The Poisoned Coffee Case That Shocked Indonesia | Forensic Files

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episode on your app or on our website. >> [music] >> It was nearing 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
January 6, 2016, when 27year-old Jessica Wongo, arrived at the Grand Indonesia Mall in central Jakarta.
She was due [music] to meet two of her friends, Mina Sali Hinn and Hani Boon, for coffee at the upscale Olivier Cafe
at 5:00 p.m. It had been a while since the trio had all been together. [music] The three Indonesian women had met in
Australia years prior while studying at the Billy Blue College of Design [music]
in Sydney. After graduating, Jessica had stayed in Australia [music] while Mina and Honey returned to Jakarta.
They'd all remained in contact and caught up intermittently over the years, but this was Jessica's first trip back
to Jakarta since 2012. Having arrived at the cafe early, Jessica went in to make a reservation.
Olivier was a trendy [music] venue that catered to high-end clientele. It was known as a cool spot to be seen
and was a favorite among Jakarta's more affluent crowds. Customers could enjoy the eclectic menu
of fine foods, [music] desserts, and cocktails while soaking in the natural light that poured in from the skylights
above. An assortment of indoor plants [music] perfectly complemented the green vinyl booths and timber finishes,
creating an earthy yet sophisticated atmosphere. It was the perfect spot for the friends
who came from well-off families and lived around the affluent Kalapa Gardening district [music] to catch up.
After reserving a table, Jessica still had plenty of time before her friends arrived. [music]
She ventured back into the shopping mall and headed to Bath and Body Works, a fragrance and skin care store, where she
bought a bottle of liquid soap for herself and each of her friends. She then returned to Olivier with the soaps
in three large paper gift bags. By [music] this point, it was 4:14 p.m. Jessica took a seat [music] at table 54,
a large booth situated towards the back of the cafe. Earlier that day, Jessica had messaged
Mia and Hanie in their WhatsApp group saying that she'd like to pay for their drinks that afternoon.
The others told her she didn't need to, [music] but Jessica insisted. She walked over to the bar and ordered
an old-fashioned cocktail for herself, a sazzarak for Hani, [music] and a Vietnamese iced coffee for Mina.
Mina was a self-proclaimed [music] coffee snob, and she'd raved to the group about how much she loved Olivier's
Vietnamese iced coffees. [music] By the time Mina and Hanie finally arrived, it was 5:16 p.m. Jessica stood
up and warmly embraced her friends, letting them know she'd taken the liberty of ordering their drinks.
Mina thanked Jessica for this kind, albeit unnecessary, gesture, and the [music] three sat down and began
chatting. Mina took a sip through the straw of her iced coffee. She immediately screwed her
face up in disgust. "This tastes awful," she declared. Mina extended the drink towards Hanie
and asked her to taste it. It didn't smell like coffee at all, and the color didn't look quite right either.
Honey reluctantly took a sip. [music] It tasted bitter and burning. Honey pushed the drink towards Jessica,
but having seen her friend's reactions, [music] Jessica refused to taste it. Then Mina started fanning her face with
her hand. Suddenly, she threw her head back and [music] began convulsing. The cafe staff saw what was going on and
ran over to [music] move the table out of the way and give Mana some room. It was clear she was having trouble
breathing, [music] and she soon began foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
Olivier's manager joined the crowd that had gathered around trying to help. [music]
Jessica Wongo stood next to her. "What did you put in the coffee?" >> [music] >> she asked.
An unconscious Mina Salihinn was wheelchaired out of Olivia Cafe and to a medical center within the shopping mall.
Realizing the seriousness of her condition, she was transported to hospital where doctors worked
desperately to try and revive her. Her family immediately rushed to her side, having received a phone call from
a hysterical honey, who initially thought that Mina might be having an epileptic seizure. [music]
Mina's father, Eddie Salihinn, desparingly tried to administer CPR to Mina himself, while her twin sister,
Sandy, yelled at her to wake up. But it was no use. Mina was officially declared dead 30 minutes after arriving
at the hospital. The Sully Hinn family was left in shock. As far as they were concerned,
27year-old Mina had been in perfect health. She [music] was in the prime of her life, working for a design company
and having just gotten married to her adoring husband, Arie Samco. 2 months earlier. [music] They'd had an opulent
ceremony at a luxury resort in Bali, attended by their closest friends and family.
Mina had grand plans for her future with the dreams of opening her own cafe and starting a family of her own.
How, her family wondered, [music] could she be taken from them so suddenly? Mina's father, Eddie, reported his
daughter's [music] death to the police. There was only one explanation he could think of for Mina's sudden [music]
death, and it was that she had been poisoned. Hani Boon told the doctor that she had
drank from Mina's iced coffee and was worried that she would die, [music] too. The doctor conducted a physical
examination, but concluded that Hanie was fine. He prescribed a laxative and told her to
eat and drink as much as possible to flush out any potential toxins from her system. [music]
Jessica Wongo was also examined and given the allcle [music] while police took samples from Mina's
stomach contents for toxicological testing to determine if she had indeed been poisoned.
The police went to Olivier Cafe and spoke to the staff there. The barista who made the Vietnamese iced coffee,
Rangar Saputra, said there had been nothing unusual about the coffee. After the receipt for the order came through,
Rangar said he made the beverage like he always did, [music] filling a glass with
ice and a couple of spoons of condensed milk before placing what's known as a fiend filter full of ground coffee on
top of it and pouring over hot water. He then put the coffee on a tray to be taken out by the server.
The server didn't find anything unusual about the coffee when he took it over to
table 54. It looked and smelled like it always did. After Mina collapsed, Olivier's bar
manager, Divi Siagian, took [music] the iced coffee into the back kitchen and examined it herself.
She had immediate concerns about it based on Jessica Wongo's comment about what had been put into it. Divy gave the
iced coffee a whiff and [music] took a sip. It smelt and tasted rotten. Ranga, [music] the barista who made the
iced coffee, came in and noticed that the color had changed since he made it. It should have been brown, but it had
turned the golden yellow color of turmeric. Runga sniffed the coffee and was hit
with a sharp odor that smelt like glue. It instantly irritated his nose. Panicked, Ranga began double-checking
all of the ingredients he'd used to make [music] the drink, but everything appeared to be completely fine.
Having kept the drink aside, a bartender poured the leftover iced coffee into an
empty water bottle and handed it over to the police for toxicological testing. 3 days after Mina Sully [music] Hinn's
death, the results came back. It was confirmed that the iced coffee [music] contained cyanide, a rapidly acting and
highly lethal poison. When ingested, cyanide affects the cardiovascular and central nervous
system by preventing the body's cells from receiving or absorbing oxygen. Within minutes of absorbing the poison,
a person can experience organ failure, convulsions, [music] coma, and death. While all of this was consistent with
the symptoms Mina exhibited right before her death, a full autopsy would need to
be done to prove that she hadn't died from natural causes. The police met with Mina's family at the
funeral home and requested permission to perform a full autopsy. Her mother refused, saying she didn't
want anyone to touch her daughter's body. They intended to have an open casket funeral for Mina the following day and
her body had already been prepared for burial. This was a major roadblock for the
police. They explained that without an autopsy being done, they [clears throat] wouldn't be able to conduct a proper
investigation to prove that Mina had actually been poisoned. After some deliberation, Mina's family
continued to reject the full autopsy, but they agreed that her stomach and liver could be removed for further
toxicological testing. Mina's funeral went ahead the [music] following day. Mina was a popular and
deeply loved young woman, and it was a highly emotional time for those in attendance.
