15 Yr Old Student Vanished In Boarding School & Found Mysteriously Dead 3 Months Later On Campus
But I think but I think. This one is a doozy. It was viral in. China and it all kind of unfolded. January 2023. So, like four or five. months ago. A guard was patrolling the high school. grounds. He worked for this massive. boarding school. And when I say massive, I mean I think they owned close to 600. acres of land. So, it's a it's a big. chunk of land that he's guarding. He had. to take his little guard dog, patrol. through the woods, make sure that. there's no trespassers, make sure no.
students are setting up a meth lab, no. rogue chicken running about. And he. would go through the stone paths. So, it's not like the woods are completely. unchartered territory. It's not like. it's overgrown the the forbidden forest. You know, there's paths, there's trails. to take. And he would just walk along. And some days he would be out there. cutting down bamboo before it got a. little impossible. But today, his guard. dog had completely other plans.
His guard dog would not budge. First, the dog was frozen on the path. And then slowly it turned its body. towards off path and starts yanking at. the guard. The guard gives it one tug. Like, "Come. on, let's get back on the path." But the. dog absolutely refuses to stop barking. The dog is pulling towards the trees. The guard is, you know, kind of curious. Normally his job is very calm, very. peaceful even. But recently, the. disappearance of a high school student. at the school, things have been.
different since then. So, even walking. through these woods, it made him feel a. bit unsettled. It it sent a chill down. his back. He took one step off the path. onto the crunchy leaves. The dog pulled on the leash until. finally both of them were walking off. the path and towards this abandoned shed. on campus. Okay, it's not necessarily a. shed per se. It's more like four brick. walls that were set in place and inside. it was used to storage things so that. they wouldn't be in plain view. And. outside the four walls, there were.
linings of trees, like think privacy. trees, but they're really tall, they're. really big. They've got these humongous. branches. It's honestly kind of. confusing, so I'm trying to simplify it. to make it digestible. The guard dog. stops abruptly at this shed, and his leg. and tail is stiff. Like all of his legs, his whole tail, his whole body is stiff. His head is pointed upwards like an. arrow, and the guard stares at his dog, follows his gaze to see where is my dog. looking, and at first he just sees.
trees. And then he's like, wait. What is that? In between the wall and the trees, in. this small little gap, there was a body hanging. The 15-year-old student that had went. missing 3 months ago had just been found. on campus hanging from a tree by a pair. of shoelaces. For the past 126 days, it seemed like. the whole nation of China had been. looking for this student. The campus had.
been turned upside down by. investigators. I mean, it was absolutely. gnarly. How on earth was he found just. in the open on campus? This is a case that would bring. conspiracies of a SA ring in school, a. principal running an SA ring, a. chemistry teacher that wanted to commit. the perfect murder using chemicals, and. even school bullies. Because of just how. bizarre the death of this student is, it. seemed like every conspiracy made sense.
This was huge. Yeah. Like I was reading news about people are. saying like there was. Panda blood, it was a blood donation. going on. some governor needs some organ, and then. they kidnap the kid for the organ. Yeah. huge. Huge, and the conspiracies are wild. So, let's talk about the case of the missing. boarding school student. And this is a. case that seemed to drive practically. all of China mad.
As always, full show notes are available. at rottenmangopodcast.com. I did have a Mandarin speaker help with. this research, not him. Okay, a Mandarin. researcher. And especially in regards to. all the public theories, the threads. that just catapulted this case into.
mainstream media, I wanted to make sure. that we covered the most of it. And a. lot of netizens, they were invested in. this case. This received a ton of media. attention in China, and there's just so. much. mystery, speculation, conspiracies about. what's going on. So, we're going to. cover the most popular ones. But just a. reminder, myself included, it's easy to. get swept up in these conspiracies, but. you know, this is a case that affected. and still affects the lives of real. people. So, I think while speculation is.
fine, as long as it's done with. compassion and grace, but um let's just be mindful. So, with. that being said, let's get into the. story. This story takes place in a. boarding school in China. It's called. the. Zhi. Zhi. Yuan High School, which boarding. schools, okay, we know one person that. was in a boarding school for a few. years, and it's completely anecdotal, but they said it was pretty creepy. Like, I don't know, maybe it's all the. movies and books that make boarding. schools feel like something is lurking. in the background, but it's not just a.
big sleepover, you know? That's what. they said. The first few nights feels. like a big sleepover, and then it's no. longer fun. That's exactly how they. describe it. It's just got an eerie. sense. Now, today's story solely takes. place in a boarding school, so I have to. give you the rundown of the campus. There are two main buildings in this. campus. There are a little bit of like. small little one-story buildings here. and there, but these two buildings are. the most important ones. They're. technically side by side. They're 0.06.
mi away from each other. So, it should. take like a minute or two to walk from. one building to the next, right? A 0.06? Oh, yeah, that's super close. Yeah, that's like really close. I mean, there's some trees in between, but it. it's so close. Now, they're technically. side by side, but like I said, there's a. small little park that you have to. cross. So, one building is reserved for. all the classrooms and most of the. administrative rooms, like think your. principal's office, all of these things. Teachers' offices, HR. Then, you take a. quick little walk, then you've got the.
other building. This is reserved for. student dorms. And the campus is. reminiscent of a college campus, but on. a tinier, much smaller scale. I mean, outside of these two main buildings, they had a gym, two parks, soccer field, basketball court, tennis court. I mean, it's a pretty big school. And since it's. a restricted boarding school, one of the. appeals is that it is completely gated. and fenced off from the general public. And students were not allowed to leave. the campus without getting explicit. permission from teachers or staff, cuz. these are high school kids. These are.
not college kids. So, this way, parents. feel a lot safer about sending their. kids to this school because it's not. some sort of free for all. The kids are. still under very constant, strict. supervision. Everyone is treated like a. high schooler and not like a college. student. And this is all kind of. important later. So, anyway, the school. has these three massive gates. Now, the. biggest one is the main gate. It's huge. It's fancy. It looks grand, and it's. used for big celebrations, like. welcoming day, graduation day. And then.
you have a second gate, you know, a much. smaller one. And this one is used for. outsiders to come in. So, when you have. parents visiting, maybe potential. deliveries, they come in through this. gate. Those types of instances, outsiders coming into the school. Then you have the last gate, the. smallest gate. This was typically used. solely by staff and students. Staff when. they're coming in for work and students. when they have permission to leave or. for whatever reason. And side note, okay, this boarding school is kind of. unique. This is the absolute first time.
that I've ever heard of this and I don't. know if it's common in China, but. parents could board with their students. What do you mean? So each dorm room typically has a bunk. bed and two students are placed in the. room. So one gets the top bunk, one gets. the bottom bunk, but sometimes one. parent will choose to stay with their. kid at the school. So they share a room and they share the. bunk beds. And a good amount of parents. chose to do this at this particular. school. I think there was a 90-something. parents who lived on campus.
That's my biggest nightmare as a parent. You know, China's parents are so. obsessed with kids' grades. It's almost. like let me live with you so you don't. have to worry about your day-to-day. So all you can do is study. Yes, that's exactly why. So while the. kids focus on studying, the parents will. focus on tidying up, cooking meals, running errands, cutting up fruit, just. making sure that their kid is actually. studying. Yeah, so back to the setup of the. school. It's gated and the fact that the. most of the school was fenced off was. pretty impressive considering the fact.
that the school had two parks on the. property. Students were allowed to use. them and this is again not like some. sort of forbidden forest type of. scenario. One of the parks is about 4. acres, very, very small, and the largest. one was about 589 acres. Jeez. Yeah, so to put it in perspective how. massive that park is, it takes an. average student about 2 and 1/2 minutes. to walk through the 4-acre park. Right. It takes about 6 hours to walk through. 589 acres.
