The Loneliest Death - podcast episode cover

The Loneliest Death

May 03, 202239 minEp. 75
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Episode description

Transcript

Speaker 1

Everyone has a fear, a fear of falling from heights, the chilling fear of spiders, creepy clowns, or the unknown dark, and even elevators. Man made machines like these are often subjects of our imagination's worst nightmare, and in twenty fifteen, one woman in China was thrown into that nightmare where she was trapped in an elevator and the only thing is no one was coming to save her, and she was left alone, waiting and dying.

Speaker 2

Warning.

Speaker 1

The following podcast contains graphic content and material intended more mature audience. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 2

Hey, how's it going. What the I'm Nicola?

Speaker 1

Okay, I'm Ben and you're listening to Wicked.

Speaker 2

And Grim the true crime podcast.

Speaker 1

Did you forget our intro?

Speaker 2

Well? Yeah, I kind of was like what am I supposed to do? We always were changing it up periodically, and then I get lost and I'm like you're looking at me, and I'm like I don't what to do.

Speaker 1

There was like thirty seconds of dead air there. I'm gonna edit that dead air out, but you're just like blank.

Speaker 2

We'll be like are they there? Are they there?

Speaker 1

Yeah? And then they won't listen to and I.

Speaker 2

Was distracted because Ripley was being really fucking cute.

Speaker 1

Ripley's just Ripley. She's always cute as shit's so cute.

Speaker 2

Well, before this, we were having some tech technical malfunctions you call it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we need we need new XLR cables.

Speaker 2

These ones are Yeah, we're going to be buying those this week. And then Ben was like, k test your levels. I was all grumpy and so I was swearing away. And when I swear, Ripley comes to like comfort me.

Speaker 1

Yeah, she's she's like a therapy doug that way. She can sense if you're like upset totally.

Speaker 2

Because sometimes if I'm like working at home alone and I like something pisses me off or whatever, and yeah, she always comes and just puts her head on my leg and I'm like, you are.

Speaker 1

Adorable unless you're getting mad at a TV show or a movie. And then she comes over to me because she's just afraid of what you're doing. She's like, why is she raging at a magic box with static?

Speaker 2

Yeah? I show my emotions too much.

Speaker 1

I got to control those, Yeah you do. It's all good though, So we have some more patrons to thank this episode. We always have patrons.

Speaker 2

To thank you because they're freaking amazing. They're wicked is what they are, wickedly awesome.

Speaker 1

Oh yeah, so signed up. This week we have Karen Peacock, Thank you, Karen love that name actually, Clara Kay, Josie Hefritt, I really hope I said your last name right, Josie Hayley, and Chelsea Polly right on. Some awesome people who joined us over on Patreon this week.

Speaker 2

Yeah, those are awesome, great names, great people.

Speaker 1

Thank you for signing up. And those people just got an extra episode dropped just the other day. On April thirtieth, yep, the last day of every month, we dropped an exclusive episode over in Patreon just for our all access patrons to go over and give it a listen.

Speaker 2

Okay, and it was wild. I actually it's still heavily on my mind.

Speaker 1

Actually, yeah, it's if you guys know it. It's the Boy and Chimney, It's Joshua Maddox's crazy case crazy And actually we gave our patrons a choice between two different episodes on which one they wanted. They selected Joshua Maddox. Yeah, and then we took the one that lost that round and then we put that one up against today's episode, and they voted on which episode they want to hear today, and they voted on this one that you're going to hear today.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so basically they just get a lot of control.

Speaker 1

Yeah, get a lot of control. Thank you for controlling us this week, patrons, you're awesome.

Speaker 2

Well, you're helping us make decisions. Let's just put it that. I like that.

Speaker 1

Yeah, no kidding. Sometimes it's hard to make the column which case we want to cover, So I think we're going to throw it over to them a little more often on which case we should be doing.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I have a giant list right now, so I might need some help.

Speaker 1

A big old list.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

One of the things that was on our list for a long time was to start a Twitter page.

Speaker 2

Apparently it was and apparently it was, well I don't know, I knew it was on our list, and then all of a sudden, I just came home one day. We have Twitter.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

I was like, oh my gosh, I don't even know what to use Twitter, But okay, we.