For Mina's father, Eddie Salihinn, the loss of his daughter made him feel like he'd lost his sparring partner.
Eddie was a successful, wealthy [music] businessman with a tough, nononsense attitude.
He'd always seen traits in Mina that he recognized in [music] himself, and he admired the way she challenged him
whenever they had a disagreement. Following his [music] daughter's burial, Eddie told reporters,
"We entrust the case to the police. I believe in the power of God. I believe the police will be able to arrest the
perpetrator so my daughter can rest in peace." There was one person who was noticeably
absent from Mina's burial, and that was Jessica Wongo. Some wondered why she wasn't there given
the two seemed to be close friends and had been together when Mina died. But the truth was that Jessica wouldn't
have been very welcome there. Mina's parents had always viewed Jessica as a bit peculiar.
The first time they'd met her, she'd been overly affectionate in the way she hugged Mina's mother. when she first
visited their house. They also found it strange that she had entered their bedroom.
Her odd behavior continued at the hospital on the day Mina died. Unlike Hanie, who had been in a clear
state of shock and distress, Jessica had been oddly calm. [music] Eddie Sally Hinn felt like a Jessica was avoiding
him by pretending to be short of breath [music] and have a stomach ache. He asked Jessica what she had to drink
at the cafe and she told him mineral water. Eddie was surprised by this response.
He'd seen the receipt from Olivier and knew that Jessica had ordered cocktails for herself and Hanie. He couldn't
understand why she would lie about such a thing, unless of course she had something to hide.
The day after Mina's burial, toxicology tests confirmed the presence of cyanide in her stomach. With the police now
confident that she had definitely been poisoned, they reviewed the footage taken from the nine CCTV cameras around
Olivier Cafe on Wednesday, January 6th. There didn't appear to be anything unusual about Ranga Saputra's actions as
he made the Vietnamese iced coffee. Nor did the server interfere with the drink in any way when bringing it over to
Jessica's table at 4:24 p.m. It sat there out in the open for 52 minutes until Mina and Hanie arrived at
5:16 p.m. [clears throat] At no point between the drink being delivered and Mina taking the first sip
did anyone else approach the table. Jessica Wongo was filmed arriving at the cafe lobby at 3:30 p.m. She then made
her way into the main dining area to choose a table for her group. But there was something odd about her movements
that seemed unnatural. She walked around the room in a somewhat suspicious manner, looking around as
though she was scoping the place out. At one point, she looked directly at one of
the security cameras. The table Jessica eventually chose, table number 54, was located towards the
back of the cafe, where the closest camera was obscured by a large pot filled with indoor plants.
However, another camera at the opposite side of the restaurant provided a direct, albeit grainy, view.
This camera captured Jessica as she sat down in the booth and placed the three gift bags from Bath and Body Works on
top of the table, arranging them in a line. When the waiter placed a menu plate at
the end of the table, Jessica picked it up and placed it parallel to the gift bags.
Once the drinks arrived, the bags essentially acted as a barrier, obstructing the drinks from the view of
the camera on the other side of the room. Police couldn't see exactly what Jessica
was doing behind the gift bags, but at one stage she made some movements as though she was taking something out of
her handbag. She later moved the iced coffee cup around, placing it further down the
table to where Mina would eventually sit. Minutes before Mina and Haneie arrived,
she put the gift bags on the floor. Once Mina took a sip of the iced coffee, she began exhibiting symptoms almost
immediately, waving her hands in front of her face as though trying to cool herself down.
After she collapsed and the staff rushed over to help, a panicstricken Hanie called Mina's husband a reef on her
mobile to let him know what was happening and to ask if Mina had any pre-existing health conditions that
could explain what was going on. While all of this was happening, Jessica stood back from the crowd, watching on
with little emotion while rubbing her hands together. This was a significant moment for the
police. When cyanide comes into contact with the [music] skin, it causes irritation, itching, and a
dermatological condition known as cyanide rash. Based on the footage, they began to
theorize that Jessica had invited Mina out for a drink with the intention of poisoning her.
Beyond the cafe staff, there was simply no other person who had the opportunity to tamper with Mina's drink. It also
explained why Jessica had arrived so much earlier than her friends, and why she'd offered to buy their drinks in
[music] advance. Furthermore, after Mina died, Jessica had sent Mina's twin sister, Sandy a
message asking if her family had received the results of Mina's lab tests yet. She also sent Sandy a link to a
news story about fake coffee containing cyanide that was being sold in Vietnam and suggested that's what could have
happened to Mina. From the way Jessica had surveyed the restaurant, the police believed she'd
arrived early so she could scope out the locations of the security cameras and choose a table that was out of their
view. She then purchased the items from Bath and Body Works so the gift bags would
provide an added layer of protection while she stealthily slipped the cyanide into Mina's iced coffee, getting some on
her hands in the process. A review of the WhatsApp messages sent between the friend group revealed that
Jessica had asked if there was a medical clinic inside the shopping mall. She claimed she needed to get a
prescription for vitamin D, but investigators suspected there could be a more sinister reason for her [music]
query. What if she was checking to make sure there wouldn't be a doctor on site who
could administer first aid to Mina and potentially save her life? >> [music] >> The problem was the cameras hadn't
actually captured Jessica putting anything into Mina's drink, and no traces of cyanide had been found at
their table. Jessica had been summoned to the police station for an interview after the
toxicology tests came back, and she'd appeared calm the whole time, saying nothing that incriminated her in Mina's
murder. She had no criminal record in Indonesia and told the police she'd never had any
trouble with the law. A search of her parents' home in Jakarta didn't turn up any evidence of cyanide, nor was there
any trace of the poison found in Jessica's handbag. However, when police asked Jessica for
the clothing she had been wearing on the day Mina died, she told them she had thrown the pants away.
She said they'd gotten a hole in them on the way to the hospital and had asked her maid to get rid of them.
Police seized a computer, documents, and tissues from Jessica's house, but found
nothing that tied her to the poisoning. Then there was the obvious question of what motive Jessica could possibly have
to want Mina dead. Not only did she claim they were good friends, but an examination of text
messages sent between the two showed nothing but a typical female friendship, and no one in their social circle knew
of any overt friction between them. They also didn't think of Jessica as a violent or dangerous person.
Most knew her to be bubbly and a bit goofy, not the kind to commit such a callous crime.
Police spoke to Mina's husband, Arif Samco, to see what he knew about Jessica and Mina's relationship.