589 acres? Yeah. Central Park is 843 acres. Oh, yeah. This one is like more than half of that. That's crazy. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we it's huge. I mean, the big park is huge, but again, don't get me wrong. It was designed to. be somewhat usable for the students. There were these paver stone walkways. There were these trails that led through. it. So, if you want to go hiking or if. you wanted to go sit on a bench inside. the woods, students could do that. It's.
not like this wild, haunted, overgrown, uncharted territory that's just looming. behind the school like, "Oh, I'm going. to kidnap you." Students would actually. frequently wander through the park. looking for a quiet, peaceful place to. put down a blanket and to study. Now, on October 14th, a 15-year-old. student by the name of Hu Xinyu. Hu Xinyu. Hu Xinyu, let's call him Xing. Xing was. not looking for a peaceful place to. study. Instead, on October 14th, he walked into.
those woods. and he never came back out alive. The last time that he was seen alive was. October 14th, 2022 at 5:49 p.m. Xing was seen walking into his dorm. building. He checked the time. He had about 10-15 minutes max before. his next study hall class. So, his next. study hall was at 6:20 p.m. and the. class technically starts at 6:20 p.m., but the teacher wanted all of the. students to arrive 15 minutes early. So, truly, he only had about 10 minutes.
before he had to make his way over to. the school building. He did not go into. his room. Maybe he didn't want to lay. down if he has to get right back up. So, instead, he goes to the fifth floor of. the dorms and walks out onto the. balcony. So, they've got this little. mini rooftop area. Wait, where is he walking from? So, he walked from the school building. back to his dorm building. And he's got. like 10 minutes left, you know? So, he's. inside of his. to walk back to the school building. because he has a class in 10 minutes. hall. But instead, he walked all the way. to the dorm building, walked to the.
fifth floor, and went out onto the. balcony. Now, this balcony overlooks the. forest {slash} park behind the dorm. building, and he's just standing there. alone staring out into the woods. So, he. spends about 2 minutes there, and CCTV. does see him heading out at 5:51 p.m. So, we see him walking to the balcony, and then walking out at 5:51. He was. just there for like 2-3 minutes. That's. it. So, now he's like, "Okay, I got to cross. this small park to get to the main. school building to show up for my study.
hall." And he's seen walking on the CCTV. cameras at a somewhat leisurely pace. He. doesn't seem rushed, which he's not. late, so he doesn't have to be. He. doesn't seem angsty. He just seems like. he's enjoying his nice little walk. He turns into the park, and that is the. last time anyone has ever seen him. It took a little while for people to. start panicking. The students were. expected to be at the study class 15. minutes early because there were always. late students. So, usually the students. would even be late for that. The.
students would come 5 minutes before the. class, which is fine as long as the. teacher can start the class on time, she. didn't care. Now, Sheng was not early. He didn't even make it when the class. was supposed to start. But even then, teacher A, this is a fake name, she. always knew that there's at least like. one student who shows up super super. late, like 20 minutes after class has. already started. So, teacher A thought it was just. strange though because Sheng was never. that student. He was never the one that. showed up late. He was always early to. class.
She tries to focus on her lesson, and. didn't really start worrying until about. 30 minutes into her lesson, and she. realizes, "Wow, he's still not here.". Now, like I said, this is not college, where students can opt to not show up. for certain classes or study halls. Sheng is supposed to be here, and he's. not. So, there's a problem. She knew something wasn't right. She. excused herself, went into the hallway, pulls out her phone, and starts talking. She starts placing calls to. administrators, other people. She's. like, "Hey, can you guys go check for.
Xing in his room? Maybe he fell asleep, but he's supposed to be at study hall.". For whatever reason, the kids said that. they the students in the class said that. they felt something was off. They felt. like something was amiss. The way that. she was outside for so long talking on. the phone, the energy was just strange. I mean, often times you can imagine that. kids skip class because they took a nap, they fell asleep, or they lost track of. time, whatever excuse, but this just it. felt amiss, okay? Eventually, it was announced to the.
class and administrators that Xing was. missing. He wasn't in class. The. administrators went to his room to check. for him there. He wasn't there. Found it. empty of Xing. Nothing was moved or. packed. In fact, all of Xing's. belongings were still there. So, his. phone, money, wallet, watch, everything. valuable and important was left in that. room. The only two things that they could. consider missing were his student ID and. the recording pen that he took. everywhere. So, this little recording. pen was something that he recently. bought and he would bring it into all of.
his classes and record all of the. lectures so that he could bring it home, import it, and listen to it over and. over and over again as a form of. studying. That was it. Those two things were gone. Oh, and Xing. was gone. Now, the school does not immediately. call Xing's parents right away because I. mean, imagine they call every parent to tell. them that their child is missing when in. reality they're playing hooky, they're. taking an extra long bathroom break, they're making out in the woods. Like, you don't know, right? Instead, they.
focused a ton of their energy in. searching all of his friends' dorms and. all over the dorm building and the. school building for Xing. And it wasn't until they were absolutely. certain that he was nowhere to be found. that they made the call to his parents. He was last seen at around 6:00 p.m. His. parents received a call at around 11:21. p.m. Mr. Who? This is Teacher A, your son's study hall. teacher. Shing didn't make it to study. hall today and he's not in his room. either and we couldn't find him anywhere. on campus. He did attend the last.
classes, so I'm sure wherever he went it. can't be too far, you know? But it's. just been a few hours, so we wanted to. alert you. Now, Shing's family, they live 3 hours. away from the school. His dad and his. aunt, they get into the car, they rush. over. They get there around 2:00 a.m. That's as fast as they could be. Shing's. mom on the other hand, she worked in a. completely different province, so think. working in a completely different state. She couldn't get to the boarding school. until about 11:00 a.m. the next morning. So, the whole family, they arrive and.
they're rightfully nervous, they're. rightfully upset. I mean, like what do. you mean he's gone missing? I mean, the. whole reason that we sent him to a. private boarding school and pay money. every single semester, like isn't that. part of what you guys are supposed to. do? Make sure that the kids are safe or. at least accounted for. Like, what on. earth are you talking about? He's gone. So, the family speaks to everyone, Shing's teachers, his classmates, friends, anyone that might have seen. them that day and nobody was a great. amount of help. All they mentioned was. I mean, he was fine. Yeah, I mean,
nothing out of the ordinary. No, I. didn't I didn't notice anything strange. He didn't seem like he was acting. strange. I didn't see anyone following. him. I didn't see anything alarming. Yeah, just seemed like a normal day. Shing's family, they start getting. frustrated because there is a lack of. information here. The teachers are like, we don't know. He just didn't show up. anymore. They're like, we are not communicating. I feel like we're not even speaking the. same language. So, they proactively, they print a ton of missing posters for. Shing, place them all over the school.
They had his picture in big bold red. letters, it read missing person, 15-year-old male. No device with him. that can help him communicate, only has. a recording pen with him. He was last. seen wearing a white t-shirt and a black. zip-up hoodie. Short hair, glasses and. was wearing black pants with white. stripes down the side. If you have any. information that leads to him being. found, we have a reward of $7,000. Now, Xing's family, they stand at the. massive gates of the boarding school,
and anytime a. staff member, a student, a parent, anyone, a passerby, a regular civilian, they would pass out these posters. They. place these posters all over the outside. of this boarding school so that just. regular civilians with no association to. the school would also be on the lookout. The family was desperate. The police do get involved pretty. quickly, and okay, even though the. police get involved, the way that. they're looking for Xing is very. different. I think that the the parents. wanted them to look for Xing with such.
urgency, and. it'd be classified as like a criminal. case. Xing's family is like, you need to look. for him as if someone kidnapped him. However, the police went in there and. looked for Xing as a missing person's. case. So, they did this with a little. bit more leisure. But, missing's person is. Yeah. So, I guess that in China it's. classified as a missing person just. means we don't know where they are. Mhm. Does not mean that something bad. happened to them. In order for it to be. classified as missing person's criminal.
case, it means there needs to be some. sort of hint that someone kidnapped. them, someone took them, they got in. trouble, and something happened, versus. missing person's is just straight-up we. don't know the location of this person. Mhm. Okay. They could have willingly run away. Yeah. I guess it's all very similar, huh? US, yeah. I mean, we just classify it as. like a runaway versus a missing. person's, but same thing, right? So, the. teacher, police, and Xing's family, they. searched the entire school property with. the help of civilian volunteers. They.
look in every single room on the. grounds. They check the pools, attics, roofs, everywhere. I mean, they went the. extra mile. They drained septic tanks. just in case. A team of searchers flew drones over the. grounds to run 3D imaging and scans. They brought in drones that did thermal. scanning to look for him in the woods. Again, nothing showed up. Are you guys. seeing where I'm getting like that's. weird? Okay, it's weird. Civilians. volunteered to search and the local. community, they really came together to.
help. A lot of people said people. searched as if it was their own son that. had gone missing. It could be pouring. down rain and people would be bringing. in their own resources. They would come. in with parkas, rain jackets, walking. sticks. It was said that at the biggest. size, the search party was like 2,000. people big. Wow. So clearly, this is not a half-ass. search. I mean, keep this in mind. because his body is found in a place. that should have been so easy. So, I'm. going to show you a map for the visual. people, but if you guys are just.
listening to the audio, it's like the next building over. The. shed, I know it's it sounds like it's. way out in the woods. I think it was. .2 miles away. It's really not that deep. into the woods. And it's a building. It's like right. there. People know of its existence. It's not like this forbidden like, "Oh, nobody knows what the shed existed. The. students had no idea the shed was. there.". So, they searched everywhere. Everywhere. They're draining tanks. They're combing through school security.
footage, but nothing seemed amiss. When. they see Shin, he's wearing a white. shirt, black zip-up jacket walking out. of the dorm building at 5:51 p.m. He. heads to his study class and that was. the last footage of him. Then poof, nothing. He's not seen ever. again. He's not seen at the campus. gates. He's not seen leaving the. grounds. He's not seen coming back to. grab something. He's just gone. The. leader of the rescue said, "It's as if. he vanished into thin air.