Speaker 1

Got Twitter now. Yeah, we officially have six followers over on Twitter. So if you want to help our Twitter out, and you do the tweeting.

Speaker 2

You do you do the tweeting or give us some tips?

Speaker 1

Yeah, tell us how to use the app because we've never used Twitter before. So yeah, head on over there, find us and follow us and talk to us and chill.

Speaker 2

I feel like I'm definitely the best on Instagram Facebook. I'm not bad at but I don't like seem like I put as much effort into it anymore as I used to. Fair, But yeah, Instagram is the shit. But yeah, it's good to branch out. It's good to learn new things.

Speaker 1

It is. And speaking of branching out, we actually did another blog post too on our website because we got to start doing that more often we do, so I think that's officially our second blog post on wickedinggrim dot com.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and it was about us being in the two percent.

Speaker 1

Rank, right, yeah, okay, get this. We are ranked in the top two percent wild of all podcasts globally.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I was actually telling that to someone the other day and they're like, like, of the true crime ones and I was like, no.

Speaker 1

Just all podcasts, yea, which is because.

Speaker 2

Actually remember but I was like, I think it's all but that seems too good to be true. But yeah, it's all.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Because of you guys out there tuning in every week, we are ranked top two percent of all podcasts across the world.

Speaker 2

Nuts, it's nuts it is. It floats my boat, it.

Speaker 1

Floats, your boat, floats my boat. I thought you were gonna say it blows my mind, but you went completely different directions.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I'm like to change it up once in a while.

Speaker 1

That's fair. That's fair.

Speaker 2

And I'm drinking delicious cider cheese sandwich. Just kidding, delicious cheese sandwiches, a dry apple cider. It's her mermad actually cider company, and it is dope. I'm really enjoying it thoroughly.

Speaker 1

I didn't hear a word what you said because I'm still in delicious cheese sandwiches.

Speaker 2

Oh, I cannot. I will never ever be able to say delicious without thinking delicious cheese.

Speaker 1

Speaking of that, though, Tom Green, if you guys don't.

Speaker 2

Know, I also ate the most moldiest piece of cheese in history today, smooth, and didn't even notice until I went to take a second bite.

Speaker 1

Tell us the story. Indulgous.

Speaker 2

Oh, it's just disgusting. Like my stomach actually hurt most to day. But I don't know if that was in my head or the mold was actually grown in there.

Speaker 1

I'm growing in there, all right.

Speaker 2

But basically, I have to take this like it was a cheese stick thing. Take it from the fridge, put in my lunch, open that cheese, said cheese stick. Take a bite. It tastes like absolute shit. But I was like, oh, maybe my mouth just tastes funny, Like what the fuck eat some crackers? Go to take another bite? Holy fuck, mold stick, this mold the whole thing was like green. You didn't even I was like, okay, well, I'm on

my way to take photos right now. And now clearly I'm not in an observant state whatsoever, so this photo shoot might not go so well.

Speaker 1

But she knocked it out of the park.

Speaker 2

Bill I did, but I need to be more observant when it comes to eating cheese.

Speaker 1

Fair enough, all right, Well, cheese aside, mold a side.

Speaker 2

Mm hmmm.

Speaker 1

You're ready to get on with this case?

Speaker 2

I'm still ready?

Speaker 1

Okay, Well, fore warning, this is fucking crazy. Yeah, that's all I really got to say. It's it's a rather short episode. There's not a whole lot of information to go on with this one, but it's it's a wild ride.

Speaker 2

So I am very intrigued because it seems it's like a case that I can't comprehend. So I do need to learn a little bit more about this.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's it's got that wow factor. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 2

M hmm, like somebody fucked up. Wow.

Speaker 1

Uh yeah, let's put that way up. That's a really good way of putting it. Okay, So here it goes.

Speaker 2

You ready, I'm ready.

Speaker 1

You'd had to finish taking your sip. Sorry, bad timing. Okay, Well, our story takes place in a city called Xian. I think I said that right, No ci ci Cian China. I literally researched how to say it, like for half fucking minutes.

