raise their daughter. Plus, Zhou would often get frustrated when Mengshi talked to her parents in Mandarin because he hardly spoke any of the language.
Joe soon found himself fighting with Mung-Shi and her parents over what he said was their imposing nature. And inevitably, both of Mung-Shi's parents actually left early over the tensions that had escalated in the home.
That, along with their dwindling finances, it's safe to say definitely drove a wedge between the young couple. And come the summer of 2019, they were spending more time apart. Joe had gotten an internship at a furniture manufacturing company in the city of Carthage, about a four hours drive from Columbia, Missouri, where Munchie and Anna were living.
which meant he would be in Carthage during the week. And that also meant Joe had to get a second place to stay. Now the family wasn't just struggling to maintain one household, they were paying for two. And when Joe was back home with Anna and Mung-Shi in Columbia, let's just say the space they were taking didn't seem to help much. Mung-Shi was often on her phone or worrying about Anna, giving less and less of her attention to Joe.
So it was clear the two had just kind of grown apart at this point. But the 23-year-old Joe said he still tried to maintain the intimacy with 28-year-old Mung-Shi, particularly on the night of October 8th, 2019.
So that evening, Joe is home and he claimed that after they put Anna to bed, he tried to give Mung-Shi a massage, hoping it would lead to some intimacy between the two of them. But Mung-Shi rejected him. She told him she had plans early the next morning. She didn't want to miss out on sleep. It was already almost 11 p.m. Yo, I need to tell you something. Never mind. Go ahead.
You know, can't just force yourself in there, man. You got to be nice throughout the week. You got to be nice throughout the day. There's other shiz involved. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It ain't just like, hey, I'm going to give you a massage and we're going to do the deed. Yep. A little bit more than that. Good advice, Gary. Thanks, everyone. Just in case anyone was curious and needed some advice on how to get the bedroom going on. As we like to say...
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So it's almost 11 p.m. Joe said he went to sleep that night with Mung-Shi by his side. But when he woke up the next morning, according to him, Mung-Shi was already gone. Now, even though Joe still hasn't heard from Mung-Shi by the afternoon, he doesn't sound the alarm bells. But Mung-Shi's parents do. They speak to their daughter every single day. And the fact that they haven't heard from her by the evening of October 9th is worrisome.
But they don't seem to call Joe. I mean, why would they? They don't have the best relationship with this guy. They're not even sure if he's at the house. So instead, they call one of Mengshi's friends who lives nearby and they ask them to go over to the house and check on her. And apparently when the friend gets there, Joe is like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. She's not here.
So again, he does not seem too worried that his wife just up and left days after his daughter's one year birthday that she's been missing all day and no one's heard from her. So crazy to me that there's, there's literally just people out there like this. So by the following day, October 10th, an entire, he hasn't seen her since the morning before he lets the entire night go by.
Joe finally does something about it. He doesn't call the police, though. He doesn't call 911. He calls 311. This is the non-emergency line where he files a missing persons report. But it doesn't take long for police to show up at their house anyways, because if someone is missing, that actually is an emergency. And here's what Joe tells them.
On the morning of the 9th, he woke up to find Meng Shi no longer in bed next to him. She was gone. But when he got up, he noticed that she had left behind her car keys, her cell phone, and her wallet. And perhaps the most alarming, she had left her one-year-old daughter, Anna, also at the house. Now, right then and there. Oh. That's raising red flags with police because why wouldn't you have called in her disappearance right away? Also...
She's not in her car. Majority of moms who are going to have a small child like that and are obviously already attached to that child. They're just not going to leave. They're not going to leave the kid. They're also just not going to leave their wallet and everything at home. This is stupid.
So they're like, okay, why didn't you call us right then and there when you woke up and she was gone, but everything was still home. They're like, was there some kind of fight? Is that why you weren't alarmed? And he's like, no, the last fight they had had was a week ago and it really wasn't even a big deal. But Joe says, I didn't call because there's one thing I'm suspicious of. And that's that he thinks there is another man in Munchie's life.
He shows the police Mengshi's phone and her computer along with texts she had sent to someone using a Chinese-based messaging app, most of which were sexually explicit and inferred some sort of emotional relationship. Now we have motive. Might have been going on between the two of them.
