The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin -Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. We are back at it. Apologies for taking some time off last week. I was very busy with work, life, groceries, chores. A lot of stuff was going on last week, so we did not have the time to sit down together and record, but we are back at it this week. So thank you to those of you who have been longtime listeners. To all of our listeners, but for being understanding because we are people just like you navigating
life things just like you guys. So thank you again for being here and for always being understanding listeners. Totally. Cold and missing is unfortunately not our full -time job. So occasionally other things just dominate the week. But we're here. We're back. We're on episode 155. And we are on a missing person case. All right, let's get into it. Let's do it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person. Today, we are talking about the
missing person case of Jie Zhao Li. And this takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii, in February of 1988. But first, a little bit about Jie Zhao. Jie Zhao Li was only 12 years old when our timeline picks up. She was born on April 10, 1975, and in the spring of 1988, Jie Zhao was just weeks away from turning 13. She was small for her age, only around 70 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair and a very fair complexion. When our timeline begins, her teeth are slightly crooked, giving her this
unmistakable, youthful smile. Jie Zhao was a fourth grader at Royal Elementary School. Even though she was 12, she was placed below her age level because she was still learning English. Her and her family had immigrated from Canton, China, just about a year earlier. They didn't speak much English at all. But Jizhao was learning quickly. She understood far more than she could comfortably speak, and teachers said she worked hard to keep up. The Li's family life in Honolulu
was not easy. There were five of them. Jizhao, her parents, an older sister who was around 15, and a younger sister who was around 5. They were all living in what was essentially a converted garage. The two -bedroom apartment was cramped and deteriorating. There was no hot water. Laundry was done by hand, with water boiled on the stove. The kitchen still had an icebox instead of a refrigerator. This was better than the circumstances
they had come from. In China at this time, Jizhao had to be kept hidden away due to the country's laws around daughters and multiple children. When the family had a third daughter, they knew that they needed to move, so they quickly got to Hawaii. Jizhao was taken to life in Hawaii and helped wherever she could. Neighbors and teachers described her as a conscientious, sensitive, and kind child. She followed rules. She listened.
She didn't cause any trouble. Her teachers remembered her generosity, how she would bring candy to school and shared it freely with the other kids. She loved hopscotch at recess. She was always dressed very neatly at school, always in long pants or dresses. She was especially protective of her little sister, once becoming so upset. when her sister was being bullied, that she cried while trying to explain what had happened to
a teacher. A neighbor says, quote, she's a tiny, skinny little girl, a really nice, sweet little girl. And now a timeline of events. Thursday, February 11th, 1988. That Thursday began like any other normal school day. At Royal Elementary, students at this time were in the final days of selling tickets for a school fundraiser, a Zippy's Chili Dinner meant to raise money for a three -day class trip to the Big Island. The goal was to sell 50 tickets, totaling $125 to
help pay for the trip. There was even a prize for students who sold all of their tickets. At first, Jie Zhao didn't want to participate. She wasn't sure about going on the trip. But when she learned that one of her friends was going, she changed her mind. Her homeroom teacher, Sherry Kim, later said that within just a few days, Jie Zhao had already sold 18 tickets, bringing
back $45. She was very determined. That afternoon of Thursday, February 11th, Jie Zhao asked her mother if she could go out and sell tickets after school. Mrs. Li hesitated. She had recently seen a television commercial about missing children and didn't like the idea of her daughter being out alone. But Jizhao begged. She promised she would only go out for one hour. She promised that she wouldn't go far. She said that this
was her last chance. She was in the final days and whatever tickets she didn't sell, she would have to turn in. She even borrowed her sister's watch so that way she could keep track of time. Eventually, her mother agreed. A little more than an hour. She was supposed to be home by 5 p .m. So right around 3 .30, Jisoo leaves her
home. She was carrying the red chili tickets and wearing white shorts with three small hearts on them, a light yellow or beige shirt with a long stemmed flower across the chest, and blue shoes with a dark blue purse worn on a strap. Her shoes are described as slippers, blue slippers. Her first stop appears to have been to a neighbor's house, where she asked another young girl if she wanted to sell tickets together. The girl
couldn't go. She had plans with a relative. So Jisoo said goodbye and continued on her own. Shortly after leaving the friend's house, Jisoo entered a Radio Shack store nearby. An employee later told police that he bought a ticket from her around 3 .30 p .m. The store wasn't that busy. He remembered her clearly. Says, quote, Another Radio Shack employee did notice one other detail. She appeared to be looking around and the employee, interpreted it as she was looking
for someone. They got the impression that there was an adult waiting just outside. They assumed her parent, but that's what it looked like when she left the Radio Shack. At around 4 p .m., Jie Zhao approached another neighbor to sell tickets. He remembered her being persistent, determined. He told her that he'd already bought several tickets. After that, police believe she headed towards a familiar place, the 7 -Eleven. Jie Zhao and her sisters were known at the 7 -Eleven near
Nuanu Avenue and South Kuakini Street. They often stopped there for soda or to watch other kids play video games. Police confirm, and when they talk about the case today, they do believe that the last verified sighting of Jie Zhao is at the 7 -Eleven. The time is pretty broad, between 4 and 4 .45. However, when police talk about the case today, the time is closer to 4 .45 that they believe that she was last seen. So 5 o 'clock rolls around and Jie Zhao was expected to be home.
