when I came back uh my wife was very angry with Ashley because she peed on her diaper and she pooped on her diaper so that got my wife angry jackon please yes uh I need some help okay where you at uh 4924 Portage Street 4924 Portage yeah hey what's going on I I can't find my daughter a couple put their 5-year-old down for a nap in the back of their busy restaurant when they returned a little while later she was nowhere to be found now with no security camera footage eyewitnesses or leads of any kind investigators must find out where the little girl might have gone or who she might have gone with okay how old is she uh five just turned five stop it okay and you at angs angs yeah when's the last time you seen her uh this afternoon probably 30-year-old Mingming Chen and her husband 35-year-old leang Zhao started their day early just as they did every morning the busy couple ran a Chinese restaurant Ang's Asian Cuisine in Jackson Township Ohio they operated the restaurant 6 days a week on top of raising two little girls ages 5 and six on the morning of January 9th 2017 leang took their 6-year-old JoJo to school around 8:00 a.m. while Mingming stayed behind and got their 5-year-old Ashley Zhao ready for the day when leang returned home his wife was visibly upset with little Ashley for going to the bathroom on herself though her habit of having accidents greatly upset both her parents they couldn't afford to let the mishap interfere with the day so now running behind the pair addressed the situation quickly before loading themselves and Ashley into the car before leaving leang sent a post out to his patrons on Facebook apologizing and explaining that the restaurant would be opening later than usual giving the false excuse that his wife was sick when they get to the restaurant the pair suddenly decide to pick JoJo back up from school and bring her with them for the day one goes to retrieve their oldest daughter while the other stays to set up and keep an eye on Ashley as she lay in the back where she usually slept in the mornings once JoJo was comfortable and everything was place they proceeded to open up for the day and go on about business as usual later that afternoon 911 received this call from Ang's restaurant Jackson ther please hi yes uh I need some help okay where you at uh 4924 Portage Tre 4924 Portage yeah hey what's going on I I can't find my daughter okay how old is she uh five just turned five there go stop it okay okay and you're at angs angs yeah when's the last time you seen her uh this afternoon probably around what time uh 3 maybe 4 Haven five hours you still five what was she wearing oh okay what what was she wearing uh she's wearing a purple winter coat uh I don't know what those things are called but they're not jeans they're like um like leggings yeah yeah yeah what color were they uh grayish okay and you haven't seen her in 5 hours about yeah I I mean she was there sleeping I you know where was she sleeping at in the restaurant yeah yeah she she was sleeping there and I picked up my older daughter from school we all saw her sleeping there so and you know we went to work and you know we let her sleep we and we got busy and then uh uh after it got busy you know we started cleaning up and and then you know we open the door and she's not here hold on one second okay okay sir what's your name leang leang out okay do you have any videos or anything in there where you can see a video see if she was laying there no no no no we don't have any security camera in the uh in the restaurant we've been here for six years we never had security cameras here okay so we we saw her like all of us like my wife myself and my older daughter when we came back when I picked up my uh uh older daughter from school we saw her there sleeping okay and so was there any suspicious people that came in at all do you think she could have woke up and ran out somewhere I I have no idea I mean she was sleeping in the back it's kind of hard to say when she wasone of your employes there's only two of us just myself and my wife there's nobody else in the restaurant there's only people in the restaurant when you guys left who was there with you like who was there with your daughter when you guys left to go get your other kid from school my wife I I go pick her up myself my wife is here in the restaurant but when we came back she's here like my wife is here the restaurant's open the restaurant's always open um I usually open up uh I I pick my I drop my daughter off I'm sorry I drop my daughter off at school in the morning and then we come here to open up right now though like when you left you said you your wife and your left to go pick up your daughter from school no I didn't say that I said my wife is here all the time okay and your wife hasn't seen her either since around 4 or 5:00 okay okay um I think you okay when we pick I'm sorry what I in was myself okay when I went to pick out my daughter when we came back my myself and my daughter not my wife my wife was here the whole time we came back so your wife hasn't seen her since around the 4 or 5 o' either uh yes I me uh you without here youing she said she's not sure before we got busy uh usually we get this around 4 or 5:00 that's the best time we can you know like that's what's your um what's your what's your daughter's name Ashley Ashley okay all right my offer's outside if you want to go and meet my offer at the door okay parents gave police their version of that morning with no evidence of what could have happened to Ashley nothing of hers Left Behind no surveillance cameras to speak of and no accounts of Ashley leaving the restaurant by herself or with anyone investigators had no choice but to start their search at Ground Zero Ang's restaurant the next day an endangered child alert was issued throughout the state of Ohio that afternoon police returned to the business ready to do a thorough sweep of the property the area was taped off and officers began