Speaker 2

That's literally every episode.

Speaker 1

I think it's how you say it. Okay, that's so x I a Nann and Sheanne has a rich history and culture that dives deep into like literally our history, like way fucking back. And it's home to incredible tourism with of course delicious food, and it's renowned for its terra Cotta Army. Now, the terrrat car Cotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting an army for the

first Emperor of China. All the sculptured art pieces were actually buried with the emperor in twenty ten to sorry two hundred ten and two hundred and nine BCE, with the purpose of protecting the emperor. And it's in is afterlife.

Speaker 2

Oh that's really cool.

Speaker 1

There are eight thousand of these life size terracotta fucking statues.

Speaker 2

Okay, well, isn't terra cotta the it's clay. Yeah, but it's like very fragile.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah, like I've I don't know how I'm the pots that I've had, I've broken that was our terracotta, right.

Speaker 1

Yeah, like those like red and rounds, this terracotta.

Speaker 2

That's really cool though, to like visualize that.

Speaker 1

Yeah. So there's eight thousand of these terra cotta soldiers life size, and each one has an estimated value of four point five million dollars US.

Speaker 2

So can you see them, like are they visible like or are they like.

Speaker 1

I don't know what they have for the tourism aspect of it, but you can go on Google and see a picture of all of them.

Speaker 2

Okay, I was just curious to you visit them, right, I'm sure there's.

Speaker 1

Some in the museum, but I'm pretty sure most of them are like stowed away and you can probably visit the site where they were excavated.

Speaker 2

That's fair.

Speaker 1

Yeah, But anyways, just want to get into that a little bit because it was really cool. But hian is a bustling city with a population of around eight point five million people and around six point nine million million people in twenty sixteen when our story takes place.

Speaker 2

Good lord, I can't imagine living in a city that large.

Speaker 1

It's massive.

Speaker 2

We don't even have one hundred thousand people in our city, and sometimes I'm like, why are there so many people everywhere?

Speaker 1

People are fucking annoying, let's put that way. So being in Chianne, being that it's a busy city with an enormous amount of people, it's reasonable to expect that to keep up with demands of such thing as like maybe maintenance, companies had to look for contractors to keep tabs on their facilities so they can focus on other aspects of their business. Now, one business that took advance of this

were property managers and developers. It just made more sense to have, you know, professionals come in to the scene and fix everything, pay them and be on their way. Now, in theory, this works great. However, in practice, as we will soon find out, that wasn't quite the case. Now there's a woman who has only been identified by her last name Wu. She lived on the fifteenth floor of an apartment building surrounded by millions of other people. Now, Wu was a forty three year old woman who stuck

to herself. Her neighbors didn't see much of her and assumed her to be a bit of a loaner, but polite enough when they did meet her in the hall in the apartment buildings.

Speaker 2

So she lived alone.

Speaker 1

Yep, she lived alone, just kind of chilled by herself sort of thing. Now, Wu's family would also tell a bit of small similar details, saying that she liked to keep to herself and also had a history of mental illness, though that history of mental illness wasn't disclosed on exactly what that means, but something like that would, I'm sure would be even more difficult to deal with when surrounded by millions of people in a bustling city like that.

And yes, her apartment was undoubtedly her sanctuary.

Speaker 2

I actually just want to touch on that because I've been like to Vancouver quite often and like when you're on the skytrain and stuff, you're literally like, I mean, this is kind of pretty covid. I guess it might be back to this, but you're like shoulder to shoulder, which is so many people, but like you're just it's like the feeling of just being lonely, Like no one says anything, no one even tries to look at you, like they avoid eye contact, like someone's living in big cities.

It's like lonely as heck.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and Vancouver is a small city compared to someplace it is. Yeah, so yeah, it's you're completely disconnected. You're to yourself, and yeah, you're surrounded by people, but you're completely.

Speaker 2

Alone, like at least here. I mean, gosh, every daily you go by, like you're probably smiling at a stranger, right, there's at least like some sort of contact per se.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Someone holds a door open for you, or there's small talk at the cashier register at the grocery store, things like that, right.

