The Cyanide Coffee Case - The murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin | Ep 242

Summary

Crime and Coffee Couple - True Crime Podcast

Episode 242: The Cyanide Coffee Case – The Murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin

Release Date: April 26, 2026
Hosts: Allison & Mike

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Allison takes Mike (and listeners) through the infamous “Cyanide Coffee Case”—the murder of 27-year-old Wayan Mirna Salihin in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2016. The episode explores the shocking events surrounding Myrna’s sudden death after drinking iced coffee, the intense media circus that followed, the highly debated criminal trial of her friend Jessica Wongso, and the fallout that continues to grip Indonesia today. With their trademark married banter, raw reactions, detailed research, and audience-friendly breakdowns, Allison and Mike unpack the nuances, controversies, and emotional core of this modern true crime mystery.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Murder of Myrna Salihin

• [08:25] Allison introduces the case: On January 6, 2016, Wayan Myrna Salihin met friends at the Olivier Café in Jakarta. After sipping her Vietnamese iced coffee, she immediately stiffened, convulsed, and collapsed, dying a short time later.
• [08:58] CCTV captured her last moments; her sudden distress is described as “almost instantaneous.”
• [09:58] The case exploded in Indonesia, likened to the O.J. Simpson trial in media intensity.

2. The Main Figures

• Myrna Salihin: Indonesian, 27, newlywed, graphic designer, from a wealthy family, twin sister to Sandy.
• Jessica Wongso: Friend from design college in Sydney; described as “peculiar,” with a history of mental health problems, self-harm, erratic behavior, multiple police reports, and a recent breakup.

  "She just acted overly friendly in a way that made them feel was just forced and unnatural." – Allison [12:09]

3. Troubling Background and Motive

• [14:02] Jessica’s mental health sharply declined: hospitalizations for self-harm, erratic and dangerous behavior, and specific references to knowing “how to kill someone.”
• [15:37] Recent breakup and restraining order from ex-boyfriend Patrick O’Connor indicate rising instability.
• [16:17] Myrna did not invite Jessica to her wedding, possibly marking the end of their friendship; Jessica pretended not to know she was excluded.
• [17:27] Myrna reportedly told her husband she “wouldn't feel comfortable meeting Jessica alone.”

4. The Day of the Murder

• [20:12 - 23:45] Jessica arrived 90 minutes early to the café, left and returned with three shopping bags (each containing only one bottle of soap), and insisted on pre-ordering drinks despite Myrna’s protests.

  "It seemed like an excessive amount of bags because easily three... could fit into one small bag. So not only was the bags positioned on the table and blocking her movements, but they were blocking the drinks so you couldn't see the drinks or what was happening to them." [23:45]

• [23:45 - 25:58] Drinks are delivered at 4:24pm, over half an hour before Myrna and Hani arrive. Jessica shields the drinks with her bags and moves suspiciously behind them.

• [25:58] Myrna and Hani sit down at 5:16pm; Myrna takes a sip, complains the taste is “funny,” then immediately collapses with severe distress. Jessica appears eerily calm as chaos erupts.

  “Jessica did not seem to be jumping into action. She also seemed eerily calm while other guests were crying at the sight of the young woman's sudden medical crisis.” [25:58]

5. Forensic Investigation

• [27:01 - 32:33]
  • The coffee glass is preserved and tested. The substance in the drink is cyanide; toxicologists estimate 298mg in the coffee, well above the lethal dose (100–200mg).
  • The autopsy is limited by Myrna’s family’s Muslim beliefs, only allowing partial organ and stomach testing. This becomes a key point of controversy at trial.

6. Trial and Media Circus

• [42:14 - 44:20]

  • Jessica is arrested 24 days after Myrna’s death, found with packed luggage apparently about to leave Indonesia.
  • The trial begins (June 2016): A massive public spectacle, broadcast round-the-clock on TV.

  “The courtroom was a circus... swarming with people... more lively and less controlled than the American court system.” – Allison [42:24]

• [44:58] The prosecution’s case hinges on the CCTV evidence of Jessica’s actions while alone with the drinks, her use of bags to obscure movements, and her calmly defensive demeanor post-murder.

• [45:39] The defense points to the lack of direct evidence (no visual of administering the cyanide, no purchase record), and argues the partial autopsy leaves room for alternative causes like stroke or aneurysm.

7. Scientific Debate and Key Controversies

• [50:14] Forensic pathologists for the defense claim little to no cyanide in Myrna’s stomach—arguing against death by poisoning. However, prosecution and other experts confirm lethal levels in the coffee and blackening of the stomach and esophagus symptomatic of cyanide.

• Discrepancies in test results, possible cyanide evaporation, and lack of proof of purchase add to public confusion and persistent debate.

  “What was found in her stomach contents was even less than what's found in apple seeds.” [50:09]
  “But I will tell you, in my research, the CDC indicated that symptoms of cyanide poisoning can present within seconds to minutes.” [51:04]

8. Verdict, Aftermath, and Public Reaction

• [55:09] Jessica is found guilty of premeditated murder, sentenced to 20 years in prison.

• [55:38] In 2024, after serving only eight years (good behavior), she is released on parole—on condition of regular reporting through 2032.

• [57:22] Jessica becomes a social media influencer post-release, even approached for coffee company endorsements—a fact that shocks the hosts.

  "That is pure evil, in my opinion." – Allison on Jessica calmly watching her friend die [56:38]

• Multiple appeals are denied; a Netflix documentary further fuels debate about her guilt and the trial. Public opinion in Indonesia remains deeply divided.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Red Flags in Friendship:
  "If you don't feel comfortable for your own safety, meeting with them alone and you feel like you need to bring someone for support, that's probably a time to just cut your ties." – Allison [17:37]

• On Myrna’s Death:
  "So, today we can remember Myrna as a daughter, a new wife, a twin sister, and a friend whose life was stolen far, far too soon." – Allison [59:30]

• On the Spectacle and Public Reaction:
  "It's like the O.J. trial... the courtroom was a circus, a freaking circus." [10:17], [42:24]

• On Jessica’s Influence Post-Release:
  "And you know what gets me is that these brands are reaching out for her to be the face of their product, including a coffee company." – Allison [57:22]
  "Stop watching her." – Mike [57:23]

• On the Chilling Nature of the Crime:
  "She watched her friend take that drink and did nothing, knowing what was going to happen... That is pure evil, in my opinion." – Allison [56:38]

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Content/Summary | |---------------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 08:24 | Case Introduction (The Cyanide Coffee Murder) | | 09:58 | Media spectacle compared to O.J. Simpson trial | | 12:09 | Jessica described as “peculiar”; friendship history | | 14:02 | Jessica's mental health decline, police reports, threats | | 16:17 | Not invited to Myrna’s wedding—friendship dissolution | | 20:12 | Jessica’s early arrival, suspicious behavior at café | | 23:45 | Bag placement & obscure movements (suspicious premeditation) | | 25:58 | Myrna’s immediate collapse after first sip | | 32:33 | Cyanide detected in coffee; partial autopsy controversy | | 42:24 | Trial coverage, public spectacle, broadcast 24/7 | | 44:58 | Prosecutor’s argument (CCTV, bags, timing) | | 50:14 | Forensic controversies: toxicology debates | | 55:09 | Verdict: Guilty; sentence announced | | 55:38 | Jessica released after 8 years; parole details | | 57:22 | Jessica becomes influencer; public incredulity | | 59:30 | Netflix documentary & final reflections on loss |

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Tone & Style

The hosts maintain a conversational, relatable, and occasionally irreverent tone, blending Allison’s carefully researched, detailed storytelling with Mike’s spontaneous reactions and pointed (often humorous, often skeptical) commentary. They pause to reflect on the emotional core of the case and the disturbing ease with which violence can hide behind the veil of friendship.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode provides an engrossing, accessible narrative of the high-profile murder case that shook Indonesia: the poisoning of Myrna Salihin by cyanide-laced coffee, allegedly administered by her friend Jessica Wongso. It explores the intricate personal histories at play, dissects the forensic and legal arguments, and unpacks the public fascination and lasting controversies. The Crime and Coffee Couple hosts navigate through cultural context, unanswered questions, and the unsettling afterlife of true crime celebrity, while continually remembering the devastating, personal loss at the story’s heart.