We're not going to give up, but we have. no clue.". They had already conducted four cross. searches covering 90 acres of land, 12. buildings, 884 rooms, 11 underground. pipes, 10 septic tanks, 10 water. heaters, nine water reservoirs, two. lakes, two parks, two sports centers, one garbage dump, 2,238. residences near the school, 589 acres of. woodland south of the campus, 226. temples, 159 businesses, 124 miles of. riverbank, 72 ponds, 16 miles of.
railroad, and 25 nursing homes. Wow. They followed and eliminated 378. tips and cleared all the school. personnel and students, including the 98. parents that were residing with their. children on campus. They did not find a. single trace of Xing. They didn't even. find a god damn clue. They found nothing. that suggested foul play or even a. runaway. I mean, that's the thing. They. didn't find evidence of either thing.
They found no evidence. None. Which meant that it was going to remain. a missing person's case in the eyes of. the law, which is not what the family. wanted. Missing person's cases in China, like I said, are equivalent to runaway. cases in the US. They are not treated. with nearly the same amount of urgency. that criminal missing person's cases. get, which, you know, it's like that. here. So, the Hu family, they're broken. from the lack of. I mean, nothing has happened. Their son. is missing. They're doing all of this,
and nothing was found. Like, the lack of. findings and progress made it so. difficult for them to even feel hope. To. them, it just didn't make sense. There's. a lot of anger there, too, of like, "I. sent my kid to this boarding school to. be safe, and now you're telling me you. have no idea where he went.". Xing's mom was also dealing with a lot. of guilt. She said originally, she. wanted to be in the boarding school with. Xing. She practically begged him, but he. turned her down. And it's not like they. had a better relationship. They got. along really well. But, he's 15, and for.
the first time ever, he's like, "Mom, I. just want to experience a little bit of. something different. Maybe next year you. can move in, but it's my first semester. here. I just I want to see. So the months leading up to the move-in, his mom would ask, are you sure? I could. cook for you while you study and I could. clean up for you. Mom, it's fine. You're. 3 hours away. I'm going to be good. So even though Sheng's mom was a little. bit sad, she let him have his space and. there was nothing that made her. concerned for him or or worried for him.
Like Sheng was a good kid. Both his. parents, his older brother Tao, they. adored him. Side note, his older brother. is like 15 years older, so it's like a. second dad basically. Tao was adored. adored Sheng. Anytime he made a little. bit of extra pocket money with his job, he would buy Sheng new clothes, new. shoes. I mean, they got along so well. Everyone that knew Sheng, not just his. family members, they said, yeah, that's. the type of kid that you would trust to. be alone in a boarding school.
Like other kids, you'd be like, oh, I. don't know if they're going to study. I. don't know if they're going to listen to. the teachers, but Sheng, yeah. Neighbors. remember seeing him walk 30 minutes to. his grandmother's house a couple times a. week on a regular basis so that cuz she. was wheelchair bound and he would take. her on these long scenic walks. He would. run and buy groceries for her. He would. clean up the entire house. He would do. all the chores. And when he wasn't doing. that, he was typically perpetually. hunched over a math textbook.
He's like every parent's dream kid. For. example, one time their town was. completely flooded. The water was coming. up to people's knees. It was really. flooded. So school for some reason was. not canceled. Do you guys not cancel school often in. China? If it doesn't affect the study, then no, yeah. Really? Like if it snows and the roads. are a little icy. Well, it depends on the city. Some city. are used to it, you know? Yeah, I just remember growing up in the. South, it's like one snowflake falls, school is canceled for a week.
Yeah, for Georgia, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, school for some reason was not. canceled and all the other students are. trying to talk to their parents about. this newfound discovery of the dangers. of floods. They're like, "Mom, Dad, I. got to sit you down and tell you floods. are so dangerous. We walk out there, do. you know how much bacteria is in that. water? We can't go to school. We can't. I know it's not canceled, but I can't go. to school." They're like trying to tell. their parents that. Not Shin. Shin put. on his backpack and his neighbors said. they were shocked to see him splashing. onto the streets running to school. Same. as always. He was like one of the few.
students that showed up. Even when his. parents gave him allowance, he would. just put it away into this little box. and they're like, "Please, just use this. money. Go watch a movie with your. friends. Like, you got to put down the. math textbook. We're thinking that. you're becoming a little bit. antisocial." And he refused. When he. felt like he had saved up enough, he. would present this little box of cash to. his grandma and she would be so upset. "Absolutely not. I'm not taking that. money.". So, when his grandma refused, he would. use the money to pay for his own school.
fees. Like, what kind of kid is selfless. enough to do this? And it's not like the. family was financially struggling at the. time. It wasn't a situation where they. were emptying out the last of their. pockets to send their son to school. He. just felt really guilty to use it. I mean, they just had a little bit of. extra and gave it to him. That's it. So, it really doesn't seem like the type. of kid to run away or skip boarding. school because he doesn't like the. studies or get involved with the wrong. type of groups. The extent of his wild. streak or his rebellious teenage years.
was watching anime and that's not even. rebellious. That's just called. destressing. And of course, he never. watched so much that it would affect his. grades. Like, he would finish all of his. studies before he watched anime. Like, this was their son and now he's missing. and the authorities were hinting at the. fact that maybe Shin had walked off the. campus by his own free will. They argued. that maybe Shin just got tired of school. and left. He's over it. He doesn't want to study. anymore. He snapped. That was the best explanation that. existed and the family was like, "Mm,
no, absolutely not." They argued that is. logically incomplete. You can't just say. that because you can't find anything. else. You can't be like, "Because we. can't find evidence of anything else, we. think this is the theory." If you want. to argue that he walked out of campus, you need a witness or you need evidence. to make you believe this theory. Something that would bolster this. waterless, baseless theory and it's. What are you saying? It doesn't make. sense, okay? So, a month into the. search, the Hu family lawyered up.
and released a statement. The statement. was titled, "Suspicion of a Campus. Burial Case in Shangxi.". So, they were requesting immediate. criminal investigation. A campus burial case meant that the. family was terrified the school was. trying to bury his case and that Xing. was literally buried on campus. They believed that his body was being. hidden on campus because it's like a. locked room situation. Nobody saw him. leave, no cameras caught him leaving, so. he must still be on campus. Now, side note, there was a campus.
burial case that had taken China by. storm recently. In 2019, a body was. found buried in a high school's field. track. It was discovered that a. supervisor for doing the school. renovations, he had gone missing during. work one day. That was like years ago, decades ago. They found his body. So, the case, you know, reminded people. that schools are not we think they are. or even want them to be. Are you talking about the playground. case? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, okay. So, Oh, that's No, that's a. different case, I think.
a different one. There's a lot of It was a playground. where they were doing renovations and. they dug it up and they found a body. Yes. Yeah. And just the idea that these kids. are like bouncing around, hanging out, having fun on top of a dead body. Like, how does a dead body even end up. buried under a playground at a school? I think it was a construction they were. doing years ago and then there's a. conflict between was it a principal or a. teacher or something and they just. Yeah, they just go went ahead and pushed.
him into the ground and and piled it up. Yeah, so. For like 20 years. I believe the principal was working with. the construction company and overpaying. them. Mhm. So, they were saying, oh, if the. construction actually cost like $50,000, they would overpay them to $100,000 and. then split that extra profit. One of the. teachers found out. And they killed it. They buried him. the construction company and the. principal had relations. Wow. Yeah. I've talked about this before if you.
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our listeners just for completing the. quick and easy debt assessment at. pdsdebt.com/mango. That's pdsdebt.com/mango. Now, the Hu family and their legal team. felt like there was no way that Shin. could have just walked off campus. without one of the security cameras. catching it, or even without a witness. And if that's what the school and. authorities were alleging, that that's.
what he did, then there's some. corruption, there's some sort of foul. play involved. They believed that the. security tapes from the school had been. edited, and they were already upset. because the camera situation at this. school was bizarre. This school had over. a hundred cameras, but only six family. host. So, think of a camera host as a. big family. Every single one of those. 100-plus cameras belong to a host. camera. So, they're all clumped. together, and each host would cover a. particular area of the property, and.
some hosts might be in the school. building, some of them are in the dorm. building, some of them are outside, some. of them are in the park area, at the. gates. The one host that conveniently. wasn't recording at the time covered the. area around the main entrance of the. school. The family believed if the. administrators believed that Shin walked. out on his own free will, show us the. footage. But maybe they can't, because the. footage would show something else. entirely. So, that's why it wasn't working. So, the family had a lot of distrust.