Speaker 2

Which sometimes can be like so annoying, But then I mean comparatively, maybe it's not.

Speaker 1

Yeah, And I mean we bitch about it too lots, you know, or you run into someone from you know high school that you have to have that small talk conversation with or whatever, or maybe a family member or whatever that you haven't seen in years, and you're like, I got to get on my way, but I got to talk to this person. Oh it's annoying. But I mean those that makes us not feel quite so alone, whether we realize it or not.

Speaker 2

Absolutely, So, yeah, I know there's always a moment in my head is like how can I get out of this situation? But then usually I can't, and then it's like enjoyable. So I don't know, that's just me being me.

Speaker 1

So what you're saying is, bitch, leave me alone. Well, anyways, we're going back to the date. On January thirtieth, twenty sixteen. Now, Wu found herself leaving her apartment to venture off into the busy city. As she reached the elevator, as she always did, she pressed her button and she waited. The elevator doors closed behind her, but Wu wouldn't make it

to the floor she wanted to. You see, the elevator malfunctioned with Wu inside, and it stopped stuck between the ninth and tenth floor, leaving her stranded inside the elevator completely alone.

Speaker 2

Oh, I just hate that.

Speaker 1

And luckily, of course, the maintenance department were quickly notified as soon as malfunction was discovered and they came to the scene for the repairs. So upon the arrival the repair men got there and Wu must I mean, I'm not going to say I know how long she was in there for. I can't find a report on that, but Wu mustn't have been waiting very long. I'm going to assume maybe like somewhere like under an hour. But anyways, the two men got to the scene, but they were

rather hurried. So it was January thirtieth after all, which is you know, and Chinese New Year, and Chinese New Year, also called the Lunar New Year, has an annual fifteen day festival in China, and Chinese communities around the world celebrate this. Their workdays must have been long, these two individuals.

I'm sure with jobs that a lot of people book vacation off before the holidays, during the holidays, after the holidays because of all the celebrations going on, and of course businesses shut down, so it's pretty strapped for employees to be working. People are rushed, they want to get home, whether they're you know, tired of their long day shift or they're on their edge for vacation as well. And being on the verge of vacation is exactly what was happening here.

Speaker 2

So your mind is just solely somewhere else.

Speaker 1

Yep, you're just like, I just want to get home. I just want to get off the job.

Speaker 2

We've all been there, Oh totally.

Speaker 1

We're watching the clock, you know, it's like, you know, it's four point thirty. I get off at five o'clock. That last half hours ticking by because you just just want to go, and you end up like darting for the door like three minutes early, but your your bag is packed like five minutes early, and you're already dumping out the remainder of your coffee cup, you know, ten minutes early and washing out your cup.

Speaker 2

You're ready to roll, you know.

Speaker 1

So that's kind of the situation here. Their maintenance business was closing for the holidays, and that's exactly what was going on, and the repair men decided to hold off on fixing this elevator until they got back from their vacation. Oh boy, so of course we know WU is inside and the two men didn't know this. So what they did is they shouted into the elevator to see if they could hear if anyone was inside. They didn't hear any reply.

Speaker 2

Why not?

Speaker 1

Don't know.

Speaker 2

Was it like soundproof? Don't know, because that's like another thing that I'm just curious, like, wouldn't you be like yelling and like, I mean, you think someone would hear you, even like someone living in the rest.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and that's it's hard to say why no one heard Wu. It's hard to say if these men actually did call out to her, but they claimed they called out and tried to see if anyone was in the elevator.

Speaker 2

My brain is so peer I never even went there. They could have just been shipped their jobs and not even actually checked. And then just later when it's found out that shit went down, then they're like, oh, we joked. It's so easy to say, not saying that they didn't, not saying that they didn't.

Speaker 1

So they the claim is that they shouted to see if there was anyone inside, and they did not hear a reply. So the two men simply disabled the elevator so no one could use it and then left with of course Wu still trapped inside and this is one hundred and ten percent against any sort of workplace protocol for this situation. The men, if leaving the elevator like this, would have known that they are supposed to manually open the elevator to ensure it was empty before leaving it unattended.