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Further Resources

• Netflix Documentary: Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongso (2023)
• Forensic and toxicology info: CDC resource on cyanide poisoning

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Final Note:
If you’re new to the Crime and Coffee Couple, this episode encapsulates their signature approach—serious research, unscripted commentary, humor, and heartfelt reflection—in a single, dramatic, and deeply unsettling case.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode with the crime and coffee couple. My name is Allison.

[C]

And my name is Mike.

[B]

Hi, Mike.

[C]

Hey. Let's do a little cheers. I don't even know why.

[B]

To you.

[C]

Cheers to another day, another, Another opportunity to be better. What?

[B]

And cheers to them.

[C]

Cheers to you listening and us. All of us together.

[B]

We're doing wish you health, wealth and happiness.

[C]

Yeah, whatever that looks like. Whatever wealth looks like. You ever see those reels where people are like, I'm rich. And then they say just because they have like people that love them and, you know, friends or people that they care about all around them and everything.

[B]

That's what we always say. We're rich in love.

[C]

You know, we were on a walk earlier today and by the way, we're a crime and coffee couple. We, you know that from the title, but we deliver a new crime every single Sunday. We never do series ever. Because you hate series series.

[B]

Oh, you mean like part one, part two, part three? Yeah, I'm. I like to wrap things up in one episode.

[C]

You do? You do. She's a gal that likes to just get stuff.

[B]

I like a conclusion. That's why I've never been a fan of Unsolved Mysteries. And every time I go into Unsolved Mysteries, I'm convinced this time they're gonna solve it. It's kind of like when I watch the Titanic. I think this time the captain is going to steer around that iceberg.

[C]

Jack's gonna try to fit on that door.

[B]

He's going to never let go.

[C]

Yeah. Sorry for the spoiler. Spoiler alert, by the way. Yeah. So we were on a walk earlier today, and you were talking about how, what was it like? Animals, all they think about all day long is just survival. You know, it's just kind of fine trying to find, not be killed, number one. And then number two, try to find some food so that you can survive till the next day.

[B]

Feed themselves and their babies.

[C]

Yeah, And I thought about that because I just said, like, you know, we feel rich if we just feel like, love around us. Humans are so unique like that. And, like, meanwhile, you get the entire expansion of the universe that, like, really, we are, like, nothing to.

[B]

We're little tiny grains of salt.

[C]

Yeah. So I'm just saying all that because just enjoy your little slice of life right now.

[B]

I mean, that's all you can do. And that's what we try to tell our son, too, because he's always thinking of the next thing, the next thing. And by the way, he gets that from me.

[C]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Gotcha. So I really do try to stay in the present moment and be thankful for the things that I have rather than always thinking about what I don't have or what I want. Sometimes it's hard.

[C]

Yeah. I don't think you do a great job with that.

[B]

I'd say I'm trying, Mike. I'm actively trying.

[C]

It's like, there's always suggestions and requests from you and our son. Not that I have, like, all the power, but they're always like, do you think we should buy this from Amazon? Like, just this morning, our son sent some weird body wash I've never heard of in my life.

[B]

It was like, $6.

[C]

Yeah. What's the difference between that and, like, Dove?

[B]

I don't know, but it was probably less money than Dove, so I wasn't complaining, really. But here's another example. Mike would live maybe in squalor if I kicked off, but I replace the lounge pads on our Chase lounge on our patio. And by the way, we live in Florida. The pollen is through the roof. Rain, humidity, yada, yada. We've had the current ones we have for probably three years. Our cats lay on them every day. I'm always vacuuming them, but they were looking run down. I replace them. Mike's like, how much did that cost? I was like, I don't, Like, a hundred.

[C]

So that means it was 120.

[B]

It was, like, 125.

[C]

Okay, that's like, it's never what she says.

[B]

Maybe 130.

[C]

Okay. What? I just say 129.

[B]

But the point is, I'm like, yeah, they've been sitting outside for about three years. They're probably five pounds more because they're so saturated in pollen.

[C]

Yeah. And, and the urine, it's like this

[B]

is the cycle of life. Things wear down, you replace them. No, in Mike's life, it's one and done. You buy it, you don't touch it, and it just stays forever.

[C]

Kind of like the house. I don't want to. No home improvement. I love when we had like, you know, we're putting in some stuff into the bathroom and like redoing it, and people are like, great job, Mike. I'm like, oh, I didn't do any of this.

[B]

It would never have happened without me prompting and pushing.

[C]

As long as there's a toilet and it flushes, I am a happy man. Well, toilet paper too would be. Yeah, toilet paper and a bidet. You know, I like to get crazy with a bidet.

[B]

30 bidet. If you are looking for a clean cling, clean bum, bum cling.

[C]

No more clings.

[B]

No more clings. Yeah, I think it's like 32 on Amazon. We bought it where it affix. It's affixed to your toilets. And some people are like, oh, I don't like how it's cold, but even if you hooked it to a hot water line, it would take a lot of running to make it warm.

[C]

Yeah, I would think so.

[B]

In the morning when I go to wash my face, I have to run the water for a bit.

[C]

You're right. You're right.

[B]

So it's not going to be warm anyway.

[C]

No. And I mean, we live in Florida where the water is like always warm coming out of the ground, whereas like in like Minnesota, probably people a little bit different.

[B]

It's a good way to wake up,

[C]

freeze your old corn hole right away in the morning. But.

[B]

But once you have that bidet, it's hard to go back.

[C]

You know how there's those Reddit posts where people are like, what's the one thing that's changed your life more? That's like under 50 bucks. I would say a bidet like times a million. It's like people seek out the bidets in our b. In our bathrooms.

[B]

Every bathroom has it except for one. So our kids would always go and use ours and now they each have one.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. And another thing we, we recently acquired is Allison was at my parents house. We went over Easter holiday. And. And she noticed that they had an air purifier. And then my sister in law and brother also have an air purifier, which

[B]

is why your parents have one.

[C]

And there goes Allison on Amazon. Okay, let's see, how many square feet is this one and this one? What about this one? And it's like, oh, man. And then I had to throw it in a chat GPT, as I always do. And then it was like, well, these aren't necessarily like tested and rated as much as the bigger brands. So I don't know that's there so far. I will say the big thing in Florida. I know you want to talk. I'm sorry.

[B]

Yes, I do. And you keep yammering on it's.

[C]

And you're doing such a good job of not.

[B]

Don't touch me.

[C]

So not touch me right after this.

[B]

Stop poking me.

[C]

Sorry. You're just so pokeball. So the nice thing in Florida, they seem to like, improve the air conditioning. There's more circulation in the air, so, like it seems cooler in the house, which is crazy. I don't know.

[B]

So here is my thing, you know, it's.

[C]

You were just listening and didn't even care what I was saying.

[B]

I was hearing everything you were saying is that the big brands are the tested ones. Obviously, I'm not going to buy something just for show. If I'm buying it, I want it to have a function, so. But the pollen counts are so high that regardless of my allergy pills and my flonase, I have these debilitating sinus headaches.

[C]

When you say debilitating, wouldn't that mean, like, you couldn't do some things through the day?

[B]

It affects my day.

[C]

Are you being dramatic?

[B]

Partially. Okay, okay, I'm being a little dramatic. I will say it affects my day absolutely negatively. And it's weird because Advil oftentimes doesn't touch it. And it's. It's intense. I'm not joking. It really is intense.

[C]

Well, in your life you've probably had 7,000 ibuprofen pills, which is probably. So you might be just not even.

[B]

Yeah, not at all. I've got sciatic nerve flare up right now and it kicks it within about 15, 20 minutes. But these headaches are just really awful. And I think it's because our cats come in and out from outside. It's nice outside. So we have the sliders open and all that pollen's coming in and it's affecting me. My one eye was watering so bad. The skin around it was raw. And that seems to be a lot better since we've put the air purifiers. And I don't buy things just for the sake of buying them.

[C]

Our son. Maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit. He just got some mud mask crap. I tried it on. My face does nothing so.

[B]

Well, you don't think it. That's. What do you think it's gonna, like, give you a new face one time?

[C]

Yeah, that's what I would. If it doesn't, then what do I need it for?

[B]

No, it takes time.

[C]

Well, yeah, but then that means I gotta buy it all the time, so. Screw that.

[B]

This is what I'm dealing with. So on that note, shall we dive into this hot cup of coffee?

[C]

Let's do it.

[B]

All right, so this is a listener suggestion from Kel. So thank you so much for this. And this is the cyanide coffee case and the murder of Wyan mirna Salahan. So 27 year old Wayan Myrna Salahan slid into a booth at a bustling cafe in Grand, Indonesia. This is this massive shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia. So she sat down, she took her sip of Vietnamese iced coffee as she was settling in to catch up with two of her friends. But only moments later, her body stiffened, her head snapped backwards while her face twisted in distress.