The family suspected that someone had. messed with the cameras before they were. turned over to the authorities. Why. would they think that? So, each person that signs to watch the. CCTV cameras or to review them, they. have to sign into a monitoring log. And. this is like a in the system, so it's. not like a piece of paper, right? It's. in the system. And out of the six camera. host, five camera host logs were. missing. What? They'd been like wiped, meaning like we. have no idea who signed in to view or. alter any of those five camera hosts.
And those cameras stopped recording due. to a glitch. So after he was seen walking out of the. dorm and into the park where there's no. security cameras, the camera stopped. recording and they don't start recording. until around 1:00 a.m. the next morning. You're kidding me. Yeah. From the moment he went missing. Pretty much. How did they explain that? Yeah, they said it was a glitch. Okay, it was like an hour after he went. missing. They're like, it's a glitch. That could mean that someone could have.
tampered with the footage from at least. dozens of cameras, but we don't know. because these logs are gone. And even. the camera, the one camera that still. had their logs left, that's the one that. wasn't working. The one near the main. entrance. And that one didn't even start recording. until way later on. So I mean, are you. kidding? Like we can't even see who is. going in and out of this school at the. time that he goes missing and is that. just a weird coincidence or is something. else going on? And another thing, there. are no cameras in the campus parks. A lot of netizens just felt like that.
was strange. If anything, that's like a. big amount of space you would want to. monitor, especially when you have high. school students, right? I mean, yeah, you want to monitor the classrooms, but. the parks, come on. So the family's attorney argued and. begged for the public to pressure the. school and police into finding Xing. They said there is no video footage of. the school entrance and no sign of him. climbing up school walls and escaping. It's like he evaporated into thin air. It's hard not to suspect that this is a. criminal case and not just some sort of. disappearance. It is possible that this.
is a school burial case. We hope that. the offender can turn themselves in. because that is the last and only way. out. Both of Xing's parents quit their jobs. to focus on finding their son. They. argued, yes, there are no signs of foul. play, but there's no evidence that he. left on his own accord. We need to push. this to be a criminal investigation so. we can find out where he is. Things are. not adding up. Mrs. Hu held a press conference and it. was very hard to not sympathize with. her. She had Xing at 40 years old and. she just wanted to do everything to give.
him like the most happy upbringing and. then this happens?
Netizens came together and they start. publicly supporting Mrs. Hu. They even. pushed her to start her own TikTok doing. account. The account was called Xing's. mother looking for her son. She just. posted video after video begging the. public to help her. She wanted to bring. her son home. And in the beginning. everything was very understandable. But of course, you know, in desperate.
moments, I think that humans have a. tendency to do things that are a bit. maybe out of character, maybe a bit. questionable. I think everyone. understood where she was coming from. It. It didn't necessarily make it okay, but. Mrs. Hu started accusing random teachers. of being involved in her son's. disappearance. She was originally. pointing the finger at the study group. teacher, teacher A. She explained that. she had left the room with her phone for. a long period of time and the students. claimed that she was acting strangely. She also stated that teacher A not. calling Xing's parents immediately was a.
very strange thing to do. But I don't know. I find that a pretty. reasonable reaction. Like I said, you. can't just call parents every time a kid. doesn't show up to class cuz you would. have a lot of disgruntled parents. I don't know if I would have waited 5. hours, but I I think it's not too. unreasonable. Mhm. Now, netizens disagreed with her. slandering a teacher without any. concrete evidence. But it's hard to turn. on the Hu family. I mean, they would. camp outside the school gates holding up. signs that read, "Give me back my son.". Like it was heartbreaking. If you see.
the deterioration, Mrs. Hu looked like. she had lost 50 lb in a month. I mean, she looked frail. She looked. weak. Bystanders could do nothing but. watch. I mean, she was fixated on. finding her son. The family hired professional rescue K9. teams from the other side of China to. come and search the campus. The dogs. only signaled near the stairs of the. dorm building. Keep that in mind. But it. I mean, otherwise it checked out. It. cleared. It looked normal. The security.
footage in that area didn't show any. sort of weird happenings, either. The. family hired a security engineer to help. them go through the school security. system to see if it was tampered with to. get some sort of clue. If her son walked. out fine, which way did he go? Did he. leave with someone? Did someone stop and. talk to him? Like was he taken? That's. what she wants to know. Once it was revealed that she was going. around hiring her own detectives, people. start speculating. Wait. Why would she. have to hire her own detectives if the. school is helping? Maybe the school is not helping. Maybe.
they're not cooperating. Why would the. school not want to cooperate? Netizens started spreading a rumor that. Mrs. Hu was offered $300,000 to keep. quiet about the case. The rumor started. because she stopped posting on Douyin. It's unproven to this day if this offer. was made, but it's clear that she never. took it if it was because she continued. to post later on. She also said that she. spent her own savings to hire these. third-party professionals. It was also discovered that there were. 13 cars that were in and out of that. school around the time that Xing.
vanished. They were all cleared by the police. But one of them was an SUV that was. caught parked near the cafeteria, near. where Xing was walking, and the Hu. family believed that this SUV could be. the answer to all their questions. Maybe. Xing was put into that SUV, driven out. of the school, and that's why you don't. see footage of him leaving. Again, the police tell them, "Listen, we. cleared every single driver, including. the SUV driver." But the Hu family do.
not trust the police. Like, what was the. car doing there? Fine, then tell us, "What if the car was the one that. carried our son off campus? Like, how do. we know?". Finally, near Christmas of 2022, Mrs. Hu. posts on Douyin. She rants about the. only way that she could talk to the. principal was through social media. because he refused to get in contact. with her, to even talk to her. Yeah, you. better believe that set off netizens, okay? It was. like a bombastic side-eye. Like, what. are you talking about? The principal. where your son went missing on his. campus refuses to cooperate with you?
Very strange. She publicly asked the. principal a series of questions. One, "Principal, you were off the day that my. son disappeared. So, you were not on. campus, but at 5:51 p.m., you were seen. rushing back to the school. Did you rush back to the school to mess. with the security tapes? Two, why was there an SUV parked near. the cafeteria? The SUV wasn't caught on. your security cameras, but did you know. that the SUV was caught on a different. camera? The SUV was sitting there for about 6. minutes. Was Xing taken away in that.
SUV? Three, this is to the SUV driver. I want to ask you, did you take my son? Four, do all the teachers here still. even have a heart? I believe you carried. my son to the cafeteria gate and into. that SUV. So, I think what the Hu family. at this point were believing was that. something might have happened to Sheng. at the school. Maybe bullies had hit him, maybe an. accident had occurred, maybe a teacher. had abused him, maybe he died. suspiciously and they wanted to get rid.
of all the evidence because a death on. campus is probably worse than a. disappearance cuz a disappearance you. could say, "Well, it was a troubled teen. who wanted to run away.". Whereas a death, I mean, a lot of. parents would pull their kids from this. private school. You have to remember, it's not even a public school. They get. all their funding from tuitions. They. need parents to trust this. establishment. Five, question to the principal and the. SUV driver, "Where did you take my son?". Now, most netizens were supportive, but. it felt like Mrs. Hu was.
unraveling online. They commented, "Mama. Hu, just please take care of yourself, okay? Leave it to the police.". Side note, the police did investigate. the SUV driver and they said that it was. completely normal. He's cleared. But that doesn't stop the internet from. doing what the internet does best. Random accounts start popping up. alleging some sort of relationship to. the investigation and stating that the. SUV driver was guilty of murder and was. currently confessing to the crimes. Social media ran with it, reposting that. one random person's video, and that.
video got about like 800,000 views in. like an hour or two. Wow. Yeah, it was later proven to be false. But the impact was massive. Even. mainstream media started running with it. without fact-checking, just stating that. the SUV driver was the killer. The case. flew to the top of online public. attention. I mean, this is really when. it catapulted because not only did. mainstream media say they found the. killer, but they also had to backtrack. and be like, "Just kidding. The SUV driver has been cleared." So,
now all of China is like, "Wait, what is. going on over there? Why is the even. media forking it up so bad?". Now, most netizens are good people that. just want to help. There's going to be a few rotten ones in. the mix. So, with this case, there were. two primary rotten ones. One man who. claimed to know privileged information. about what happened to Xing. He stated. that he was trying to bring Xing home, and he just needed to get in contact. with Xing's family to pass along all. this vital information. Netizens tagged the Hu family till.
finally, Xing's uncle got in contact. with this strange man on the internet. The man was looking for 5 minutes of. fame. He told the family the only way he. could help bring Xing home was if they. told him everything about the. investigation. All the confidential privileged. information. The family and the rest of. the public had an inkling that this guy. just wanted all this privileged. information so he could be the first one. to break the news online and become some. sort of breaking news.