The only thing Arief could think of was a minor incident that Mina had told him about back in October 2014, roughly 14
months before she died. Having returned to Sydney for a holiday, Mina had caught up with Jessica for a
coffee. As they chatted, Jessica told Mina about some problems she was having with her boyfriend at the time, a man
named Patrick O'Conor. She apparently said that Patrick could be rough with her and that he had some
problems with the drugs. Mina had never met Patrick, but she didn't like the sound of him and
couldn't fathom what Jessica saw in him. According to a reef, Mina could be very
upfront about her opinions and she told Jessica not to be stupid. She told Jessica to think about her
future and urged her to end the relationship. Jessica didn't like what she heard and
had reportedly stormed out of the restaurant. Arie said that Mina became wary of
Jessica after that and no longer wanted to meet up with her one- on-one. When Jessica returned to Jakarta in
December 2015, 1 month before Mina died, Arie joined Mina when the two women had
first caught up for coffee. He and Mina had only recently tied the knot in Barley and they were still
riding the wave of newly wed bliss. Jessica hadn't been invited to the wedding, but if she held any grudges
[music] about this, she made no mention of it. While these minor incidents indicated
that things weren't completely rosy between the two friends, it still didn't suggest why Jessica Wongo would want
Mina Salihinn dead, or how she'd managed to pull off such an elaborate plot. For the average citizen, cyanide isn't
exactly easy to come by. Although it's a naturally occurring chemical found in many plants such as
apple seeds, almonds, and tapioca, the level of cyanide found in the foods we consume is very low. It's the man-made
version available in gas, liquid, and solid form that's fast acting and highly lethal.
Cyanide is illegal in Indonesia and police could find no evidence of Jessica having sourced or attempting to source
it from anywhere. However, that didn't mean it wasn't possible. In Indonesia, it was once a common
practice to catch fish using cyanide. Fishermen would add a small amount of the chemical to waterways to stun fish
and send them floating to the surface. Although this practice had become illegal, the laws were minimally
enforced and it wasn't difficult to buy cyanide from illegal sellers. If Jessica had managed to source the
cyanide, police considered how she could have gotten the cyanide into the iced coffee. According to Olivia staff, it
was cafe policy that all straws be served alongside a drinks with a paper sheath at the top for hygiene purposes.
Yet, some staff members recalled that the sheath had been removed from Mina straw and placed into her iced coffee
before she arrived. Police wondered whether Jessica could have come prepared with the cyanide
laced straw, which she swapped over with the cafe straw. [music] Either that or she could have placed the
cyanide into the drink in some other way and then unchathed the straw to stir [music] it in. The straw Mina drank from
had been thrown away. So neither of these theories could be [music] tested. Regardless of how she'd managed to do
it, police felt confident enough with the circumstantial evidence they'd gathered that on Friday, January 29,
2016, they publicly declared Mina Sulli Hinn's death a murder and named Jessica Wongo as a suspect.
The following morning, they went to Jessica's parents house to formally place her under arrest, only to find
that no one was there. The police tracked her down to a hotel room in North Jakarta where she was
staying with her parents and in possession of her luggage. Fearing that Jessica was trying to flee
the country, they charged her with Mina's murder and placed her in custody without bail.
As news spread about Jessica's arrest, many were quick to question her unusually calm demeanor when fronting
the press. Jessica smiled for the cameras outside the police station, raising further
suspicion against her in the eyes of the public. The murder charge carried the possibility of a death sentence, making
her seemingly upbeat attitude difficult to reconcile. In the eyes of Mina's family, Jessica
seemed to be enjoying [music] the attention. They supported Jessica being given the
death sentence with Mina's twin sister Sandy telling Australia's 60 Minutes program.
I would like to see justice for my sister. Eye for an eye, life for a life. But when the prosecutors were handed the
brief of evidence, they were reluctant to proceed to trial. While the police case against Jessica Wongo was
compelling, it relied almost entirely on the grainy CCTV footage, statements from
cafe staff, and Jessica's strange behavior on the day of Mina's death. There was still nothing to suggest how
Jessica could have sourced the cyanide, no clear indication as to how she could have administered it, [music] and no
information about her mental state at the time. Prosecutors returned the brief to police
requesting more information before the trial could go ahead. Given that Jessica had spent roughly the
past 8 years in Australia, the Indonesian police knew very little about her past. All they had was her statement
that she'd never been in trouble with the law. They considered whether Jessica could
have sourced the cyanide in Australia and brought it over when she returned to Jakarta.
They reached out to the Australian Federal Police to see if they could shed any light, but AFP agents were hesitant
to cooperate. [music] Australia doesn't have the death penalty for convicted murderers, whereas
Indonesia does. Given that Jessica was an Australian resident, they wanted to protect her
from that possibility. The AFP agreed to help with the investigation on the condition that the
death penalty be taken off the table. [music] The Indonesian prosecutors agreed and the confidential files were
handed over. As the Indonesian investigators cast their eye over the information,
it quickly became clear there was more to Jessica Wongo than they had first realized.
While little was known about Jessica Wongo's early days in Sydney, [music] the year leading up to Mina Sully Hinn's
death had been a tumultuous one for the then 26-year-old. Police records revealed that Jessica had
been working as a graphic designer for the New South Wales Ambulance Service when things began to unravel in her
personal life. It all started in January 2015 when her boyfriend at the time, [music] an
Australian man named Patrick O'Conor, tried to end their relationship. According to Patrick, Jessica began
sending him countless texts and voice messages in which she threatened to hurt herself. She went ahead with that threat
in late January 2015 and was subsequently hospitalized for self harm. This destructive behavior continued to
escalate over the following months. In October 2015, Patrick called the police to Jessica's flat after she tried to
poison herself with carbon monoxide from [music] a small coal barbecue. She was hospitalized but released
shortly after. A few weeks later, police were called to the flat again. [music] This time,
Jessica was unconscious in bed with a bottle of whiskey and three letters by her side.
One of the letters was addressed to her family and one was addressed to her co-workers saying [music] her goodbyes.
The other letter blamed Patrick for her death. In November 2015, 2 months before Mina's
death, Patrick contacted the police after discovering that his car had been destroyed by a vandal.
Although he couldn't prove who was responsible, he felt confident it was Jessica. Not only had she been harassing
him, but his friends, too. Fearing for their safety, Patrick sought an urgent apprehended violence order
against Jessica, hoping that a court issued restraining order would deter her from further harassment.
He described Jessica as unstable. And although there was no evidence for police to charge her with damaging the
car, the urgent AVO request was granted with a court hearing set for February 2016 [music] to formally put it in
place. Around the same time that Patrick's car was vandalized, Jessica was fired from
her job with the New South Wales Ambulance Service. As part of the investigation into Mina
Sihin's suspected murder, police interviewed Jessica's former boss, a woman named Christy Carter.
