Listen to more High School Stories here! Vol 1 -- ua-cam.com/video/XTR7KZqrLs0/v-deo.html Vol 2 -- ua-cam.com/video/dB2l_BR2VkU/v-deo.html Vol 3 -- ua-cam.com/video/4wKp4mnutWs/v-deo.html
The second story made me so mad!! The fact that he still referred to him as "creepy caleb" even after knowing the trauma, and his brother inlaw needs to learn better confidentiality, even if he didn't use names, its a small town.. but great work Joel
You’d be surprised. Some nurses I know got in trouble for gossip about patients in a restaurant. Relatives of the patient happened to be sitting in the next booth over!
@@magesalmanac6424I had coworkers have the same thing happen when I was teaching. Some of my coworkers got caught talking crap about a student in a restaurant
These stories are why we need to be kind to others, they are why we need mental health education in schools. As somebody who is autistic with mental health problems hearing the stories from some of these people hurts so much. Even when they got older and learned the truth they still insult these mentally ill people in these stories when they talk about them.
That's my take on a lot of these stories, too. I'm also autistic with a mental disorder (major depressive disorder) and half of the time, when listening to these, I'm thinking, "This could have been me..." I wonder how many of these could been prevented if there was a mass effort to educate people about mental illness. Probably almost all of them. I know my mental health improved when I wasn't forced to be around people who were afraid, disgusted, or felt an obligation towards me. Having people who genuinely want to be around me because they like me as I am, quirks and all, has made all the difference.
So in Story #5 you're telling me a girl went missing for days upon days from her school... That same school also had a bathroom that just stayed locked all the time, but nobody bothered to look inside there? They just said "mehhh, that's just the perpetually locked room, nothing to see in there." How can somebody go missing from the school and every inch of that place not be searched right away?
The fourth story reminded me about something horrible that happened at my high school (or well, the Swedish equivalent). Someone compiled leaked very private photos of a ton of girls at the school, many of them were underage, on a USB stick and it was passed around between the boys. So many of them were in on it but the school didn’t find out who started it so there were never really any consequences for them. I felt so bad for those poor girls who trusted their boyfriends with the pictures only to be completely betrayed and humiliated.
@@daviddelarosajr1758 I have the stories on the iPad playing through the Alexa and a roaring fire on the big TV. Then loads of candles let. It's awesome.
“My brother told me he could get in trouble for talking about a patient, so I kept my mouth shut!” …..proceeds to write a story for the entire world to read
My exact thought when Joel read that part. I sincerely hope the OP changed some names and details, otherwise it's despicable to post that story online.
Hang in there Chris, you’re looking tired. You’re an outstanding young man and you’re love for your grandmother is clear for all to see. Remember you are human and don’t be afraid to reach out to family and ask for help when you need it. You are a great blessing to your sweet grandmother as well as your family as a whole. God Bless You.
So excited to be here so early. You're my favorite narrator and I love your videos so much. I've watched everyone for several years. You're a great creator!
The 2nd story, I am quiet and shy and an introvert but not once have I ever thought of murdering another human being. I watch a lot of horror movies, hear a lot of these scary stories and I am interested in true crime but it doesn't put the thought of "murdering another person" in my mind. The guy who murdered that other guy obviously had a screw loose in his head, I don't think it was just that he was quiet. And the 1st story, was so sad. No child should ever have to witness their parents kill themselves, I can't even begin to imagine what it can do to a person, to a child no less.
Agreed, I wouldn't call myself an introvert, I'm not softspoken or shy at any level, I'm just intelligent and keep to myself, and come off as quiet. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna murder my friends and family with a two-handed war axe.
Lets read has the best most consistently good content and the voice tones great for bed, chilling scares has a different tone, but gets the paranoia and adrenaline up the most. Both great in different ways.
39:55 The poor guy was proven innocent and had to change his name because of the media attention, why on earth did you read out his new name and occupation?!
The first story is so sad. The way these kids are treated is terrible. Even though it’s wrong, I can see why kids do these types of things. The school systems don’t do anything to help or protect these kids and they take matters into their own hands.
I stg, I could live the rest of my life only watching/ listening to MrBallen, LetsRead and Mr nightmare. 3 top tier channels absolutely incredible work
I’m confused . For the one about Caleb why did brother in law tell them that? I would think he would know the person writing the story and Caleb went to the same school. And to give them a talking to. Like you’re the one talking about your patients. My mom works in a field where she could talk about her clients yet she never does because it’s wrong
I think that's if the brother in law said his name but he didn't. Even when it was questioned if it was Caleb who he was talking about but as you noticed the brother in law didn't confirm. I think the brother in law could have gotten into a lot of trouble if he mentioned who he was talking about.
Story 3 was chilling, but that part at the end about the quiet ones being psychopaths is complete horseshit. Just because you can't explain why your someone from your school became a cold-blooded killer doesn't give you the right to label an entire group of people as being psychopaths. Society has been known to blame various things for fucked up people's choices. Professionals have blamed comics, horror movies, video-games, music and the list goes on and on with no definitive proof. I was a quiet kid in school and when I was a kid I grew up on horror movies, inappropriate cartoons, and experienced bullying in school. Never once did I ever think of murdering somebody, If anything it made be revert to my father's principles for dealing with assholes. Tell the teacher, if they don't do anything, tell the principal, if that doesn't work at least your tried so when you whoop his their ass you've covered all your bases. Even if you lose the fight, still defend yourself. Sorry we all can't be extroverted popular jock normal people that have tons of friends and go to the mall on weekends, in the real world people are different and you never really know what's going on in someone's life, especially when your so wrapped up in your own. Whoever wrote story 3 needs to stop making reckless statements and throwing people under the bus to justify shitty behavior, what's next? Whoever drinks water and makes mistakes is a even bigger psychopath? Think before you speak or write your Let's Read horror story, jeez...
I'm not ready for bed yet. Joel I need to ask a question. I listen to your podcasts on Spotify all the time (they play through the night, and sometimes straight through the day as well). If I keep repeating them does the view still count? Or if I've listened once, is that it? It's already counted and won't be counted again? I want to know my Spotify subscription is paying who I listen to. I'm not paying the freakin' Harkles a penny.
@@tabithapalmer5948 yet it IS. Sometimes due to the attitudes of power tripping Narcissistic people that have made school a lifestyle not just a work environment. The 3 teachers I know, think everyone is dumb and need their constant corrections. Two of them treat everyone as a child, including one that's 47 while I'm 54 and she lies to cover-up that she's wrong about anything.
This is wild! I grew up going on vacation to Anna Maria Island. And to hear about such a grisly thing happening, and recognizing names of places there where it happened is chilling.
I just looked down at this at 49:44 (I have to have my phone put away at work but I can have earbuds in to listen) Just wanted to say this is a great back Pic! I noticed all the detail which is awesome!
Story 3: I wish people wouldn't overgeneralize and say "quiet kids are so scary 😱😱. Sometimes we just don't like talking to y'all. Sure, I'm pretty quiet and reserved myself, but I'm also a 4.0 GPA student. I'm also a decent welder and trombone player. I'm also a cross country runner and thrower in track/field. And I do have friends, classmates, and teammates that I talk to and enjoy being around, and even know the heartache of love and lost love.