They literally need to make sure they look inside, not just be like it was up anyone in there.

Speaker 2

Like, it's so good, and that was like a rule at the time, right, not something that came to be after correct. Okay, that's so good because I just feel like at this point, I was like, I'm never going in another elevator. But no, that that's.

Speaker 1

What they're supposed to do. If they're leaving it unattended like that and disabling it or whatever, they need to ensure there is no one inside. I mean, it's it's pretty basic.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

Speaker 1

Really, But regardless they chose not to do this. These two men made a distinctive choice to walk away without checking the inside.

Speaker 2

Oh man, that's cringey.

Speaker 1

Okay, So they walked away and alone inside, Wu must have heard the men cry out for her. If they did, she must have heard them, and she must have cried out for help. Even banging on the doors to get their attention, but somehow it went unanswered. Now, I guarantee you she thought they must be coming back. They will go off, they'll need to do what they do, get tools or whatever, and they'll back any minute. And so Wu inevitably waited and waited. Hours passed, and eventually it

was the next day, and eventually it was the next day. Slowly, Wu would have begun suffering from the effects of dehydration before she would have realized no one was coming to get her. She tried and tried to pry the door open,

but it wouldn't budge. She would kick it, bash it with her fists, anything she could do to try and break free, but the door remained closed no matter what she did tried, and none of her neighbors in her apartment would hear any of the ruck as she made or any cries for help.

Speaker 2

Oh, that is just scut wrenching.

Speaker 1

And this might be due to the fact that this elevator was closed, so they were using a different elevator in a different location, so people may have been avoiding this area.

Speaker 2

But so it must not have been next to like any apartment apartments or anything.

Speaker 1

I'm unclear on that.

Speaker 2

Unfortunately, Holy heck, I just like I can't I literally can't imagine someone not hearing her. I know, I think that people probably would have had to at some point heard something funny. But then, like, who's going to be like, oh, there's someone stuck in the elevator. You just like think it was something else.

Speaker 1

Right, Yeah, I mean you're in a city of millions of people. Yeah, you hear some banging on the walls. Oh, noisy neighbors again.

Speaker 2

You hear some screening noises all the time.

Speaker 1

Some kid out in the streets screaming away. Someone needs to shut up their kid. Like, you never know, right, someone may have heard and just didn't realize it.

Speaker 2

Oh boy.

Speaker 1

So Now, regarding the dehydration, for most people, approximately ten days is the average time one can last before succumbing and dying. In rare instances, the process can take as long as several weeks.

Speaker 2

Oh gosh.

Speaker 1

In Wu's case, she would eventually pass away while trapped inside the elevator, but not from dehydration. It would be from starvation. Now, people can expect to last a lot longer before they starve, as long as forty three to seventy days before we pass away from starvation, which is incredible.

Speaker 2

I didn't realize it was that long. Like I was pretty much like starving because I didn't eat for like five hours today. So that really makes me feel like, Wow.

Speaker 1

Well, I believe it was average body mass. You can your body can consume up to eighteen percent of your body mask before you start to fail and die from it. And I believe if you're above that body mass, the average it's around twenty percent.

Speaker 2

Wow.

Speaker 1

Okay, Now how long Wu actually lasted is unknown, but the repair men returned to open the elevator door a month later. I've read different reports anywhere between twenty seven days to thirty days later before they opened the door.

Speaker 2

Wow.

Speaker 1

When they did open the door, they found Wu lying on the elevator floor, lifeless. It was also noted that one of her hands were placed up against the elevator door above where she laid were multiple marks, dents, and scratches in the door where she tried to free herself, and her bare hands were beaten and mangled from trying to escape.

Speaker 2

That's too much lot, that is like whoa, my heart, Oh, I just can't even imagine, especially if this poor woman had like mental health issues and stuff. I mean, anyone would have mental health issues in that kind of situation. Oh yeah, oh that is just that has I don't know. I mean, there's pretty brutal ways to die, but that's.

Speaker 1

Bad, that's heartbreaking, and this is why it's This case is known as the loneliest death, just isolated screaming, no one can hear you. But just like you had already mentioned, you're in a city surrounded by millions of people, but you are nothing but alone. And that's exactly what she was.