Christy told the police that during the 8 months she'd spent working with the Jessica, she'd seen two very different
sides of her personality. While Jessica could be kind, and loved to smile, she was also quick to anger if
things didn't go her way. Christy described to Jessica as being manipulative, dishonest, hateful, and
badtempered. She said she wasn't surprised to hear that she was being accused of poisoning
her friend, telling police, "I have observed her for the past 8 months, and from her attitude, hatred, and nature of
her craziness, I have no doubt that she is capable of hurting or killing another
person." Christy had gone to visit Jessica in the hospital after her suicide attempt in
October 2015. Jessica was furious because the doctors were refusing to discharge her. She said
something along the lines of, "The bastards in this hospital would not let me go home and they are treating me like
a killer, but if I wanted to kill someone, I certainly know how to do it. I could get a gun and I know the right
dosage." After Jessica lost her job with the ambulance service, she asked for Christy's help in finding a new place to
live. When Christy refused, Jessica allegedly threatened to kill both Christy and [music] Christiey's mother.
Christy told the police she had no idea how Jessica could have obtained the cyanide that was used to kill Mina, but
she didn't doubt the possibility. When Jessica wants something to happen, Christy [music] said it could happen.
All up, Jessica Wongo had reportedly been hospitalized for four suicide attempts in the months leading up to
Mina's [music] death. Combined with the allegations from Patrick O' Connor and the comments she allegedly made to
Christy Carter, [music] this gave Indonesian authorities their first real insight into Jessica's
psychological state leading up to the supposed crime. But it was a police report from August 2015 that really
caught their attention. On the night of Saturday, August 22, 2015, emergency services were called to
a nursing home in the Sydney suburb of Lyart after a car plunged through the brick facade just meters from where
dozens of elderly residents were sleeping. Police arrived to find [music] Jessica
Wongo behind the wheel in what they believed to be an intoxicated state. She was taken to the hospital but
managed to escape with minor injuries to her ribs and chest. No one else was hurt in the accident.
Jessica was charged with a high range drink driving offense, further adding to her problems.
According to confidential police files released exclusively by ABC's 7:30 program, in the leadup to her trip to
Jakarta at the end of 2015, [music] Jessica sent a text message to a friend saying she was considering fleeing
Australia to avoid paying over $15,000 she owed in fines and legal fees. I could use the money to have an epic
holiday, she wrote. have new licenses anywhere where my dad got power too rather than giving money to those police
ignorant [ __ ] In another message, she wrote, "I'm being pushed [music] again and again.
I'll break." For the Indonesian prosecutors, the files handed over by the Australian
Federal Police were exactly what they needed to pursue the murder charge against Jessica.
In their view, it proved that she was becoming more emotionally unstable and increasingly aggressive in the leadup to
Mina's [music] death. Her harmful behavior, once directed at herself, was now turned toward others.
It also turned out that Jessica had been fired just days after Mina and Arif got
married, a wedding she had not been invited to. Prosecutors believed the culmination of
these events could have led her to direct her anger towards Mina. As Mina's twin sister Sandy told 60
Minutes, [music] "I think Jessica is jealous of Mina because Mina had a good life and [music]
a good future ahead of her. And maybe Jessica's life is crap." All up, the brief of evidence was sent
back and forth between the police and prosecutors five times over a 3 and 1/2 month period [music]
before the Jakarta High prosecutor's office finally determined that there was enough evidence for the case to proceed
to trial. This was major news in Indonesia where the story had been making headlines from
the [music] outset. While the police had been gathering evidence against Jessica, speculation
had been rampant about who else could have possibly been responsible for Mina Salahin's [music] death.
Although no one else was ever formally investigated for the murder, that didn't [music] stop the rumor mill from running
wild. One of Jessica's lawyers claimed that someone could have taken out a life insurance policy against Mina overseas
in which they stood to gain $5 million in the event she was murdered. Without elaborating on this possibility,
he said that Jessica was being used as a scapegoat, [music] asking, "Why is Jessica the only person
targeted in this case when it is possible that other persons were involved?" These comments led to public suspicion
against [music] Mina's husband, Arif Samarco, with some speculating that he was the one who stood [music] to gain
from such a life insurance policy. Some publications reported that a reef could have co-conspired with Olivia's
barista Ranga Autra by paying him to spike Mina's drink. One tabloid journalist claimed that on
the day before Mina died, he was in the car park of a shopping mall when he saw a man who looked like a reef Samco
[music] pass a package to Ranga Saputra. The implication [music] being that the package could have contained either cash
or the cyanide that was used [music] to kill Mina. Arie vehemently denied such rumors and
publicly accused the journalist of slander while Mina's father reported Jessica's lawyer for defamation for his
unfounded statements regarding the life insurance policy. Meanwhile, others theorized that Mina
and Jessica could have been having a secret lesbian relationship during their time together in Australia.
Mina's marriage to a reef tipped Jessica over the edge and led her to poison Mina
in a jealous rage. Mina's friends and family denied that she was ever involved in a same-sex
relationship, but that didn't discount the possibility that Jessica could have had romantic feelings towards her.
Mina's father publicly claimed to have seen a series of text messages that Jessica had sent Mina, which he believed
carried romantic connotations, fueling rumors that Jessica could have killed Mina out of rejection.
A forensic hypnotist who interviewed Jessica and examined the messages sent between the pair told ABC's 730 there
was no evidence to support the theory that the two women were lovers, but the rumor prevailed regardless.
Some also speculated that a reef and a Jessica could have been having an affair, an allegation they both strongly
denied and for [music] which no evidence existed. For the average Indonesian, watching the
story play out was compared to watching a real life soap opera. In a country where the majority of the population
reportedly lives on less than $4 US a day, the same price as a cup of coffee from Olivier Cafe. The salacious story
of murder and revenge among the wealthy urban class had people gripped. With the Jessica and Mina's families
pitted against one another, unfounded rumors swirled that the murder was part of a business rivalry between the two
families. As writer Johannes Negro explained in an article for Foreign Policy magazine,
while the two families do not make the list of Indonesia's top 10 richest, they are filthy rich by the urban wealthy
standards, at least rich enough to buy the law. The fight between them is a drama that even those convinced of
Wongo's innocence can enjoy. Indonesians have a proverb that goes, "When two elephants clash, the mouse
deer caught in between is doomed." [music] In Sally Hinn's murder case, however,
two elephants are locked in a struggle while the tiny mouse deer get to be [music] the spectators.