But she doesn't walk through the door. So her family waits for a little bit, but increasingly they begin to worry. Her parents began searching the neighborhood. As the minutes stretched on, the fear started to take hold. At 8 .47 p .m., Jie Zhao was officially reported as missing. Initially, police classified the case as a runaway that evening. No official search was launched that
night. The next day, Friday, February 12th, In the morning, investigators reviewing the overnight cases quickly realized something didn't quite fit here. Jie Zhao had never gone farther than School Street. She was very obedient, responsible. She had promised to be home. Police quickly began to believe in the morning that this is not a runaway at all. The case is escalated and police head out to talk to the family and begin the
investigation. Saturday, February 13th, police canvassed the Nuanu area, knocking on doors and visiting businesses. Because of the language barrier with Jizhao's parents, early descriptions of her clothing were uncertain. Later, police are able to confirm what she had been wearing, which is the description that I gave earlier. Despite hours of searching, no solid leads emerged. Police said openly that they feared she had been abducted. There was no sign of her purse, chili
tickets, and nobody had seen anything. On Valentine's Day that year, February 14th, through translators, Jie Zhao's parents spoke to the media from their small apartment. Her mother cried as she described waiting all night for her daughter to come home. Members of the Honolulu Chinese Alliance Church joined the search, going door to door to ask people if they knew anything. Still, nothing turned up. In the days that followed, from February 15th through the 18th, police chased tips, dozens
of them. They widened the search beyond the Nuwanu area. Police set up roadblocks near the 7 -Eleven. Police stopped every single car that was driving through the area at around the time that they believed Jizhao had been abducted, which would be around 4 .45 to 5 p .m. Police officers boarded school buses to ask children if they had seen or heard about anything. One thing that did start to happen is that conflicting sightings started to complicate things. So where Jizhao was last
seen? There's a 7 -Eleven on one corner, and then a block away, there's another 7 -Eleven. And today, if you look up this area, there's still the two 7 -Elevens just a block apart. So some witnesses placed Jie Zhao at the Kuanekini Street 7 -Eleven as late as 4 .45 p .m. However, other people said they saw her at the 7 -Eleven just one block away on School Street. at that very same time, around 4 .45 in the afternoon.
When police talk about the case today, again, they believe she was last seen at the Kuanakini Street, 7 -11. Two Mormon missionaries later came forward saying that they watched Jisau for around 15 to 20 minutes as she tried to sell her chili tickets. They didn't speak to her, they just kind of watched her while they drank a soda, and they left before she did. Police also begin investigating reports that she had
been seen speaking with a man. They even create a composite sketch, but they don't immediately release the composite sketch to the public. By February 19th, the case was handed over to the homicide unit. They also release the sketches of the man believed to have spoken to Jie Zhao. for at least 10 minutes outside of the school street 7 -11. So this would be the 7 -11 that is the block away from where she is believed
to have last been seen. They believe that she talked to him for about 10 minutes between 4 .30 and 4 .45. He was described as white, in his 30s, tall and slender and neatly dressed. At the same time, police revealed another troubling lead that they had gotten. Multiple witnesses reported seeing a girl resembling Jie Zhao days after her disappearance on Valentine's Day, February 14th, sitting in the backseat of a yellow vintage
Chevrolet at a service station. The car was last seen again without the girl that same day, which was Valentine's Day. Dark hair pulled into a ponytail that had been dyed orange. He had a dark complexion and appeared to be in his 30s. From March through April of 1988, hundreds of volunteers searched throughout Honolulu, covering rugged terrain, neighborhoods, coastlines, for... Over a month, these searches happened on every single Saturday, and it was organized by volunteers.