crime reporter. Wow. Just wanted the views. The family rejected his help, and this. man lashed out. He went from being a. pro-Hu family to the biggest hater of. the Hu family. He went online to allege. and accuse the family of faking this. disappearance so that they could get. some sort of money or compensation from. the school. He even accused the family. of being the reason that the son. disappeared. They were willing to. sacrifice the son so that they could get. paid out from the school. Another really situation to come out of.
this was, and this makes me really. scared for the future. Someone deep faked Mrs. Hu. Using her videos online, they deep faked. her face and voice and started multiple. new accounts where they were using the. AI deep fake asking netizens for. donations. Wow. A lot of people donated. Mrs. Hu had to come out and state on the. record, "We did not ask netizens for. donations. We will never ask netizens. for donations. Thank you all for. supporting this case, but do not be. fooled. We want to establish this as a.
criminal case. That's what we want. We. want the truth.". That's it. So, the whole case was turning into. a mess. But, regardless of the public. attention to the case, there was a lot. of pressure on the school, the city, and. the government to figure out what the. hell happened to Xing. Netizens started. doubting even the efficacy of the. searches. They wrote online, "Usually. when a search party is that large, like. 2,000 people large, they already have. some sort of clue or purpose for the. search. It's well organized. It's not. just, 'Hey guys, we're just going to go.
out into the field and look around.'". But, as for Xing's case, there's no. leads, no proof, no organization. It. feels like he went missing inside the. school. If they really wanted to search, they should start from the teachers, students, and parents that were in the. school. There are still suspicions that the CCTV. camera was tampered with. They should. start with the security guards. Plus, the places that were searched besides. all the houses or all the public places. that people pass through each day. Xing. has been gone for almost 90 days. If.
traces of Xing were there, they would. have been discovered a long time ago. So, basically saying, "Even right now, the police are searching random places. that don't even help the search.". To make matters worse, at the end of the. year, at the end of 2022, when Xing's. mom went to the campus to search more. for her son, they would not let her. inside. She told netizens, "My son is in that. school, and I want to bring him home, but now we can't even enter the school. I want to see the principal, but I can't. even do that. They won't pick up any of. my calls.".
This enraged the public even further, which resulted in reporters and. civilians lining up at the school gates. to get information and to protest. The boarding school went into intense. lockdown. Absolutely no outsiders were. allowed inside the school gates. Reporters noted that the school was. putting up new barbed wire fences along. their eastern fence, which I get it, you. want to protect your students, but. overall, not great for optics. The. school just kept finding itself in hot. water. Immediately after, students had.
leaked messages that they were getting. from administrators of the school, and. the school was telling all the students. and family members keep quiet about this. case. They stated rather bluntly that. any student found discussing this case, even amongst each other, would be. expelled. What? Which feels like they're hiding. something to netizens. Netizens took to. Weibo to argue, "If we don't find this. kid, all of China will come for this. school.". The police and the school kept arguing. that Xing must have left school because.
he was unsatisfied with school. He was a. runaway. Netizens argued, "Okay, give us. clear footage of him leaving, or else we. don't believe you anymore.". Now, we slowly start charting into the. conspiracy territory here, but Xing's. mom posted a few pictures of notes that. Xing had written in the margins of his. school books. Most of it looked like random scribbles. or doodles, like the kind that you would. draw when you're bored in class, but. some netizens went overboard in trying. to analyze every single piece of. writing, like every single scribble. suddenly became a clue. It became.
certified evidence, like literally every. clue. I'll give you an example. On one. page he wrote lamb skewers. So, netizens suspected that he had. skipped class to eat lamb skewers and. that he was kidnapped at a lamb skewer. shop. They all tried to figure out where all. the lamb skewer shops in the general. vicinity were, and like, okay, as far as. investigative work, that one isn't that. bad. I I I can see where you're going. with it. It makes sense. But then there. were the weird ones. Like he had written. down numbers, and some of the numbers. weren't that clear, but there was a four. and a seven close to each other.
So, a si chi which apparently, if you. use word play, it can also mean period. of death. Si chi. Oh, yeah, okay. So, they thought that maybe he was being. stalked, or he knew that he was going to. die soon, that someone was creeping him. out. The other numbers were 140, 50, 7,000, and 6,000. For For reason, netizens started speculating that he was. burned to death, and those were the. temperatures of the furnace that he had.
been burned in. Yeah. I think it was around this point that. netizens caught themselves going too. far, and they start reminding everyone, let's reel it back in and stop these. baseless rumors because we're becoming. unhinged. But because everybody is. getting so wrapped up in these. conspiracies, the case becomes bigger. than it ever was before. I mean, it was. getting so much attention that it. started backfiring and harming the. investigation. The Hu family was asked. by the police department to sign a. confidentiality agreement, meaning that. they cannot release any more new.
information about the case unless the. police release it first. The family agreed. They did not care. They just want to find their son. It's. not like they're doing this for social. media clout. And for a while, it was crickets. Until Chinese-American detective Lee. Chang-Yu gave his two cents on the case, and the media went into this feeding. frenzy. So, if you don't know, Chang-Yu. is a huge, huge name in the detective. field. He is a famous criminal forensic. expert in America. He's Chinese, though.
He's a legend. In China, yeah, he's a legend here, too. Yes. He's a legend. I think there's many. cases we talked about in the past, he. was a part of it. Okay, he completed his PhD in. biochemistry in just 1 year. Usually, it. takes people four-ish years to complete. it. He was the first Chinese-American to. hold the highest position in the state. police department in the entire US. He. investigated more than 6,000 criminal. cases in more than 17 countries. He. worked on JFK's assassination, Nixon's.
Watergate scandal, Clinton's. impeachment, O.J. Simpson's murder. trial, the JonBenét Ramsey case, he. worked on that one, the 9/11 attacks, and those are just some of the cases. that he's worked on. He is famous even. in China even though he's an American. detective. He's been nicknamed the. number one Chinese detective. Yeah, if something happens, he's the one. to solve it. He was asked about this case. Okay. And he said, first of all, I've never. been to the crime scene, so I just want. to clear the air. I don't want to start. false rumors. I am just going to You. tell me what you know, and I will tell.
you my expert advice." So, he's not. saying this is what happened. He's not. saying I investigated, I talked to. people. It was literally just a. question, and someone was like, "Okay, so this student went missing and like. blah blah blah blah." And he's like, "From that information you just gave. me," he said, "I've been in the. detective field for many years, and I've. seen all sorts of crimes. According to. the past cases, the possibility of a. 15-year-old boy leaving the campus on. his own like this, very unlikely.". The security cameras on campus also did. not catch him leaving, so how could the. police give out such a conclusion.
without evidence to support it? Yeah. "I've never been to the crime scene, and. I can't spread false rumors, but from my. experience, I believe that Xing had. already been harmed, and it happened. inside or around the school premises. He's probably hidden inside the school. Another possibility is that it was. organized crime, and everyone is giving. the same verbal evidence. So, for the. offender, what I've learned is. This is crazy. The most dangerous place. is usually the safest place. So, to commit a crime at a school where.
you're familiar with or your home, it's. the most dangerous cuz that's where the. police will search, but it's the. safest.". Netizens took that to mean that there is. a possibility of this being an inside. job. That meant that the personnel and. the students on campus weren't cleared. even though they were cleared by the. police. They took it to mean that. multiple people could have faked a story. and convinced everyone to share that. story over and over and over again until. it became the truth. The most dangerous place is usually the. safest place.
He's hinting that the culprit being. someone at the school had hurt him at. the school, and he's still at the. school. He also went on to question the police, and he stated, "My analysis comes from. similar previous cases more than this. specific case in particular. But Xing is. a minor, and according to the footage. and information that the police do have, there is a possibility that he was. harmed or harassed and could be in a. life-threatening situation. According to. the law, it should be classified as a. criminal case. At this point, the police. have not done so. I don't see why there.
are reasons behind this. Unfortunately, there in fact were. reasons behind this, and I don't think. they're good reasons. This is not in the. police defense. I think this is goofy, and this is like everywhere. Even in the. US, it's goofy. But, in China, in order. for missing person's case to be. classified as a criminal case, you have. to meet multiple criteria. The place of disappearance has to have. clear evidence of violence, like Gone. Girl style, coffee table turned over, blood. A person must come forward. stating that the missing person was.
harmed. I saw that person get pulled. into that van. The missing person must. have disappeared with a vehicle or large. amounts of money. That doesn't even. apply to a 15-year-old. The person is under the age of 14 and. has been missing over 48 hours. The person had conflicts or disputes. with any other party before their. disappearance. Or no one knows where they've been for. the past 3 months. So, no one knows where Xing's been for. the past 3 months. 3 months had passed, but because he didn't check off multiple.
boxes, it was not a criminal case, which. feels contradictory, okay? It feels. dumb. It's a bit of a huge double. standard. The police state that the. security footage evidence had not been. cut or edited, but it was too late, you. know? The public, they were having a. whole media frenzy with this one. Netizens yelled at the police, "If he's. alive, we want to see a person. If he's. dead, we want to see a body.". Ultimately, January 28th of 2023, the police would. have an entirely new problem on their.
hands. Xing's body would be found. A security guard was about 0.18 mi away. from the main school building. 0.2 mi. I think I said it was under a. mile, it's point two miles. Yeah, and the guard dog was barking. He. followed his guard dog up to a big red. brick wall and there were overgrown. trees in front of it. Hanging from one. of the tree branches between the red. brick wall and the trees. was a decomposing body.