filing in and out of the business inspecting every nook and cranny that a small child could fit into suddenly there was a pause in the search everyone turned their attention to the area of the restaurant where the walk-in freezer resided without warning leang and Ming Ming were asked to put their hands behind their backs and handcuffs were placed on their wrist a short while later both parents are sitting in front of detectives with some serious questions to answer fortunately it didn't take much to get the truth about the previous morning's events okay yday morning um we got up we prepped JoJo for school I took JoJo to school I came back I know this doesn't sound like a big deal but she's 5 years old and she's not pot train whenever and I'll explain that a little later uh but so that got my wi angry and you know said a few things like you know you're you're just old you know you're 5 years old you still don't know how to go potty and poy and uh well she had my wife was in the room and she was outside in the living room after she pooped a potty in a diyer you know my wife knows that she had issues with potty training so she was going fine but then she took off her diaper again so that got my wife angry and uh leang appears to swallow here this is likely a product of his body kicking into fight or flight mode a symptom of which is dryness to the mucous membranes mouth and throat this physiological reaction is a sign that detective should pay close attention to what he's about to reveal next he's very possibly aware that being honest is a death sentence but it's also entirely possible that neither of them understand the true gravity of the circumstance neither he nor his wife were born in the United States in fact it was later found that Mingming had come to the United States illegally this could suggest a possible unfamiliarity with us law including due process and the rights they have concerning what information they choose to share with police you know you're 5 years old you know you still don't know how Po and my wife got angry and uh hit her head on the carpet you know two times and initially she was breathing she was still breathing B and did you did you watch did you see your wife do it yeah okay at that time what time was this usually after I drop up the 9 Nish I can't say approximately because I you know I don't look at at time oh you know my wife is banging actually sat on a carpet was 9:15 9 I guess leang has now incriminated his wife in the murder of their 5-year-old he's been extremely cooperative and open with detectives with no physical indicators that he's being dishonest or evasive Mingming on the other hand isn't as forthcoming as her husband and initially denies knowing what happened to her daughter but eventually investigators are able to coax out the truth and she begins to tell a story much like her husband's what happened how did she die just kill her and then she die did did you hit her yeah okay how did you how did you hit her how yeah you hand to do that okay so right then she wasn't breathing no no she was breathing she was breathing and you know uh I was like okay so she's still she's okay was there any blood or anything no there's no blood okay was she walking I mean no she wasn't walking walking she was breathing but she was lying down and I thought she was going to come out of it in a little bit you know so she stopped but I didn't realize she stopped I thought she was moving normally now because she was uh gasping like like it was it was I can't really remember or recall exactly what but it was a lot heavier than normal um so it sound like a snore almost okay the snoring leang describes having heard here was indeed not a sign that his daughter was okay in fact it was much the opposite what he appears to be describing are agonal respirations which can appear like the victim is gasping for air and can sound like snoring sighing or moaning it's none of these things however it's actually a bodily reflex that occurs when the brain isn't receiving oxygen agonal breathing is is not real breathing but instead a common sign that death is soon to follow so at that point she stopped I thought okay so she's breing normally now so didn't really pay attention to it and then a little later I went to you know hold her and just can feel right and I checked her heart and sto beating so I started panicking and I try to do CPR on her you know try to breath try to breathe in her mouth and F her chest compressions I don't exactly know how long I did that why know I did it for a pretty Dar long time maybe 15 minutes or a half an hour something like that and that's when we realized she's gone like I tried and you know I told my wife so kind you know I just realized it sooner that you know when she stopped breathing that snor sound she her sh stopped bleeding I mean her start her heart stopped breathing at the her heart stopped eating at that time maybe I could have start press then it would have saved her or something but I don't know I know that I didn't start directly right after cuz I thought she was breathing normally then when she was on the floor you thought she was breathing yeah when she wasn't doing that snoring down anymore I thought she was breeding normally I thought she was going to come out of it in like a in a little bit how long how long did she lay on the floor after after hitting the carpet yeah um 2 3 minutes making that sound no it was much longer than that we actually uh took her to the bathroom uh because she was vomiting we took her to the bathroom and vomit and she vomited so we B it in the toilet nausea and vomiting are common symptoms of cerebral edema or brain swelling Ashley's head was hit on the ground so hard that it likely led to cranial injury and inflammation causing death within minutes that however isn't the most disturbing part what would forever haunt detectives and the Jackson Township community is what happened after Ashley was killed I