Speaker 2

Because I honestly think in your mind you would just be like, how on earth could anyone how I'm not like, I just don't even think you accept it. You wouldn't accept that you were dying in there. There's no way, there's no way. I'd be like, no, someone's coming, Like someone's coming, someone's coming, and they just.

Speaker 1

Never come until a month later. I'm a month oh yeah, after their celebration.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I was like, how long were they celebrating for? They'd probably just like ended up getting busy with other jobs and forgetting well.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it could have been busy from other jobs, could have been with vacations on top of it, and they didn't have the time to get back. Like, who knows what the whole compilation of issues were, but it was a matter of the holidays mixed with whatever the fuck else for.

Speaker 2

A month went through their brain when they opened that door.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I can't imagine. I'd feel so fucking guilty if that were me.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, Like I wow, I don't even know if like to just like carry on after you would just never your day would never ever be the same. I don't know.

Speaker 1

Now. Wu's family had reported her missing to the authorities, and they had checked up on her apartments but never saw any sign of her, and her missing was assumed it was due to her mental illness, and they they thought she might have run away or she may have been a recluse somewhere, and they wouldn't They couldn't locate her, and they were just in hopes that she would eventually turn up safe. I mean, how do you find a missing person in a city of millions?

Speaker 2

Right again, I mean, they probably didn't even consider the elevator that was broken down.

Speaker 1

Nope, knocking on their daughter's door. With the broken down elevator, they would have had to have gone to the elevator shaft realize that all this one's broken and had to have gone to the other one to get up to her apartment to.

Speaker 2

Look for Oh wow, yep, yep.

Speaker 1

So now, needless to say, like her family was fucking outrage. That's clear.

Speaker 2

I don't blame them.

Speaker 1

And they weren't alone. There was public outcry over the neglect from the maintenance department and how they could have overlooked someone being trapped in the fucking elevator, especially since it wasn't the first case of neglect.

Speaker 2

Of someone stuck in an elevator, or just neglect.

Speaker 1

Just neglect. There was a protest set up outside the apartment against the administrators of the complex and the maintenance company. Signs were being held up in protest. People were rallying and cried out in a plea for you know, why aren't we being treated like fucking human beings? Why did she have to die after not being checked on for a month when she should have been checked on in the first place. Shouldn't have even been hours, let alone

a month. No, there's one resident who in the protest said into a news report and I quote, there's now a shadow across my heart. It's scary, and it gives me shivers to pass by it when they are referencing the elevator.

Speaker 2

Oh my gosh, that just gave me goose bumps, a shadow across my heart. Yeah wow.

Speaker 1

Another resident of the apartment complex reported that the building management service was poor and routinely ignored residence complaints about frequent broken elevators and other matters. So it wasn't abnormal to have broken elevators that just didn't fucking work or weren't working properly and for them to just ignore it.

Speaker 2

And so it's freaking lucky maybe that this had not already happened to something one.

Speaker 1

Hundred percent and it was only a matter of time of something like this that was going to happen, because unfortunately in the first case, like I don't even know where's going with that sentence, but like something was going to happen.

Speaker 2

It's very disturbing.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so I don't know, it's it's brutal. I'm surprised didn't happen sooner, but it did happen, and it was only a matter of time that was going to happen. Now in there's another area in China called chez shen Zen, there we go. And on May fifteen teenth of twenty thirteen, a woman was riding an elevator. Another elevator incident. And this is this is prior to Yes, this is a

few years prior. The woman was riding the elevator and she went to exit the elevator doors and she got pinched between the elevator doors between her shoulders, and while pinched, the elevator quickly dropped and plummeted with her head sticking out, and the elevator effectively turned into a guillotine as she was decapitated, and her body fell back inside onto the crowd that was still in the elevator, and they had to wait for the doors to open up at the

bottom before they could exit, when her lifeless body landed on the ground. No, yes, and I do not recommend it. But there is CCTV footage of this on YouTube, who though it has blurred out, thankfully, I did watch it, and I wish I didn't, Okay, if.