[C]

Wow, you picture, like stranger Things.

[B]

Oh, man, it was. It was almost instantaneous. It was. The footage I saw was a little on the grainy side, but still, you know what's happening while you're seeing what you're seeing. And it was just so heartbreaking to see this woman that like, was fine one second and then basically dying the next. So she was struggling to breathe as her body began to convulse. So this once lively, buzzing vibe within this restaurant immediately morphed into a chaotic medical emergency as first responders rushed to Myrna's side. And no one could fathom how this previously healthy 27 year old could die a painful death. A little bit more than an hour after she sat down for this routine meetup over a cup of iced coffee. So police began to piece together exactly what happened inside that cafe in the moments before Myrna's death. Attention was quickly turning to the people she was sitting down with.

[C]

Yeah, you got to look at them. They're the ones. She was fine and then she's dead. It's like, okay, right, let's start.

[B]

And it was directly correlated with that sip of coffee. So the investigation that followed quickly gripped the nation of Indonesia, sparking intense media coverage. They basically Likened it to the circus that the O.J. simpson trial caused.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

And if you're Mike and my age and we grew up in the 90s, we graduated from high school in 1997. I recall sitting at lunch and probably night, I don't even know when the trial was, but it was 1996 or 7. And we would broadcast it from lunch and we would all just sit there watching it.

[C]

It's so funny. It's like it's just a random dude in California. I mean, not random, a former football player, but still, like, who cares? Like why that one more than any other one.

[B]

Right. But that's how this case was. Yeah.

[C]

Well, I think part of it, Indonesia, there's not a lot of crime because I think that's the kind of place where if you steal something, you might get your hand.

[B]

I don't know, I think you're thinking

[C]

of Middle east somewhere.

[B]

I don't know. I don't think so. You might be right.

[C]

But it's like, it's very like you can't spit places. I think there's signs on the elevators that say no urinating in the elevators, which I think is interesting. I always like watching those travel channels.

[B]

Same. So it, it sparked intense media coverage, it ignited a debate that still hasn't settled. Settled over a decade later, people are still kind of almost split 50, 50 on this case. So Myrna, who had been an Indonesian graphic designer, headed out on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 6, 2016 to catch up with her two friends, 28 year old Jessica Kamala Wangzo, who she had met while attending the Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney, Australia, as well as another friend, Hani. So both Myrna and Jessica had been raised within Indonesia's wealthy elite in Keppela Gading. So Myrna to parents Eddie Dharmawan Salahan, who was a businessman, and her mother, Ni Khattut Sianti. So while Myrna headed back to Indonesia after her graduation from this design college in Sydney, she was eager to return to her family as well as her long term boyfriend. This is Arif Sue Marco.

[C]

All right, we got a possibility.

[B]

So meanwhile, Jessica stayed back in Australia where she had lived since she was 16 years old. When you say we have a possibility, what are you suggesting?

[C]

Long time boyfriend?

[B]

We'll see. So Marina's parents recall their first time meeting Jessica Wongzo. She was someone they immediately felt was a highly peculiar girl. So they always viewed her as their daughter's strange friend, someone who made herself feel a little too familiar in their home. Despite not really knowing them all that well. They found her wandering around their bedroom during a visit. And they're like, what in the hell are you doing in our bedroom? You have no business being here. She just acted overly friendly in a way that made them feel was just forced and unnatural. Do you know that feeling?

[C]

Yeah. You're like, I just wish you would just be yourself. I can tell you're faking it. Just be you. That's okay.

[B]

Yes. So after graduation, when Myrna had gone back to Sydney for vacation, she and Jessica had met up. I think they were at a restaurant and their conversation began to take a negative turn when Myrna encouraged Jessica to break up with her boyfriend. This is Patrick o'. Connor. So she accused him of being a poorly mannered drug abuser. And this was something that just didn't sit well with Jessica. And it caused her to just get up from the restaurant and just abruptly leave.

[C]

So Jessica White?

[B]

No, she is Indonesia.

[C]

Okay. And then Patrick o' Connor, I imagine

[B]

was probably white, but yeah, I would imagine. I mean, obviously o' Connor is an Irish name, but they said he was an Australian man.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

So already drifting apart just because of their physical distance. With Myrna back in Indonesia and Jessica staying in Australia, Myrna just sensed that there was this widening gap in her friendship with Jessica. And, you know, as you get out of college and start your career and your family, you start to reevaluate your friendships because, you know, when you're in high school, in college, a lot of your friendships might be situational. It's just convenient. And then you're like, you know what? This person actually doesn't fit with my values and just what I want out of life.

[C]

And people change too.

[B]

Yeah. And that's okay. So it was clear that during the passing year, Jessica had really begun struggling terribly with her mental health. As she was hospitalized five times for self harm and suicide attempts, her behavior became increasingly alarming in August of 2015 when she actually crashed her car into a nursing home. And I mean, she did major damage. She crashed through bricks and her car stopped only meters away from bedrooms that house dozens of elderly residents. So it's amazing, but it sounds like no one was really harmed in this accident. So as a result, she appeared before a Sydney Magic Sydney magistrate on drunk driving charges in February of 2016. So when she crashed into the nursing home, she had been intoxicated. She later admitted that she had been struggling with alcohol at that time. She was turning to it to cope with whatever she was going through. So between 2014 and 2015, there were at least 13 police reports involving Jessica while she remained in Australia. So not only had she allegedly told her former co worker, if I want to kill someone, I know how, but authorities also discovered that Jessica had sent emails to herself saying that her boss at the NSW Ambulance company where she worked, this is Christy Carter, that she and her mom needed to die. She also wrote that if she wanted to kill someone, she could use a gun and she knew the right dosage of poison needed to kill someone.

[C]

All right, I think we might have a new contestant here.

[B]

So on November 24, 2015, a little over a month before Myrna's sudden death, Jessica's ex boyfriend, now ex boyfriend, Patrick o', Connor, took out an urgent restraining order against her, indicating that her behavior was escalating. He felt that she was highly unstable, and he feared for his own safety as well. She was acting very erratically, unpredictable. He didn't know what she was potentially capable of. So only four days later, on November 28, 2015, when Myrna married Arif so Marker in Bali, she chose not to invite Jessica to the event.

[C]

That's kind of a big thing, and

[B]

that's kind of almost like a line in the sand of like, okay, our friendship is over. And then after the fact, years later, someone who's interviewing. What's that called? A journalist, easy for me to say, was interviewing Jessica. And he was like, so you weren't invited to her wedding? And she just likes to play coy and dumb. She's like, oh, yeah, Really? I don't. I don't know. Was I not invited? It's like, I think you'd know you weren't invited.

[C]

It's the whole thing that Myrna's family was talking about where they're like, she's just kind of, like, weird, nice, just kind of doesn't make sense.

[B]

Yeah, it's like, you're not adding up here. So only days after Myrna's wedding, Jessica was actually fired from her job at the New South Wales Ambulance Company, where she worked as a graphic designer. They were seeing her behavior as, you know, unstable. So they were like, it's time to let her go. So as Jessica's life continued to spiral out of control, paired with the distance that had grown between them, Myrna became very wary of her college friend. And according to her new husband, Arif, his wife mentioned that if she were to see Jessica again in the future, face to face, she wouldn't be comfortable meeting with her alone. She would want someone to accompany her. And that's kind of a very big red flag that your friendship probably needs to end. If you don't feel comfortable for your own safety, meeting with them alone and you feel like you need to bring someone for support, that's probably a time to just cut your ties.

[C]

Yeah. And it gets emotional a little bit because they have a history. And for sure, I'm sure that Myrna feels bad for Jessica and everything she's going through and mental, you know, struggles that she has. And it sucks. You know, you don't want to, like, if they like, reach out and they're like, hey, I'd love to just like talk to somebody. It's like, what are you gonna say? And like, oh, hold on. I got to get somebody to make sure you don't poison me. No, that's crazy. That'll never happen.

[B]

Yeah. And obviously at the time, Myrna wasn't aware of the emails that Jessica was writing to herself about poisoning. There was a lot Mirna didn't know, but even just the things she did know were making her feel uncomfortable.

[C]

So based on what she did know, she still felt uncomfortable being with her.

[B]

Yeah. And I'm not discounting how painful it is when a friendship does end. I am a very emotional person. I have a lot of empathy for people, and it's heartbreaking when a friendship ends.