It was not the police. However, these searches did not turn up a single sign of Jie Zhao. On April 21st of 1988, so this would have been just over two months since Jie Zhao was last seen, Jie Zhao's mother reported a failed kidnapping attempt, or what seemed to be a failed kidnapping attempt. She reported that while she was walking to work before dawn around 5 .30 a .m., a man pulled up near her and rolled down the window
and started talking to her. She didn't fully understand what he was trying to say, but it scared her so much that she took off running. This was eventually reported to the police. Police investigate this to see if there's any connection to Jisoo, but it doesn't appear that they're ever able to really get far in. tracking down who did this to Jisal's mother, let alone where Jisal was. So by the end of April, searches slowed and Leigh's really dried up. Immediately, the
case seems to go cold. In the months that follow, the Leigh family do end up getting a house that's donated to them by the Habitat for Humanity. But in the years that follow, There's really no new updates in the case. Jie Zhao's face appeared in newspapers over the years in like missing person ads and like other children missing. Her age progressed photos were mailed out on national mailers. However, the mailers were only sent out in the continental United States. None of
them were sent out in Hawaii. So some leads did generate from that. But again, none of them led to Jie Zhao. Her father walked the street where she was last seen, night after night for years looking for her. The last real update that I could find came in 2014, and again, there was really no new news. It was just retelling of her story. But what we did get is an age -progressed photo, which does appear to be the most recent one, which was done in 2014, which was over 30
years since she was last seen. So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of Jizao Li or her whereabouts today, please call the Honolulu Police Department at 808 -529 -3111. So that is the missing person case of Jizao Li. Before we get into her timeline, as always, I just wanted to speak a little bit about Jizao and her personality. And honestly, what her circumstances were for her very young life.
And just off the bat, she and her family assimilating over from China because of this rule is, for the most part, it's kind of unimaginable for me. But I can at least understand that it's probably a very stressful adjustment, not just for her. but for her entire family, and an emotional adjustment. Just circling back to what was happening in China for her before she and her family got to the
U .S., being a child and being hidden by her parents because they fear their government's law so deeply is... I would imagine something very difficult to understand when you are young. This young person, these people, had already gone through so much, and what happened to them after getting to the U .S. is horrifying. Just absolute worst -case scenario, I think, for someone who is trying to find a better life. For themselves.
I understand why her personality was the way that it was and the way that you spoke about it, that she was very well behaved and safe and protective of her sister. I think that some of those personality traits or even behaviors are probably born from the life that that she had. What the Li family like had to go through, you know. In China and then getting to Hawaii. And then, you know, they say, like, a year later, essentially, that they got to Hawaii. Jie Zhao
was abducted. So I can't imagine the pain and just what that family has gone through. So, like, I really just, like, feel for this family more than anything. is, you know, her sisters, her parents. This must have been very difficult to lose somebody like Jie Zhao, who was so dependent on, or not dependent, but independent rather. Like she, you know, really helped out around the house. Like her mom spoke about, she would just help do laundry. If she just saw the laundry,
she'd just go do it. So I know her loss is huge in this family's life. I just really see this, like, determined little sales girl just trying to sell these tickets and, like, go on this trip with her friend. And what a normal part of childhood. Like, that was in the 80s and 90s at least. That was so normal. And it's just a devastating case. Yeah, you bringing that up takes us right into...
The timeline, speaking about, again, just her personality and the type of kid she was and being responsible, as the timeline begins, we do learn that she takes her sister's watch to keep track of time. And obviously no cell phones at that time, so a watch would be the only thing available. And the fact that she was the one who suggested it, like, I'll borrow my sister's watch, again, I think says a lot about, So quickly after that,
everything ramps up. I know that you mentioned her possibly being seen at the local 7 -Eleven that she and her sisters were known for being there, watching kids play video games. I'm a little bit younger than Giselle, but my siblings and I hung out at our local 7 -Eleven. And it was about 10 years later, like in the mid -90s. It was pretty regular for us to do that. We would walk through our neighborhood to go there. So her doing that, socializing in that way, seemed
very normal. Yeah, the 7 -Eleven, I'm sure, felt very safe to Jisoo. And I think it was a smart place for her to like kind of think to go to sell these tickets like where people are going. They probably have some cash on them. It does sound like in the reports that she had been there in the days beforehand trying to sell tickets. So maybe she had seen some success there. So that's kind of naturally where she was headed. But yeah, it's. And it seemed very busy. That's
the thing. Jie Zhao was seen, you know, at the 7 -Eleven, it seems, till 4 .45. And then likely she would have started moving home to get home by 5 p .m. But really that 15 minutes seems to be the window. Police believe the abduction happened around 5 p .m. So I would be curious to know if police have... had witnesses outside of the 7 -Eleven at all. Because it really does seem like that was truly where she banished from.