So he's like, this is why I'm not that worried because she's probably just with him. Joe then shares with police that he and Mung-Shi have separate bank accounts. So it would be kind of easy for her to take off, start a new life with someone else without him really being aware of it.
So Joe is then brought down to the police station to put his statement on record. He shows up without a lawyer and offers up pretty much the same details that he did back at the house. But he does add in a few new details, details that definitely raise some eyebrows around the station, like the situation that's a little weird, but maybe there's motive just starts to get a little weirder.
For example, Joe says in the hours after his wife went missing, he wakes up, he notices his wife is missing. He takes his one-year-old daughter, Anna, and he puts her in the car and he goes for a long drive through remote parts of mid Missouri looking for new hiking trails. Okay. So when police ask him,
Okay, did you lock your doors to your house when you left? He says yes. Well, that tells them, okay, he obviously wasn't expecting his wife to come back home because she doesn't have her keys. So how would she have gotten in the house if he wasn't there? It's so crazy the little things that can trip you up. Right? And I think that this is a major red flag when a wife goes missing and a husband is... Nonchalant. Well, home and also...
saying i mean okay josh powell did the same exact thing right his wife goes missing and in the middle of the night he puts his kids in the car and goes for a camping trip where there's no service in the middle of nowhere all day long and then comes home and goes oh yeah i guess my wife is missing but i was camping and who takes their one-year-old no one's gonna take their one year old for that well i mean
Joe says he was going for a drive, but Josh had two little kids camping in a snowstorm. No, he was dumping the body. That's insane, dude. And I just think why, I mean, Joe's like admitting that he was in remote parts of Missouri where he could easily hide a body. It's just a very big red flag.
And the whole thing just gets even weirder when later that day, Joe agrees to an interview with a local news channel. So again, another red flag that we see among fathers who kill children
their wives and the mother of their children. So he goes before cameras to say he wants his wife returned home soon for the sake of their one-year-old daughter. He also implies on air that she very well may have run off with another man and that he quote, Yeah, I just hope that she's safe. I hope that she's at least with somebody who cares for her, you know, enough to keep her safe. So it's just like,
Not the way you would expect a husband to talk about a missing wife to like air the dirty laundry to imply that maybe the person she ran off with might kill her. I feel like at this point, it's pretty obvious to cops or detectives what's going on, especially honestly.
The fact that she was talking to another man just gives way more motive for him to be like, hey, I'm going to kill you. Yeah. Like if he found the messages that night. Yeah, he found the messages. Like, yeah, 100%. So there's also more things that he said during this interview that detectives keyed in on. Most specifically, the fact that Joe...
refers to her in the past tense more than once during that press conference again we know this is like an obvious sign when people are lying about someone being alive they will refer to them as the last time they saw them which was dead so she was instead of she is that type of thing but yeah she i guess she was just always kind of reserved person and um
Sometimes she didn't talk to me a lot about what was going on in her life. So the police at this point do not have a good feeling about Joe, to say the least. But right now, there's nothing really to indicate foul play. Sure, Mung-Shee has been missing for about 48 hours. There's no blood, no weapon, no witnesses, no body.
We are back to Josh Powell, the case. So now they start looking for a trail. If Meng Shi really did go back to China to be with this man, they are going to follow that lead. There would have to be some sign of that. So a plane ticket, an Uber, money deducted from her personal account. But when they look into it, there's none of it, which is why police have no choice but to drop that theory and zoom in further on Joe and Meng Shi's past, their relationship.
So as we already know, things were not looking good for the couple's marriage. They were growing apart. Mengxu was possibly seeing someone else. But police found evidence that it wasn't just fights about money and parenting that drove a wedge between the couple. When Joe willingly handed over his phone as evidence, police found 10 hours worth of recorded conversations between
Between. Mung-shi. And Joe. On Joe's phone. Holy crap. So he was secretly recording their conversations. Ten hours. And guess what? They found. Four more hours. Of recorded conversation. On Mung-shi's phone. Oh so they were both recording. As well.