[C]

Well, especially as humans, a lot of us like emotions is what, like, separates us from animals. Right. But like, unfortunately, emotions make us make some bad decisions sometimes.

[B]

Right. And that's why you have to really know your own values and establish those healthy boundaries where if someone's taking advantage of you or making your life miserable and they're bringing more harm to your world than good. It's, it's, you know, sometimes you just have to make that hard decision.

[C]

Easier said than done, unfortunately.

[B]

Of course. So when Jessica let Myrna know that she was coming back to Indonesia on holiday, she suggested that they meet up for coffee. So Myrna decided she was going to bring her friend Hani along. So the trio planned to meet up for drinks at this upscale restaurant, it's called Olivier, within the Grand Indonesia shopping mall in Jakarta, which is the capital of Indonesia. So these would be the last moments of Myrna's life before the 27 year old newlywed suddenly, tragically and painfully died. So according to her father, Myrna had always been a very strong willed, tough young woman. And she spoke openly about what she believed in. She grew up with her twin sister Sandy, always by her side. And she had so many goals in her life because of course, she's only 27 years old. There's so much. She had just gotten married. She was really just starting her life.

[C]

Yeah, like our flame is dying. We're just like trying to just, just, just kind of wrap things up. She was. Still had a lot of life ahead of her.

[B]

I will never look at that until the day that I die and my heart stops beating and I'm slid into that crematorium.

[C]

Yeah. Burned alive.

[B]

I'm not alive still. Yeah. I'm not going to be burned. What?

[C]

I don't know. Sorry, sorry. Go ahead.

[B]

I'm not going to give up on goals because I think that's important. I don't care what age you are. But at 27 years old, she was just starting her life. She wanted to even open a cafe. But sadly, she would never live to fulfill any of these goals. Although Myrna and Hani hadn't planned on meeting Jessica at Olivier until 5pm, according to CCTV footage from the cafe, Jessica arrived nearly 90 minutes early at 3:32pm so the cafe, which has since closed down, was a trendy hot spot and it enforced a dress code. It expected its customers to be well groomed and neat. You couldn't come in all of sorts, sloppy, you know, maybe wearing sweatpants.

[C]

I'm out.

[B]

Yeah, I'm probably out as well. So as patrons gathered over food and drinks, it's the type of place that it wasn't unusual to see people milling about with their Prada bags, Gucci bags, Louis Vuitton, that sort of thing.

[C]

High society.

[B]

Yes. So according to the footage from the cafe, Jessica left only two minutes after she had gotten there. She later claimed that she had gone to buy some presents for two of her friends, because, of course, this is just after Christmas and the New Year. So on her return at 4:14pm, this is 46 minutes before they were scheduled to meet, she carried three shopping bags with her, each containing only a small bottle of liquid soap from Bath and Body Works. So she could be seen walking around the cafe, checking out various locations, sometimes even looking directly up at the CCTV cameras. So the table that she chose was a distance from the closest camera. It also had an obstructed view due to the positioning of a plant. So despite the fact that Myrna and Hani were still about 45 minutes out from arriving at their agreed upon time of 5pm, Jessica took the liberty of ordering drinks for their table at 4:18pm so when the bartender, who started his shift at 4pm that day, saw the order spit out from the machine for a Vietnamese iced coffee. He made the drink exactly how he did every time he did before. He then placed it on tray A for the server to pick up and deliver it to the table. You compare prices when shopping for flights, hotels, cars. So why not small business insurance? At Simply Business, we'll show you policies that fit your business and a range of prices to help you save. Who knew buying insurance could be so simple? Visit simplybusiness.com for your free quote today. So if you're curious, Vietnamese coffee is made by slowly dripping coarsely ground dark roast coffee through a metal filter and then you sweeten it with sweetened condensed milk and pour it over ice. Sounds delicious.

[C]

Like a Turkish coffee, but heist. So yeah, I would drink the hell out of that.

[B]

So the three drinks that Jessica ordered were deliver delivered to table 54 at 4:24pm and again, that's like more than a half hour out from when they're arriving.

[C]

I'd be pissed if I had nice coffee that was been sitting there for a half hour.

[B]

You love coffee. You do not want it to be all diluted by ice.

[C]

Yeah, and I think a lot of people do listen to the show.

[B]

Most people who love coffee would not want their drink ordered 36 minutes ahead of time. So in the meantime, as these drinks are set down at the table, Jessica has these shopping bags that are positioned on the table in a way that is blocking her movements.

[C]

And again, only one small piece of like soap in each one. Like one soap pump or whatever. From Beth. Beth.

[B]

So in other words, it seemed like an excessive amount of bags because easily three. You know what those Bath and Body works hand soaps are, Three could easily fit into one small bag. They're not large. So not only was the bags positioned on the table and blocking her movements, but they were blocking the drinks so you couldn't see the drinks or what was happening to them. So she could be seen making a series of unknown movements behind the bags before she eventually moved them to the the seat next to her. So earlier that day, in anticipation of their meetup, Jessica had texted Hani and Myrna at 1pm she was asking them what they wanted to drink. So she planned to pre order their drinks so that they were ready for them when they arrived. And Mirna texted her back saying, no, don't do that. She's like, that's not necessary. But she insisted. So Myrna likely just saw it as a nice gesture and she was a lover of coffee. So she told Jessica that she wanted to try the cafe's Vietnamese iced coffee. So 52 minutes after the drinks had been delivered. 52 minutes. This is one. Myrna and Honey arrived at 5:16pm so as they said their hellos, Myrna settled into their table, and she took her first sip of iced coffee at 5:18pm and she immediately complained that it tasted funny. And when Hani took a tiny sip, she agreed. She's like, this doesn't taste right. And you can see in the footage that Myrna immediately started to fan her face. She was in distress. And within about one minute of her sip, Myrna's body began to stiffen and convulse as staff rushed to her aid, pulling the table away. And it was immediately clear that they were dealing with an absolute emergency as Myrna was struggling to breathe, as her body was just violently shaking. So although Jessica had been sitting at her friend's side as Myrna took her sip of coffee, staff who did not know these girls, they had never met them before. They just could see immediately that Jessica did not seem to be jumping into action. She wasn't doing anything. She also seemed eerily calm while other guests were crying at the sight of the young woman's sudden medical crisis. And I mean, just imagine sitting at a table with someone you know or someone you don't know, and. And seeing them in an absolute crisis situation like that would make me sob hysterically.

[C]

Well, it's making my heart, like, skip a beat right now. It sucks. Like, you just want to help in some way.

[B]

So as the chaos was in full swing within the cafe, Jessica turned to the manager. This is Debbie Saigon. And asked her, what did you put in her drink? And rather than being confused and panicked at her friend's sudden medical crisis, Debbie noticed that the woman just seemed defensive. It was very odd to her. So she immediately got a strong sense that Jessica was somehow involved and that something had been put into her friend's coffee. So after Debbie took a small taste of the drink, she realized that it tasted and smelled rotten, which, like, don't take, by the way. I would. I was shocked by that part.

[C]

I was like, wow, wait, let me taste it. Like, no, no, no.

[B]

Like, this woman is convulsing.

[C]

Yeah. And also, it's kind of evidence, too. So let's just kind of leave it alone.

[B]

She did know that fats. So.

[C]

But she's still drinking, right?