27:13 A 15-year-old high school student went missing after arriving at school. 1 month later her corpse would be found in a locked boy's restroom on the campus. Murder Gao Ting (a pseudonym) was born in March 1989, in Linshu County in China's Shandong Province as the daughter of a local businessman. Her father who ran a large-scale machinery company was a well-known local entrepreneur and a representative of the Linyi Municipal People's Congress while Gao's older sister was studying abroad. In September 2004, she enrolled in the Linshu Second Middle School a public boarding high school with many students living on the campus and as Gao's house is close to the school she often walked to the campus. She was very talented musically wise and according to her many friends she always optimistic, cheerful and willing to help others. She joined the school's entertainment committee in November 2004 and possessed above-average grades. She even "fell in love" with a classmate named Wang Xiaolong (pseudonym) in the summer of 2004 but the alleged "love" was simply often staying together and talking with the two even arguing every once in a while. The only real issues involving her were the occasional emotional problems she would be troubled with. She didn't live on the campus either walking home from school every day at 2:00 PM. In January 2005, Gao often had to go to the school's infirmary for injections and medicine due to a cold she was suffering from which resulted in her missing several classes. On January 9, 2005, she invited a friend Wang Yan (pseudonym) over for a sleepover. The next day on January 10 the two overslept and were woken up by Gao's father and in order to not miss school the two hurriedly got dressed and headed to school not even stopping to eat anything for breakfast. Gao due to her cold was excused from morning exercises such as the flag-raising ceremony at 6:15 AM and allowed to go straight to classes and study and this is when the first alarming detail became known. Despite being dismissed nobody saw her leave the school via the concrete road leading to any of the buildings. Gao during lunch breaks would leave the premises but this time she never showed up at 12:20 like usual. But not only that she didn't even call home either. Even more alarming was that Gao never showed up to classes or the morning self-study. At 9:40 PM Gao still has not been seen so her father went to the school himself to inquire but none of Gao Ting's classmates saw her at any classes. He returned the next day on January 11 but there was still no trace of Gao. Her parents checked her room and saw that nothing had been moved around and she still had her belongings indicating that she didn't run away. Amongst her personal belongings were a phone number and an address in the Zhangdian District. They went to that address and it ended up being a barbecue restaurant. The daughter of the owner had a male classmate who was friends with Gao but it turned out the two had never seen each other in months. On January 14 a report was finally filed with the police. The first person questioned was her friend Wang Yan who told the police what Gao was wearing when she disappeared. Gao was wearing a yellow down jacket, white casual jeans, brown sneakers, and pure white cotton socks. As for possessions she was carrying two textbooks the "New High School Course New Study Plan for Senior 1 English" of the 16th University, and the other was the English word book of the 32nd. The wallet was made of blue leather with cartoon animals engraved on it and the contents were 20 yuan and three keys. The police also questioned Gao's teachers, classmates and boys who were exempt from morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony but none of them had seen her. They also searched the school including the dormitories conducting several rounds of searches and even checking under each individual bed at both dorms. The teachers meanwhile were rather apathetic telling the students to tell the outside world that she ran away from home. Outside of the school alongside the police Gao's relatives, friends and Gao's employees searched Linshu and other areas in Shandong Province. Her father ended up investing 300, 000 yuan into the search with the immense effort quickly catching the attention of the local media which prompted more people to search for her. On January 27 winter break finally started and as expected Gao had yet to return by then and no new leads were ever followed since Gao's family never received any ransom notices. On February 11, 4 days before break was over the school's 60-year-old maintenance worker Li Zhenmei and his apprentice Li Zhenhua were cleaning all of the rooms and buildings in order to prepare for school reopening. The two then went to an old restroom one that had been locked and disused since the winter of 2004 but before then it was also the chosen place for the students to dispose of all their garbage. The restroom was multistoried and had only one door with frosted glass making it so you couldn't see through it. While the two cleaners went deeper into the restroom and eventually the door on the third floor only to find that their keys strangely didn't work on the lock. The two had to leave the bathroom and come back with a wrench and pliers to pry off the corner of the padlock and thus allowing them to enter. Once they entered the restroom they discovered that amongst all the rubbish and muddy floors was also a dead body which was quickly reported to the police. The body was identified as Gao. Although the area had been locked since the winter of 2004 the interior was still cluttered and messy with the floor being littered with various plastic bags, wrapping paper, empty toothpaste, bottle caps, nylon rope, wooden strips, floor tile fragments, cloth strips, broken glass and mud all of which having been there long before the murder. The top of Gao's body was wrapped in a white bag and underneath her body was her red down jacket and blue sweater clothing that was different than those she was last seen wearing. Located near her body was also a red stick more than one meter long broken off from a mop. Her other belongings, such as her shoes, jeans and school textbooks were scattered across the restroom while her wallet was nowhere to be found. On the wall and floor tiles away from the corpse blood and hair belonging to Gao had been discovered indicating a fight or that Gao's body was dragged from that part of the restroom to the corner where she was found in. The toilet where the body was found is located in the west wing of the teaching building and consists of a staircase and three parts the washroom and toilet (A); another toilet that is out of use, locked all the year round (B); 20 classes of boys' dormitory (C)
The boys' dormitory has two side-by-side doors in the south and north, and usually, everyone enters and exits through the north door. However, they found that two bunk beds on the south wall were obviously moved. There was also blood splattered on the wall above the height of the lower bunk. The dorm had 23 students 20 of which were Gao's classmates and the police believed that one of them was Gao's killer and likely moved the body before purchasing a lock to close off the crime scene (the lock on the door was not the one used by the staff) An autopsy was conducted on her corpse and despite a month having passed her corpse was well preserved with the cold delaying decomposition. Her time of death was placed as January 10 the day she disappeared. The cause of death was ruled to be mechanical suffocation as a result of her scarf being wrapped around her neck, her stomach was empty, four fingerprints were discovered on her left cheek but they didn't appear in any databases, She had four wounds on her head resulting from either several blows being inflicted onto her or a fall on broken glass found at the scene, She had cuts all over her body deemed to have been inflicted after death, Although her underwear and clothes were found on her body they didn't stay on her body as she had a 17cm and a 7cm vertical scratch from the middle of her breast to her navel, There was an 11 cm vertical scratch and two horizontal scratches on the front of the root of her left thigh, On the lower abdomen, there was an incision sloping from the middle to the right groin, Although nothing was inserted into her vaginal area her anus was violated and described as "Open" via a blunt object having been inserted inside of it. The investigation started with the male students questioning 4 of them named Wang Pangming, Yang Xiangling, Li Dabing, and Song Wensi (all four are pseudonyms). These 4 were singled out because they all skipped out on the flag-raising ceremony and the morning exercises on the day of Gao's disappearance while Song was questioned due to his bed being the one that had been moved where the blood was found. Song claimed that the bed had to be moved due to a parent-teacher meeting during the winter vacation. In order to enter the dormitory from the south gate to get their luggage (without the key to the north gate), he and his family squeezed in and pushed the bed. The blood stain found in the boy's dormitory did not belong to Gao or Song and in addition, Song wasn't at the dormitory at the time of the incident resulting in Song being stricken off the suspect list. When Yang Xiangling was questioned he told the police that the reason why he didn't partake in morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony and morning exercises were due to frostbite on his feet. He said that when he was folding a quilt he heard several screams that were getting louder and worse, and somebody screaming "What are you doing?" with this taking place at 6:20 A.M. The screaming lasted for 2 minutes and during it, Wang Pangming arrived to see what was going on with Yang following. Once they arrived at the source of the screaming he saw two men standing at the door (A) of the bathroom. Wang tried talking to the men but they were already in the process of leaving. Eventually, the two returned to the dorm and spent the next 2-5 minutes tidying up and headed to class meeting 15-year-old Zhang Zhichao on their way. Zhang was a representative of another class and was described as a "monitor" and according to Yang and Wang, they asked him if he heard screaming to which he simply replied that he did before leaving without elaborations. When asked about the men he saw the following description was given. One was tall and the other was short, the tall one was 1.72 meters and the short one was 1.68 meters. Because it was very dark at the time, the corridor was not lit, and he was still a few meters away from them, so he didn't see who they were. Wang's testimony was a tad bit different. He told a similar story only he provided positive identification as to Zhang being the one he had seen by the bathroom while the other boy wore glasses. Wang asked Zhang what he was doing but received no response, Wang looked into the bathroom but couldn't see anything due to the closed door and its fogged glass. When he asked who was screaming he simply said "It's nothing" and left. What did the third of the initial suspects Li Dading have to say? He explained his absence from the flag raising and exercises as "stomach discomfort" and confirmed that Wang and Yang were at the dormitory at the time despite neither of them mentioning him in their testimonies. He also claimed that he hadn't heard any screaming like Yang and Wang had described and denied any knowledge of the crime. Li has been referred to as "The third person forgotten in the dormitory" due to often being omitted from media reports because of his mundane testimony not providing any new information. Due to the angle, his bed was positioned in it would've been easy to go unnoticed by Wang and Yang. The police based on Wang and Yang's testimony pursued Zhang as their number one suspect.