For the average Indonesian, this is a moment of sweet irony. Watching giants grapple at each other's throats without
being trampled underfoot yourself does not happen a lot in a country where the political and economic elites hold the
reigns often at the expense of the rest. Ultimately, tragedies like Salahin's death are seized upon by Indonesians
because they expose the vulnerabilities of the country's upper class and bring the hope that things can go ary even for
the giants. Interest in the story only strengthened after it was revealed that celebrity
lawyer Oto Hazibwan had agreed to take on Jessica's defense case pro bono. Many were disappointed by his decision
to do so. With the Jessica's trial approaching, a majority of Indonesians were convinced she was guilty and they
didn't approve of Oto's decision to defend a killer. But as Otto later told Netflix, he had been scheduled to go on
an Alaskan cruise with his family when he received a visit from Jessica's mother, saying [music] that her daughter
had been treated unfairly and pleading with him to take on the case. Oto met with Jessica and agreed to help
on one condition. If at any point he became convinced that she was guilty of murdering Mina
Salihinn, he would resign from the case. Jessica agreed without hesitation. Otto was one of 15 lawyers on Jessica's
legal team. As they [music] looked further into the case, they discovered that all wasn't as it seemed in the
trial by media. First and foremost, there was the question of why Jessica would have
chosen Olivia Cafe as the place to commit a murder. Not only was it a popular, busy spot,
but if Jessica was aware of the CCTV cameras, like investigators asserted, then why wouldn't she have simply chosen
a quieter location that didn't have any security cameras? The fact that Jessica had arrived at
Olivier Cafe an hour and a half ahead of the agreed upon meeting time was viewed
as proof that she'd come to scope the place out in preparation for Mina's murder. [music]
But according to Jessica, she only arrived so early because of the 3in-1 traffic rule that was in place in
Jakarta at the time. To avoid congestion on the roads of the densely populated city, only cars with
three or more passengers were allowed to use the main roads during peak periods.
She said she'd only arrived early because she had to, not because she wanted to.
Much had also been made about Jessica's decision to order her friend's drinks ahead of time, with the implication
being that she did this so she could slip the cyanide into Mina's drink. But Jessica claimed that she'd ordered the
drinks expecting them to be served by the time Mina and Hanie arrived. WhatsApp messages sent between the group
at the time confirmed that Mina and Hanie had been running late that afternoon. If Mina and Hanie had arrived on time
like Jessica expected, her defense team pointed out that she wouldn't have had the opportunity to administer the
cyanide. The messages also showed that Jessica told Mina she was going to order the
Vietnamese iced coffee for her ahead of time, to which Mina agreed. For the defense team, Jessica's message
to Mina's twin sister, Sandy, about the lab results wasn't an attempt to see if she'd been caught, but because she was
genuinely curious to know how her friend had died. The article she'd sent Sandy about
cyanide laced coffee being sold in Vietnam wasn't an indication that Jessica knew Mina had been poisoned with
cyanide either, but simply proved that she was looking for any possible information about what might have
happened to her friend. The fact that Jessica was staying in a hotel with packed suitcases at the time
of her arrest wasn't an indication that she intended to flee the country. She and her parents had moved there to
escape the throngs of journalists who had camped outside of their home. With no evidence to suggest how Jessica
could have sourced the cyanide and no footage of her removing anything from her handbag or putting anything into the
iced coffee, her defense team questioned the validity of the prosecution's case entirely.
The timing of the so-called suspicious movements that Jessica had made behind the gift bags coincided with the text
message that she had sent to Mina. They believed that any movement she made could be attributed to that and they
didn't think there was anything suspicious about the gift bags either. Jessica claimed she had simply wanted to
buy her friends a [music] present. As for her unusually composed demeanor after Mina's death [music] and when
fronting reporters, Jessica explained that she was generally a calm person and she didn't want to show her true
emotions in front of the cameras. Confused about how to deal with the whole saga, she said she wanted to bury
the memory of what happened on January 6. But above all, there was one major detail that the defense [music] team
couldn't get past. The lethal oral dose of cyanide for a human of Mina's weight was around 171
mg. Toxicology testing of the Vietnamese iced coffee handed over by staff at Olivier Cafe detected 7,400 mg per liter
of cyanide in the glass served to Mina and 7,900 mg per liter in the water bottle into which staff had poured the
remaining liquid after the incident. However, toxicology tests conducted on samples taken from [music] Mina's body
70 minutes after she died had revealed no traces of cyanide in her gastric [music] fluid, bile, or urine.
Further samples taken 3 days after she died had revealed just 0.2 mg per liter of cyanide in her stomach.
Not only was this incredibly low dose not enough to be fatal, but no cyanide was detected in her bowel or liver,
which would be expected in a case of cyanide [music] poisoning. Her skin also hadn't shown a reddish
hue, which is another telltale sign of cyanide poisoning. By the time those second samples had
been taken, Mina's body had already been imbalmed. Jessica's defense team spoke to at least
two forensic pathologists who explained that the low levels of cyanide detected in Mina's stomach could have been
produced postmortem, possibly during the imbalming process. Because her family hadn't approved a
full autopsy, none of her organs, such as her brain, lungs, or heart had been tested.
And without these tests, the forensic pathologists said it couldn't be proven that Mina hadn't died from natural
causes. This was a huge piece of information for the defense. If Mina hadn't been
poisoned, it explained why Hanie and the cafe staff who tasted the iced coffee hadn't fallen sick despite the high
levels of cyanide found in the drink. As far as the defense was concerned, the only way to explain the lack of cyanide
in Mina's system was that the cyanide had been added to the drink after Mina drank it. [music]
By the time Jessica Wongo's highly anticipated trial for the murder of Mina Sali Hinn commenced in June 2016, it had
been dubbed Indonesia's trial of the century. In terms of public interest, it was
likened to the OJ Simpson murder trial in the United States with the topic of Jessica's possible guilt deemed a
national obsession. Camera crews filled the courthouse with three television stations set to [music]
broadcast a roundthe-clock live feed of the proceedings complete with commentaries.
Indonesia operates under a civil law system. In criminal trials, there is no jury. Instead, a team of public
prosecutors goes head-to-head with the defense team while a panel of three judges determines the fate of the
accused. The proceedings are inquisitorial in nature, meaning the judges are allowed
to question witnesses directly. They sit at the head of the room while witnesses sit alone in a chair in the
center of the court and the two legal teams are placed at either side. During opening arguments, the
prosecution team presented their theory that a jealous Jessica Wongo had been motivated to kill Mina Salah Hinn to
avenge the pain she felt over her breakup with Patrick O' Connor. They believed Jessica had arrived at Olivier
Cafe armed with the cyanide and intentionally chose a table out of view of the security cameras where she used
the three gift bags to further shield what she was about to do. Ordering the drinks before her friend's
arrival, she administered the cyanide behind the bags and then watched on with barely feigned concern as the poison
took its toll on Mina. The defense team argued there was no evidence to prove any such claims. One
of her lawyers stated, "It does not make sense that Jessica flew all the way from
Australia to Indonesia to murder Mina. It also does not make sense that Jessica would murder Mina because she had once
asked Jessica to end her relationship with her boyfriend at the time." Turning to the judges, he asked, "Why is
Jessica the only one suspected of murder when she did not do anything unusual and
nobody witnessed her putting cyanide into the coffee?" The defense said the possibility that
someone else was responsible for the poisoning couldn't be discounted. [music] A bartender from Olivia Cafe testified
to having poured Mina's iced coffee into an empty water bottle and handing it over to the police for testing.
