[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to another episode of USA Insol.
[SPEAKER_00]: We discovered cases of unsolved murders and missing persons of Asian descent across the United States.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's case involves a teenager who disappeared back in the 90s, and while her wearabouts are still unknown, her case is classified as endangered missing, which is defined as, quote, a person believed to be endangered because of age, health, mental, or physical disability, in combination with environmental or weather conditions, or is believed to be enabled for
[SPEAKER_00]: While there was a suspect in the disappearance of this teenager, he was never formally charged.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't mean this person is innocent.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll see why.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's begin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hongli was born on October 9, 1975.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her family is of Hamong and Laosian descent, and when she was still very young, her and her family arrived in the United States as refugees.
[SPEAKER_00]: They settle down in St. Paul, Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to clarify, while Laos is a country in Southeast Asia, how long is not a country?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's essentially an Asian ethnic group and they generally reside in southwestern China or Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, and of course, Laos.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because she moved to the U.S. at a very young age, she had ample time to pick up English and quickly became fluent.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a child of immigrant parents, you might be able to relate to Hong's experience growing up, where she and some of our siblings, the ones that were also fluent, had to help her parents with anything related to English, translating documents, translating conversations, you know the drill.
[SPEAKER_00]: A very interesting tidbit about the Lee family is that Hung Lee is one of 14 siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, that's an insane amount of children.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can only imagine how rowdy their home must have been, which makes this case extra sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: As she had so many more core family members mourning her disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hongli was generally your average teenager.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had friends, she was a senior at her high school, and she had a part-time job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her plan was to attend the University of Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her main interests include reading and heavy metal music, which you'll be able to tell when you see photos of her.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time of her disappearance, she lived with her family in the neighborhood of North End, in St. Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what happened to Hongli?
[SPEAKER_00]: On January 12, 1993, around 6 or 7 p.m., hung left her home with a friend of hers, 18-year-old Nikki Lee, no relation to Hong Lee and her family.
[SPEAKER_00]: The two got into a car and it appeared that there were already various other passengers in the car when they drove off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's even more strange is that right before Heng left her home, she told one of her younger brothers, Koa, that she was going to a job interview, and that, quote, if I don't come back, come and look for me, unquote.
[SPEAKER_00]: As of that was an ominous enough, some sources have also reported that she also added in the additional comment saying, quote, I don't trust Nikki, unquote.
[SPEAKER_00]: quote, that night she never came home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I woke up to look if there were footprints, because of the fresh snow.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were no footprints, so I went to sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was it until the next day, on quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: With that common in mind and seeing as Hengli never returned home, her brother Koa confronted Nikki the following day at school, asking where his sister was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nikki basically told him that she had no idea what he was talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Within the next few days, Hong Lee's family reported her as a missing person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was in 90s, the police refused to take this report seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like every other case we've come across, but that's just how it went at times.
[SPEAKER_00]: The police told her parents that she had most likely run away.
[SPEAKER_00]: While that is not unheard of, Hong Han no reason to run away.
[SPEAKER_00]: What someone intent on running away and starting a new life, not pack even a bag and leave behind their purse, all their clothing items, their savings, their last paycheck?
[SPEAKER_00]: Police did their obligatory rounds, asking family and friends that they knew anything about Hong Lee's disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Niki for whatever reason seemed intent on leaning into the runaway theory, and told the police that she had left Niki with some of her white friends, and in her opinion, it's likely that Niki simply ran away with this group of friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: With this theory solidifying in the police' minds, they decided not to pursue Heng Li's disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Believe it or not, this case had around for approximately six months.
[SPEAKER_00]: As an immigrant family and parents who don't really speak English, I'm sure they were at a loss as to what they could do next.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the police didn't want to help, what else could they do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who else can they go to?
[SPEAKER_00]: So with the help of the other 13 kids, the Lee family began printing and posting up missing persons flyers with hounds of information.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of this, the community started to pay more attention, and it also sounded like
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, it kind of looked bad, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: They went back again to question Nikki, this so-called friend who was last seen with Hong Li.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this time, she had a complete different story to tell the police.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Nikki's new story, she had referred Hong Li to a man named Mark Steven Wallace, who also happened to be her employer.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time of her disappearance, Hong had been working at a local Chinese restaurant called Wong Kafei.