Zhang Zhichao was born on May 29, 1989. After his parents were laid off from a local commercial building, they started a tissue processing business in their own home which netted the family a low income. Zhang had just entered the high school that year with Gao and with average grades. At a parent-teacher meeting, Zhang's mother heard people talking about the at the time still missing Gao and ended up asking her son about it to which he said that he didn't even know she was missing or knew her personally. Zhang based on Wang's testimony was brought in for questioning on February 12. As for the second boy, he was identified as Wang Guangchao and arrested at his home. Zhang was interrogated for 30 hours straight and on February 13 confessed to raping and murdering Gao Ting. As for Wang, he claimed that he met Zhang and agreed to guard the door for him and prevent others from entering. Wang was charged with concealing a crime and released on bail while Zhang remained imprisoned. As you may have guessed from the 30-hour interrogation Zhang's confession was less than voluntary. He had scars all over his body and couldn't stand up due to bruised knees. One of the things the police did was take off Zhang's shoes and then ask him what colour Gao's clothing is. Every time he said the wrong colour they would slap him across the face with his shoes repeatably until he blindly guessed the correct clothing colour. Wang too was tortured into providing testimony implicating Zhang. According to Zhang's confession (of which he was made to revise several times) on the morning of January 10, he woke up early before the sun had risen and read a copy of "Horror Story" that he had purchased discreetly in the school's boiler room. Because of the content of the story, he ended up wanting to make the fiction a reality and find somebody to have sex with which is where he met Gao alone and looking out a window. Zhang then approached her and held a pencil sharpener to her neck and dragged her into the men's bathroom and held her to the ground. When Gao started screaming for help he wrapped her scarf around her neck and began raping her and violating her vaginal area. When he found that Gao had died he quickly kicked down a stall door and hid her in the corner of one away from immediate view and any windows. Afterwards, that is where he claims to have met Wang a friend of his and confessed to him that he accidentally killed a person and begged him to help hide which he agreed to do and stood guard outside the bathroom while Zhang hurriedly headed to a different building on campus and purchased a padlock not compatible with the staff's keys and used it to replace the current lock to keep anyone from discovering Gao's body. Once finished the two quickly resumed their morning studies as if nothing had happened. After evening studies Zhang bought that white bag from a roommate Li Baozhuang (pseudonym) and on January 11 while class was in session snuck back into the bathroom using his keys to open the new lock and while in private violated Gao's corpse anally and with the mop handle before cutting her with a pencil sharpener claiming that he was inspired by "The Vampire" addition to the "Horror Story" series. Whenever the police found a detail of the confession not matching the evidence (such as the origin of the white bag) or autopsy results Zhang was made to revise his confession. Forensic technicians and the coroner were also present during the autopsy to correct him when he makes mistakes or even revise their own reports. When the prosecutor first met with him he confessed to being tortured by the police and asked for him to investigate and extract biological or DNA evidence. In response, the police brought him out back and slapped him repeatably and electrocuted him with an electric baton. This prosecutor who knew he had been tortured ended up being the same one prosecuting his case at trial. Zhang and Wang's trial took place on March 6, 2006, and was closed to the public due to the defendants being under 18. Despite a lack of any physical evidence implicating Zhang, he was found guilty of rape and murder while Wang was convicted of concealing the crime. Zhang due to being a minor received a life sentence as opposed to the death penalty while Wang was given a 3-year suspended sentence. Neither appealed the verdict. And with that, the case was considered solved and that is where it stayed until 2011. During that meeting Zhang who was now 22 tearfully confessed to the torture he had undergone to his mother and professed his innocence when she visited him in prison (he used to be in a juvenile facility before being transferred). With this in mind an appeal was finally filed on March 19, 2012, only for it to be rejected and on November 12 that same year the next appeal was rejected based on the grounds that there was no evidence of torture. Eventually, Zhang's mother found two lawyers who agreed to take on the case and could argue professionally for an appeal. Those two lawyers named Li Xun and Wang Dianxue managed to convince the court to hold a hearing on April 25, 2016, December 13 and May 2, 2017, the Chinese supreme court heard, reviewed the case and questioned those involved in the original trial. It came out that no hair, fingerprints, semen, exfoliated cells, DNA, etc. pointing to Zhang was ever extracted and even though the police who investigated denied torturing Zhang the court still found something odd. The investigator who interrogated Zhang claimed that he confessed voluntarily as soon as he was brought in but as mentioned Zhang was interrogated for 30 hours straight and the police unknowingly attested to that. All of the people questioned had transcripts of their testimony recorded, written and finalized with the time stated and with all the other witnesses it was the same day as their testimony was given but in the case of Zhang whose questioning began at 1:00 AM on February 12 didn't have his transcripts finalized until 8:30 P.M on February 13 almost 31 hours. When the procuratorate (it's not the same prosecutor from 2006) asked why there was such a delay as opposed to within 12 hours like usual the investigator only said "I don't remember" the lack of physical evidence combined with this response resulted in the court holding the case for review and on November 16, 2017, they had reached a decision and ordered a retrial.
The trial was postponed 6 times but on December 5, 2019, the Zibo City Intermediate People's Court finally held a retrial with the prosecutor himself personally recommending that Zhang and Wang be acquitted. On January 13, 2020, the court deemed that both were innocent and the two's confessions were coerced and acquitted the two for the following reasons. 1). There was no objective evidence that pointed to Zhang such as DNA, Fingerprints or Semen. During the retrial, Gao's body was actually exhumed to search for such evidence and they did in fact recover biological evidence but test results showed that the traces were not left by Zhang. The white bag that Zhang and the police claimed was used had no definitive origin and his several confessions all gave drastically different accounts of where he got it from even naming a person specifically who he bought/stole it from only for said person to tell the police that he never owned such a bag. Every single student in Zhang's dormitory was questioned and 70 production enterprises were looked into but none of them were the source of the bag. Small wooden sticks found at the scene had no barring on the case despite Zhang and the police having said they were used to violate Gao's corpse as the DNA found on them did not match Zhang and they were later lost. At the retrial, it came out that Zhang was simply brought to the crime scene and told to tell them what the weapon was and simply picked up the first object he saw. Other important pieces of evidence recorded in the confession and facts of the case also could not be presented to the court such as Gao's missing wallet and keys, Zhang's pencil sharpener, the old lock, the key to the new lock, and the toilet paper wrapped with semen and no tests such as fingerprints or DNA were taken from the evidence that was recovered such as Gao's clothing. 2). Despite Zhang being made to repeatably change his confession to match the details his final confession still contradicted the objective facts and witness testimony. According to Zhang's confession and in order for him to have even been able to carry out the murder he was absent from morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony at 6:20 AM and committed the crime during the ceremony. The thing is literally every other person present at the flag raising all testified that he was present and took part in the flag raising. And despite Wang Pangming and Yang Xiangling placing Zhang at the scene, they claimed that they heard the scream and arrived at the bathroom in the span of 2-4 minutes which would be too short a timeframe for to do everything he described including buying a new lock. And if Zhang abandoned the flag-raising ceremony to rush to the building the crime took place in that would give him less time to commit the crime and also make it objectively impossible the way it was described and the place he purchased the lock from was closed and didn't open until an hour after he claimed to have bought it. As for Wang Pangming and Yang's testimony? Yang never actually claimed that he saw Zhang at the bathroom he simply described them based on height and other physical features which didn't even match Zhang's own physique. And as for Wang his testimony even if true wouldn't didn't prove that Zhang committed the crime just that he was there. Zhang himself also made no mention in his confession of ever seeing those two even though they claimed to have spoken with him. The judges deemed that Zhang had been misidentified. 3). Zhang and Wang's confessions didn't match the evidence. The fact that Zhang had to be constantly corrected about the evidence by the police such as the colour of Gao's clothing did not go unnoticed by the court but one of the most damming contradictions was how Zhang claimed to have raped Gao vaginally even though an autopsy revealed her hymen to be intact and that she was a virgin. Wang's confession meanwhile made no mention of Zhang having bought a new lock which was an integral part of Zhang's confession and the two contradicted each other about when they met that day. The bag also came back into play as Wang constantly contradicted himself as to whether Zhang was carrying the bag to the washroom or not. Zhang also was unable to describe Gao's belongings beyond the clothing accurately and frequently contradicted what was at the scene. With all of this in mind, Zhang and Wang were declared innocent with Zhang being released and Wang (who already served his sentence) having his record cleared. Gao's family agreed with the verdict and acknowledged that Zhang was innocent. On January 26, 2021, Zhang was rewarded with 3.32 million yuan in compensation. On June 23, 2022, 12 officials were all held accountable and punished for this case with 8 being forensic investigators/police and the other 4 being judges. Zhang changed his name from Zhang Zhichao to Zhang Chao and moved to Jiangsu Province where he once worked as a waiter in a restaurant, worked on construction sites, and then returned to work in the catering industry. The real killer of Gao Ting remains unknown to this day.