While some staff members recalled that the glass had then been secured in cling wrap and handed to the police, too, the
bartender testified that he had returned the empty glass to the cafe pantry. Oto Hzibuan pointed out that the police
brief of evidence said that cyanide was found in the water bottle as well as the
coffee glass. If the bartender's testimony was correct, then what glass had police used
for testing? The police had also asked Olivier's manager to provide them with a glass of
Vietnamese iced coffee they could compare to Mina's drink as well as another empty water bottle that they
could pour the comparison beverage into. Therefore, if the bartender had misremembered, the police should have
had two glasses and two bottles. Yet, their brief of evidence inexplicably mentioned just [music] one bottle and
two glasses. Given these inconsistencies and the fact that no one else who tasted the drink
became severely ill, the defense said it couldn't be ruled out that either the cafe staff or the police could have
added the cyanide to the iced coffee after Mina drank it, but before it was tested.
This wasn't an outlandish allegation to make. The Indonesian legal system is notoriously corrupt with the judges and
prosecutors known to take bribes from people in positions of power. Rumors had circulated that Mina's father
could have worked with the police to secure a conviction against Jessica at any cost necessary.
Although there was absolutely no evidence to support such an allegation, talk of corruption had surrounded the
case from the very beginning. The defense also pointed out that Olivier's barista, Ranga Saputra, had
disposed of the hot water from the kettle that had been used to make Mina's iced coffee.
They suggested this could have been a deliberate move to ensure the water couldn't be tested for cyanide.
Lawyer Oto Hazaban claimed to have seen a police file with a confession from Ranga Saputra in which he admitted he
was hired to kill Mina, but that this file had mysteriously disappeared. Taking the witness stand, Ranga denied
having gotten rid of the hot water that had been used to make Min as iced coffee. He then changed his mind and
said he wasn't sure if he had. This [music] inconsistency raised some eyebrows about his credibility, but when
asked if he'd accepted any money from Mina's husband, Arif Samco, to commit the murder, Ranga vehemently denied it.
At the time of the trial, he was still employed at Olivier Cafe. If I received the money, I would have
quit my job, he stated. The prosecution said it didn't matter if the hot water used to make the iced
coffee had been disposed of. Experts testified that if the cyanide was put into hot water, the resulting steam
would have given off a strong smell of burnt almonds and in an enclosed space like the cafe. Others who inhaled the
steam would have also been poisoned. Given that no one else was affected, and even Jessica claimed that the coffee had
smelt normal, the cyanide had to have been put into the drink when it was already cold. And the only one who went
anywhere near the drink when it was cold was Jessica Arie. Samarco also rejected the
allegation that he'd conspired to have Mina killed, saying he'd never met Ranga Saputra before in his life. He testified
about how angry Jessica had been at Mina for suggesting [music] she break up with
her boyfriend and how this had led to Mina becoming afraid of Jessica's anger and not wanting to meet her alone.
Jessica's anger issues were further solidified by the comments she allegedly made to her former boss in Sydney,
Christy Carter. While Christy didn't give evidence, her statement detailing Jessica's suicide
attempts, [music] her threats to kill Christy and her mother, and her comments that she knew the right dosage to kill
someone [music] were read to the court. These comments appeared to lend further weight to testimony provided by several
psychologists who described Jessica as being intelligent and confident with a narcissistic personality and a huge
impulse to be at the center of attention. One clinical psychologist who had interviewed Jessica shortly after her
arrest said that she was calm in situations where she could anticipate what was coming next. But it was when
something unexpected happened that her emotions ignited. Having studied the CCTV footage from
Olivia Cafe, this psychologist believed that Jessica showed no signs of panic when Mina collapsed. Even when Jessica
walked over to fetch some water for Mina, she didn't hurry. A criminologist from the University of
Jakarta testified that he'd interviewed Jessica twice at the police station during which he'd used physomy, [music]
the practice of assessing a person's character based on their outer appearance. Studying Jessica's facial features and
expressions while they spoke, he determined that she had a narcissistic personality and a great desire to be
loved. While he didn't find her to have psychopath traits, he did find her to be
emotionally unstable, spiteful, and unable to tolerate criticism. A criminologist for the defense team
refuted that a criminologist has no place examining an individual's gestures without assistance from a psychologist.
She told the judges, "Physionomy is only used to describe potential offenses or people who have the potential to commit
a crime. It can't [music] be used to determine whether someone is guilty." But the major argument for Jessica's
innocence [music] stemmed from the results of the toxicology testing in which only small traces of cyanide were
detected in Mina's stomach several days after her death. The forensic pathologist who examined Mina's body
testified that her stomach and esophagus had turned black, which clearly indicated that she had been poisoned
using a very toxic substance. A police toxicology expert told the court that after his expert [music] team
conducted a series of tests, he had no doubt that Mina was killed by the cyanide.
But Dr. Ja Surya Admaher, a forensic pathologist from the University of Indonesia, testified for the defense
that [music] these traces of cyanide in Mina's stomach had probably come from the embalming chemicals that were used
to preserve her body. [music] and that there was nothing to disprove that Mina hadn't died from natural causes.
If you don't check all the organs, [music] you can't determine the cause of death, Dr. Admar stated to the court.
That's forensics dogma. [music] We wouldn't know whether Mina had a stroke, for example, unless you examined
her brain. Would the lungs be infected with certain diseases or not? Not to mention the heart. All of these are
potential causes of death. [music] Dr. Atmaha also said that one of the telltale signs of cyanide poisoning is a
red discoloration of the skin. When Mina was first brought into the morg, he said her skin was [music] blue.
However, once the news got out that she had died from cyanide poisoning, the photos circulated online [music] and her
skin was clearly red. The red tinged photos had been submitted to the court by Mina's father earlier
that day. According to Dr. Admar, those photos could have been easily altered, a claim
that caused commotion in the courtroom and provoked [music] Mina's father to stand up in shock and voice his outrage.
Two other forensic pathologists from Australia supported Dr. at Maja's testimony that the low levels of cyanide
found in Mina's stomach couldn't rule out the possibility that she had died from natural causes.
One said, "If you take the toxicology results as they are and the explanation that the very low level of the gastric
content was due to post-mortem changes, then it is impossible in my view to conclude that the death was due to
cyanide poisoning." The less than optimal quality autopsy has failed in its primary duty to the
deceased and her family, the accused, and the justice system, which is to provide as definitively as possible a
cause of death. Another stated plainly, "These toxicology results show there is no
evidence of cyanide ingestion." By the time Jessica Wongo took the stand in her own defense, the trial had gone
on for 3 and 1/2 months. Hearings had run from morning to night, with some going as late as 2:00 a.m.
While it had been an exhausting time for all involved, the defense's evidence appeared to be having an impact on
public perception. Jessica had gained more supporters with many viewing the trial as a farce in
which the prosecution was relying on flimsy and unreliable evidence. Others were more convinced of her guilt
than ever and resented [music] the defense team's decision to call upon Australian expert witnesses instead of
fellow Indonesians. One of the forensic pathologists was even arrested for misusing his tourist
visa to testify at the trial and deported to Australia. It was pointed out that nobody seemed to
care when this same pathologist had used a tourist visa when he'd been asked to help identify victims of the Bali
bombing terrorist attacks back in 2002. As Jessica took her seat in front of the
panel of judges, she maintained her trademark [music] calm and composed demeanor.