This is just like a bad sign for a marriage. Oh, wow. When Joe was asked why they kept these recordings of their conversations, he actually says it was a way to better help them communicate so they could listen back after they fought and cooled off to see how they spoke to each other, maybe improve on their relationship, which like,
I guess it's not that dumb if you want to record a fight and then give it to your therapist and be like, here's a look in. But if you are doing it in a marriage, it almost just feels like more. It just feels like it's at a spite. Right. Like just ammo. Yeah. Look how you said this while we were fighting type thing. So let me just preface this by saying the conversations that are recorded are
Do not look good for Joe. So it is a little weird. He's recording them. The first recording happened back in late October, 2018. This was right after Anna was born and Mung. She's parents came to help out one evening. Mung. She's mother was making them dumplings for dinner, but Joe didn't like, I loved what's that. What's that really popular place that makes dumplings. I've been there once always busy. Um,
Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That place is so good. I do feel like we're sounding quite uncultured right now, but neither I nor Garrett have been. No, they have like the best dumplings in all of the world. Oh, that's. No, but I know they're really, they're honestly really popular. If anyone's been there, they know what I'm talking about. I actually have never been. It's really good. I mean, it's a chain, so I'm sure there's way better like mom and pop shops and restaurants
More populated areas that... Everyone, Garrett was joking about that being the best dumplings in the world. No, they're good. Yes, but people are going to correct you. Okay, no, they're not the best world. I'm just saying. I know. I was saying he was being sarcastic. I'm also not extremely cultured with... I do like Asian food. I'm not extremely cultured with Asian food. Well, that's what I was saying is we haven't... We've never really had the opportunity to go visit. So if anyone wants to invite me to their house to have Asian food, I will come. Okay. So these conversations aren't looking good for him, okay? She is...
Her mother is making dumplings and Joe does not like the way that she's using their cutting board. It seems that he pulled Mung-Shi aside and started screaming at her. And this is something that Mung-Shi caught on her phone. In the audio, you can hear him telling her there are going to be problems if she lets her parents stay.
And when Mung-Shi tells him that he isn't a god and doesn't get to call the shots, he snaps back saying he is a god and that Mung-Shi is brainless and incapable because she's a woman. Oh, kill Joe. Oh, okay. Okay. And these recordings of Joe's blatant emotional abuse and attempts to control Mung-Shi are
They go on and on as police discover in them. Joe says everything from threatening to physically kick Mung. She's mother. If she ever steps foot in their house again, what is wrong with people to Joe threatening to get Mung. She deported to Joe. Then saying that Mung. She abuses him. It's a lot of yelling. It's a lot of nonsense. It's a lot of toxicity. A lot of gaslighting, honestly, on Joe's part is what police find to,
To the point where Mung-Shi actually says in one of these recordings, you are brainwashing me. So she knows, like she's aware that like she's stuck. But there's one statement from Joe that really sets off alarm bells for investigators during one of these conversations. It's when Joe tells Mung-Shi and quote, you think you are so empowered because of this society. Well, don't forget that nature exists and you're still just a woman.
So basically saying men are stronger than women. You think because of the day and age we have where women have all these rights and power. Which is so ironic because she was making more money than him. Yeah. Like when they met and he was just, he had an internship somewhere. Like not that that,
matters but it's just like his idea he's acting like he's yes like a billionaire and she's some nobody yeah you know what i'm saying even i mean obviously even that's not okay but do you see where i'm coming from right like it's ridiculous it's when like it's the idea of him touting that he is a man which makes him correct amazing when like there's no hard facts to back it up type thing is what you're saying exactly exactly
Yeah, I get that. So he brings up this nature concept again later to Mung-Shi too. Basically survival of the fittest. This time he says, quote, You know how I conquer nature? I kill it. I grab its head and break its neck. That's how you conquer nature. And he's saying nature, right?
But he's referring to it in the context of like survival of the fittest as in like I'm a man and you're a woman. So technically she's nature. This is so embarrassing. Yes. He is very. This is so weird. He is very much like. This is. Alpha. This is cringing me out a little bit. So to police, this sounds like a blatant threat. Like listening to these fights are like this guy is blatantly threatening her life. Like saying I am stronger than you and could kill you. Basically. No two ways about it.