Police rushed to the scene and. immediately stated that they knew that. this was Xing. They stated that his. black zip up hoodie was still on him. His shoes were on the ground below him. and curiously his recording pen, the one. that he used to record his lectures, it. was on the wall. This wall, the red. brick wall, had like little ledges that. technically he could climb up to so that. he could hang himself or to put a pen. A. lot of students were seen climbing up. and down these walls before. Which is suspicious because that means. everyone knows that this shed exists, so.
why didn't they search it? So at first. glance the police believed that he. committed suicide. There's conspiracies on why the police. might lie about something like this, but. let's explore the route, shall we? In order to do that, we have to take it. back to 2019. His body is found in 2023, but the story. starts in 2019 according to the police. Covid was a rough time for Xing. His. grades started dropping. He was like the. ultimate student until Covid. And not because he was watching too much. anime, but Covid hit China sooner than.
it did the US obviously, so Xing was. already doing online school in 2019. And. for the first few months he did okay, but like a lot of other students the. lack of routine, communication, motivation, even the lack of. interpersonal connections, Xing starts. declining in his performance. It was. just so mundane he couldn't focus. He. spent the last two years of middle. school like this until June 2022. he took the high school entrance exam. In China there's not just a college. entrance exam, there are high school.
entrance exams. The higher you score the. better the high school that you get. placed into, which is insane because the. high school kind of sets you up for the. college that you go to, which sets you. up for life. So, by the time that you're. in eighth grade, your whole life is in. the trajectory of this one freaking. exam. Insane. I can't even. So, most middle schoolers. in China are probably more stressed out. than a 40-year-old in America. Like, the. amount of pressure they face is. astronomical. So, Sheng knew his grades had been.
slipping recently with all the online. classes, but he had been preparing for. these exams. since like the beginning of his life, okay? He was stressed, but he was ready. until he wasn't ready. The stress weakened his immune system, and just a couple days before his exam, he came down with a massive fever. Oh my god. But, you can't just skip it because you. got sick. You got to be like. hospitalized for them to even allow you. to retake this exam later. It's that. serious. So, he shows up, takes the. test, and ends up getting a 531 out of.
850. Out of the 1,300 students in his school. that took 650th, which is kind of like. smack dab in the middle. He was an. average student. He was devastated. The. high school that he had been fixated on. his whole life since he was in. elementary school, he's like, "This is. the high school I want to go to." He had. just missed the cut off by like 19. points. So, instead of attending his. dream school, his parents got him into a. private boarding school in a different. province, which is why they were like 3. hours away. I believe the tuition for.
this place was about $5,000 a year, and. his parents asked him multiple times if. he wanted them with him, but he declined. every single time. He just wanted to. experience something different, something new. So, when this semester. starts, they got him settled in his. room, they meet his roommate, and then. tearfully they leave. Now, they told. him, "You got to call us anytime, okay? All the time." Sheng stayed true to his. word. He called his parents very often, and he had typical teenager responses to. everything. "Classes are fine. School.
work is fine. Homework is fine. Yes, Mom, I'm eating. And for a while, Xing. was able to hide the truth from his. parents. The fact that he wasn't doing. well. Not just academically, but. mentally. Xing was in a precarious. situation. So, the way that he was. ranked in this new high school was he. was ranked high enough to be placed in. all the top classes, but because he had. just made the cut off, he was constantly. falling short and ranking the absolute. lowest in all of his classes. So, you're saying like, let's say. there's a thousand people in grade.
eight. Mhm. He's like top 200. But, each classroom. has 200 students. So, he's like the last. person in that first 200 class. Mhm. Which is what he sees on a daily. basis. Yeah. Isn't that like sad and ironic? Like, you do well, but you're actually. it's bad for you to do well. You might as well have been placed in. the class right underneath, so that you. could be the top of that class, right? Yeah. So, it was really hard for him. And.
unlike a lot of the kids that went to. the school, Xing was born to a very, very average family. And one of the main. things that they tell you, no matter. what country you're in, one of the. easiest ways to escape your. socio-economic class. is to get a high education. I'm sure he heard this over and over. again and believed he was taking this. one and only chance for not only helping. himself, but also his family, his. parents. It felt like, no matter how. hard he studied, he just couldn't. improve. And then slowly it started.
feeling like, what is the point of. studying if I can't even improve at all? Like, what is the point to any of this? By September 2022, Xing was allegedly so. frustrated and helpless, he told his mom. all of these things. He just asked, "Can. I please just drop out?". Xing, you've only been there for a. couple months. And of course, it's going. to be hard. It's going to be an. adjustment period, but you've always. been a good student. You're going to get. better with time. Don't drop out. Just give it a little. while longer. Sheng was not having it. He told her. passionately, "I hate studying. I don't.
want to be here. I hate it here.". His mom reassured him that the beginning. of October was a national holiday, so. that they're going to pick him up, go. home, he's going to have a few days at. home, and it'll be great. Like, maybe. you just need a week off to take your. mind off of things. Now, on this visit. home, everyone noticed that Sheng was. not acting like himself. I don't think. that he was acting so abnormally that. warranted people to be like, "Oh my god, I'm so worried. I need to do something. about it." But, for example, he was. talking to his grandma on the phone, and.
she's like, "Oh my god, I didn't know. you were in town. Like, when are you. going to come visit me?" And he snapped. on her. He said, "I don't have to come. visit you every time I'm in town, you. know that, right?". It was so out of character, but people. forgot about it because just 2 days. later, he visited his grandma, helped. with the chores, and everything seemed. normal. Everyone seemed happy. Once break was over, he went back to. school. That was the beginning of. October, like the first week. October. 14th, he went missing. So, they're confused. I mean, Sheng's.
family, they're confused at how quickly. things might have developed. It didn't. even cross their minds that he could. have hurt himself or that he even wanted. to. They never suspected a single thing. Now, authorities believe that he climbed. a little ledge of the outer shed walls. to tie both of his shoelaces to a tree. branch and then around his neck to. sustain his weight. Then, he jumped from. the wall ledge, letting gravity do its. work, and effectively ending his life. He would have to climb 15 ft up the. wall, which is not impossible. Witnesses. have stated sometimes students would.
climb up the shed walls, not often, but. it's been done before. The police. believe that he put his recording pen. down on the wall ledge, then jumped. That was the initial working theory. But, just because something looks like. it, doesn't mean it is, right? That's. what the family and the internet argued. The family argued, "Yeah, he was going. through a hard time, but he would never. do something like this." And with the. amount of distrust the netizens already. had for the police and the school, everyone wanted concrete proof that he. did this. They're like, "Where's the. letter? Where's the note? Things just.
aren't adding up.". What about the recording pen? Oh, we're going to get there. So, the. netizens, they're like bombarding the. police with all of their suspicions, and. there's a lot of suspicions. First of. all, the location of the body. You guys. are so close to the school's main. building. This is less than 0.2 mi away. And after that long list of searches. that I purposely read to you guys. because that was released by rescue. teams to be like, "Look at how much. we've searched." How the hell was his. body not found? And sure, you could argue that his body. was hidden by trees, but like, how the.
hell was the search that bad then? That. inefficient? And what about the smell? Trees don't hide decomp smell. The. police stated that the body's decomped. so bad his skin had practically turned. into leather. How could nobody smell. that? There were even dogs brought in to sniff. out cadavers. Netizens speculated that Shin was killed. elsewhere and his body was brought here. after the search parties were done. Then there were other things. Shin's. body had no signs of a white T-shirt on, but he was seen on CCTV cameras wearing.
a white shirt underneath his black. jacket. And speaking of black jacket, his black jacket, oh, this is weird, it. was on backwards and zipped all the way. up. So, imagine you have a hoodie zip up. You put the arms in and the hood is in. front of your face and you don't put the. hood on your face, but you put your arms. to the back and you zip up all the way. Oh, that is so weird. And nearly impossible. I mean, I guess. it'd be possible if you. put it on like a crew neck.