She denied that the conversation in which Mina had supposedly told her to break up with Patrick had ever even
happened, saying she hadn't ever told Mina anything about her relationship. "I just told Mina I was close with one
guy," she told the judges. "I didn't even tell her Patrick's name. One of the prosecutors asked, "How could
a reef know Patrick's name when you never told Mina about him?" Unfazed, Jessica told the judge he would
have to ask a reef that. She also said that 90% of the allegations made by her former boss,
Christy Carter, were untrue. Jessica dispelled the rumors that she was a lesbian, stating, "A lot of the
experts statements are untrue, and I want to say it firmly that I'm only interested in men in the past, now, and
in the future." Jessica said she hadn't lied when she told Mina's father that she had ordered
mineral water at the cafe that day. Mina had asked for some after tasting the bad
coffee, and CCTV footage captured Jessica going to get it for her. It just wasn't noted on their bill. She also
rejected the claims that Mina was reluctant or scared to meet with her alone, saying it was Mina who had
initiated several of their catch-ups in Sydney. Some compared Jessica's calm demeanor to
that of Amanda Knox, an American woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her housemate Meredith
Kercher, as covered in episode 270 of Case File. Instead of appearing nervous or
intimidated, some thought Jessica was mocking the prosecutors. When one of them asked her whether
Vietnamese iced coffee is served hot or cold, Jessica asked sarcastically, "Well, what do you think?"
A moment that went viral on social media. Her attitude while giving her testimony
only divided members of the public further. As Johannes Negro explained in his article for foreign policy, while
Jessica's sometimes contemptuous demeanor in court may have won hearts among the middle class, it could only
aggravate her image with those prejudiced against her from the outset. Jessica told the judges she was being
vilified by the prosecutors and the press, who had made her entire personal life a topic of discussion. [music]
If she acted calm, she was interpreted as being a cold-blooded murderer. But if she cried or showed emotion, that was
criticized, too. "Whatever I do is wrong," Jessica [music] said. In closing arguments, prosecutors
demanded that Jessica be given a 20-year sentence for the sorrow she had caused Mina's loved ones. They called her
sadistic and cruel to have intentionally killed her friend in a way that would have caused great pain and pointed out
that she had shown no remorse. The defense counted that Jessica had shown no remorse because she had not
committed the crime. After almost 5 months of hearings on Thursday, October 27, 2016, [music] the
judges delivered their verdict. They concluded there were only three parties that could have possibly put the
cyanide in Mina's drink. Olivia's staff, [music] the police, or Jessica Wongo. They ruled out the cafe staff on the
basis that the iced coffee had looked completely normal in the CCTV [music] footage and that no other patrons in the
cafe had smelt burned almonds or collapsed, supporting the notion that the cyanide had [music] been put in the
coffee after it was already cold. Furthermore, the judges believed it was logical to assume that a guilty staff
member would have immediately disposed of any evidence rather than handing it over to the police.
The fact that Mina had complained about the taste of the coffee and waved her hand in front of her mouth after
drinking it, [music] coupled with the fact that Hanie and at least two staff members tasted the coffee and noted it
as foul, [music] meant the cyanide was in there before the police arrived. This [music] proved to the judges that
the police had not tampered with the evidence or added the cyanide to the coffee after confiscating it. With the
cafe staff and police ruled out, that just left one explanation. Jessica Wongo was the one who ordered
the iced coffee. [music] She was the one who placed the gift bags on the table to
obscure the view of the cameras. and she was the only one who had access to the beverage before Mina drank it.
For the premeditated murder of Mina Sally Hinn, [music] the judges found Jessica Wongo guilty and sentenced her
to 20 years in prison. Mina's loved ones broke down in tears [music] of relief while Jessica
maintained her composure. She looked at the judge and said, "Thank you, your honor. I don't accept the
verdict. Her lawyer, Oto Hazaban, was shaken, he told the court. Because the judge's decision is unfair,
biased, [music] and definitely not according to the law, this trial has sounded the death nail for justice. As a
result, we firmly announced that we'll file an appeal. With that, a round of applause and
cheering erupted. Outside court, Mina's father told reporters that even though he hoped
Jessica would get the death sentence, he respected the judge's decision. [music]
The most important thing is that it has been proven that Jessica has killed Mina, [music] he said.
Jessica's legal team immediately filed an appeal, arguing that the judges had ignored key evidence that cast
significant doubt on whether Mina had actually died from cyanide poisoning, and if she had, whether Jessica was the
perpetrator. They argued that the testimony from Jessica's former boss and the CCTV
footage taken from Olivier Cafe should never have been admitted in court. The prosecution hadn't aired the
original footage, only a police copy, and the original had never been given to the defense.
They argued that the footage could have been tampered with or certain frames could have been deleted.
Jessica's appeal was rejected by both the High Court and the Supreme Court, sparking further debate about whether or
not she had received a fair trial. Many believed that the judges had made their minds up about her guilt from the
very beginning and were too quick to believe the prosecution's version of events without adequate evidence to
support it. One of the trial judges even said so in an interview with Tempo magazine just [music] days after the
verdict was delivered. For me, this case was very simple. He said, "The relationship between the
defendant and the victim was very close. A person who poisons another person is acquainted with that person.
Just look at it from when Jessica came until she ordered a drink. That's the extent of it. The poison was
put in when the drink was cold. If cyanide is put into hot water, everyone around would have been poisoned by
inhaling the steam. It is as simple as that. Simon But is a professor of Indonesian
law at the University of Sydney Law School. After examining the case against Jessica
Wongo in detail, he concluded that her trial was not fair based on the [music] standards of the Indonesian legal
system. He found that police had interrogated Jessica without a lawyer present, searched her parents' house without a
warrant, detained her without reasonable cause, failed to order a full autopsy to
establish Mina's cause of death, and mishandled, perhaps even contaminated the coffee they claimed killed Mina.
In the new criminal law review, Professor Simon But wrote that procedural irregularities and legal
mistakes plagued Wongo's case from the very beginning. He argued that the prosecution fell well
short of meeting the evidentary standard. While the court paid insufficient, arguably no regard to the
defense, he suggested the judges may have been swayed to convict due to public pressure. noting they swallowed
the prosecution's case and drew strange conclusions from Wongo's demeanor [music] without properly addressing
significant holes in the evidence. Rejecting the possibility of natural causes, the court instead relied on
process of elimination reasoning. In 2023, Netflix released a documentary on the contentious case titled Ice Cold,
Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongo, which featured exclusive interviews with several important figures, including
Mina's father and lawyers from both the prosecution and defense teams. The highly anticipated film propelled
the case back into the spotlight and gained international attention, leading to renewed discussion about whether or
not Jessica Wongo had been wrongfully convicted. The film put Jessica in a sympathetic
light, leading to a shift in public opinion [music] despite criticism about its lack of journalistic rigor and
balance, with some critics labeling the documentary as sensationalistic. The following year in August 2024,
Jessica was granted parole, having served just 8 years of her 20-year sentence. Officials said their decision had
nothing to do with the Netflix documentary, but was based on Jessica's good behavior, which included her
teaching English and yoga to other prisoners. The now 36-year-old walked straight into
a press conference saying she didn't have anything planned for her release, but she had forgiven everyone who
wronged her. In May 2025, Jessica agreed to participate in an exclusive interview
with Australian journalist Liam Bartlett for Channel 7's Spotlight program. It was a highly anticipated interview that
attracted millions of viewers. As had become her trademark, Jessica didn't appear at all ruffled by any of Liam's
direct questions [music] and was able to laugh off or explain away any uncomfortable moments.