At one point, things get so intense between the couple that Mung-Shee actually called Jo's mother, Jean, to come over and try to talk to her son. Sensing her urgency, her mother-in-law made the two-hour drive to the couple's house that day, but to be honest, she didn't seem to help much.
By the way, that meeting was recorded as well. And while Jean says she's not taking sides, that she's just a mediator, she really doesn't do anything when her son threatens Mung-Shi right in front of his mom, asking if he should just smack her or beat her down to get her to behave the way she wants. He says that in front of his mom and the mom really doesn't say anything. So whether- What's up, mom? Whether or not- We got some problems going on here? We're a series. Well, I mean, mate, nevermind.
I was just going to say, sometimes we like to...
trauma behavior. Oh, I get what you're saying. Like maybe it's happened to her. Yes. So maybe he learned this behavior. I'm not saying I have no evidence to back that up. I'm just saying statistically we know that we do repeat trauma behavior. We like to marry our mothers or our fathers. That's just the way we work. I mean, I could see. I know what you're saying. Okay. We are getting into an ad and I'm going to be honest with you. When I wear my glasses and I post something on Instagram wearing them, I get
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But I can safely say, as with any domestically abusive partnership, whether that's physical or just verbally abusive, there's usually a big reason why someone sticks around. And oftentimes it is financial. But in Mengshi's case, it may have been because of her immigration status. Oh, yeah. 100%. Just five months after she went missing, she was supposed to have another interview to secure her green card.
So it's very possible she was waiting for that last hurdle before leaving Joe, because if she left him, she could have easily been deported.
And then what is she going to do with Anna? Does she lose custody? It's a whole thing. So while there was no concrete evidence that Joe Elledge had done anything to his wife at this point, those recordings were more than enough for police to consider him their prime suspect. About two weeks after her disappearance, the Columbia Police Department publicly stated they were opening up a criminal investigation on her disappearance and
And that same day, October 25th, 2019, police came knocking on Joe Elledge's door with a warrant, but not for Mungshi's death. This was on completely different charges. It was for child abuse. And trigger warning, I'm just very quickly going to be talking about child abuse. So if that is a trigger, just go ahead and skip.
So an anonymous source had called the police to say Mung-Shi had confided in her before her death that Joe had hit one-year-old Anna so hard, spanked her, he had left a bruise on her bottom. And a statement that was actually validated when detectives found pictures of that bruise on Mung-Shi's iPad. Wow.
So while Joe argued he was playing and maybe pinched her a little too hard, investigators knew a pinch doesn't make that large of a bruise and it rarely turns purple, blue and yellow like the one in the photo. And I just can't with that. I can't. So Joe was brought down to the station and charged with a felony for child abuse. What could a one-year-old do? Yeah.
His bond was set at $500,000. This is a price officers knew Joe couldn't afford, except this is obviously all part of their plan. With Joe behind bars, they are one step closer to nabbing him for Mengshi's disappearance.
But that wasn't all the detectives accomplished that afternoon. See, they didn't just show up at the house with just an arrest warrant for Joe. They also showed up with a search warrant for the property. So while he's in jail, they are searching his property. They find some pretty interesting stuff like Mung-Shee's passport, all of her luggage. This is a very clear indicator that Mung-Shee had not fled the country to be with someone else, as Joe had initially theorized to police.
But there was also a backpack full of notes belonging to Joe. One with the heading, what to tell the police. There was another note in this backpack that seemed like a reminder he had written to himself to quote, speak to Mung-Shi in the present tense instead of past. But yeah, I guess she was just always kind of reserved person. Wow.
This is crazy. Yes, something he had already dropped the ball on. It's almost like he had like flashcards that he was studying on how to act after. But there was one thing officers collected that at the time might not have seemed too significant, but would actually end up playing a huge role in the case later. And that was a pair of muddy hiking boots.
