[0:07]The Vietnamese iced coffee had cyanide in it. Coffee was poisoned, she drank the coffee, she's now dead. Okay. She's Australia's iced coffee killer, who poisoned her best friend. Poisoning someone is a very personal way of killing somebody, isn't it? They still can't prove anything. Cold, calculated revenge. Like it's crazy. It is crazy. Yeah.
[0:43]And a key Aussie witness speaks out for the first time. Based on the two sides of her that I saw in the work environment, she was on a trail of destruction. It was horrific.
[0:59]Hello, I'm Michael Usher and welcome to Spotlight. Sydney-sider Jessica Wongso is better known as the smiling coffee killer. Almost a decade ago, the then 27-year-old, brazenly and fatally poisoned her best friend in a cafe while holidaying in Jakarta. Now after serving just eight years of a 20-year sentence, she's out and fighting to clear her name so she can return home to Australia. In her first ever tell-all interview, Jessica sits down with Liam Bartlett to share her version of events. But as you'll see, she hasn't quite got her story straight.
[1:44]Hello. Jessica. Hi. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Thanks for coming. Thank you for having me. There's something you can't quite pin down about convicted murderer Jessica Wongso. Is this former New South Wales ambulance worker innocent as half the Indonesian population seem to think? If you didn't do it, who put the cyanide in Mirna's coffee? Oh, you know, I'm not allowed to say that. I'm not allowed to answer your question. Or is she as those who are convinced of her guilt like to put it, completely mad? A crazy, split personality, psycho narcissist. Is there a good Jessica and a bad Jessica? My own. Your mike on? Yeah, my Mike's on, yeah. Jessica Wongso's infamy has made her Indonesia's most recognizable young woman. Do you know who this is? It's Jessica. Jessica. It's easy to forget that this Aussie resident, who is trying to clear her name so she can rejoin her family back in Australia, is a killer.
[3:06]January 6, 2016. Three young women are catching up for a coffee at one of Jakarta's classiest cafes. Jessica Wongso has recently arrived from Sydney, where she's lived since she was 16. She hasn't seen former best friend, Mirna Salihin since a falling out the year before. She's taken the liberty of pre-ordering her an iced coffee ahead of time. But seconds after Mirna takes her first sip, she begins convulsing and foaming at the mouth. In just over an hour, she'll be dead. And so begins the most compelling murder mystery in Indonesian history. What was your reaction of Jessica? Why wasn't she panic enough when Mirna collapsed? The entire nation is so instantly intrigued that TV presenter Tim Marbun will be given his own nightly news show on Indonesia's largest network to cover the daily drama of Jessica's trial. So every single detail mattered right after that moment right there.
[4:34]Can you remember, can you vividly remember that moment that Mirna took a mouthful of that poisoned coffee? Well, um, firstly I'm not really comfortable of you saying the, like how you call the coffee but um.
[4:57]Why is that? Yeah, because I'm still not sure. Like if it's like, is it really that scary? Is it, is it really that poisonous? As you'll see, Jessica disputes just about every single aspect of this case. But how exactly did she and Mirna Salihin become the central players in a case that has captivated not only Indonesia, but Australia and the world? Are you sure Jessica killed Mirna? A million percent. Privileged young women from rich families, Jessica and Mirna met while studying graphic design at the Billy Blue Design College in Sydney.
[5:57]When we were in college, we would go out to eat or to drink coffee. Every time we met we always reconnected. We would always be laughing and having a good time. But in the first of what will be a series of stunning backflips, Jessica now appears to rewrite her own history. Can you describe to me what your friendship with Mirna was? We weren't close at all. It was because we came from the same country, like there was why we kind of like know each other and. It's nothing more than like we weren't best friends or anything.
[6:36]And after graduation she went back to Indonesia for good and I stayed in Australia. Whatever the state of their friendship, over the next four years, the pair only saw each other intermittently. Jessica was for all intents and purposes, an Aussie, living in Sydney, she had an Australian boyfriend and was working for the New South Wales ambulance service as a graphic designer. While Mirna was enjoying a successful personal and professional life in Indonesia. Until that coffee catch up in 2016, when Jessica was visiting Jakarta for the first time in four years. What was the original purpose of that fateful meeting at the cafe between Jessica and Mirna? It was a normal meeting, a very normal meeting, you know, at a coffee spot. We do that two, three times a day, I guess here in Jakarta. There wasn't importance on how was their relationship before that meeting.
[8:12]At 1:00 p.m. that day, you sent a text to your friends asking them if you can pre-order the drinks. What, why would you do that four hours before? I did say that. Oh, no, but they say, don't, don't worry, you know, it's fine.
[8:37]We'll order when we get there and you, you insist on pre-ordering drinks four hours before. Why, why do you do that? I don't know, maybe because I think that I was going to be there earlier, maybe. I didn't have like an evil thoughts at that time so everything that I did it was kind of like, oh, that's what, what I've felt right to like, you know, felt like the right thing to do. If you think of me with a good intention, I wouldn't um I I didn't even remember. I I don't know. I can't remember like why I said that. It's just it's a little bit strange, isn't it? Yeah, okay. Well, that happened then. I can't say anything more.
