USA Unsolved 22 (HI) - Jie Zhao Li

Jessica (0:00)

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Unsolved Episode 22 This will be the first time we leave continental US on these Unsolved episodes and head off to Hawaii, the Aloha State. It's not the first time we discuss cases in Hawaii. If you remember Episode 122 where we looked into the unsolved murder of Diane Suzuki. Demographics wise, Asians make up around 36% of the population, and nearly a quarter of the population are of mixed race. I have a few other cases in Hawaii lined up. So in due time, we will learn more about these unsolved cases. Today, we will be going back to the 1980s, where Hawaii went through some fluctuating crime rates. This case also took place only a few years after Diane Suzuki's case. The difference? Li Jie-Zhao was only 12 and was never seen again, and she remains missing to this day. What happened to her? Did someone take her? And could she still be alive? Let's begin.

The Li family is originally from China. Jie Zhao was the second child born on April 10th, 1975 with an older sister and a younger sister. The issue with the family was that all three daughters were born during the one child policy, so you could imagine having three kids is kind of against the law. While this is true in a general sense, I do recall telling you guys before this that the policy is not always enforced. It could potentially depend on where you live, if the rules were more flexible for whatever reason, and I've also heard that it is possible to pay the government to keep all your additional children. I remember asking a friend I made in China about this, as she was born in the 80s, and she herself had two other siblings around her age. So it is possible. But in the case for the Li family, it seemed that they were very wary of the government, keeping track of all their three kids. It was to the point that the parents basically kept their two younger kids hidden away. And in the meantime, they planned their immigration path to the United States. Their plans eventually panned out around 1987, and the Li family, all five of them, moved to Honolulu.

The family lived in an apartment on Nuanu Avenue, and Jie Zhao began attending Royal Elementary School, which is about a 15-minute walk from her house. The family got along very well. They were working on adjusting to a new life, a new country, a new language, and a new environment. It seems as if Jie Zhao was fitting in quite well, as around February, her school was preparing to send the students on a trip to the Big Island, and she joined her classmates for a fundraiser event. The school provided the children with tickets for Zippy's, which is a casual restaurant chain in Hawaii that serves American, Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian food. They're apparently very famous for their chili. With these tickets, the children would take their share and sell them to anyone, and with that money, they would fund their trip. Some chose to go door to door knocking and trying their luck, while others, like Jie Zhao, decided to stand by a store and approach store goers.

The day was February 11, 1988

Jie Zhao finished school and got permission from her mother to go to the nearby 7-Eleven to sell her tickets. Her mother reminded her to be careful and to be back by 6 p.m., even giving her a wrist watch so she could keep track of the time. So off she went, and she basically just stood outside the 7-Eleven, approaching customers going in and out, asking if they were interested in buying tickets for zippies. Her mother in the meantime was at home, expecting her daughter home at around 6 p.m. But 6 p.m. came and went, and her daughter was nowhere to be seen. It was unlike Jie Zhao to not adhere to an agreed time, as she was known to be very responsible and obedient.

So when she did not show up, her mother immediately went out looking for her. The police were eventually called. People searched and asked witnesses if they had seen Jie Zhao. A few people were able to verify that they did see her outside the 7-Eleven late in the afternoon, mainly approaching people getting in and out of their cars. It was also believed that she may have gotten into a vehicle with someone, and the car model was said to have been a Chevrolet sedan, either a 1955, 56, or 57 model.

At this point, the Li family was in full-blown panic mode. Their daughter was missing, very likely at this point, abducted by perhaps a stranger, and foul play was believed to have taken place. Over the next few days, police officers and various volunteers participated in the search for the 12-year-old. And despite thousands of man-hours put into the search, the police came up empty-handed. They did come up with a rough sketch of a suspect slash person of interest, but that led nowhere. One of their persons of interest, though, was a mentally ill man who frequented the 7-Eleven. Per the detective in charge of this case at the time, quote, He would tell us on several occasions, I'll show you where she is, or I'll show you where she's buried, unquote. Well, they knew he was mentally unwell. They still wanted to make sure and cover their bases. So they searched extensively the areas he mentioned. But in the end, they still came up with nothing.