[B]

But she saved the drink. So when the bartender who had made the drink looked at the coffee, he could clearly see that the color was not at all right. It wasn't at all how it looked when he prepared that drink, and it was now the color of turmeric and it gave off this sharp glue like smell that irritated his nose. So feeling panicked, of course, because he's the one that made the drink, he's thinking, oh my gosh, did I somehow put like a cleaning fluid in it? He started to recheck all of the ingredients that he'd used only an hour before. He found absolutely nothing amiss. And Myrna's coffee was the only one in the cafe at the time that was having an issue. So after Myrna was transferred to the hospital, staff from the cafe took her glass and they wrapped it in plastic wrap and handed it over to authorities so that it could be examined at the national police headquarters. They also collected every component that was used to make her iced coffee so that it could also be analyzed. So shortly after Myrna's father Eddie rushed to the Abdi Walu hospital in central Jakarta, he was met with Jessica, who seemed to be avoiding him as well as the questions that he was asking of her. It also seemed that she was faking a stomachache as well as shortness of breath in order to get out of their conversation and avoid his questions. So right away it just seemed off to her father. So while Hani is openly weeping at the hospital at the shocking news of Myrna's sudden death, Eddie could see that in contrast, Jessica just did not seem phased or upset in the least. So when Myrna's twin sister Sandy arrived at the hospital, she was really in shock. She was unable to accept the fact that her sister, who was healthy an hour before, was now de bed. And she desperately tried to wake her up. She was slapping her face, hoping that she would just come out of whatever was going on. But then the doctors and nurses came into the room and they told her there was nothing they could do. Mirna was gone, they couldn't bring her back. And Sandy looked at her sister and she could see this frozen look that was frozen on her face. And it appeared that she was trying to tell her, help me. So later that day, Sandy was taken aback when she received a phone call from Jessica, who was asking her about Myrna's lab results from, you know, whatever was drawn on her that day. So Myrna's friend Vera, who had also planned on meeting the girls at the cafe that day, had texted the group at about 6pm to say that she was leaving work. She was running a little bit late. So as she made her way to the cafe, she was stunned when she got a text message. Response from Jessica that just said, myrna is gone. Passed away. I'm sorry. So as she's staring at her phone, she cannot comprehend the words because she's thinking, what the hell is she talking about? I'm going to meet her at the cafe.

[C]

Yeah, it's like maybe the wrong person, right?

[B]

Or is this some kind of sick joke? So meanwhile, another friend called her and confirmed that Myrna had died. And she couldn't wrap her head around what was going on because she had only just been texting with Myrna about an hour or so earlier at 5pm and how had a 27 year old, previously perfectly healthy girl, just suddenly died like that? So when Eddie confronted Jessica at the hospital, he asked her, what did you have to drink? And then he later found out that she lied. She told him that she had mineral water, but he of course, eventually learned that she had ordered something entirely different. So in addition to Myrna's iced Vietnamese coffee, she also ordered a Sazerac cocktail as well as an old Fashioned. So as Eddie is standing there with Jessica, she starts suddenly yelling out, did Myrna die? Did Myrna die? Was I the one that killed Myrna? And Eddie is like, this is very erratic and weird. So on January 9, 2016, this is three days after Myrna's death. Police officers met her family at the funeral home to explain that they believed that their daughter had been poisoned. Reasoned although they were told that an autopsy would need to be done in order to prove it, the family refused to consent. So this is common in Muslim countries, as Islamic law emphasizes respecting and keeping the deceased body intact, viewing disfigurement as a violation of its sanctity. So officers were warning them when they were saying that they didn't want to give consent, that if they didn't, their daughter's killer might very likely not be brought to jail. Justice. So after agreeing to only a partial autopsy, which was completed on January 10, samples from Myrna's stomach, her urine and liver had been tested. And her family was then told that these samples confirmed what they suspected, that Myrna had been poisoned to death, specifically by cyanide. So however, because a full autopsy was not conducted, her chest and abdomen had not been fully opened and examined. A full toxicology was not done from multiple organs, nor were other main organs in her body examined, such as her brain and her heart. And I will tell you that this is something that later became the most controversial part of the entire case.

[C]

I am going back to that. Like, I don't understand what is controversial about this. At all so far. I'm so curious.

[B]

So cyanide is naturally found occurring or. Excuse me, let me start that again. Cyanide is a naturally occurring chemical that's found in many any plants, seeds, fruit, stones, bacteria, fungi, and algae.

[C]

I always think of apple seeds.

[B]

Yes, that's exactly right. So it's highly lethal. And it's been used in conventional warfare and poisoning for more than 2, 000 years. The most common form of cyanide poisoning is actually smoke inhalation from fires. So it's used in industrial chemicals, pesticides, as well as medicine, including sodium nitroposide. This is a medication that is used to lower blood pressure. So because cyanide prevents the body's cells from utilizing oxygen, rapid death occurs within even just seconds of ingestion of a lethal dose. So when ingested as sodium or potassium cyanide, the lethal dose is 100 to 200 milligrams. And as the case eventually moved to trial, the prosecution indicated that there were 298mg of cyanide in Myrna's coffee, so well above the lethal dose. So after unused oxygen that's stored in the body suddenly floods into the bloodstream, a victim's complexion will turn a cherry red color. So Myrna's family now knew that she had been poisoned. But obviously there were so many questions. How? Why? By whom?

[C]

Well, I think we have the answer to some of those.

[B]

Right. Of course, you know, they're thinking in their head, how could someone that knows her and has been a friend to her for so many years possibly do such a thing? And to be sitting there in the booth with her and witnessing the side effect of what she had done, like, it's not one of those things where it's like, oh, here's your drink. I'm gonna go. See you later. Bye bye.

[C]

Yeah, and it also wasn't like that. They've been super close for a while. Like, this has been, like, years in the making almost.

[B]

It's weird, but it was not far off from Myrna's wedding. And it almost seemed like that may have been the tipping point that. That Myrna had this amazing wedding in this, like, luxurious Bali location. Her wedding was stunning. I looked at all of her photos.

[C]

Well, Indonesia is a very, like, rich area. Like, the rich are very rich in Indonesia. So I'm sure her parents, or whoever, or maybe her. Whatever, whoever paid for it spared no expense.

[B]

There was no expenses spared. And obviously all these photos were available on Instagram or Facebook or whatever. So Jessica was Easily able to see all these, these, these pictures. And she's just seeing this picture perfect moment in the midst of her own life collapsing. And it's like, it seems to many people that that was the tipping point. So, you know, obviously her family is left with so many questions at this point in time because we're only days off of Myrna's death. And since cyanide is so lethal and it's one of the most 10 poisonous substances on planet Earth, it's obviously not easy for the average person to get their hands on. Legally. That's the big word there, legally. So morbid curiosity, this was so odd to me, led patrons to flock to Olivier, where business was booming after Mariner's death. Guests were sometimes even specifically, like, requesting Myrna's booth and then ordering Vietnamese iced coffee and taking selfies.

[C]

I mean, I could see it.

[B]

It. That's crass.

[C]

To me, it's very crass. But, I mean, you don't think the same thing would happen here, probably.

[B]

I mean, sure, there's going to be people. It's kind of like when we went to Dallas, Texas, to see the site where JFK was assassinated and people were standing on the X marks spot, smiling.

[C]

Yeah. Because we're so used to smiling and getting our picture taken. But it's like, this isn't a place where you smile like happiness, man, this is bad.

[B]

I mean, I was standing there, I never expected to feel emotional, but I'm looking at a spot where someone lost their life and it made me cry.

[C]

His wife was, was picking up.

[B]

Right, right. Like tragedy. And I'm watching these people down there smiling and I was like, what the hell?

[C]

It wasn't like they were happy. It was just a natural reaction.

[B]

It was weird.

[C]

It was like the, the human, like, need for clout, like to be able to show people, you know, it's like, oh, look where I was. And say, why don't you just. Just do it for yourself.

[B]

Right. So, you know, that was a strange tidbit, but. So as the police investigation began for the cafe, they conducted three reconstructions while holding witness interviews. They wanted to talk to the people that were working there that were sitting nearby, and they were doing everything they could to figure out who had been responsible for slipping the poison into that drink.

[C]

Maybe the weird friend.

[B]

Yeah. So as they combed over the cafe's CCTV footage, authorities were able to see that because Jessica had ordered the coffee so far ahead of time when Myrna and Hani were arriving, it had given her ample time to just Sit there and be with the drone. Drinks.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And because of this, she was obviously the top suspect of this case and she was questioned five times. Myrna's family were stunned that a close friend could have been capable of doing something so incredibly evil. So, according to Jessica, since she had been living in Australia and she hadn't been to her home country of Indonesia in four years, she was very eager to catch up with her friends during her visits. And she had met Myrna eight years earlier in college and they quickly bonded. They were often going out to eat or drink and just celebrate their life and their youth and their time in college together. And she said that she absolutely had nothing to do with her friend's death.

[C]

Oh, well, I guess that that settles that.

[B]

She said any time that she ever spent with Myrna had always been a great time. They were laughing together and just having a delightful time. So Myrna's family believed that because Jessica's mental health had been deteriorating, paired with the anger and resentment that was growing within her after Myrna voiced these negative opinions about her boyfriend, she decided to kill her. They also believed that she was very jealous of Myrna's life and the fact that she was newly married, she was in a healthy, loving relationship, her life was truly on the rise.

[C]

Yeah, real quick, it's. It kind of sucks that Jessica's boyfriend, Patrick O Connor, is, like, catching strays over here. He's like, you don't need to mention that. Like, she talked crap about me. You know, like, let's just talk about Jessica.