Vampires sure are cool and interesting but in case you haven't listened to every one of his videos, you'd notice that he doesn't read a lot of stories fake or realistic about the supernatural/paranormal.
My names William. Lol I was the weird kid in highschool. I wasn't anything like this guy though. I was kinda nerdy but I did have a few friend groups back then.
I have to disagree with OP in story 2. Telling someone to “get help” when they threaten murder doesn’t make them as bad as the killer. Calling them chicken and goading them into it, sure. But not the others. What are we supposed to say? “Oh poor baby, don’t shoot people.”
I love Joel's voice and stories for sure!! However I enjoy The dark Somnium, Dr.Creepen, Big Daddy Stone..Then don't get me started on my ladies..lol..These people have been gifted with great voices..but let's read is definitely in my top 5!
The first story: it’s not your fault, you did actually try. It’s not the communities fault either. His parents didn’t get him the help he needed, he didn’t get the help he needed, and the most important thing to recognise? If he didn’t want that help, then it was wasted on him, because it sounds like he didn’t actually want help. You can try and intervene and help someone all you like, but unless that person is willing to admit there’s a problem and they need help, then there is absolutely nothing you or anyone else can do, you can only help properly when that person asks for help. Maybe a bitter pill to swallow, but a lot of people simply don’t want help and don’t think there’s anything wrong.
A person on the spectrum is likely to have problems exactly with intent-recognition, self-awareness, and communication. I doubt they didn't want help, and i doubt that they didn't admit to needing help due to lack of will, but due to lack of ability. I also doubt they didn't express wanting help in some way. You can't expect a straightforward verbal plea or even cooperation or a clear-cut "thank you". The kid who tried to help couldn't have saved the situation, because they were also just a kid. That is the reason they shouldn't blame themselves. Kids that young lack the ability, insight, and training. The average adult lacks it, even. But I also wouldn't call the help attempt wasted. It mattered. Any benevolent input is better than none.
The story about Ting makes me think an adult did it. I don't think a kid would have been smart enough to think about jamming the door via lock. Most kids don't think that thoroughly.
Quit calling and creepy Caleb that is not his name and it's very rude of you when you're older and out of high school to keep calling him that that makes you creepier than him And also a truly unfeeling mean person
The first story is extremely sad.....Im not saying killing or violence is the answer, but what about all the bullies , the jocks and "popular" kids, that push and push these poor souls until they snap!! When u look into school shootings it's almost everyone causes bc they start picked on and bullied bc they were different and that's equally disgusting in my opinion. Maybe those who bully should actually get in trouble instead of allowing theses jerks to continue hurting others bc they're not a sheep like them. There's no need for any of it at all, and just bc you're "cool" in lame ass high school def does not mean anything at all in the grand scheme of things!! It's just great breaking and irritating and these schools do nothing bc it's all about the all mighty man made green paper and who has the most 🙄 Society is sickening , and more people should be held accountable already.
Listen to more High School Stories here!
Vol 1 -- ua-cam.com/video/XTR7KZqrLs0/v-deo.html
Vol 2 -- ua-cam.com/video/dB2l_BR2VkU/v-deo.html
Vol 3 -- ua-cam.com/video/4wKp4mnutWs/v-deo.html
Rumour has it - Joel was the original fallen angel. He was gifted a voice from the gods but only had tales from hell to share.
hey what happened with that Hitchhiker's themed story that's no longer up?
ARRRRRRRGH 🏴☠️ 😎 🦯 💙 ☠️ 💀 👻 🏴☠️!
“What is high school if not a series of minor inconveniences.”
Quote of the century right there.
😂
Oh my heart! I'm in tears for Caleb! 😭 that poor child. My heart breaks for him. He doesn't deserve a life so broken
This is just my opinion but I think that let’s Read is the greatest narrator of all time.
Very true..won't listen to anyone else at bedtime
@@rickroberts7611 Joel has a voice that can put anyone to sleep.
Not much of an opinion when it’s a fact 😎
Agreed! I like a very select few others
fax
The second story made me so mad!! The fact that he still referred to him as "creepy caleb" even after knowing the trauma, and his brother inlaw needs to learn better confidentiality, even if he didn't use names, its a small town.. but great work Joel
Exactly my thought, Iwent down here to see if someone else was gonna mention how awful that brother in law is.
HIPAA laws be damned! That's why I think story 2 is false. I have a family filled with nurses and nobody would talk about their patients like that.
You’d be surprised. Some nurses I know got in trouble for gossip about patients in a restaurant. Relatives of the patient happened to be sitting in the next booth over!
@@magesalmanac6424I had coworkers have the same thing happen when I was teaching. Some of my coworkers got caught talking crap about a student in a restaurant
Shut
These stories are why we need to be kind to others, they are why we need mental health education in schools. As somebody who is autistic with mental health problems hearing the stories from some of these people hurts so much. Even when they got older and learned the truth they still insult these mentally ill people in these stories when they talk about them.
That's my take on a lot of these stories, too. I'm also autistic with a mental disorder (major depressive disorder) and half of the time, when listening to these, I'm thinking, "This could have been me..." I wonder how many of these could been prevented if there was a mass effort to educate people about mental illness. Probably almost all of them. I know my mental health improved when I wasn't forced to be around people who were afraid, disgusted, or felt an obligation towards me. Having people who genuinely want to be around me because they like me as I am, quirks and all, has made all the difference.
So in Story #5 you're telling me a girl went missing for days upon days from her school... That same school also had a bathroom that just stayed locked all the time, but nobody bothered to look inside there? They just said "mehhh, that's just the perpetually locked room, nothing to see in there." How can somebody go missing from the school and every inch of that place not be searched right away?
What a neglected school.
Wait… how do I delete this?
@@andreyoungauthor1181 He's still searching for the delete button.
The fourth story reminded me about something horrible that happened at my high school (or well, the Swedish equivalent). Someone compiled leaked very private photos of a ton of girls at the school, many of them were underage, on a USB stick and it was passed around between the boys. So many of them were in on it but the school didn’t find out who started it so there were never really any consequences for them. I felt so bad for those poor girls who trusted their boyfriends with the pictures only to be completely betrayed and humiliated.
Most teenage boys have no morals.
Oj gud, vilken skola var det? Har aldrig hört talas om det
Can I just say how much I absolutely am in love with the noise you have between stories? It's so tranquil and relaxing, yet eerie, lonely, and dark.