Now, at the same time, officers are analyzing Joe's cell phone data because remember, he told them that instead of calling the police when he woke up that morning and found his wife missing, he drove around with his daughter looking for new hiking trails. One plus one equals two. They're hoping if they can ping his cell phone, they might know where to search.
and they find that Joe visited the area along the Lamine River. This is about a 40-minute drive from their house, and he was there for about 30 minutes, according to his cell phone records, something that Joe never mentioned in his conversations with police. So naturally, they think, okay, he went to a river. It is very possible that he left Mengshi's remains there. So
So they conduct several searches of the area, from highway patrol and cadaver dogs scanning the perimeter to dive teams searching the water. But nothing turns up. Still, police know they have the right guy. Those voice recordings especially are haunting them. Same with the prosecutors who are now looking at Mengshi's case. And with Joe behind bars for child abuse, they take their chances, even though they still don't have a body.
This is rare in cases like this. Prosecutors feel confident that a court will see their side of things. So on February 19th, 2020, they file first degree murder charges against Joe. But that doesn't mean they're giving up the search for Meng Shi. Investigators still believe her final resting place has to be somewhere along that river where his phone was pinging.
So much so that Meng Shi's parents even hold a memorial for her there. Oh, that's so sad. Around March of 2020. That's so sad. But for the next year, that's how things stand. Joe and Meng Shi's daughter, Anna, stays with Meng Shi's parents until their visa is up and they have to go back to China.
And then she goes to Joe's mother's house, which I'm sure is just absolutely devastating. Oof. I don't know how I feel about that. I know people probably have a lot of different opinions, but that is so hard. That's so difficult. And I'm sure it's case by case, but I guess for me, my like, should the kid really go to the killer's parents? No. Like it. I know that's probably more than that. It doesn't mean the parents are killers, obviously so on and so forth, but I,
The other parent's daughter just died. They should probably get the granddaughter. Well, I just guess I don't understand how there's not a rule in place in immigration where if there's like a court case or something going on that is unsettled, you can't extend your visa. Not even extend it. Just give them like a five-year residency or something. Right. Because it's like they're obviously going to want to be there for the court hearings. Like they are going to want to be there.
And so if there is... Yeah, like they're here because their daughter just got killed. Murdered, is missing. In the US. Yeah, so it's like... Interesting, that's interesting. To me, I just don't quite understand how there's not some like loophole or even just... I don't know how I feel about the daughter going to Joe's parents. I'm going to... Especially after... He's the prime... He's been charged. Well, not even that. I mean, there's recordings of...
The mom obviously not doing anything while Joe's threatening her. Like that should raise red flags where it's like, eh, we probably shouldn't put that kid in that household. Right. I don't know. Just my thoughts. I'm not a parent. I don't know how hard that would be to hear your kid threatened in life. I just know like if I know personally, if one of our parents heard one of us do that, it would raise alarm bells and they would be like, absolutely not. Whoa. Right. So I don't know.
Meanwhile, Joe Elledge sits behind bars awaiting his trial while the hope of ever finding Mung-Shee's body kind of dwindles. That's until March of 2021. On the 25th, a hiker named Seven Roberts is strolling through a wooded area of Rockbridge Memorial State Park. Obviously, this is the same park that Mung-Shee and Joe got engaged in back in 2017.
So as he makes his way further down a path lined with juniper trees, he spots something in the dirt. It's actually a pop of color that's just standing out. So he gets closer and he sees that it's a woman's purse. The hiker uses his walking stick to poke around a little further. And then he spots a pair of sneakers. And then that's when he finds human remains lying face down in the dirt in this park.
So Stephen reported the discovery as soon as he could. And within hours, he was leading detectives to the site. Now, once they looked inside the purse, they found identifying documents belonging to Mung-Shi.
Not only that, the red, white, and blue purse and black shoes found at the scene fit the description of the items Joe said Mung-Shee had taken with her the day she disappeared. So finally, after 17 long months, Mung-Shee's body was found and the final pieces of the puzzle would soon fall into place.
But given that Meng Shi had been left to the elements for so long, there was only so much they could learn from an autopsy. One thing was clear though. Meng Shi had three broken ribs on her left side and one broken rib on her right. To the prosecution, this was clear evidence that Meng Shi had been beaten before she died. There was just one detail they needed to prove that Joe was in fact the one that caused these injuries.
