Today’s episode is another case connected to Asian true crime outside of Asia. This case takes us to New Haven, Connecticut, and to one of the most prestigious universities in the world: Yale University. But this story is not about privilege, achievement, or academic success, although Annie Le had all of those things ahead of her. This is a story about a young woman at the beginning of a bright future, a doctoral student, a daughter, a fiancée, and someone just days away from her wedding.

On September 8, 2009, 24-year-old Annie Marie Thu Le walked into a Yale research building where she worked as a graduate student in pharmacology. She was seen entering the building, but she never came back out. At first, there was confusion. Then there was fear. Her belongings were later found, including her phone, purse, credit cards, and money , which made it clear that Annie had not simply walked away.

For days, police, Yale officials, family, friends, and the public searched for answers. And then, on September 13, the day Annie was supposed to marry the man she loved, her body was found hidden inside the very building where she had last been seen.

This is the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American man who was just 21 years old when he was accused of murdering a Chinese American gang leader in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

He was convicted and sent to prison for a crime he insisted he did not commit. But while behind bars, his life became even more complicated, and he eventually found himself on death row.

What followed was extraordinary. Chol Soo Lee’s case sparked one of the first major pan-Asian American justice movements in the United States, bringing together students, journalists, activists, lawyers, churches, and immigrant communities who all rallied behind one demand: Free Chol Soo Lee.

But this is not a simple story of freedom and triumph. It is also a story about trauma, survival, and what happens to a person after the world turns them into a symbol.

Today’s case takes us to Brisbane, Australia, where a young Indonesian woman named Mayang Prasetyo’s death made headlines in 2014.

Mayang’s remains were found in stockpots and a washing machine inside her apartment that she shared with her partner on 4th October 2014. Many reports focused on the horror of what was found inside the apartment, but in doing so, they forgot the person at the centre of the story.

Mayang was 27 years old. She was living far from home, trying to build a life, and like so many victims whose identities don’t fit neatly into what society finds respectable, she was not always treated with dignity after her death.

This episode is not just about a murder. It is about intimate partner violence, migrant vulnerability, transphobia, sex work stigma, and the damage done when the media turns a victim into a headline.