[B]

So since the cafe where Myrna was poisoned had nine CCTV cameras, obviously investigators were going to comb over the footage from the time frame of when Jessica entered until Myrna took her fateful sip of coffee. And because she arrived at 3:32pm and left only two minutes later. And if you watch this footage, she is definitely looking around the cafe. They felt like authorities felt like she was there scoping the place out.

[C]

Oh, why in the hell else would she be there an hour and a half early and then order drinks 45 minutes early?

[B]

It just doesn't make sense.

[C]

It's just so much. It's. Yeah, it's Jessica.

[B]

And the thing is, it's like, if you're meeting for drinks at 5pm, why in the hell would you be ordering the drinks? Drinks 45, 50 minutes ahead of time.

[C]

Stupid.

[B]

And obviously Myrna ended up being, like 16 minutes late. But even if she'd been on time, those drinks would have been crap.

[C]

Because she wanted to make sure, Even if they're 15 minutes early, the drinks are going to be here, ready to go.

[B]

She wanted to. It's in my opinion, she wanted to make sure she had ample time with those drinks. That's the only thing that makes sense. It doesn't make sense to offer your friends a watered down cocktail and a watered down Vietnamese iced coffee. That's just gross. So obviously this indicated premeditation. However, she later claimed. Jessica later claimed that she had been following Jakarta's traffic rule, where during peak traffic times, only cars with three or more occupants can utilize main roads. So that's why she's saying, oh, that's why I got there so early. But it doesn't explain why you ordered the drinks that early.

[C]

I mean, really, at this point, it doesn't matter what Jessica says. She's an idiot.

[B]

It. So after she sat down in the large booth, it seems strange that she would arrange her shopping bags on the table despite the fact that she had ample chair space around her. She could have easily put the bags

[C]

there or floor space, wherever.

[B]

Right. She just had an answer for this guy who interviewed her from Australia for everything. She's like, I just. I just. What I did, I didn't even think about it.

[C]

Yeah, because it's premeditated.

[B]

Right? So on January 30, 2016, this is 24 days after Myrna's death. Death investigators arrived at the hotel where Jessica was staying in Indonesia, and they arrested her in connection with mirna's death. Her luggage had been packed, and it gave the impression that she was likely getting ready to leave the country. She was charged with premeditated murder, something that carries a minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of the death penalty if found guilty. However, because the Australian federal police agreed to assist the Indonesian police with their investigation on the condition that the death penalty be taken off the table, this was no longer an option, but she could still face life in prison if found guilty. So the case was highly publicized since no one could wrap their heads around what would potentially drive a friend to do something so incredibly heinous. And, you know, this was a huge case, not only in Indonesia, but Australia as well as a lot of the rest of the country. And there was a lot of rumors and speculation that was swirling around the case, many of which even suggested that at one point, Myrna and Jessica had been in a romantic relationship. And then after mirna got married, Jessica was just wracked with jealousy, and it led her to kill her friend.

[C]

It's because we're like just trying to make sense of it. Yeah. And it's like, it's. There's nothing to make sense of. Jessica was out of her mind and depressed and she wanted to kill somebody.

[B]

And, you know, these ideas were just something that her family wouldn't even engage in. They're like, this is just ridiculous. So as a trial began on June 15, 2016, within the Central Jakarta District Court, where the courthouse. It was a circus, a freaking circus. It was swarming with people. And it's way more lively and less controlled, in my opinion, than like the American court system. I mean, there's a lot of like people standing and gesturing and yelling out.

[C]

Yeah, it's like a picture like the New York Stock Exchange, you know, like one, one, one. I'll give me two. Sell, sell. Bye.

[B]

Absolutely. So the people were just lining up and swarming outside, eager to have the opportunity to be allowed inside and directly watch. But if you couldn't get inside, don't worry, it was covered. The trial was broadcast 24 hours a day across 14 Indonesian TV stations.

[C]

Not a whole lot of work getting done at that time.

[B]

So as it began, the majority of the public held firm on their opinion that Jessica was 100% guilty. I'd say like 99 of the population probably thought that.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

So since Indonesia doesn't have a jury system, the three judges presiding over the case were to decide if Jessica was innocent or guilty based on the evidence that would be presented as well as what her ultimate sentence should be should she be found guilty. So Jessica entered the courtroom wearing a white button up blouse and black pants. She looked exceptionally calm and relaxed, and many times throughout the trial she was very relaxed and laughing like it was all just a joke. And even after the fact, when I watched her interview on Australian tv, same demeanor, lots of laughing. She's out of her mind, very inappropriate. So she hired this well known defense attorney named Otto Husbian to represent her. And he's like big on tv. So that only amped up the, you know, publicity of this trial and everything.

[C]

And so her family has money too, right?

[B]

Yes, both. Okay, so it was a prosecution's goal to prove Jessica's guilt based on the sequence of events depicted by the cafe's CCTV footage. The footage would walk the judges through the moment that she entered the cafe to when the coffee was made until Myrna took her final sip. And it was truly the CCTV footage that was the, the absolute foundation of their case. So the prosecution focused on the footage of Jessica, who could be seen sitting down at her booth with these shopping bags that were positioned on the table. They were very specifically hiding her movements from the camera that was positioned to

[C]

the front that she had looked at just a little bit earlier.

[B]

And then she positioned a. A chair that blocked the camera's view from behind. So at 4:29pm she could be seen making movements behind the shopping bags, a time when no one else was in her vicinity. So you couldn't say, oh, that person, probably they could have done it. There was no one around her at that point in time. So it was at this point that the prosecution believed that she put the cyanide into Myrna's coffee. And meanwhile, the defense argued the lack of evidence to prove her guilt, as there was no proof that she either purchased or carried cyanide.

[C]

That's the big thing.

[B]

Yep. So they never were able to track down someone that she purchased it from, as well as the fact that no one, whether it be the camera or an eyewitness, saw her actually put something in that coffee. So there was something interesting that the Australian journalist brought up while she was standing there idly by while Myrna is violently convulsing on the floor. She was itching her palms. And cyanide is so lethal that if you touch it and hold it, it can cause an intense skin irritation. So obviously, her rubbing her palms and scratching her palms could be her having a reaction.

[C]

You scratched her face at the same time.

[B]

Did I really? So she, of course, had an answer for that, too. She's like, it's just what I do when I'm nervous, whatever. Right.

[C]

I don't want to hear from her again.

[B]

So at 4:29pm Is when, you know, they think that the cyanide got slipped into the coffee. So when police went to collect evidence, they realized that the pair of pants that Jessica had been wearing at the time of Myrna's death had been thrown away. So during the trial, her housekeeper testified that Jessica had instructed her to throw them away.

[C]

Oh, man. There's some. A lot of things pointing here.

[B]

So despite the fact that she claimed it was because they had an irreparable tear in them, police believe that they could have given them the pants, could have given them clues because, say, she put them in her pocket or there was some sort of cyanide residue on them. You know, they could have tested that. I will tell you, though, that they did eventually recover the jeans. They did not find any kind of residue on them. But, of course, by this point in time, they could have been laundered So I looked up to see did they have an irreparable tear on them? No documentation whatsoever to prove that that was the case. Interesting. Which would be very damning if they didn't have a tear in them because she told the investigators.

[C]

But how they find them, I don't know.

[B]

That was very fuzzy in my research.

[C]

Yeah, it could have been just made up.

[B]

Yeah. So the defense focused on the fact. Oh, what was made up?

[C]

Like that they found the genes?

[B]

No, I mean, I, I, how do they know? I mean I checked chap, GBT and all my sources.

[C]

Yeah, I know that they are saying that they found them, but how did they actually found.

[B]

I, I truly don't know. So the defense, defense focused on the fact that a full autopsy had not been done. So that was a huge part of the defense. Because Myrna's brain and other organs had not been examined, it could not be confirmed that she hadn't died from natural causes such as a stroke or a heart attack. So it would be insanely uncanny that she took a sip of her coffee, said oh, this tastes really funny and immediately started fanning her face tastes. And then Hani took it and she's like, oh yeah, that, that tastes very funny. And then she just so happened to have a stroke or a heart attack at that exact moment in time. What are the odds that that actually happened? But at the same sense, because they hadn't examined her brain or her heart, they couldn't definitively say she was a healthy 27 year old girl. There was nothing wrong with these organs.

[C]

Yeah, aneurysm or whatever.