So that 15 -minute window happens. And, you know, I am not a parent, but I think my reaction would be very similar to what her parents was. And,
you know, I'm sure within minutes. of of it surpassing 15 minutes they knew something was wrong from my understanding and just knowing parents having parents as siblings like you usually know in your gut when something is off with your kid and it sounds like to me that that was true for her parents yeah her parents were out there searching um it seems like within an hour and a half uh they were out searching but um Within, it seems, about four hours of when Jisoo was last seen,
the police are called. So pretty quickly, like, the parents decide that it is serious enough and that this is enough out of Jisoo's character that they need to call the police, which I'm sure was very scary for them. I'm sure they've never had to call 911 before. So that must have been really scary and a daunting mountain to climb. Yeah, not to mention, you know, this family
is still actively assimilating. And there's always that possibility that law enforcement's response, especially to someone who is not speaking English as their first language in America, might not be a great one. And I was happily surprised that in this case, it seemed like law enforcement was doing their job. happily surprised to know that, you know, they were doing the search and then continued to widen it. In a lot of cases, especially ones we've covered, we are often let
down. Often, like, if I'm being completely honest, sick to my stomach in the way that law enforcement has responded in other cases outside of Juzau. So I... I'm glad that they responded in the way that they did. And I do think that because they did, there is room for answers now. Because people did their job back then, there's a possibility that there's room for this case to be solved. Yeah, you know, in the morning, they decided to take Giselle's case seriously, but we did
lose that first night. Nobody was out. searching officially from the police. Yeah. But to your point, like once they, you know, really sat down and saw what they had, they started to take it seriously. And then community response by continuing the search and widening it like the. The community search, they were like, we are searching this entire island looking for her. And it seems like for the most part, they did cover most of the island. They just never found any sign of her.
They never found the watch, no tickets, the purse, clothing, nothing that was on Jisal was ever recovered as far as we know. Now, for this portion, I know we can speculate endlessly about who the guy was that was speaking to her. And then I believe, and maybe you can offer up some clarification here, there's another man with the orange hair. Yeah, two men. So one of the men, there's a white man in his mid -30s that several witnesses said
was talking to Jie Zhao. at the 7 -11 that was like a block away from the one that she was officially last seen at so that sketch is released we're going to put that on our instagram and then the second man was the man that was seen driving the yellow Chevrolet. And the yellow Chevrolet had primer spots on it. There were like three distinct primer spots. But this was like a 1950s, like a late 1950s Chevrolet. So very distinct yellow in color. And that man had the dark hair
that was like tied into a ponytail. And the ends of the ponytail were like dyed orange. Thank you for that clarification. what I thought that it was, but it's helpful just to know that there
was a difference. Again, especially because there are fresh eyes on this, I think that the fact that there were multiple sightings of her and sightings of the one, the white guy, and then the guy with the orange hair, I think it's great that there are some vivid descriptions of you know, possible, possible perps, or at least maybe people with information at the time. And again, I know this was in the late 80s, but that is
not that long ago. No. And, you know, we don't have a sketch of the man driving the car, but it is a very distinct car. And according to police, they went through records. You know, there's only so many cars on an island, but it doesn't appear that they were ever able to track this particular car down. But it's distinct enough. Late 1950s Chevrolet, yellow in color in Hawaii. that somebody should recognize that. And then this sketch as well of the man seen talking to
her at 7 -Eleven. While we are reaching kind of the end of the timeline, just to quickly pivot to what happened with her mother, I wanted to take a moment to talk about just what I kind of think was happening or what it looks like to me. And it seems like there was someone who... Was obviously, you know, in the area acting on and displaying predatory behavior or stalking behavior or just violent behavior. So I. To me,
that's what I think was possibly happening. I would be very curious to know, you know, if police were ever able to connect it ultimately to your point. You know, I think it speaks to like maybe what was happening in the neighborhood or who somebody was in the neighborhood that was, you know, acting this way, acting out. But ultimately, you know, the case just goes cold so quickly.
And I'm so hopeful that somebody will either recognize the sketch, like recognize the car, and we'll just be able to come forward with some information that will ultimately be able to give the Li family answers. Ultimately, they would like to have them in this case. So again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Jisao Li in February of 1988 or her whereabouts today, please call the Honolulu Police Department
at 808 -529 -3111. And like I mentioned during the timeline, We will have pictures of Jie Zhao on our Instagram as well as age progress photos and the sketch of the suspect. So you can find that at Cold and Missing. Eli does the graphics every week. Please share them if you have the chance to just to get the case out there. This is a very well -known case in Hawaii, but not as well -known outside of the island. So please
share it, share the sketch. Let's get energy behind the case and maybe somebody out there knows something. If you or someone you love is hard of hearing and needs transcripts to follow along with our podcast, you can do that at www .coldandmissing .com. That's where the official transcripts are, as well as all of our other episodes. So please head there if that's what
you're looking for. And if you have some time today, if you could leave us a review, it's really helpful in getting the podcast to other people and folks to listen to it and take a chance on this and ultimately sharing it five stars. That gets the case out there. That gets people listening. So if you could help the case out and leave five stars, that would be so incredible. But that is all I have for you this week. I'm your host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good
week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all.