In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far beyond the reach of land, help, or escape. A fishing vessel drifted through international waters. On board were dozens of men, isolated, exhausted, and thousands of miles from home. There was no signal, no authority, and no way off.

Over the course of several weeks, the crew began turning on each other. Men were beaten and thrown overboard, left to disappear into the ocean. By the time the ship returned to port, more than twenty crew members were dead. And what had unfolded on board would later be described as one of the most disturbing cases of violence ever recorded at sea.

On the evening of July 26th, 2014, police officers in the quiet Japanese city of Sasebo entered a residential apartment expecting to investigate a missing teenager.

What they found inside stopped every officer in their tracks.

The body of a 15-year-old girl lay on the floor.

Her head had been severed. Her hand was removed. And Blood was splattered all over the room.

And to their utter horror… sitting coldly and calmly inside the same room was another 15-year-old girl, her classmate.

When police questioned the girl about the sinister scene… her explanation sent shockwaves through Japan.

Because she said she had always wondered what it would feel like…

to kill someone.

In October 2000, 24-year-old Noor Suzaily Mukhtar boarded a bus in Kuala Lumpur on her way to work. She had recently returned from the United Kingdom after graduating from De Montfort University and had just begun her career as a computer engineer. It should have been an ordinary morning commute.

Instead, the bus driver diverted from the usual route.....

What followed shocked Malaysia, a brutal crime carried out in broad daylight, in a space meant to be safe. The case ignited national outrage, led to changes in public transport policies, and became part of larger debates about women’s safety and capital punishment.

On the night of August 24th, 2007, a 31-year-old office worker left her job in Aichi Prefecture, Japan… and never made it home.

Her name was Rie Isogai.

She had no enemies. No dangerous lifestyle. No warning.

But somewhere else in the city, three men were refreshing a message board, an underground corner of the internet known in Japan as a “dark site.”

They weren’t friends.
They had never met in person.
But that night, they agreed on one thing:

They wanted money.
And they were willing to kill for it.

This case would shake Japan, not only because of its brutality, but because it forced the country to confront something new.

Strangers meeting online.
An anonymous digital world.
And a murder born from a website.

It would become known as the Dark Site Murder.

And in a country where the death penalty is rarely applied to a single killing… this case would test the limits of justice.

In Part 2, the case moves from investigation to trial.
This episode walks through the courtroom proceedings, key witnesses, and the emotional impact statements that brought the case to its breaking point. As the judge delivers the verdict, the question remains: was this a tragic accident, or something far more deliberate?

For our Season 9 finale, we step outside of Asia and head to the United States.

In the summer of 2022, a devastating car crash in Ohio claimed the lives of two young men: Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. What first appeared to be a tragic accident would later be re-examined, investigated, and ultimately prosecuted as intentional and as murder.

This episode marks the beginning of a two-part deep dive into the McKenzie Shirilla case, a story that gripped me from the moment I encountered it. Teen car crashes, sadly, are not uncommon, but something about this case feels different. The evidence, the behaviour, the courtroom strategy, and the unanswered questions all demand careful examination.

This case is about a man named Leslie Khoo, who was a married man, a repeat offender, and someone living a double life.

In July 2016, during a heated argument inside a car, he strangled his girlfriend, Cui Yajie, a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

What followed was an attempt to erase her existence.

Over the next three days, Khoo transported her body to a forested area in Lim Chu Kang, where he burned her remains in an effort to destroy all evidence.

He was arrested on 20 July 2016.

Three years later, despite the absence of a body, Khoo was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, making this Singapore’s second murder conviction without a body.

In this episode today, we explore the chilling series of unsolved poisonings known as the Paraquat Murders or the vending machine murders, where an everyday convenience of accessing a quick drink became lethal, victims were chosen at random, and a nation known for its safety was gripped by fear.

With no arrests, no clear motive, and no single suspect, this case remains one of Japan’s most disturbing mysteries, a horrifying reminder that even the most ordinary moments can hide something deadly.