USA Unsolved 15 (MN) - Hang Lee

**Jessica** (0:00)
Welcome back to another episode of USA Unsolved, rediscovering cases of unsolved murders and missing persons of Asian descent across the United States. Today's case involves a teenager who disappeared back in the 90s. And while her whereabouts are still unknown, her case is classified as endangered missing, which is defined as, quote, a person believed to be in danger because of age, health, mental, or physical disability, in combination with environmental or weather conditions, or is believed to be unable to return to safety without assistance, unquote. While there was a suspect in the disappearance of this teenager, he was never formally charged. But that doesn't mean this person is innocent. You'll see why. Let's begin. Hang Lee was born on October 9, 1975 Her family is of Hamong and Laotian descent. And when she was still very young, her and her family arrived in the United States as refugees.
They settled down in St. Paul, Minnesota. Just to clarify, while Laos is a country in Southeast Asia, Hamong is not a country. It's essentially an Asian ethnic group, and they generally reside in Southwestern China or Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, and of course, Laos. Because she moved to the US at a very young age, she had ample time to pick up English and quickly became fluent. If you're a child of immigrant parents, you might be able to relate to Hang's experience growing up, where she and some of her siblings, the ones that were also fluent, had to help her parents with anything related to English, translating documents, translating conversations, you know the drill. A very interesting tidbit about the Lee family is that Hang Lee is one of 14 siblings. I know, that's an insane amount of children. I can only imagine how rowdy their home must have been, which makes this case extra sad, as she had so many more core family members warning her disappearance. Hang Lee was generally your average teenager. She had friends, she was a senior at her high school, and she had a part-time job. Her plan was to attend the University of Minnesota. Her main interests include reading and heavy metal music, which you'll be able to tell when you see photos of her. At the time of her disappearance, she lived with her family in the neighborhood of North End in St. Paul. But what happened to Hang Lee? On January 12, 1993, around 6 or 7 p.m., Hang left her home with a friend of hers, 18-year-old Nicky Lee, no relation to Hang Lee and her family. The two got into a car, and it appeared that there were already various other passengers in the car when it drove off. And what's even more strange is that right before Hang left her home, she told one of her younger brothers, Koa, that she was going to a job interview, and that, quote, if I don't come back, come and look for me, unquote.
As if that wasn't ominous enough, some sources have also reported that she also added an additional comment saying, quote, I don't trust Nikki, unquote. No one knew where she went at the time, but her family never saw her again. Quote, that night she never came home. I woke up to look if there were footprints, because of the fresh snow. There were no footprints, so I went to sleep. That was it, until the next day. Unquote. With that comment in mind and seeing as Hang Lee never returned home, her brother, Koa, confronted Nikki the following day at school, asking where his sister was. Nikki basically told him that she had no idea what he was talking about. Within the next few days, Hang Lee's family reported her as a missing person. Because it was the 90s, the police refused to take this report seriously, sounds like every other case we've come across, but that's just how it went at times. The police told her parents that she had most likely run away. While that is not unheard of, Hang had no reason to run away. Would someone intent on running away and starting a new life, not pack even a bag and leave behind their purse, all their clothing items, their savings, their last paycheck? Police did their obligatory rounds, asking family and friends if they knew anything about Hang Lee's disappearance. Koa, of course, told them what his sister had said, so they questioned the friend, Nikki. Nikki, for whatever reason, seemed intent on leaning into the runaway theory and told the police that she had left Nikki with some of her white friends, and in her opinion, it's likely that Nikki simply ran away with this group of friends. With this theory solidifying in the police's minds, they decided not to pursue Hang Lee's disappearance. Believe it or not, this case sat around for approximately 6 months.