A father convicted of helping cover up his daughter’s murder shared chilling details of the killing in a newly released confession — one that alters the previously reported story of Ashley Zhao’s death.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, five-year-old Ashley Zhao was found dead last January in her parents’ Chinese restaurant in Canton, Ohio, following a fake missing persons search prompted by a 911 call by Liang Zhao. Ashley’s mother later confessed to killing her daughter in a fit of rage was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and Liang was convicted of covering up the crime.
Crime Watch Daily has obtained video footage of Liang Zhao’s police interrogation, in which he confessed the shocking details of the murder and its aftermath. Earlier reports had indicated that Ashley’s mother had killed her while the family was at the restaurant, and that Liang Zhao unsuccessfully administered CPR before agreeing to conceal the crime and report his daughter missing. It was not known until the release of Ling Zhao’s confession that the murder actually took place at their home, and that Ashley’s parents drove her dead body to the restaurant, later concealing her body in a refrigerator.
In the videotaped confession, Ling Zhao told police that he and his wife placed Ashley’s dead body in a car seat and drove her to their Chinese restaurant, so that Ashley’s six-year-old sister would not realize that Ashley had died, instead believing she was sleeping, in case police questioned the sister.
“We brought her inside and just laid her there and we just continued on working,” Zhao told police.
“She doesn’t lie,” he said of his daughter JoJo, but added that she is impressionable.
“When you point her in a direction, that’s where she wanted to go.”
Zhao indicated to police that after he was able to convince JoJo that Ashley was sleeping, he placed her body in a plastic container and put her in freezer in a restaurant.
“I moved her to a walk-in freezer and in a plastic container so she wouldn’t stink,” Zhao said.
Watch the full clip of the confession here:
Feature image: Police handout/Ashley Zhao