Speaker 2

There has ever been a reason to take them on, the fuck of stairs? You take the stairs? This is unbelievable.

Speaker 1

Well, speaking of stairs.

Speaker 2

Oh, are they not safe either?

Speaker 1

On July twenty seventh of twenty fifteen, in a mall in China, at ten oh one am, two mall employees rode an escalator and when they reached the top and stepped off, they found that the safety plate at the top landing was loose and they almost fell through into the escalator gears and cogs below. Now, they quickly notified maintenance and they stood waiting at the top for them to arrive. And then nine minutes later, at ten ten am, a woman holding her three year old son made their

way to the top of the escalator. There's again CCTV footage of this. I watched it. It's not as graphic, but you know what happened, so I don't recommend you watch it either. But it shows the two workers standing there who had the incident nine minutes before, motioned towards that loose plate at the top, almost as if they were trying to warn the woman how she supposed to do. At that point, it was too late. She stepped on

it and she fell through. Luckily, she managed to push her three year old son past the opening to safety. The mall, however, wasn't shut down. The floor was simply closed off, while public unknowingly continued their shopping while a four hour rescue ensued to rescue the woman who fell into the gear system of the escalator, and it took that four hours before they found the thirty year old woman lifeless and mangled in the escalator steel structure.

Speaker 2

Holy hack.

Speaker 1

So this is not the first incident of neglect of maintenance and a severe incident occurring.

Speaker 2

Those are some brutal gas.

Speaker 1

And there's more out there like that. I couldn't keep researching them. I was like, I gotta stop this.

Speaker 2

Well, that is just traumatic. There's just like no way that you Oh man. I was already afraid of escalators. I like, take my sweet ass time on them because I'm like, this shit doesn't seem right, like there should just be stairs here.

Speaker 1

I mean, you're not wrong.

Speaker 2

And uh wow, okay, yeah, so it's kind of fucked up.

Speaker 1

Yeah, And like I said, there are a whole whopping load of cases like this out there. I don't suggest you guys go out there and research these ones because these ones, it's most of them. They have video evidence of these ones, and it's scary.

Speaker 2

And there's just something on my mind though, it's like this escalator is fucked up, but we're gonna warn people at the very top that it's fucked up. Yes, Like does that make any any sense? No, it doesn't because at that point, what are you supposed to do? Run the fuck down the escalator? Like, yeah, I don't get that.

Speaker 1

That's that's one of the arguments you can see on like the YouTube comment section is like, why the fuck did those two workers just stand there?

Speaker 2

I mean, at least they were doing they were doing something. They didn't just walk off.

Speaker 1

They did something. Yes, they notified maintenance, and they were at least standing there in attendance, but they're at the wrong end. Their attendance didn't do anything because they didn't speak up.

Speaker 2

Oh just to think too that this mom like pushed their kid at Oh, that's that's a lot.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Now, as for the maintenance in charge of the elevator that killed Wu, the company and the maintenance firm in charge of the faulty elevator were detained by police, and the report stated this, The local police are investigating when and why she entered the elevator and why. The property management and residents all stated they were unaware. What do you mean, Sorry, they're looking into when she got in the elevator. And why no one hurt her?

Speaker 2

Oh okay, I thought you meant like why she was getting in the elevator and leaving, so she was leaving her apartment. Okay, I get it. I get it.

Speaker 1

And that's that's about it. That's kind of where this case drops off.

Speaker 2

Okay, Well, was there like serious lawsuits and shit?

Speaker 1

Well, all my research has unfortunately come up dry with what happened after this. I have read some hearsay that they were being charged, but I can't find out with what or whether it went through or if it was a fine or jail time or anything.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because that is some serious neglect it is.

Speaker 1

However, if it's anything like here in Canada, they will undoubtedly or would have undoubtedly be held criminally negligent. Now, we have a bill in Canada that speaks directly to the workplace, and considering this is couldtech be considered a workplace incident? It very well could be applicable in Canada. We have something called the Westre Bill or Bill C forty five. It's a federal legislation that amends the Canadian Criminal Code and it became law in March thirty first

of two thousand and four. The bill established new legal duties for workplace health and safety and impose serious penalties for violations that result in injuries or death. Now, it basically states that if found negligent in a workplace or safety protocols that you took steps specifically to ignore them, then you can be held criminally accountable and serve jail

time or possibly a fine. So, for example, if your boss knowingly puts you in a dangerous situation you get hurt or killed, they can literally be put behind bars.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's fair, it is.