Yes, I feel the same about that drawn out note.
Thank you Joel can’t wait to hear. It’s been cold an rainy all day hearing the stories make more awesome 😎
Same here in Yorkshire David. It's been dark for days. Good thing is, at the weekend I get all my candles on and go all spooky.
@@Alfofthyefax nice 😊 an with the stories even better 😎
@@daviddelarosajr1758 I have the stories on the iPad playing through the Alexa and a roaring fire on the big TV. Then loads of candles let. It's awesome.
Awesome
i’m having a rough night, but seeing a new upload never fails to brighten my mood. thank you joel!
You are on your way to a million subs on YT 😀 I'm surprised you are not wayyyy past that by now though I love this channel 💙
We need to share and promote this guy he should be on 2 to 3 millions subs .
“My brother told me he could get in trouble for talking about a patient, so I kept my mouth shut!”
…..proceeds to write a story for the entire world to read
Right..Smh
My exact thought when Joel read that part. I sincerely hope the OP changed some names and details, otherwise it's despicable to post that story online.
Ayeeeee let's go! Thanks for making my Friday night, Joel!
Thanks!
Best narrator on UA-cam hands down
I AGREE
I’ve never seen any of Hands downs videos to be honest
Rumour has it - Joel was the original fallen angel. He was gifted a voice from the gods but only had tales from hell to share.
Even Jesus visited Hell in the Bible
Hang in there Chris, you’re looking tired. You’re an outstanding young man and you’re love for your grandmother is clear for all to see. Remember you are human and don’t be afraid to reach out to family and ask for help when you need it. You are a great blessing to your sweet grandmother as well as your family as a whole. God Bless You.
So excited to be here so early. You're my favorite narrator and I love your videos so much. I've watched everyone for several years. You're a great creator!
Thank you as always Joel. This is the greatest early bday present. You get me through thick and thin
Is it bad that when he talked about the "fan fiction" USB drive that I immediately thought of Tina Belcher and her "friend fiction"? 😂
Same
I went here immediately, too!😅
The 2nd story, I am quiet and shy and an introvert but not once have I ever thought of murdering another human being. I watch a lot of horror movies, hear a lot of these scary stories and I am interested in true crime but it doesn't put the thought of "murdering another person" in my mind. The guy who murdered that other guy obviously had a screw loose in his head, I don't think it was just that he was quiet. And the 1st story, was so sad. No child should ever have to witness their parents kill themselves, I can't even begin to imagine what it can do to a person, to a child no less.
Exactly, I would never want to hurt anybody and waht he said was quite offending.
Agreed, I wouldn't call myself an introvert, I'm not softspoken or shy at any level, I'm just intelligent and keep to myself, and come off as quiet. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna murder my friends and family with a two-handed war axe.
right i’m the same, i didn’t appreciate that generalization 😢 people were already saying “don’t trust the quiet kids” when i was in school
Lets read has the best most consistently good content and the voice tones great for bed, chilling scares has a different tone, but gets the paranoia and adrenaline up the most. Both great in different ways.
Raven Reads is great too, and I love Otis Jiry when he reads for Chilling Tales For Dark Nights. Check em out 😊
It always blows my mind and gives me chills when you get stories from Michigan. Especially in the same county where I live!
You and Dark Somnium are my all time favorites. ❤
39:55 The poor guy was proven innocent and had to change his name because of the media attention, why on earth did you read out his new name and occupation?!
Thanks for making my mornings before work interesting! I am always so excited to listen to stories before I leave to work! Thank you!
The real horror of these stories is Teen angst and Lack of empathy.
The first story is so sad. The way these kids are treated is terrible. Even though it’s wrong, I can see why kids do these types of things. The school systems don’t do anything to help or protect these kids and they take matters into their own hands.
Poor Caleb 😔 I hope that he has found peace x
every monday, wednesday and friday gets better with a new upload by this fantastic channel.
I love ur vids! I always watch them to sleep
I stg, I could live the rest of my life only watching/ listening to MrBallen, LetsRead and Mr nightmare. 3 top tier channels absolutely incredible work
Love your channel - especially this week trying to get thru this horrendous cold.
Perfect timing 👌
Thanks for the vid Lets Read!
I’m confused . For the one about Caleb why did brother in law tell them that? I would think he would know the person writing the story and Caleb went to the same school. And to give them a talking to. Like you’re the one talking about your patients. My mom works in a field where she could talk about her clients yet she never does because it’s wrong
I think that's if the brother in law said his name but he didn't. Even when it was questioned if it was Caleb who he was talking about but as you noticed the brother in law didn't confirm. I think the brother in law could have gotten into a lot of trouble if he mentioned who he was talking about.
I understand Caleb's pain. I walked in on my dad blowing his brains out. I even got some of the blood on me.
Uh. How horrible. Makes me think of Ashley Judd walking in on her mother after the fact. Simply tramatising.
I'm sorry for your loss and that you had to experience that horrific event. Take care.
that is truly horrific. I am so sorry
I'm so sorry that happened to you ❤️
Sorry your your loss. Sending my condolences.
This one needs to be on Spotify 😊
scary highschool stories? I thought ALL of highschool WAS the HORROR story?
Amazing read!
Thank you, good job!!
Thanks for another great upload.
Love the video ready ❤❤ high school is kinda a horror story
Good night, everybody 😴💤
Sweet dreams! 😴😴
I love fridaysss❤
Aye . Stop hating on quiet kids . We aren’t psychopaths, we’re just scared of you
Thanks Joel ❤🤩👑💕
Story 3 was chilling, but that part at the end about the quiet ones being psychopaths is complete horseshit. Just because you can't explain why your someone from your school became a cold-blooded killer doesn't give you the right to label an entire group of people as being psychopaths. Society has been known to blame various things for fucked up people's choices. Professionals have blamed comics, horror movies, video-games, music and the list goes on and on with no definitive proof.
I was a quiet kid in school and when I was a kid I grew up on horror movies, inappropriate cartoons, and experienced bullying in school. Never once did I ever think of murdering somebody, If anything it made be revert to my father's principles for dealing with assholes. Tell the teacher, if they don't do anything, tell the principal, if that doesn't work at least your tried so when you whoop his their ass you've covered all your bases. Even if you lose the fight, still defend yourself. Sorry we all can't be extroverted popular jock normal people that have tons of friends and go to the mall on weekends, in the real world people are different and you never really know what's going on in someone's life, especially when your so wrapped up in your own.
Whoever wrote story 3 needs to stop making reckless statements and throwing people under the bus to justify shitty behavior, what's next? Whoever drinks water and makes mistakes is a even bigger psychopath? Think before you speak or write your Let's Read horror story, jeez...
I'm not ready for bed yet. Joel I need to ask a question. I listen to your podcasts on Spotify all the time (they play through the night, and sometimes straight through the day as well). If I keep repeating them does the view still count? Or if I've listened once, is that it? It's already counted and won't be counted again? I want to know my Spotify subscription is paying who I listen to. I'm not paying the freakin' Harkles a penny.
I think high school was a nightmare for most of the population 🥲
And it should not be that way
@@tabithapalmer5948 yet it IS.
Sometimes due to the attitudes of power tripping Narcissistic people that have made school a lifestyle not just a work environment.
The 3 teachers I know, think everyone is dumb and need their constant corrections.
Two of them treat everyone as a child, including one that's 47 while I'm 54 and she lies to cover-up that she's wrong about anything.
This intro sounds like a mix between Mr. Ballen and stranger things lol
This is wild! I grew up going on vacation to Anna Maria Island. And to hear about such a grisly thing happening, and recognizing names of places there where it happened is chilling.
I've only been to High School when it came to SATs since I've been homeschooled all my life.
You haven't missed a thing
WAKE UP!! LETS READ HAS A NEW VIDEO!!
