Ice Cold Documentary Film Effect: Murder, Coffee, And Jessica Wongso In Netray Monitoring

The documentary Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongso brought the public back to discuss the case of cyanide coffee which was considered controversial in 2016. (Instagram @netflixid)

JAKARTA People are invited to look back, in legal cases that have become the attention of the whole of Indonesia through a Netflix documentary entitled Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongso.

The documentary film, which began airing on September 28, 2023, immediately attracted the attention of the Indonesian public. How not, thanks to this broadcast, the public again discussed legal cases that had been in the spotlight in 2016.

This documentary has reopened the case of Wayan Mirna Salihin's death, who died on January 6, 2016 after drinking Vietnamese coffee ordered by her best friend, Jessica Kumala Wongso, at Café Olivier, Grand Indonesia, Jakarta. A few hours after the incident, Jessica Wongso was accused of poisoning the drink with cyanide.

After going through a long and tiring series of trials, Jessica Wongso was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Mirna on October 27, 2016. She was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The decision to send Jessica to prison has received the spotlight of many parties. The public felt that there were a number of irregularities in determining Jessica's sentence, especially regarding the evidence shown during the trial which was considered not strong.

But the cyanide coffee case already has permanent legal force after Jessica's cassation was rejected by the Supreme Court.

The memory of the complicated case of cyanide coffee re-emerged once this dokementary film was presented by Netflix. The public was busy commenting on the case faced by Jessica Wongso. After the documentary appeared, the public's views were divided.

Some believe that it was Jessica who killed Mirna. But not a few still doubt the judge's decision.

The increase in public intensity against this topic was observed by Netray through social media X which was monitored from October 4 to October 10, 2023. During the week there were various popular vocabulary results of Netray observations on social media X such as forensics, cyanide, netflix, and clemency. In addition, there are also repeated appearances of names of Minna Salihin, otti, karni illyas, deddy, as well as the father in the discussion of netizens. The father here refers to Mirna Salihin's parents.

Netizens continue to speculate in revealing who the real perpetrator was in the cyanide coffee case. Based on Netray's monitoring, speculation and opinions from netizens regarding this topic make the conversation dominated by negative sentiment.

Looking at the graph, it can be seen that negative sentiment is far more prominent than positive sentiment in netizens' conversations.

In the 1 hour 26 minute documentary, Netflix presents exclusive interviews with Jessica Wongso, Mirna's father and twin brothers, Jessica's lawyer, cafe employees at the scene, to journalists who followed the case.

Negative speculation that dominates the discussion in cyberspace discusses irregularities in the disclosure of the case. Many netizens concluded that Jessica was not the real culprit.

Topics that had occupied trending topics in a week were discussed in at least 3,227 tweets. With an impression of 15.1 million impressions from netizens. The popularity of this topic reaches at least more than 91.4 million X social media users.

In the midst of the viral documentary Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee, and Jessica Wongso, cyanide which is claimed to be the cause of Mirna's death has also become popular.

It turns out that cyanide is also naturally found in several fruits and tubers that are often consumed by the public. However, it should be noted, generally the cyanide contained in the fruit is low. While quoted by The Guardian, cyanide can be deadly in a dose of 1-2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

One of the fruits containing cyanide is apples. Apples contain a compound called amygdalin in their seeds, which are cyanide and sugar-based molecules.

However, according to The Guardian not all amygdalin masses can turn into cyanide hydrogen, as some become sugar from split molecules.

You need to eat very large amounts of apples to successfully poison yourself. And, there doesn't seem to be a single case where someone managed to do it, "said The Guardian.

Other foods that also contain cyanide are almonds. However, bitter almonds have the highest amygdalin levels compared to sweet almonds. Thus, eating bitter almonds that are not processed first can cause cramps, nausea, and diarrhea.

Pir, ceries, cassava, bamboo, andfer fruit are among those containing cyanide even though they are in small quantities.