Speaker 1

This is rather progressive as far as workplace incidents worldwide. Unfortunately, if I'm going to be brutally honest in my my opinion, I have a feeling the company simply got a slap, got slapped with a small fine and that's about it. Which that's what.

Speaker 2

I think is unreally awful. And I would hope, though, of anything that they learned from this, or that there was some sort of something that came out of this that to prevent it from ever happening again. It needs to have I.

Speaker 1

Don't know if really anything is being done though. I mean, you can do legislation, you can do protocols.

Speaker 2

But I mean they already had it. Yeah, they already had it to look in there and they didn't.

Speaker 1

Exactly people scret around it. They cut corners.

Speaker 2

Yeah, when you're yeah, when you get comfortable and you're doing a job for too long, like it does happen.

Speaker 1

Yeah, And this is this is something actually I know a little bit of because this is my day job. I'm a health and safety coordinator, and I see all the time people cutting corners just because it saves a little bit of time or that whole end of the day attitude like it's almost five o'clock, almost going to go home. Yeah, people drop their guard and whether it's your own life for someone else's, it's going to catch up eventually.

Speaker 2

Well, And honestly, I do think it's just like this day and age though, and everybody has just so much on their mind at every time. Oh yeah, Like people are just like overworked. They just have like too many family responsibilities. Like I don't know, I just feel like there's just always so many things going on inside your brain that it gets just easy to sometimes like sometimes even like driving, like you're driving, like I'm sure I'm paying attention and stuff, but like you get to your

destination and you're like, whoa, I made it here. Yeah, like that's really bad.

Speaker 1

It is. And like you say, there's a lot of things in your mind. However, there's there's no excuse at the same time, just like if you drink and drive, or if you're on your cell phone you drive and you get in an accident and you kill someone, it's your fault. I'm sorry, it's your faul.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I see a lot of people nowadays text or like on their phones while they're driving, like constantly. It's a constant thing. It's almost like normal, like, which is so bad because holy heck, things can happen on the road in an instant.

Speaker 1

Yep, and people just don't think, well it's not gonna happen to me, or it's just a second, it doesn't matter. Oh I'm pretty sure there's no one in there. Yeah, well look what happened. There was someone in there and you literally killed them in thirty days.

Speaker 2

I just hate how like just her struggle of trying to get out of there. Oh, and how you could see it on her body and stuff.

Speaker 1

That is just it's got horrifying, horrifying, Yes, absolutely horrible.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Well, anyways, we hope you liked this. Episode, and thank you for our patrons for selecting this one. You guys suck. You made me research this one. You don't suck, but you know what I mean, it was it was rough.

Speaker 2

Hey, there's been heavier ones, I feel there is, but.

Speaker 1

I don't know. The ones that really get me are when there's there's people who just don't do their due diligence, when people just walk away from it, you know, whether it's a witness, whether it's the police, or whether it's fucking elevator maintenance.

Speaker 2

When it could very easily have not been in that fate.

Speaker 1

Yeah, when it's preventable, that's when that always gets me so bad. Yeah, I not that I understand, but I realize there's people out there who are just going to do absolutely horrendous things because that's who they are, that's in their system. Generally, we can't change that that's not necessarily preventable. But if a civilian or someone who doesn't have that in their system just makes the wrong decision, that fucking hurts.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because it was so close to me, but this was just a very much so unnecessary death.

Speaker 1

Yes. Yeah, So anyways, thank you guys for listening. You guys are absolutely amazing. We seriously appreciate you. Go check us out on our links below. We of course have Instagram, Facebook, we have a little bit of a YouTube, We have Patreon and of course Twitter, Twitter. I'm gonna have to make sure I put that link down below, yeah, so yeah, check us all out. We appreciate you being here and of course, as always, stay you wicked

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