I'm awake, I'm awake!
so good
I just looked down at this at 49:44 (I have to have my phone put away at work but I can have earbuds in to listen) Just wanted to say this is a great back Pic! I noticed all the detail which is awesome!
The one about Patrick was sad af shame on those cops
I have my own high school horror story…
High school. That is all.
Theres an old saying that is very true...
"Beware the quiet one"
Stick and stones
Story 3: I wish people wouldn't overgeneralize and say "quiet kids are so scary 😱😱. Sometimes we just don't like talking to y'all. Sure, I'm pretty quiet and reserved myself, but I'm also a 4.0 GPA student. I'm also a decent welder and trombone player. I'm also a cross country runner and thrower in track/field. And I do have friends, classmates, and teammates that I talk to and enjoy being around, and even know the heartache of love and lost love.
Bruh I think the last story was featured in volume 3 of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix.
I haven't really heard that story but the whole thing sounds bizarre. I used to live in Manatee county.
Just in time.
27:13 A 15-year-old high school student went missing after arriving at school. 1 month later her corpse would be found in a locked boy's restroom on the campus.
Murder
Gao Ting (a pseudonym) was born in March 1989, in Linshu County in China's Shandong Province as the daughter of a local businessman. Her father who ran a large-scale machinery company was a well-known local entrepreneur and a representative of the Linyi Municipal People's Congress while Gao's older sister was studying abroad. In September 2004, she enrolled in the Linshu Second Middle School a public boarding high school with many students living on the campus and as Gao's house is close to the school she often walked to the campus. She was very talented musically wise and according to her many friends she always optimistic, cheerful and willing to help others. She joined the school's entertainment committee in November 2004 and possessed above-average grades. She even "fell in love" with a classmate named Wang Xiaolong (pseudonym) in the summer of 2004 but the alleged "love" was simply often staying together and talking with the two even arguing every once in a while. The only real issues involving her were the occasional emotional problems she would be troubled with. She didn't live on the campus either walking home from school every day at 2:00 PM.
In January 2005, Gao often had to go to the school's infirmary for injections and medicine due to a cold she was suffering from which resulted in her missing several classes. On January 9, 2005, she invited a friend Wang Yan (pseudonym) over for a sleepover. The next day on January 10 the two overslept and were woken up by Gao's father and in order to not miss school the two hurriedly got dressed and headed to school not even stopping to eat anything for breakfast. Gao due to her cold was excused from morning exercises such as the flag-raising ceremony at 6:15 AM and allowed to go straight to classes and study and this is when the first alarming detail became known. Despite being dismissed nobody saw her leave the school via the concrete road leading to any of the buildings.
Gao during lunch breaks would leave the premises but this time she never showed up at 12:20 like usual. But not only that she didn't even call home either. Even more alarming was that Gao never showed up to classes or the morning self-study. At 9:40 PM Gao still has not been seen so her father went to the school himself to inquire but none of Gao Ting's classmates saw her at any classes. He returned the next day on January 11 but there was still no trace of Gao. Her parents checked her room and saw that nothing had been moved around and she still had her belongings indicating that she didn't run away. Amongst her personal belongings were a phone number and an address in the Zhangdian District. They went to that address and it ended up being a barbecue restaurant. The daughter of the owner had a male classmate who was friends with Gao but it turned out the two had never seen each other in months.
On January 14 a report was finally filed with the police. The first person questioned was her friend Wang Yan who told the police what Gao was wearing when she disappeared. Gao was wearing a yellow down jacket, white casual jeans, brown sneakers, and pure white cotton socks. As for possessions she was carrying two textbooks the "New High School Course New Study Plan for Senior 1 English" of the 16th University, and the other was the English word book of the 32nd. The wallet was made of blue leather with cartoon animals engraved on it and the contents were 20 yuan and three keys.
The police also questioned Gao's teachers, classmates and boys who were exempt from morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony but none of them had seen her. They also searched the school including the dormitories conducting several rounds of searches and even checking under each individual bed at both dorms. The teachers meanwhile were rather apathetic telling the students to tell the outside world that she ran away from home. Outside of the school alongside the police Gao's relatives, friends and Gao's employees searched Linshu and other areas in Shandong Province. Her father ended up investing 300, 000 yuan into the search with the immense effort quickly catching the attention of the local media which prompted more people to search for her. On January 27 winter break finally started and as expected Gao had yet to return by then and no new leads were ever followed since Gao's family never received any ransom notices.
On February 11, 4 days before break was over the school's 60-year-old maintenance worker Li Zhenmei and his apprentice Li Zhenhua were cleaning all of the rooms and buildings in order to prepare for school reopening. The two then went to an old restroom one that had been locked and disused since the winter of 2004 but before then it was also the chosen place for the students to dispose of all their garbage. The restroom was multistoried and had only one door with frosted glass making it so you couldn't see through it.
While the two cleaners went deeper into the restroom and eventually the door on the third floor only to find that their keys strangely didn't work on the lock. The two had to leave the bathroom and come back with a wrench and pliers to pry off the corner of the padlock and thus allowing them to enter. Once they entered the restroom they discovered that amongst all the rubbish and muddy floors was also a dead body which was quickly reported to the police.
The body was identified as Gao. Although the area had been locked since the winter of 2004 the interior was still cluttered and messy with the floor being littered with various plastic bags, wrapping paper, empty toothpaste, bottle caps, nylon rope, wooden strips, floor tile fragments, cloth strips, broken glass and mud all of which having been there long before the murder. The top of Gao's body was wrapped in a white bag and underneath her body was her red down jacket and blue sweater clothing that was different than those she was last seen wearing. Located near her body was also a red stick more than one meter long broken off from a mop. Her other belongings, such as her shoes, jeans and school textbooks were scattered across the restroom while her wallet was nowhere to be found. On the wall and floor tiles away from the corpse blood and hair belonging to Gao had been discovered indicating a fight or that Gao's body was dragged from that part of the restroom to the corner where she was found in. The toilet where the body was found is located in the west wing of the teaching building and consists of a staircase and three parts the washroom and toilet (A); another toilet that is out of use, locked all the year round (B); 20 classes of boys' dormitory (C)
The boys' dormitory has two side-by-side doors in the south and north, and usually, everyone enters and exits through the north door. However, they found that two bunk beds on the south wall were obviously moved. There was also blood splattered on the wall above the height of the lower bunk. The dorm had 23 students 20 of which were Gao's classmates and the police believed that one of them was Gao's killer and likely moved the body before purchasing a lock to close off the crime scene (the lock on the door was not the one used by the staff)
An autopsy was conducted on her corpse and despite a month having passed her corpse was well preserved with the cold delaying decomposition. Her time of death was placed as January 10 the day she disappeared. The cause of death was ruled to be mechanical suffocation as a result of her scarf being wrapped around her neck, her stomach was empty, four fingerprints were discovered on her left cheek but they didn't appear in any databases, She had four wounds on her head resulting from either several blows being inflicted onto her or a fall on broken glass found at the scene, She had cuts all over her body deemed to have been inflicted after death, Although her underwear and clothes were found on her body they didn't stay on her body as she had a 17cm and a 7cm vertical scratch from the middle of her breast to her navel, There was an 11 cm vertical scratch and two horizontal scratches on the front of the root of her left thigh, On the lower abdomen, there was an incision sloping from the middle to the right groin, Although nothing was inserted into her vaginal area her anus was violated and described as "Open" via a blunt object having been inserted inside of it.
The investigation started with the male students questioning 4 of them named Wang Pangming, Yang Xiangling, Li Dabing, and Song Wensi (all four are pseudonyms). These 4 were singled out because they all skipped out on the flag-raising ceremony and the morning exercises on the day of Gao's disappearance while Song was questioned due to his bed being the one that had been moved where the blood was found. Song claimed that the bed had to be moved due to a parent-teacher meeting during the winter vacation. In order to enter the dormitory from the south gate to get their luggage (without the key to the north gate), he and his family squeezed in and pushed the bed. The blood stain found in the boy's dormitory did not belong to Gao or Song and in addition, Song wasn't at the dormitory at the time of the incident resulting in Song being stricken off the suspect list.