told my husband will take care of it okay so you you're telling me that you told your husband I told my husband it should be noted at this point that Mingming shows remarkably little emotion through the interrogation even referring to her deceased daughter as it instead of her language such as this is typically a demonstration of distancing behaviors or when the suspect attempts to put a subconscious barrier between themselves and their victim or crime however Ming Ming's demeanor communicates indifference rather than an attempt at distance though it's a sad thought it's highly possible that Mingming was fed up with Ashley's mistakes and at some level she's relieved to be free of the constant stress or perhaps she even feels that her young daughter deserved what she got Jo you or your wife tell each other to call 91 I told her to go pick up Jojo and I was going to stay here and call 911 why would you pick JoJo up huh why would you pick JoJo up I was going to tell her to go pick children up and I was going to call 911 why it wasn't School wasn't over that's right there wasn't early right no well this is 9:15 in the morning yeah okay does she not go full no no she goes full day I was I was going to tell my wife to go pick her up so I was going to call that and tell her that you know it was an accident so my wife want to be there so what happened um you know we talked about it and talk about lot she says that you know we're both afraid we're both afraid what's going to happen if we called okay I I wanted to stand her way so that you know I'll be there if someone get it open it'll be me and she'll be okay I kind of wish she didn't happen this way now both of us and be trouble it's strange that leang was and still is so loyal to his wife after she committed an act as traumatizing as beating their own daughter to death in front of him this could point to strong codependency issues within their relationship where Mingming is actually the dominant personality and the brains and leang is essentially the bronze what Mingming had to say next further supports this Theory I need take care everything from the restaurant I only have two hands I'm not Four Hands girl I'm two hands I don't want to do that to Ashley but you can control yourself sometimes see Mingming advises police that she takes care of everything from the restaurant which is assumed to mean that she controls most of the operations and aspects of the business this would be expected from the brains of the duo as opposed to leang who most likely dictates The More Physical aspects of the work the root of the their dependency on each other might have been Financial stability or it might have simply been the combination of their two personalities that created a pair capable of something so egregious Ming Ming later advises police that Ashley had recently stayed a considerable amount of time in China with her grandparents so in reality Ashley had essentially been raised by her grandparents until she was 4 years old so the couple could focus on running their restaurant sadly Ashley wasn't in her parents care for even even a year before she met her demise according to her this all happened as a result of her daughter's Behavior after returning to their home see Ashley apparently began acting out and having frequent accidents despite being 5 years of age and expected to be potty trained this was perhaps the greatest source of frustration for Mingming who was to put it plainly overwhelmed all right let's return to liang's explanation of what happened after he realized his daughter was dead you know after a while we decided both of us I don't know exactly who came up what but you know we should bring her to the restaurant so JoJo can see her so JoJo when you guys ask her you know I think maybe that wasn't a good idea but I wasn't thinking cly at the time so you know bring her to the restaurant so Jo can see her so that when we call Joo can say oh she she was here at the restaurant and she left the back door at the restaurant instead of you know at the house and she accidentally got killed so where were you going to where were you going to put her at the restaurant so JoJo could see her and you know at the room that she was normally in uh she sleeps in there so um Joo would see that she's sleeping there and can verify it and you know she's sick so and even if you ask her to take a polygraph I don't ask a six-year-old to pick a polygraph but a six-year-old wouldn't lie like that and so we we didn't want Joo to Li so we want Joo to see Ashley there okay so you get you take Ashley to the restaurant how how do you get Ashley from the apartment to the restaurant in a car seat did you carry her out to the car yeah did she have her jacket on yes okay what what color is your car uh it's a rental car it's like black or dark gray okay so you drove that to the to the store was there um a gentleman looking on the roof yes okay your daughter did you carry her in yes right yes they saw me okay yeah yeah there was two guys on the roof working on the roof something like that and we brought her inside and we just played her there and um we just continue our work the plan was for Jo to come home and see her there to verify that she's there and then I would HDE her up in top of the walkin freezer and then when we called the police at night JoJo verified that she was there leang has just disclosed that after Ashley was dead he carried her body to their car strapped her into her car seat as if she were still alive and drove her to the restaurant before going to pick up their oldest daughter from school and continuing a normal day of work on top of that from the time Ashley was first slammed into the ground to the point in which she threw up the couple blatantly refused to call for help that could have potentially saved her life this shows a profound and concerning level of callousness and self-motivation that isn't just unusual of a parent but of any reasonable person