And shockingly, that connection didn't come from a piece of hair or blood or even fingerprints left on Mengshi's items. It comes from a tree.
So remember how I briefly mentioned that pair of muddy hiking boots police collected from Joe and Mung-Shee's apartment the day of his arrest? Well, it turns out that caked and dried mud on those boots held everything the prosecution needed to place Joe at the scene of the crime. Forensics found 12 different types of vegetation in his boots and plants, just like people and animals,
have their own unique strands of DNA. So detectives took samples from Mung-Shee's burial site alongside Joe's boots, sent them to the Missouri Botanical Garden. There, they were analyzed by plant population geneticists. And once they were finished with their analysis, they concluded that
The juniper needles in Joe's boots came from the exact trees surrounding Mung-Shi's grave site. I didn't know you could even do that. So this is what Joe tells the jury at trial when he took the stand. He said on the night in question, October 8th, 2019, he gave Mung-Shi a massage. He tried to initiate sex.
But when he went to undress Mengshi, she stopped him. She told him she was meeting with someone the next morning, and that's when Joe confronted her about the messages he had found on her devices, the messages she had been sending to another man. Joe said he got dressed and planned to leave for the night, but when he told Mengshi he was taking Anna with him, she forcefully pushed him away.
So he pushed her back and that's when she hit her head against the kitchen cabinet. She was still conscious. He said he led Mung-Shi to the couch to rest, got Anna and left the house for 45 minutes to cool off. When he came back, he said Mung-Shi had moved herself to the bed. She was still fully dressed, but asleep. Finally, he woke up at around 5 a.m. when he heard Anna cry. But when he came back to the bedroom and checked on Mung-Shi, he realized she had died in her sleep. Oh, give me a break.
Now, I'm not sure why Joe or his defense team thought this would be convincing to the jury. There's just so many plot holes in this story. She has like five broken ribs. Also, like if you find your wife unresponsive, you would probably call 911. You wouldn't bury her. Also, keep in mind while he's burying Mung-Shi, his one-year-old daughter is alone in the car. That's some of the most messed up crap I've ever heard. For at least 30 minutes, he leaves his one-year-old daughter alone in the car to bury his wife, the mother.
Okay. The details of this case just get worse and worse and worse.
After 10 days of testimony, closing statements were made and the jury left to deliberate. And they found Joe not guilty of first degree murder, but guilty of second degree murder. They think that it was in the heat of the moment. It was a fight that turned ugly. What is wrong with juries these days, man? Last week, I mean, it's possible. The jury dropped the ball this week. The jury dropped the ball. I'm getting sick of you guys. So they recommended the judge give him 28 years in prison. This is one for every year of Mung-Chi's life. And the judge agreed.
But that wasn't it for Joe. He still had to face trial for those child abuse charges. Charges he pleaded not guilty to initially, but in February of 2022 finally changed his mind. He was then given an additional 10 years to his sentence, bringing his total time behind bars to 38 years.
As of June 2024, Joe Elledge was trying to appeal his second-degree murder conviction, stating ineffective assistance of counsel. He said the defense brought in unqualified evidence and photographs that were irrelevant to the case and also said he was called as a witness by the defense when he wished to stay silent. Really, what he wanted was a last desperate attempt to control the narrative, just like he tried to control his wife.
But in August of 2024, Joe's appeal was denied. As of this recording, he remains behind bars at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri. And that is the closing of the case. I don't know. You know, people always disappoint me. I just think, I just think Joe's a bad dude. So many bad people out there. It's crazy. And like, honestly, I,
Mung-Chi is not the only victim in this case. Like we often say her parents, but also there is a one-year-old daughter who not only was being abused or at least once that we know of also now grows up without parents and like, and has to learn all this. Yes. And like your dad killed your mother while you were sitting in the car. Like that is horrible.
actually awful it's horrible it's just completely heartless and there were so many minutes and hours that he could have changed that that he could have decided not to do that that is the case of mung shiji please keep her family in your thoughts today um you know just remember that this is more than a true crime case these are real people involved and i just want to
Maybe take today to honor that. Thank you guys so much for listening to this week's episode and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.
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