Yeah, in what situation would you do. that? Yeah. That is so unnatural. So unnatural. I mean, maybe he wanted to put the hood. on to cover his face and then it fell. off, but it's still very People tried to. do it at home and netizens found it. nearly impossible to zip it all the way. up in the back. Even the most flexible. people were struggling to do this, and. you're telling me that in his last. moments, that is what he chose to do? And then you have the shoelace. Netizens. do not believe that one or two shoelaces. can withstand the weight for not just.
his death, but for months and months. We. don't know Xing's exact weight, but. looking at CCTV, he looks average to. thin sized. So, this one, I don't know. what to think. So, even though his body. was found, it looked like there were. more mysteries, more questions, and it. was only getting deeper. Netizens. started to scream online, "We need to. figure out where his feet were pointed.". Netizens argued that if his feet were. pointed downwards, like his toes were. pointing to the ground, then he must. have died via hanging. But, if they were. parallel to the floor, then he might. have died in a separate position when.
rigor mortis had set in, and then his. body was hanged. Yeah. To this day, it was never released where. his feet were pointing. Which is pretty easy to prove in 2023. with crime scene photos. I mean, you. don't have to release the photos, but. you could. tell people where the feet were. pointing. But, because of these questions the. police had failed to answer immediately. and satisfy the online theories, you. know, these theories spread like. wildfire. So, let's explore some of the. biggest conspiracies before the police.
come back with their own theory. The evil chemistry teacher. Let's call him teacher B. Teacher B was not only Xing's chemistry. teacher, but also his homeroom teacher. So, this is going to be the teacher that. is most in tune with Xing, like the most. They're working side by side. The. internet hates this guy. A lot of it is. pretty privileged. I'm dead serious. People literally hated. the way he looked, stating that he. didn't look like a good person. He. didn't look like a good teacher. He was. bald, had small eyes, and a big build,
which many netizens deemed to not be a. morally nice person look. I don't even know how to unpack that. one. But, from there it was just. confirmation bias. They found all these. things about him online that they didn't. like about him. And to be fair, they. were pretty bad, okay? But I don't know. if it makes him capable of murder. Teacher B graduated from one of the top. universities in China, which is why it. was easy for other teachers to overlook. the fact that he was the principal's. nephew. He had the education to back up. his position, and he apparently did so.
well that he was quickly promoted as. vice principal. I'm sure it had nothing. to do with his relation to the. principal. He took the role, but he also kept. teaching chem, and he kept his homeroom. class. People said he was a genius. People said that he could have easily. found a way to kill Xing in a way that. would be undetected in Xing's body. And. maybe he did it to prove to like this. guy seemed egotistical, that's what. people said. Maybe he did it to prove. that he could commit the absolute. perfect murder. Other evidence, quote evidence if you.
will to back it up, is Xing's family. came to record at the school to show the. public that nothing was being done about. their son. So, they're like filming. around the school, and Teacher B was. there, and he's like, "Hey, can you stop. filming me?" Asking the Hu family. And. the way that he spoke to the family was. very heartless. You know, most people. felt compassion for the parents, but the. way that he was doing it was like, "Hey, legally you're not allowed to film me.". Very Karen. And technically, Teacher B. was in his legal right to ask the Hu. family to stop recording, but they. refused, and they were very upset. They.
were saying things like, "Okay, well, if. you don't want to be filmed, then you. can stand away from the camera. Like, we're not trying to get you. You can. stand over there. We're not trying to. film you." Get out of the way then if. you don't want to be in the video. Teacher B said, "No, I'm going to stay. right here. Why should I move?".
Netizens didn't like it. I mean, it. wasn't a good look for teacher B. And. like, technically, it doesn't make him. guilty of murder, but I will say it's. very strange reaction. Netizens said, "As Shin's homeroom teacher, a student.
from one of his classes was missing. Shouldn't he be actively cooperating. with the parents or I don't know, have. at least a little bit more compassion?". But it seemed like he just was very. like, "No, legally, you're not allowed to film. me.". It's just weird. Mhm. Later, netizens found an online forum. from students who went to that high. school. And apparently, teacher B got. into a fight with another teacher one. time, and that other teacher got into. the hospital and had to get 10 stitches. because of this fight.
Remember how the police had. professionals look through the security. tapes to see if the footage had been. tampered with and they said that it. wasn't? Well, after the professionals. came back saying that they hadn't been. edited, the Hu family lawyer got a hold. of the tapes and took it to their own. professionals. They were able to recover. some footage. And that footage showed the chemistry. teacher and the school principal. entering the CCTV camera monitoring. room. So, even though the logs were deleted, we do know at least they were in the. room where you could monitor the CCTV.
cameras. So, they did delete stuff. It could be very easily argued that they. did not delete stuff, but they were. trying to look at the CCTV camera to see. where he had gone cuz he went missing. Which is a very normal response. You. know, I imagine if someone went missing. why would you delete that then, right? But the police are saying it wasn't. deleted. It was faulty. Like it was a glitch. Okay. Yeah, the system glitched. Okay. So, I mean, you could argue both ways. and it would make complete sense both. ways. So, it's very hard to say. Now,
they allegedly stayed there until about. 2:00 a.m. the next day, about the time. that Xing's father first got to the. school. Now, you could argue that's a. lot of time to delete and alter footage. and come up with a story. Other people. could argue, yeah, because they're. probably so panicked about looking for. answers because the dad is about to show. up and demand answers. And to be fair, it is the principal and. the vice principal, so it kind of makes. sense, but I don't know. Do I think he's a good person? No. He made another teacher get stitches, but I don't think it was right for the.
internet to drag him through the mud and. accuse him of murdering a 15-year-old. There were headlines that just had his. picture and wrote, "Murderer of student. Xing." Or headlines that read, "Xing was. evaporated by chemicals made by his. chemistry teacher.". And a lot of the comments were like, "Yeah, you could just tell he's evil.". Just by looking at him. Which is pretty privileged. Then you. have the principal theory. So, remember. the principal is the chemistry teacher's. uncle, so these two theories are about. to merge. According to some of Xing's.
classmates, Xing had a girlfriend, and. there was a rumor that Xing went to. visit his girlfriend in her dorm room at. around 10:30 a.m. October 1st, so 2. weeks before he vanished. And he found. the principal in there with his pants. around his ankles. Classmates said Xing. saw the principal quickly pull up his. pants and push past Xing as he left the. room. His girlfriend started crying and. told him through her sobs that. she had been our worded by the. principal. Allegedly, the next day the principal. had a little chat with Xing to force him. to keep quiet about what he saw. And the. principal had to make sure he kept his.
mouth shut because if not, not only. could he lose his job, but the principal. would find himself in prison for 3 to 10. years if this ever got out. So, maybe. just maybe the principal asked the. chemistry teacher, his nephew, to help. him, you know, A piece of evidence to support this. theory is that apparently Xing had. called his mom on that day crying and. just said that he really wanted to cry, but no matter how much he asked, he. refused to tell her for reason why. The two of them, potentially the theory. is, plotted for Xing to go missing and.
they asked him to meet with them on the. night of October 14th and that's why the. cameras were scheduled to be shut off. So, they scheduled for the cameras to. all go down. They were going to meet. with him. So, instead of him heading to. studying class, he was going to go meet. with the principal and the vice. principal. Other things that support. this theory was that there were rumors. that the school had mistreated students. and led them to take their own lives. Three years ago, a female student ended. her life by jumping from the roof. The. school allegedly gave her family over a. hundred thousand dollars to keep quiet. A few months before Xing died, another.
girl died and the story was that she was. caught cheating on her test and her. teacher wanted her to pay money. What? It sounds like blackmail. Like, hey, pay. me money and I'm not going to report it. type of thing. She was very stressed and. ashamed and she ended her life. Now, some students said that's not actually. what happened. She was essayed by. administrators and that's why she took. her life. Again, these are all internet. speculations. There are two students. that did die other than Xing, but the.
reason why it's all speculation. Now, in. the end, the police cleared the. chemistry teacher and the principal of. any wrongdoing. So, then we have the. blanket theory. The what theory? So, some deleted footage from CCTV cameras. were recovered by the hired. professionals from the family and one of. them was from the stairs of the dorm. building. Remember where their. professional sniffer dogs came in and. also signaled? And the footage shows, around the time that Xing disappeared, there was a white blanket that fell down. the stairs. And the white blanket, like. imagine throwing a white blanket down. the stairs. You kind of can already.
picture how it's going to tumble down. the stairs. This white blanket looks. like Casper the friendly ghost. Like, the way that it falls down the stairs, it looks like there's something in the. white blanket. I I'm going to be honest. with you. It looks like something's in. the white blanket. But, the theory gets. a little crazy, okay? They said that. someone had thrown this white blanket. over Xing and thrown him down the stairs. and then cut off the CCTV cameras and. then disposed of his body. Personally, the strange shape to it, the. way it falls, it's weird, but we've. already seen Xing walk out of the. building. But, it is weird. It's a very.