[B]

So this was the time in the trial when the public started to sway in their opinion of Jessica's guilt.

[C]

How the hell did the public get swayed?

[B]

I don't know.

[C]

Who, like, whatever. This guy, this high paid lawyer, he must have put in like tons of money into social media or something because

[B]

people were like, oh, maybe she had died of an aneurysm and maybe Jessica is just unfortunately being tied to this interest something.

[C]

There had to be a lot of money invested somewhere to like just make people think something else. Like a lot of just like, what do they call it? Like a propaganda put out there. I, that's probably what happened.

[B]

It's amazing what people can believe, you know, when certain people are saying it in a certain way. So a forensic pathologist who tested, testified for the defense indicated that according to the toxicologist nurse Meran Sabandi report, the 10ml of G Mirna's gastric fluid that was extracted 70 minutes after her death had tested negatives for cyanide. So tests for cyanide in her bile liver and urine also came back negative. And he concluded that her cause of death had not been from cyanide poisoning. However, the gastric sample that was taken by Dr. Slamette Pernomo at the national Police hospital in East Jakarta three days after her death found 0.2 milligrams of cyanide. So the defense was arguing that this was much lower than the lethal dose of 150-250mg.

[C]

Way lower. It's like nothing.

[B]

Nothing. Right. And to give reference, apple seeds, which occur naturally, contain 0.6 milligrams per gram of cyanide. So what was found in her stomach contents was even less than what's found in apple seeds. So Professor Bang Bang Ong, the first witness for the defense, also believed that the low level of cyanide detected in Myrna's stomach was not consistent with the fatal poisoning. He felt that. Nor was the fact that Myrna had collapsed within minutes of consuming the iced coffee. According to him, symptoms of cyanide poisoning normally present after about 30 minutes of ingestion. He went on to say that he would have expected Myrna's stomach contents to be as high as 1,000 milligrams per liter, rather than the 0.2 milligrams that had been detected.

[C]

Based on what happened.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And how quickly.

[B]

But I will tell you, in my research, the CDC indicated that symptoms of cyanide poisoning can present within seconds to minutes. Minutes.

[C]

While death symptoms.

[B]

Symptoms while death may occur within minutes. And Myrna was pronounced dead about an hour after she drank the coffee. Because it rapidly enters the bloodstream and circulates throughout every part of the body, death can occur very rapidly. So a total of three experts called by the defense testified that there was no proof that Myrna's death had been caused by cyanide. And because a full autopsy had not been done, the prosecution could not prove that she just hadn't simply died of natural causes. But on the other hand, forensic expert Dr. Slamette Pernomo, as well as police toxicology expert Noose Maran Sabandi, testified that the iced coffee had been laced with cyanide. And what was found in that coffee was well over what was enough to kill Myrna.

[C]

Okay, so how much was found in the coffee?

[B]

Did they ever say 297.5.6 milligrams of sodium cyanide had been consumed, was found in the coffee is what I.

[C]

That's what was left.

[B]

Right. So what they were saying was that Mirna would have consumed about 171.4 milligrams, which was obviously a lethal dose for someone that weighed 60 kilograms, or 132 pounds as Myrna weighed.

[C]

All right, so I think we can prove that she probably died by cyanide. Right, because that was in the drink and she died right then. But then they got to prove who did did it.

[B]

So the thing is, is that I couldn't understand why there was so much cyanide in the coffee and why it wasn't being found in her gastric contents. I couldn't come to find the answers to that. So Dr. Pernomo, who assessed Myrna's body three days after her death, supported the toxicology report as he noted a black discoloration in her stomach and esophagus that proved that. That she had been poisoned using a very hazardous substance. And obviously then the coffee itself had proven to have cyanide in it. One in one is two. You can deduce that the blackness in her stomach and esophagus was caused from the cyanide.

[C]

I'm curious if it would just be digested right away and then that would get rid of it. Yeah, I don't know.

[B]

Yeah, I. I couldn't understand it. So the majority of her stomach and esophagus had been severely damaged, and despite the fact that she had been embalmed, her lips turned black. Although cyanide wasn't easily obtained legally in Indonesia, it wasn't necessarily difficult to get the, you know, get it from an illegal seller in Jakarta. And obviously if she bought. Bought it from some rando on the street, they're not going to come forward and be like, I sold her the cyanide.

[C]

Yeah. And it wasn't a rando. It was somebody that she probably family knew or whatever, you know, some. Some deep, deep relationship.

[B]

And obviously they couldn't find any kind of electronic correspondence with a person that she was like, hey, Bill, can I buy cyanide? I would like 1000mg of cyanide Tuesday and Jakarta's corner.

[C]

I'd like to kill my friend.

[B]

They couldn't find that. But she could have just walked up to somebody and asked them, but they couldn't find that. According to chemical toxicologist Dr. Budi Budhawan, the estimates within Myrna's glass were unusually high at 7,400 milligrams per liter of cyanide. However, he went on to say that scientifically, in certain Conditions, it's possible that cyanide can transform from a liquid and evaporate into a gas. The toxicologist for the defense argued that had that been the case, everyone in the vicinity of that glass of iced coffee could have fainted. And of course they're whipping this glass out during the trial and like opening and everyone's like gasping that they're all going to just like pass out in the courtroom. Yeah. So after the three judges heard all of the testimonies from both sides, they came back with a verdict on October 27, 2016. And Mike, what do you think they

[C]

found Jessica Only because you say it's still contested. I'd say not guilty.

[B]

They found 28 year old Jessica Wongzo guilty.

[C]

All right.

[B]

On the charge of premeditated murder. I saw that coming. She was given the minimum sentence for premeditated murder, which was 20 years. So on August 18, 2024, a then 36 year old Jessica was released on parole from an Indonesian prison after serving only eight years of her 20 year sentence.

[C]

It's pretty cool what money can do

[B]

due to good behavior. So she remains on parole and must report to authorities until about 2032.

[C]

That's insane. Insane. How do you kill somebody? How do you. Well, how do you be called guilty of killing somebody? Not necessarily that you did premeditated murder, first degree murder, and you're out in eight years for good behavior. It's like you don't think she's possible possibly going to do this to somebody else. Like she's got it in her brain that she can kill people.

[B]

I mean, if you could be so upset that your friend said you really should break up with that guy, He's a loser, he's a druggie. Get, get, get out of that relationship and then get married. And that's enough for you to be killed by your friend as they sit next to you and watch you like talk about six. She watched her friend take that drink and did nothing. Knowing, knowing what was going to happen to her after she swallowed it and she sat there and watched the symptoms. That is pure evil, in my opinion.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So when Jessica, who is now known as the iced coffee killer, appeared on this primetime Australian TV show after her release, this is what I watched. It seemed as if she was trying to downplay her relationship with Mirna because at the time of Myrna's death, she's like, oh my goodness, yes, we've laughed together. Everything we did was so fun. There's all these pictures of them together. Oh, no, they weren't close. At all.

[C]

Yeah. That was advice of counsel, I'm sure. Being like, you gotta pretend like you're not. Like you don't know each other.

[B]

Yeah. Now they're, they weren't close at all. She said that their friendship was just, just there because they were from the same country and they were both living in Australia at the time. So since her release, she has earned money as a social media influencer.

[C]

Oh, God, stop watching her.

[B]

And you know what gets me is that these brands are reaching out for her to be the face of their product, including a coffee company.

[C]

That's crazy.

[B]

I mean, that's freaking weird.

[C]

So it comes down to money, right? And it'll definitely get some headlines.

[B]

Yes. She's very well known owner.

[C]

Oh my God, you suck.

[B]

Yeah. This TV journalist was walking around with her in this shopping center and everyone's heads were whipping around. He walked up to a group of girls and they're like, he goes, do you know who this is? And they're like, that's Jessica. Like, everyone knows who Jessica is.

[C]

She's like riding the wave, man.

[B]

Yes. And she has no shame whatsoever. So she will be an influencer. And she's probably so down that rabbit hole that, that she thinks she's innocent.

[C]

She's convinced herself just about to say that she doesn't think she did it.

[B]

If you could see how laid back. And he's like, how are you ever going to get a normal job now? He's like, Starbucks isn't going to hire you. You're going to work in an office. You're not going to be doing any kind of coffee runs for the office. And she's like, like laughing so hard as if they were talking about something fun and not something that's related. Like, you're in this chair because you were found guilty of, of killing your best friend.

[C]

Well, I don't know how many followers she has or anything, but odds are she's probably making millions of dollars.