When Yang Xiangling was questioned he told the police that the reason why he didn't partake in morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony and morning exercises were due to frostbite on his feet. He said that when he was folding a quilt he heard several screams that were getting louder and worse, and somebody screaming "What are you doing?" with this taking place at 6:20 A.M. The screaming lasted for 2 minutes and during it, Wang Pangming arrived to see what was going on with Yang following. Once they arrived at the source of the screaming he saw two men standing at the door (A) of the bathroom. Wang tried talking to the men but they were already in the process of leaving. Eventually, the two returned to the dorm and spent the next 2-5 minutes tidying up and headed to class meeting 15-year-old Zhang Zhichao on their way. Zhang was a representative of another class and was described as a "monitor" and according to Yang and Wang, they asked him if he heard screaming to which he simply replied that he did before leaving without elaborations. When asked about the men he saw the following description was given. One was tall and the other was short, the tall one was 1.72 meters and the short one was 1.68 meters. Because it was very dark at the time, the corridor was not lit, and he was still a few meters away from them, so he didn't see who they were. Wang's testimony was a tad bit different. He told a similar story only he provided positive identification as to Zhang being the one he had seen by the bathroom while the other boy wore glasses. Wang asked Zhang what he was doing but received no response, Wang looked into the bathroom but couldn't see anything due to the closed door and its fogged glass. When he asked who was screaming he simply said "It's nothing" and left.
What did the third of the initial suspects Li Dading have to say? He explained his absence from the flag raising and exercises as "stomach discomfort" and confirmed that Wang and Yang were at the dormitory at the time despite neither of them mentioning him in their testimonies. He also claimed that he hadn't heard any screaming like Yang and Wang had described and denied any knowledge of the crime. Li has been referred to as "The third person forgotten in the dormitory" due to often being omitted from media reports because of his mundane testimony not providing any new information. Due to the angle, his bed was positioned in it would've been easy to go unnoticed by Wang and Yang. The police based on Wang and Yang's testimony pursued Zhang as their number one suspect.
Zhang Zhichao was born on May 29, 1989. After his parents were laid off from a local commercial building, they started a tissue processing business in their own home which netted the family a low income. Zhang had just entered the high school that year with Gao and with average grades. At a parent-teacher meeting, Zhang's mother heard people talking about the at the time still missing Gao and ended up asking her son about it to which he said that he didn't even know she was missing or knew her personally. Zhang based on Wang's testimony was brought in for questioning on February 12. As for the second boy, he was identified as Wang Guangchao and arrested at his home.
Zhang was interrogated for 30 hours straight and on February 13 confessed to raping and murdering Gao Ting. As for Wang, he claimed that he met Zhang and agreed to guard the door for him and prevent others from entering. Wang was charged with concealing a crime and released on bail while Zhang remained imprisoned.
As you may have guessed from the 30-hour interrogation Zhang's confession was less than voluntary. He had scars all over his body and couldn't stand up due to bruised knees. One of the things the police did was take off Zhang's shoes and then ask him what colour Gao's clothing is. Every time he said the wrong colour they would slap him across the face with his shoes repeatably until he blindly guessed the correct clothing colour. Wang too was tortured into providing testimony implicating Zhang.
According to Zhang's confession (of which he was made to revise several times) on the morning of January 10, he woke up early before the sun had risen and read a copy of "Horror Story" that he had purchased discreetly in the school's boiler room. Because of the content of the story, he ended up wanting to make the fiction a reality and find somebody to have sex with which is where he met Gao alone and looking out a window. Zhang then approached her and held a pencil sharpener to her neck and dragged her into the men's bathroom and held her to the ground. When Gao started screaming for help he wrapped her scarf around her neck and began raping her and violating her vaginal area. When he found that Gao had died he quickly kicked down a stall door and hid her in the corner of one away from immediate view and any windows. Afterwards, that is where he claims to have met Wang a friend of his and confessed to him that he accidentally killed a person and begged him to help hide which he agreed to do and stood guard outside the bathroom while Zhang hurriedly headed to a different building on campus and purchased a padlock not compatible with the staff's keys and used it to replace the current lock to keep anyone from discovering Gao's body. Once finished the two quickly resumed their morning studies as if nothing had happened. After evening studies Zhang bought that white bag from a roommate Li Baozhuang (pseudonym) and on January 11 while class was in session snuck back into the bathroom using his keys to open the new lock and while in private violated Gao's corpse anally and with the mop handle before cutting her with a pencil sharpener claiming that he was inspired by "The Vampire" addition to the "Horror Story" series. Whenever the police found a detail of the confession not matching the evidence (such as the origin of the white bag) or autopsy results Zhang was made to revise his confession. Forensic technicians and the coroner were also present during the autopsy to correct him when he makes mistakes or even revise their own reports. When the prosecutor first met with him he confessed to being tortured by the police and asked for him to investigate and extract biological or DNA evidence. In response, the police brought him out back and slapped him repeatably and electrocuted him with an electric baton. This prosecutor who knew he had been tortured ended up being the same one prosecuting his case at trial.
Zhang and Wang's trial took place on March 6, 2006, and was closed to the public due to the defendants being under 18. Despite a lack of any physical evidence implicating Zhang, he was found guilty of rape and murder while Wang was convicted of concealing the crime. Zhang due to being a minor received a life sentence as opposed to the death penalty while Wang was given a 3-year suspended sentence. Neither appealed the verdict. And with that, the case was considered solved and that is where it stayed until 2011.
During that meeting Zhang who was now 22 tearfully confessed to the torture he had undergone to his mother and professed his innocence when she visited him in prison (he used to be in a juvenile facility before being transferred). With this in mind an appeal was finally filed on March 19, 2012, only for it to be rejected and on November 12 that same year the next appeal was rejected based on the grounds that there was no evidence of torture. Eventually, Zhang's mother found two lawyers who agreed to take on the case and could argue professionally for an appeal.
Those two lawyers named Li Xun and Wang Dianxue managed to convince the court to hold a hearing on April 25, 2016, December 13 and May 2, 2017, the Chinese supreme court heard, reviewed the case and questioned those involved in the original trial. It came out that no hair, fingerprints, semen, exfoliated cells, DNA, etc. pointing to Zhang was ever extracted and even though the police who investigated denied torturing Zhang the court still found something odd. The investigator who interrogated Zhang claimed that he confessed voluntarily as soon as he was brought in but as mentioned Zhang was interrogated for 30 hours straight and the police unknowingly attested to that. All of the people questioned had transcripts of their testimony recorded, written and finalized with the time stated and with all the other witnesses it was the same day as their testimony was given but in the case of Zhang whose questioning began at 1:00 AM on February 12 didn't have his transcripts finalized until 8:30 P.M on February 13 almost 31 hours. When the procuratorate (it's not the same prosecutor from 2006) asked why there was such a delay as opposed to within 12 hours like usual the investigator only said "I don't remember" the lack of physical evidence combined with this response resulted in the court holding the case for review and on November 16, 2017, they had reached a decision and ordered a retrial.
The trial was postponed 6 times but on December 5, 2019, the Zibo City Intermediate People's Court finally held a retrial with the prosecutor himself personally recommending that Zhang and Wang be acquitted. On January 13, 2020, the court deemed that both were innocent and the two's confessions were coerced and acquitted the two for the following reasons.
1). There was no objective evidence that pointed to Zhang such as DNA, Fingerprints or Semen. During the retrial, Gao's body was actually exhumed to search for such evidence and they did in fact recover biological evidence but test results showed that the traces were not left by Zhang.
The white bag that Zhang and the police claimed was used had no definitive origin and his several confessions all gave drastically different accounts of where he got it from even naming a person specifically who he bought/stole it from only for said person to tell the police that he never owned such a bag. Every single student in Zhang's dormitory was questioned and 70 production enterprises were looked into but none of them were the source of the bag.