She also appeared to have backtracked on her claims about her friendship with Mina, [music] saying, "We weren't close
at all. It was because we came from [music] the same country that was why we kind of like know each other. We weren't
best friends or anything. Jessica told Liam she never scoped out Olivia Cafe for security cameras and
that if the footage made it appear that way, it was only because she was looking
around at the place and people. As for the gift bags that she moved around the table, Jessica [music] smiled
as she said, "That's just me being me, you know, being bored. It really doesn't mean anything at all."
She said the fact that the bags shielded the drinks from the security cameras was
a pure coincidence. Liam asked Jessica why she was scratching her hands on the CCTV footage
while Mina was getting first aid. Jessica explained it as a habit of hers, stating, "It's not because it's itchy or
something from poison or something like that." Liam jumped in. "I'm not saying that," he clarified. "You made [music]
the suggestion. I'm just saying you're standing there scratching your hands, but you're not helping."
It was yet another awkward moment that Jessica managed to brush off. She said she had never heard of Cyanide before
Mia's death, [music] prompting Liam to point out it was therefore strange that she had contacted Mina's twin sister the
day after Mina died and asked about the results of the toxicology tests. Jessica [music] explained she knew that
samples had been taken and she was simply curious to know how Mina had [music] died. As for the restraining
order her ex-boyfriend Patrick had taken out against her, Jessica said the story
was [music] complicated and not like it sounds. Explaining the relationship was kind of like toxic
in a way. We didn't really see eye to eye on a lot of things. Jessica said she had no idea why people
said that Mina was afraid to be alone around her. asked if she had the potential to be violent. Jessica laughed
and said, "No, of course not. What would I do?" Liam told Jessica he wondered why she
didn't get an invite to Mina and Arif's wedding. She began to stammer, saying, "Because I was in Australia. I couldn't
be bothered to like [music] fly over just to attend their wedding." Liam pressed on, saying, "But you didn't
get that choice, did you? [music] She didn't invite you." Jessica looked stunned, pausing for a
moment before saying, "I can't remember. Didn't she invite me? I can't even remember."
She burst into giggles when Liam asked her about the time she drove her car into the nursing home.
When he said she was lucky that she didn't die, [music] Jessica responded, "Yeah, do you think I'm lucky? After
everything I've been through, you think I'm [music] lucky?" Jessica Wongo will be held on parole in
Jakarta until 2032. [music] She maintains her innocence in Mina's murder and has filed a judicial review
against her conviction in the hopes that she will be officially exonerated from the crime. In the meantime, Spotlight
reported that she is trying to make a living as an influencer with brand deals coming in from beauty, food, [music] and
tech companies. Indonesia's largest coffee chain, Canang Coffee, has even reached out to her
about collaborating with them. Jessica told Liam Bartlett she couldn't imagine working a regular office job
after everything that she'd been through. When he quipped that no one would trust her to do the coffee run,
[music] she laughed heartily. The question of whether or not Jessica Wongo is guilty of murdering Mina Sally
Hinn is still debated almost a decade later. Professor Simon But stated in his journal article, "Whether she is guilty
or innocent, Wongo should not have been convicted. As has been shown, her trial was unfair, as was her treatment by
police." Wongo's case illustrates that Indonesia's laws of criminal procedure require an urgent overhaul to better
protect the rights of suspects and defendants. Though [music] this is unlikely in the foreseeable future,
some view Jessica as an innocent [music] victim of Indonesia's broken justice system, while others see her as a
cold-blooded and manipulative killer masquerading [music] as the victim. Indonesian news presenter Timothy Marun,
who hosted a daily show covering [music] Jessica's trial for the Compass TV Network, likened Jessica to a villain
from a film. [music] He told Australia's 60 Minutes, "When you watch a movie, when the
villain is that good, you don't even want them to die." Mina Selihinn's loved ones have never
swayed from their belief that Jessica was [music] responsible for Mina's death. Her father, Eddie Sully Hinn,
told Netflix he is a million% sure that Jessica is guilty, saying, "Deep inside her, something is evil."
Mina's [music] twin sister, Sandy, moved to the German countryside with her husband to distance herself from the
case and [music] find some peace. Mina's husband, Arief Samco, has remarried and no longer publicly
discusses [music] the case. However, back in 2016, when Jessica's trial was underway, he fondly told reporters how
he had first met Mina in 2006. They got to know each other over the course of the year before they started
dating. Arie cried as he recalled how happy he'd been during their courtship, saying,
[music] "I was so happy to meet Mina. She changed my life so much. She also introduced me to God. She was kind to
everyone. She didn't discriminate [music] and she treated everyone equally." He proudly recalled watching Mina in the
leadup to their wedding in awe of her creativity as she designed the [music] small details of their wedding
decorations. A reef told reporters that [music] despite the public focus on Jessica,
quote, "When people follow the case, I always think of [music] Mina. >> [music]

When school friends Jessica Wongso and Mirna Salihin caught up for coffee in Jakarta’s upscale Olivier Cafe in January 2016, it was supposed to be a friendly get together. Then, moments after taking a sip from her Vietnamese iced coffee, Mirna collapsed and died.

What unravelled was one of Indonesia’s most controversial murder trials, with the question on everyone’s lips – did Jessica Wongso poison Mirna with cyanide?

---

Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016.

Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today.

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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RESOURCES

Brief Summary

Jessica Wongo was convicted of poisoning her friend Mina Salihinn with cyanide in a Jakarta cafe, sparking a controversial trial and ongoing debates about her guilt.

Key points

Mina's Sudden Collapse. Mina collapses after drinking her iced coffee, leading to a frantic scene.
Toxicology Results. Tests confirm that Mina's iced coffee contained cyanide, a lethal poison.
Eddie's Trust in Police. Mina's father expresses faith in the police to find the perpetrator.
Mina's Death Declared a Murder. Police publicly declare Mina's death a murder and name Jessica Wongo as a suspect.
Psychological Insight into Jessica. Police uncover Jessica's tumultuous past, revealing her mental health struggles leading up to Mina's death.
Rumors and Speculation. Public speculation arises about potential motives and other suspects in Mina's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What did you put in the coffee?

Jessica Wongo asking about the coffee after Mina collapsed.

6:06WatchJan 31, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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