[B]

I wouldn't doubt it. And isn't that pathetic?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So however, as of August 2025, the Supreme Court. So anyway, she's been trying to clear her name. She wants, after the fact that she's been convicted. She wants them to reverse that conviction and declare her innocence. But as Of August of 2025, the Supreme Court has rejected her second appeal for a judicial review. After her first appeal in 2018 was also denied. Thus she is still seen as a convicted murderer. But she doesn't seem to be bothered.

[C]

No.

[B]

And then in 2023, a Netflix documentary, which I Watched. It's called Ice Cold Murder Coffee and Jessica Wongzo. It focuses on the trial as well as the perspectives of various people involved in the case, including Myrna's twin sister and her father.

[C]

It has subtitles and everything obviously.

[B]

Right.

[C]

I think I saw you watching.

[B]

Yes. So Myrna Salahan's young life came to a painful and sudden end on a day that began just like any other. As she made her way to this trendy cafe to sit down and sip on her creamy iced coffee, she could have never imagined that her life was in danger. At that moment, she had been in the midst of starting her life with her new husband. Instead, in the aftermath of her death, her story became a mystery that was filled with rumors and speculation. Her whole trial was a circus. There was courtroom drama and unanswered questions. Myrna's case highlights the fragility of trust. And sometimes it can be the person that you once trusted that's sitting across from you at a table that could be hiding something you could never imagine. So today we can remember Myrna as a daughter, a new wife, a twin sister and a friend whose life was stolen far, far too soon.

[C]

Sorry. Marina. That's in Marina's family. It's absolutely horrible.

[B]

Awful.

[C]

I'm sure there wasn't a lot of information behind this, otherwise you would have mentioned it. But her friend Honey, that tried her drink. Any effects for her?

[B]

No. She took a tiny, tiny sip of her drink and obviously Myrna could have taken a massive gulp because according to the prosecution, she consumed, and that was based on a toxicologist, she had consumed about 171 milligrams of cyanide.

[C]

And what is a poisonous dose of.

[B]

What did I say? 100-200mg.

[C]

That's a deathly dose.

[B]

Right, But I mean, just to have side effects.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. To have something.

[B]

I don't know. I don't know what I would have met under 100 milligrams. Because if lethal is 100 to 200 milligrams, anything below that shots would be non lethal, but would obviously likely make you very ill. Yeah, but they never said that Hani felt sick or anything, but that coffee definitely Tested positive for 200. What? I say 98 milligrams of cyanide.

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

Yeah, there was cyanide in that coffee. That's not an argument about that. It was the gastric contents that were tested. What did I say? 70 minutes. And then three days later, because the one tested at 70 minutes was negative. For cyanide. And then of course, three days later it was only 0.2 milligrams of cyanide in her gastric contents. But you know, depending on how your body's metabolism is and such like that.

[C]

And it says checked ChatGPT, it said 50 to 200 milligrams before it deleted it for safety reasons. So now I'm on a list apparently.

[B]

But so what, what did it say before it deleted?

[C]

Well, it still said 50 to 200 milligrams for a lethal dose. Like, there's no like, you know, it doesn't say necessarily necessarily where. And it said as small as like a grain of rice. That's how little sign. Like if you have it like, and you know, it's like this a little bit in a drink could like do that, but you'd have to ingest all that, I guess. So I don't know. And like the reason I ask is because poison, like the dose makes the poison, like we ingest cyanide every single day and we're totally fine.

[B]

Our body, it's, it's the dose.

[C]

Yeah, our body can get it out of us, but it's just. And you know, they're also that, that manager who took the sip too, right? Apparently.

[B]

Yeah, no, she was interviewed on the Netflix documentary. She never mentioned that she had any kind of side effects. But I'm talking she may have taken enough to just like put it on her tongue. Yeah, but the thing is, is like Jessica was taking a risk there because if she, you know, the drink tasted and smelled terribly and she had to bet on the fact that Myrna was going to take a big enough gulp to ingest a lethal dose.

[C]

Well, you know, when you get to a table or whatever and maybe somebody ordered a drink for you and it's sitting there and you're just like, oh good. And you wanted it all day long, especially you, you'd be like, oh, that looks good. And then just like take a big gulp of it and or, or alternately, if it's been sitting there for a while and it's watered down, you're like, I can't send this back. So I'm just going to try to drink it as fast as possible.

[B]

And I imagine she mixed it when she got there because she could tell it was diluted with the ice. Cuz what did I say? Had been sitting there for like 50 some odd minutes.

[C]

Right.

[B]

I would even question if there was any ice left in that glass at that point in time. So no doubt she gave it a big Stir. And then she probably took a huge gulp, thus ingesting 171 milligrams of cyanide. And again, she only weighed 132 pounds, because obviously, size is different, too. You weigh probably, what, £100 more than me.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

So you would need a higher dose than I would need.

[C]

Right, that makes sense. Metabolism and all that stuff. Yeah, interesting.

[B]

But, I mean, no doubt in my mind, Jessica was. Is a thousand percent guilty. I can't believe that anyone's torn on the fact that she is the one who did it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like there was a camera over the bar where the bartender was preparing it.

[C]

Yeah. And she just. It's circumstantial. Right? That's the evidence that we're finding here. It's all circumstantial because there's no direct correlation. And really, the damning thing is they couldn't find how she got the damn sign.

[B]

Right.

[C]

That sucks so bad. And she must have had a burner phone and probably texting the whole time, like, and just throwing that away. Like, she's smart. She got rid of her pants, too. And obviously, you know, she's probably very well educated, so she probably figures out how to. To get rid of a lot of things, and there's just no evidence. And she knew this was going to happen. And so that's. And I'm a person that sells surveillance cameras, so, like, for this, I think I would put, like, a fisheye in the middle that would, like, you can't really even see it. It's like just a little dot Right.

[B]

Where no one can see it, know that it's there. I mean, but if you watch the footage of her in this cafe, it's highly damning because she comes in and she is scoping this joint out.

[C]

I do the same thing, just so we know.

[B]

It's like, I've been to many cafes. I'm not, like, looking around.

[C]

Like, I can tell you where all the camera is. Cameras are.

[B]

Well, you especially. It's, like, almost embarrassing. And it's weird, too, because, like, you walk up to security cameras, I'm like, well, they're definitely watching you now.

[C]

Yeah. I look at them like, I'm like, probably, what, a foot away from me because I want to read the brand and see, like, what model it is. So I'm just like, huh. It's just one here. Okay. Yeah. It's just because I know I want to know my competition, so.

[B]

Yeah. But, you know, it's like, at the base of this case, Myrna 27 year old Myrna took a sip of coffee and immediately knew something was wrong. And that's. She died that day.

[C]

That's the important thing to remember.

[B]

And it's just so sad. And she had literally just gotten married like a month and some change before that, and she was starting her life and she had her twin sister and like her sister had kids. Like, she was taken away from her family and they're just left with this devastating loss. And that's always what I want to remember with these cases is, you know, we're talking about the dramatic parts of the case, but at the base of the, the foundation of this case, someone lost their life. And there's members that will forever be grieving their loss.

[C]

Yeah. And they most likely can't stand Jessica. And meanwhile they see all these people fawning over her, being like. And then people paying her to represent their brand and stuff.

[B]

It's almost like making a mockery of your child's death is what it is. So the fact that companies want this woman's face as their brand, to me, is disgusting.

[C]

Well, for us, like if it was the same here, it wouldn't be like a Folgers or a Starbucks that reaches out to her. It would be a newer brand that wants to be edgy and stuff.

[B]

Stuff like, I don't think that's, that's funny. I don't think it's appropriate. She killed someone, right?

[C]

Crazy.

[B]

Yeah. It's just awful. So anyway, thank you guys so much for being here, for listening to us, for supporting us. We appreciate each and every one of you. We hope you guys are having a great week. If you could take just a second of your time, like subscribe all that good stuff, leave us a five star review, yada yada yada, you know the script.

[C]

Leave the comment in the Apple. If you have an Apple phone, put it a review and then leave some words in there that say a true crime. Like a couple, like great couple, true crime podcast couple. Like those words. AI picks up all that stuff. So it's really important. Like what would you search for in Google? Use those words in our reviews. That would help us immensely.

[B]

Yes. So thank you guys. We appreciate you. Have a great week. Take care of yourselves and each other. You know, hopefully your iced coffee doesn't look like turmeric and if it smells like glue, don't drink it. So it's just a very simple. And we thank you all and until next time, bye.

[D]

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