Small wooden sticks found at the scene had no barring on the case despite Zhang and the police having said they were used to violate Gao's corpse as the DNA found on them did not match Zhang and they were later lost. At the retrial, it came out that Zhang was simply brought to the crime scene and told to tell them what the weapon was and simply picked up the first object he saw.
Other important pieces of evidence recorded in the confession and facts of the case also could not be presented to the court such as Gao's missing wallet and keys, Zhang's pencil sharpener, the old lock, the key to the new lock, and the toilet paper wrapped with semen and no tests such as fingerprints or DNA were taken from the evidence that was recovered such as Gao's clothing.
2). Despite Zhang being made to repeatably change his confession to match the details his final confession still contradicted the objective facts and witness testimony.
According to Zhang's confession and in order for him to have even been able to carry out the murder he was absent from morning exercises and the flag-raising ceremony at 6:20 AM and committed the crime during the ceremony. The thing is literally every other person present at the flag raising all testified that he was present and took part in the flag raising. And despite Wang Pangming and Yang Xiangling placing Zhang at the scene, they claimed that they heard the scream and arrived at the bathroom in the span of 2-4 minutes which would be too short a timeframe for to do everything he described including buying a new lock. And if Zhang abandoned the flag-raising ceremony to rush to the building the crime took place in that would give him less time to commit the crime and also make it objectively impossible the way it was described and the place he purchased the lock from was closed and didn't open until an hour after he claimed to have bought it. As for Wang Pangming and Yang's testimony? Yang never actually claimed that he saw Zhang at the bathroom he simply described them based on height and other physical features which didn't even match Zhang's own physique. And as for Wang his testimony even if true wouldn't didn't prove that Zhang committed the crime just that he was there. Zhang himself also made no mention in his confession of ever seeing those two even though they claimed to have spoken with him. The judges deemed that Zhang had been misidentified.
3). Zhang and Wang's confessions didn't match the evidence.
The fact that Zhang had to be constantly corrected about the evidence by the police such as the colour of Gao's clothing did not go unnoticed by the court but one of the most damming contradictions was how Zhang claimed to have raped Gao vaginally even though an autopsy revealed her hymen to be intact and that she was a virgin. Wang's confession meanwhile made no mention of Zhang having bought a new lock which was an integral part of Zhang's confession and the two contradicted each other about when they met that day. The bag also came back into play as Wang constantly contradicted himself as to whether Zhang was carrying the bag to the washroom or not. Zhang also was unable to describe Gao's belongings beyond the clothing accurately and frequently contradicted what was at the scene.
With all of this in mind, Zhang and Wang were declared innocent with Zhang being released and Wang (who already served his sentence) having his record cleared. Gao's family agreed with the verdict and acknowledged that Zhang was innocent. On January 26, 2021, Zhang was rewarded with 3.32 million yuan in compensation. On June 23, 2022, 12 officials were all held accountable and punished for this case with 8 being forensic investigators/police and the other 4 being judges. Zhang changed his name from Zhang Zhichao to Zhang Chao and moved to Jiangsu Province where he once worked as a waiter in a restaurant, worked on construction sites, and then returned to work in the catering industry.
The real killer of Gao Ting remains unknown to this day.
Thanks Joel. Perfect as usual. However, YOU FORGOT THE BONUS CONTENT AGAIN!
1.22 Million subs!! Woo. Hoo!!
Love you UA-cam Joel!💗👍🤘🎃
One of the best narrators. Try listen to Lighthouse Horror, Mr. Ballen, Dr. Creepen, Mr. Creeps
Can you do some Vampire stories
Vampires sure are cool and interesting but in case you haven't listened to every one of his videos, you'd notice that he doesn't read a lot of stories fake or realistic about the supernatural/paranormal.
Just in time for the drive back home 🏡
00:23:13 It belonged to Randy Pitchford!
Listened 20/ 🎆/22 7:09am 🇬🇧
Caleb 😞
My names William. Lol I was the weird kid in highschool. I wasn't anything like this guy though. I was kinda nerdy but I did have a few friend groups back then.
Yes
the 1st 2 were just depressing as hell
Kaleb was straight up traumatized and you're still insulting and making fun of him????
“And remebor…and remember” 😂😂49:36
Sure hope that child got the help he needed
1st story. Thatbkid had some either real childhood trauma/neglect or was suffering from schizophrenia.
The good thing is this guy isn't constantly yawning on the pre recorded videos versus the live ones!
Me, a senior in highschool: *oh yes, this is very interesting*
"Doctor-patient confidentiality" but he's spilling all that boys business at the dinner table, please spare me
They say "still waters run deep" for a REASON!!
I have to disagree with OP in story 2. Telling someone to “get help” when they threaten murder doesn’t make them as bad as the killer. Calling them chicken and goading them into it, sure. But not the others. What are we supposed to say? “Oh poor baby, don’t shoot people.”
That was the 2nd story.
Exactly.
I love Joel's voice and stories for sure!! However I enjoy The dark Somnium, Dr.Creepen, Big Daddy Stone..Then don't get me started on my ladies..lol..These people have been gifted with great voices..but let's read is definitely in my top 5!
As soon as Caleb said he was talking to his mum I knew she must be dead but holy crap that's so bad. Poor kid witnessing that 😢
My Grandpa’s name is Jean Pierre. He’s Angolan Cameroonian Benin Native American with some Italian ancestry.
The first story: it’s not your fault, you did actually try. It’s not the communities fault either. His parents didn’t get him the help he needed, he didn’t get the help he needed, and the most important thing to recognise? If he didn’t want that help, then it was wasted on him, because it sounds like he didn’t actually want help. You can try and intervene and help someone all you like, but unless that person is willing to admit there’s a problem and they need help, then there is absolutely nothing you or anyone else can do, you can only help properly when that person asks for help.
Maybe a bitter pill to swallow, but a lot of people simply don’t want help and don’t think there’s anything wrong.
A person on the spectrum is likely to have problems exactly with intent-recognition, self-awareness, and communication. I doubt they didn't want help, and i doubt that they didn't admit to needing help due to lack of will, but due to lack of ability. I also doubt they didn't express wanting help in some way. You can't expect a straightforward verbal plea or even cooperation or a clear-cut "thank you". The kid who tried to help couldn't have saved the situation, because they were also just a kid. That is the reason they shouldn't blame themselves. Kids that young lack the ability, insight, and training. The average adult lacks it, even.
But I also wouldn't call the help attempt wasted. It mattered. Any benevolent input is better than none.
22:20 when the author is sus
The last story is on Netflix
its true about this channel, this is one of the few that stories that arnt supernatural. much prefer it.
Bookmark 34:47
The story about Ting makes me think an adult did it. I don't think a kid would have been smart enough to think about jamming the door via lock. Most kids don't think that thoroughly.
Every time I hear of cops call an obvious murder case suicide I always feel the cops are somehow involved
I've always wondered since getting into true crime stories if anyone has ever found a mannequin and not a dead body!
Quit calling and creepy Caleb that is not his name and it's very rude of you when you're older and out of high school to keep calling him that that makes you creepier than him And also a truly unfeeling mean person
I'm like 15 thanks Read
The first story is extremely sad.....Im not saying killing or violence is the answer, but what about all the bullies , the jocks and "popular" kids, that push and push these poor souls until they snap!!
When u look into school shootings it's almost everyone causes bc they start picked on and bullied bc they were different and that's equally disgusting in my opinion.
Maybe those who bully should actually get in trouble instead of allowing theses jerks to continue hurting others bc they're not a sheep like them.
There's no need for any of it at all, and just bc you're "cool" in lame ass high school def does not mean anything at all in the grand scheme of things!!
It's just great breaking and irritating and these schools do nothing bc it's all about the all mighty man made green paper and who has the most 🙄
Society is sickening , and more people should be held accountable already.
I hope I run into Joel one day. I would faint