strange coincidence. Now, the blanket. theory goes cold for a while, and in. comes the theory you were talking about. The panda blood theory. This is perhaps the most outlandish. theory, but there was a rumor that Xing. had a very, very rare blood type. The. rumor was that only 1% of the population. had this rare blood type, hence the name. panda blood. The school might have known. that he had this blood, maybe from his. past medical records that were submitted. or from a nurse's visit, but people.
speculated that an illegal organization. must have been after his blood. Why. would they kill a student for this type. of blood? I mean, a student in a. boarding school, you're going to get so. much attention. Well, the theory was. that a very powerful person, a. government official of some sort, needed. this blood to survive. The principal and. the chemistry teacher were in on it to. make a profit, so they shut down the. security cameras, they helped with the. kidnapping of the kid, and yeah. Now, the thing is, netizen said that he.
had Rh blood. But, Rh is not a blood type. It's a. protein, so either you have this protein. or you don't. There's only four known. blood types. There's A, B, AB, and O. And if you have the Rh protein, you're. typically a positive blood type, like. you're either A+, B+, AB+, or O+. It's. not really rare at all. Yeah. So, panda blood is not really a thing. Yeah. I mean, there I believe there are. rarer blood types. Like, O blood is. highly sought after because, you know,
Yeah, but it's common. Yeah. Some people said it was for his. organs, but I mean, you know, you would. imagine then that his entire body would. have been drained of blood completely if. it was a rare blood type, or that his. organs would have been missing, and. there is no indication of any of that. In the end, the police did find evidence that he had. taken his own life. So, remember the recording pen that he. had left behind? They were able to. retrieve all the audio and um. you know, the police handed over the. audio recordings to the family, but they.
the police did not release them to the. public. It's just really dark. The. transcripts were released. October 14th, the the day of the disappearance at 5:40. p.m. So, this is when he's on that fifth. floor balcony. He turned on his pen and. he said, "Now that I'm standing here, I feel so. nervous. My heart is beating so fast. To be honest, I don't really have a. reason why. I just feel like life has no meaning. What would happen if I jump? I don't. know. Probably no one would notice for.
now, but after a few days, people will. definitely notice. Why didn't I jump? I really want to jump. No. No, maybe I don't. The second recording was taken the same. day at 11:08 p.m. It's speculated that. this was when he took his own life. And he said, "There's no more meaning. It's almost midnight. I might as well. just wait a little bit longer and die. I can do it because today I just feel so.
unsure. Now I I just want to die. I really feel. like there's no longer any meaning in. life.". Fellow students and teachers came to. state that he expressed on multiple. occasions that he was stressed. He had. insomnia. He was struggling to stay. focused on his studies. It's believed. that the tipping point for 15-year-old. Shin was just 3 days before his. disappearance. He ranked the lowest in. his class on his geography test. Other. notes were found in his notebook that. were not just random scribbles and. doodles, and he wrote, "If I feel.
useless, I should think about where to. go and bring up the idea of going back. home. First, I should consider how to tell. teacher A. It's best to be specific. I'm worried. about how this will affect others. I. don't want to bother her. I'll just. adjust my emotions myself. You know, I. care a lot about how others feel, but. I'm not unsociable. Another one said, "It's so hard to adapt to this new. environment. My introverted personality. is so annoying. Maybe I can't blame it. all on my personality. This is just me.".
"I can write to calm down my emotions. though." Another one, "I finally understand those people with. insomnia. At night you just think about all these. random bizarre things.". "I finally know why my eyesight is. getting worse. I keep staring at the. book on my table. I don't even dare to look up at the. blackboard. I'm scared the teacher might. notice me looking with a blank and. confused expression on my face, and then. she'll get annoyed. I hate seeing people. get annoyed at me, but at the same time, I treat people with such negative. attitude, too.".
"I haven't changed my habit of. procrastination. I do this every time. I leave my. homework till the very last minute and. just simply complete it the next day.". "I'm not super rushed. At least I can. get some sleep.". Psychologists who studied this case. stated. that Xing was a people pleaser. He was. introverted. He had a very delicate. personality where he was very like if. someone was disappointed or annoyed with. him, he took it very, very harshly. He. took it personally. He seemed really,
really depressed at the fact that he. only ranked 58th, and it's not just the. ranking that was so psychologically. impactful for him. It was the fact that. he felt like his parents were. disappointed. Even his teacher, who he. had just met a few months ago, he hated. seeing them being disappointed. An autopsy was released that showed. Xing's body had no blunt force trauma. All of his bones were in place, and. there were no abnormal bone fractures or. other damage to his bones identified. His organs were all there, and they. showed no signs of internal bleeding.
There was no traces of drugs or poison. in his system. As for the other. questions, the white shirt, forensic. experts came out to state that when you. are that far in decomposition, your skin. starts to decompose and often times. there is almost like a bubbly as- like. acid like a liquid that will start to. form and it seeps out of the body. I don't Okay, it's not acid, but it does. have like a. not a not a disintegrating texture, but. for example, it's like if you were. wearing a shirt and you got wet in the.
rain and it starts sticking to your. body. Mhm. Like that could potentially happen. during decomp and it caused the white. shirt to stick to his body and then the. further along that he got in the. decomposition and being exposed to the. outdoors and exposed to the elements as. well as other organisms like maggots and. flies and wild animals. Basically, his body blackened and rotted. and so did the white t-shirt. They stated that this was nothing new or. strange in the decomposition process.
What about the shoelace? It was argued. that because there were two shoelaces, it held his weight and he was a little. bit on the frailer side. Now, why didn't they find his body. sooner? The police argued that because. there were usually stationed guards at. this abandoned shed 24/7, when rescuers. came to search the area, the guard just. let them know that nobody had gone in or. out of the sheds recently. So, they just. visually combed the area and left and a. thorough search was never done. Now, this one feels iffy, but it kind of. reminds me of people being incompetent.
Like I think the way that he got into. that area, there probably wasn't a guard. paying attention or maybe there was. never a guard there, but the school was. supposed to have a guard there. So, they faked it later and was like, "Oh, yeah, the guard was there, but I. guess he just missed him." In the end, ultimately, it did seem like all the. roads lead to him making the choice. The Hu family, they were devastated at. their loss and I'm sure there's a lot of. emotions to unpack. I think. with cases like this, there's like a lot. of guilt. It didn't help that the.
netizens turned on Hu family. A lot of. netizens completely switched sides and. went from giving support to Mrs. Hu to. asking her, "How did you not know? Were you just a tiger mom that only. cared about grades? Maybe you pushed your son here." They. were saying things like, "How do you not. even notice that he's struggling?". Sheng's mom cried and said, "You know, I didn't have a high. education level. I didn't even know what. depression was. I thought providing. food, clothes, and education to my. children was everything I needed to do.".
The online hate got so bad that Mrs. Hu. deleted the post about her son. They. also had to move out of their family. home. The case was not completely shut and. done, though. You know, there are some. still loose ends and theories floating. around. First of all, netizens still. have questions about how the body was. when it was found. The jacket being on. backwards is a big detail. I mean, even. just the fact that they didn't find the. body sooner is a big detail that puzzled. the internet. But as for the jacket, a. psychologist came out and argued,
"Sometimes people who are making this. decision, they will do strange things. that are hard for other people to. understand. It shows their. dissatisfaction in certain areas of. their life. And in Sheng's case, coming. from a bit more superstitious. background, it could mean that wearing. his jacket backwards or throwing his, you know, things backwards. means that he hopes that in the. afterlife things would be the opposite. of how they are in this life.". They also stated that some people choose. to leave a letter by stating their.
grief, but others others choose to leave. quietly. And the psychologist stated, "Sometimes people deliberately leave in. a way that is mysterious, almost as their own sort of revenge on. the world.". I don't know. All I can say is from his. notebook and writing, it seems like he. was deteriorating mentally. And often. times people don't notice how others are. doing until it's too late. All we can do. is just hope Sheng is in a better place. and that his family is able to slowly. recover from their loss. I will say.
about the conspiracies on this case. I. saw online discourse about it and I. found it fascinating, but for a lot of. netizens in China, they said that it was. easier to come up with these. conspiracies than face the harsh reality. that the education system in China is so. competitive and so cutthroat, it can. even drive a 15-year-old to do or want. to do unthinkable things. And sometimes. coming up with these bizarre theories or. conspiracies. are just a way to cope with the. depressing reality of this case.
And I can sympathize with that to a. degree, but I don't know. What are your. thoughts? Please stay safe and I will. see you guys on Sunday for the mini. sode. Bye.