[9:18]She and Mirna and a third friend, Hani, had all agreed to meet up at 5:00 p.m.. But Jessica arrives at the cafe nearly an hour and a half early, at 3:32. Police will claim it's time she uses to prepare for her crime. Why, why did you get this so early? Oh, because of the, of the traffic rule. It have to be at least three people or something like in the car at a certain time. Jakarta's traffic congestion rules allow only cars with three occupants to use main roads during peak periods. So it wasn't like I deliberately wanted to come early or anything. It's just because I had to. If Jessica's actions up to this point, were entirely innocent, as she claims, what she does next is much harder to explain. She spends the next 40 minutes or so in the shopping mall nearby, returning at 4:14 p.m. with three shopping bags. Each containing only a single small bar of soap. Oddly, she then walks around the cafe, checking out different locations. As she looks around, she seems to be not just scouting the place, seeing if it's nice enough for me and my friends, but actually looking at the seat positions. And as we see at certain times, she actually looks at the CCTV. Clearly, you're looking around. I mean, what are you looking for? I don't think I was looking around finding CCTV, to be honest. I never really actually did that like in a public place, but if I was looking around like if my eyes goes somewhere, I could be probably looking at like something or like someone or, you know, like people around me. And if they want to perceive it as, oh, she was looking around for CCTV then it's going to happen like that. Whether deliberately or by chance, the table Jessica chooses is hidden from the closest CCTV camera, which is blocked by a plant. But there's a second camera rolling on the other side of the cafe. It captures Jessica's drinks order arriving shortly after she sits down. Two cocktails for herself and Hani, and an iced coffee for Mirna. She then appears to arrange the three shopping bags around the drinks, effectively hiding them from the CCTV camera. Jessica, as you know, a lot has been made of the placement of the bags, the three shopping bags on the table. Why did you place the three bags on the table? Oh, it's just again, it's just me being me. Like I just put it there and like shuffle it and play with it and it's like me just, you know, being bored.
[12:28]It really doesn't mean anything at all. Like if I have to be honest with you. So it's just a pure coincidence that you shielded the CCTV from the drinks.
[12:39]Did she strategically placed those shopping bags? We don't really know, you can't really measure that. If you strategically, you know, handled the gun or strategically placed a trap. You could know that that was done intentionally with malice, you know, but strategically placing a shopping bag, that's either coincidental or pure genius. Clearly you're looking around. I mean, what are you looking for? I don't think I was looking around finding CCTV, to be honest. I never really actually did that like in a public place, but if I was looking around like if my eyes goes somewhere, I could be probably looking at like something or like someone or, you know, like people around me. And if they want to perceive it as, oh, she was looking around for CCTV then it's going to happen like that. Whether deliberately or by chance, the table Jessica chooses is hidden from the closest CCTV camera, which is blocked by a plant. But there's a second camera rolling on the other side of the cafe. It captures Jessica's drinks order arriving shortly after she sits down. Two cocktails for herself and Hani, and an iced coffee for Mirna. She then appears to arrange the three shopping bags around the drinks, effectively hiding them from the CCTV camera. Jessica, as you know, a lot has been made of the placement of the bags, the three shopping bags on the table. Why did you place the three bags on the table? Oh, it's just again, it's just me being me. Like I just put it there and like shuffle it and play with it and it's like me just, you know, being bored.
[12:28]It really doesn't mean anything at all. Like if I have to be honest with you. So it's just a pure coincidence that you shielded the CCTV from the drinks.
[12:39]Did she strategically placed those shopping bags? We don't really know, you can't really measure that. If you strategically, you know, handled the gun or strategically placed a trap. You could know that that was done intentionally with malice, you know, but strategically placing a shopping bag, that's either coincidental or pure genius.
[13:09]Fifty-two minutes later, at 5:16 p.m., Mirna and Hani arrive. Almost immediately, Mirna sips her Vietnamese iced coffee. The CCTV camera on the far side of the cafe captures what happens next, although grainy. Mirna can be seen clearly distressed, fanning her face. Do you remember that moment? Well, I think she just took a sip and after that she was saying something like it tastes really weird and stuff. And after that she got really sick and that's it. It's pretty much all I remember, like people just like swarming around like I didn't know what happened at that time. I didn't know. When she threw a handbag, you can see it in the CCTV, it's, it's quite confronting, isn't it? I mean, it's a terrible thing. Yeah, but I didn't know what to do about it though. Like what, what can I do? Like what could I do? Next, Jessica's story begins to unravel. If you didn't do it, somebody else did, right? Maybe.
[14:24]And later, it was horrific. For the first time, Jessica's former Australian boss lifts the lid on her dark side. Do you still think that she is capable of murder?
