Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee and Jessica Wongso is an Indonesian true-crime documentary film released on Netflix on September 28, 2023. It is directed by Rob Sixsmith (The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea) and produced by Bince Mulyono. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 26 minutes.
The documentary features Jessica Wongso, Edi Salihin, Sandy Salihin, Devi Siagian, Rangga Saputro, Vera, Sherren, Fristian Griec, Timothy Marbun, Jaja, Dale, Prof Eddy OS Hiariej, Hardy Stefano, Sandhy Handika, Ardito Muwardi, Otto Hasibuan, Djaja Surya Atmadja, Erasmus Napitupulu and others.
Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee and Jessica Wongso Review
Tagged as Indonesia’s ‘Trial of the Century’ and being the first-ever case trial to be broadcast live on television, the mysterious death of Mirna Salihin is definitely one of the oddest cases. In some ways, it looks pretty straightforward and who could be the potential culprit. On the other hand, things don’t really match up and seems like the world is against Jessica Wongso.
On January 6, 2016, Jessica Wongso and Mirna Salihin made plans to meet at Cafe Olivier, as Wongso had returned to her home country after many years. Both of them became friends while studying at Sydney’s design college, Billy Blue. Mirna returned to Indonesia after her graduation while Jessica stayed back & started working there. What was supposed to be a reunion of two friends, turned into a murder mystery with the other being accused.
The CCTV footage showed Jessica reaching the Cafe beforehand and then entering again at the time they promised to meet. The only difference was that the second time Jessica was carrying a few shopping bags and already ordered the drinks before Mirna and another friend came. They arrived almost an hour later and within a few minutes of drinking her Vietnamese Iced coffee, Mirna passed out and was confirmed dead.
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It was soon reported that Mirna might have died from consuming cyanide and it had to be spiked in the coffee since cyanide deaths are instant (under 30 minutes). The confusing part here is that the reports from the hospital, an hour after Mirna’s death didn’t find any trace of cyanide in urine or blood etc. However, about 0.2 mg was found in a sample from her stomach autopsy. The biggest flaw in the case is the lack of a full body autopsy that would have examined all the organs and come to a definite conclusion about her death.
There is no direct evidence (CCTV video or witness) of Jessica spiking the drink with cyanide or having a motive to kill her friend except that Mirna disapproved of Wongso’s abusive boyfriend. It’s just circumstantial evidence that points towards Jessica being the culprit since she arrived earlier and had the drinks on the table alone with her for a long time. With no other suspect or investigation of the body, all eyes were on Wongso and the immense pressure (and maybe some backhanded money) eventually sent her to prison for 20 years.
Also, Wongso was actually exempted from the death penalty, which is Indonesia’s punishment for premeditated murder, due to her permanent Australian residency status. Seeing how she was convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence makes you question if she is actually guilty or not. On the other hand, her life in Australia paints another picture where she tried to take her life at least four times, caused a drunk accident, displayed threatening behaviour towards her colleagues, plus an Apprehended Violence Order taken out against her by an ex-boyfriend.
Could it be that she felt envious of her friend’s life or blamed Mirna for her breakup? Another unsettling thing is how Jessica was often seen smiling for the camera or in interviews while coming in and out of court or police stations. Was it her defensive response to the gravely anxious situation or a facet of her personality that is much more sinister than one could imagine? It definitely caused her much harm as the public viewed it as presumably psychopathic behaviour who was enjoying the attention and didn’t feel remorse for her friend’s death.
With Salihin’s being an influential family, it’s unlikely that Wongso would get a bail out of her punishment unless some solid evidence turns up. The documentary mainly focused on the trial and what the public opinion of the case was. Whereas personally, I was interested to know what their relationship had been like over the years – any text conversations that stood out or what Mirna’s married life had been like. The investigation didn’t seem to follow Mirna’s whereabouts throughout the day and what she could have consumed in the recent time frame.
A full-body autopsy could have revealed everything but the family only approved the toxicology test to figure out if she was poisoned. This also seems a bit suspicious if the family was so determined to punish the culprit, they would have wanted to know how she even died. It’s like they were already convinced that Jessica was the one behind it and put all their force into winning the case against her. The documentary also brings up fair questions about Indonesia’s justice system and as one subject reiterates, ‘no money, no justice’.
Rating: 4/5
Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee and Jessica Wongso is available for streaming on Netflix.
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