capable of compassion what and then I put her you know to the walk in freezer uh put her in that plastic container so so that she wouldn't stink kind of container was it it was plastic uh like U uh those bus bust busting containers for like restaurants and uh that's that's when we're were going to call the police and we were hoping that you know the police would come here look ask we didn't expect this we didn't know the procedure exactly what's going on you know we didn't know that I was going to come down here take a polygraph I was going to be ask so much questions there was going to be so many people involved if we knew that there was going to be like 100 people searching for maybe even more I don't even know I I am so sorry what what were your plans to do after after maybe we quit looking for whatever what you going to do we don't really know uh there was three things I burn burn it bury it or live in the ocean there's so many reasons why I told Randy but I told Randy but one of the reasons is Randy mentioned it and I know I you know without him telling me I know is if if let's say that I went through with this and I didn't get caught I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for I don't know how long you know it's CU there's a dead body there you know that I have to eventually get rid of and if you put it in the ocean the ti can wash it back if you bury it while animals can get at it someone will find it if you burn it there's a chance that someone's going to see you because it's going to be a big flame you're not going to do it during the day and you're going to be doing it during the night so we burning a big flame at night so we thought about all of this and honestly we W really too sure on what to do after that though leang seem slightly remorseful and the aware of the gravity of what happened ultimately the only reason he chose to be honest was to clear his own conscience and not particularly to get Justice for his daughter he shows signs of the same disconnect and lack of empathy that Mingming demonstrates during her interview though not as forwardly did you and wife both agree on on putting it there in that container we talked about places and I say this is probably the best place to do it you know um it's well ventilated the salt in it you're not going to be worried about temperature because it's cooler up there and it's up above where the panels are right yes did you take move panel did you take panel off that was already off we we keep stuff up there there's like our wedding pictures and everything okay yeah you keep a lot of stuff up there it's like extra storage so it's extra storage but you so then how'd you get up ladder yeah the ladder you carried her up yes and and put put her body up there yes then what you guys do close close the business for the night no we called you call please Jackson yes but you did this what time did you say you put her in there you thought 6 something to 7 like 6:30 to 7 when investigators searched the restaurant they discovered Ashley's deceased body inside the large freezer in an area above the ceiling the 5-year-old was stuffed inside a food container filled with salt leang then discloses more about Mingming and Ashley's regular interactions information which paints his wife as a picking time bomb that was always bound to explode when did the abuse start with your wife and Ashley about a little bit after a month after she arrived in the beginning it was not that bad he was like disciplined you know try to correct her you know like got hone the toilet know stuff like that minor stuff and and the thing with Ashley was that uh she still doesn't know to potty in the bathroom so that really gets my wife going because we have her for a year now she still can't she still got how train so that was one of those things that really irritated your wife yes I mean and the sh is like every every everything that irritated my wife my wife let go one after another okay so she be poting on that fine let her go you know a couple of months she's going to be one my mom I buy diapers take care of it and hopefully she'll get away from me she'll get fresh up with my mom you know speak as my wife you know my mom will take care of her not my mom my wife's mom you know my wife moms would take care of her and they'll have a fresh start both of them and my wife would have a fresh start like okay just let that go but then you know she after she Po and P her diaper she picked your diaper off and that's that's what yesterday though this might be the case there's no evidence that suggest that there was any history of abuse prior to Ashley's death it's not uncommon for suspects to attempt to lean as heavily on their codefendant as possible even going as far as to lie or exaggerate their partner's role in the events to make their role seem relatively insign ific this rarely ever helps their case however since regardless of the circumstance the suspect is admitting to having Taken part in a crime following their confessions both leang and Mingming were charged with Ashley's murder and held in custody both pleaded guilty in exchanged for leniency in a surprising twist leang agreed to testify against his wife and tactically maintained his innocence in their daughter's murder in response Ming Ming's attorney contended that if there had been a trial they could have proven that leang was actually abusive to both the girl and her mother which contributed to Ming Ming's drastic decision-making less than a year later in December of 2017 Mingming Chen was convicted of child endangerment evidence tampering obstructing justice corpse abuse and the involuntary manslaughter of her daughter Ashley Z she was sentenced to 22 years in prison she'll then very likely be deported once time has been served leang Z was convicted of corpse abuse and obstructing justice as a condition of his plea deal murder was dropped from the list of charges he was sentenced to 12 years in prison