[SPEAKER_00]: This restaurant opened in 1923 and has sadly closed since.
[SPEAKER_00]: But according to Nikki, Hong Li had told her previously that she was looking for a higher paying job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not sure if she wanted a second part-time job or if she wanted to switch.
[SPEAKER_00]: She probably wanted to make more money for college.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a small business owner, mainly doing paint jobs.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had his own store, and he lived above his place of business.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had allegedly asked Nikki, as well, if she had any friends who were looking for jobs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time, Nikki did find this strange, as he didn't have enough jobs going on to actually hire more people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, maybe she thought she was doing them both a solid by introducing them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of sticking with her hung Lee ran away story, she told police that both her and Hong had been in Wallace's car.
[SPEAKER_00]: He dropped Nikki off at her house first, and then drove off with Hong Lee.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be the last time she saw her.
[SPEAKER_00]: As to why she lied the first time, Nikki explained that she actually did think Hong had run away at first, and didn't want to get her into trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said that Wallace had also instructed her not to tell anyone about the meeting that night.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suspicious?
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting how Nikki's story changed and it's extremely frustrating that it took six months for all this to come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Six months had to pass by for people to look deeper into this case to take this more seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand the police can't be everywhere and do everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're humans after all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bahangli was technically still a minor, and the circumstances were just not really adding up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, perhaps better later than never.
[SPEAKER_00]: With this new information, police immediately looked into this Mark's Stephen Wallace guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he also had a story for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wallace, however, confirmed Nikki's account, saying that after dropping off Nikki, he drove hung Lee and dropped her off at an intersection near Wang Café.
[SPEAKER_00]: Except she never made it home.
[SPEAKER_00]: So was he being truthful and something happened after she was dropped off or was he just lying to cover his own ass?
[SPEAKER_00]: While I dislike being judgmental about a suspect, Wallace is anything but innocent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The police looking to who Wallace was and what they found was very alarming.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few years prior to Heng Li's disappearance, Wallace had been convicted in two cases involving violent rape.
[SPEAKER_00]: While that is concerning, what actually stood out even more is that in one of the cases,
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that sound familiar?
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess this was enough for the police, so they obtained search warrants for both his place of business and his home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, nothing incriminating turned up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He quickly hired a lawyer after this and pretty much kept his distance from the police.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now fast forward to 2009, police launched another search into the home that he had been living in for the past few years.
[SPEAKER_00]: They brought in cadaver dogs, and it appeared that they picked up a scent somewhere underneath the garage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holes were drilled, but nothing came up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this guy just doesn't learn, because in 2016, he was again arrested this time, caught red handed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was staying at a motel with a 20-year-old woman, who he was holding hostage.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was a daughter of one of his friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the victim, she was staying with him as she had no work to go at the time, and Wallace offered to let her stay with him as long as she did housework for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he quickly became abusive, and when the police found them, he was charged with kidnapping, stalking, and possession of meth.
[SPEAKER_00]: While on one of his verbally abusive tirades towards the victim, he had allegedly threatened to do to her what he did to that girl in 1993, which I would think is him referring to Hong Li.
[SPEAKER_00]: He continued on, saying that he knew exactly how to get rid of evidence and how to cut their bone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The most damning thing he said was probably, quote, she entered my business and never came out, unquote.
[SPEAKER_00]: To this day, we still don't know what happened to Hongli.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while her father passed away in 2012, the rest of her family is still looking for answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2017, the Lee family held a memorial service for Hongli, which is described as a spiritual release ceremony meant to free the person's soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't seem like Wallace has admitted to anything regarding Hong Li, but with the information presented, it sure feels like he's involved, at least to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2020, Wallace sent to a Minnesota Sex Offender Program Center in Moose Lake, Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is said that he would remain there until he is rehabilitated.
[SPEAKER_00]: But knowing his track record is difficult to imagine him making a complete change.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, if he does, then great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he'll even give more insight to Hong Lee's disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: But until then, this is what we're left with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, finding out what happened to my sister and recovering her body if it's anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is more important to me, my mom, and my family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unquote.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what her younger brother, Koa, had said.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have any information on Hongli's disappearance, please reach out to the number listed in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a long shot, but you never know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you again for your time, and please take care, and be safe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Till next time.