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

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

It was 30th December, 2000, four members of the Miyazawa family were murdered inside their home in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan.

The case remains unsolved.

The investigation identified the killer’s DNA and uncovered numerous clues about their movements and behaviour inside the house.

None of it has led to an arrest.

What happened on that night? Why was this family targeted? And why did the perpetrator get away with it, whilst so much evidence was left behind....

Tonight, we travel to the quiet, forested island of Pulau Ubin, Singapore, a place that feels frozen in time, where the jungle hums, the quarry lakes shimmer, and the past refuses to stay buried.

Hidden deep along a dusty trail stands a shrine unlike anything else in Singapore. It’s filled with dolls, lipstick, perfume, and offerings meant for a young woman whose real name… we still don’t know. Some say she was running for her life when the British came to arrest her family at the start of World War I. Others believe she slipped, fell, or perhaps chose her own fate on the cliffs above......

In the quiet suburbs of Tokyo, children played under the warm summer sun… blissfully unaware that a shadow was watching.
A shadow with two faces.
A shadow with a hunger that no one understood.

Before Japan knew his name, they only knew the disappearances…
the phone calls with nothing but ragged silence…
the letters… filled with unspeakable things.

This is the horror story of one of Japan's horrifying monsters

On a warm May afternoon in 2010, residents of a new high-rise apartment building in Hanoi started to notice something strange.

At first, it was just a smell.
Something that didn’t belong in a clean, modern condominium block in Vietnam’s capital city.

Maintenance staff went searching for the source. They checked the rubbish chutes, the stairwells, the rooftop.

What they found… didn’t seem real.

Hidden away in a service area on one of the top floors was the body of a young woman.
No head.
No fingertips.

Just a torso, wrapped and left in a place where nobody was supposed to go.

Within days, the story of the “headless corpse in the apartment building” would grip the entire country. And investigators would uncover a killer whose crime was as calculated as it was brutal.

Sources

Báo Pháp Luật Việt Nam – “Toàn cảnh vụ Nguyễn Đức Nghĩa chặt đầu người yêu cũ” (June 9 2010)
 

Báo Pháp Luật TP. Hồ Chí Minh – “Bắt hung thủ vụ xác chết không đầu ở chung cư sau 30 giờ” (May 20 2010)
 

Báo Công An Nhân Dân – “Người giải mã tội ác của Nguyễn Đức Nghĩa” (May 2010)

Dân Trí Điện Tử – “Phát hiện thi thể không đầu tại chung cư Trung Yên” (May 17 2010)

Tuổi Trẻ Online – “Tìm thấy phần thi thể nghi của nạn nhân Phương Linh tại sông Cầm” (June 7 2010)
 

Vietnamnet.vn – “Man sentenced to death for beheading ex-girlfriend” (Nov 2010)
 

It was a quiet Friday night in Singapore.
June 29th, 2007.
A nineteen-year-old art student named Felicia Teo left her home for what should’ve been an ordinary night with friends.She promised she’d be back soon.
She never returned. Her phone went dead.
Her messages stopped.
And just like that…
Felicia Teo Wei Ling vanished

Have you ever walked home alone at night… and felt someone watching you?

The street is empty. The air is still. But then… footsteps. Slow. Deliberate. Following you.

You turn...and there she is.

A woman wearing a long coat. Her face hidden behind a surgical mask. At first, she looks harmless… almost ordinary.

Until she tilts her head and asks, “Watashi… kirei?” - “Am I beautiful?”

Your answer doesn’t matter. Because once she removes the mask… You will understand why they call her…The Slit-Mouthed Woman.

Tonight, for our Halloween Spooky Special, we’re diving into one of Japan’s most terrifying urban legends, Kuchisake-onna. A spirit who stalks the streets. A question you cannot answer. And a fate you cannot escape.

Turn off the lights. Stay very, very still. Because she might be right behind you…

What began as a simple river shipment spiraled into an international scandal, a tangled web of drug lords, soldiers, and governments that exposed the darkest corners of the Mekong.

This is the story of how one river and one massacre changed the politics of an entire region.