The Disneyland Twins Mystery: How a 28-Year-Old Cold Case Led to the Dark Discovery of “Room Zero”

It began with smiles. Bright yellow ribbons tied in identical braids, pink sparkly T-shirts under denim overalls, and the kind of joy only a trip to Disneyland can bring. Twelve-year-old Mariana and Liliana Chen had been in the United States for barely three years when their mother, Fernanda, promised them a birthday they’d never forget.

By the end of that hot July afternoon in 1985, they were gone.

The Last Photograph

July 15, 1985, was a sweltering, crowded day at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Fernanda, a single mother from Guangzhou, had saved for years to take her daughters to the “happiest place on earth.” By 3:07 p.m., they were in Tomorrowland, where they spotted a Mickey Mouse character. The performer was animated — hugging kids, shaking hands, posing for photos.

Mariana squealed. Liliana whispered to her mother, “Picture.” Fernanda snapped three photos. The last image — now infamous — shows the twins on either side of Mickey, beaming.

According to Fernanda, she excused herself to a restroom less than 100 feet away. The Mickey performer nodded and mimed that he would stay with the girls. Witnesses later confirmed seeing the character interacting with them, laughing and pacing in a small circle.

When Fernanda returned minutes later, the space was empty. No twins. No Mickey.

Panic in the Park

At first, Fernanda thought the girls had run to another character or shop. She searched frantically for ten minutes before alerting a staff member. By 3:30 p.m., Disney security was involved. Rides were paused, announcements made, staff deployed. Witness reports trickled in:

The twins were seen following Mickey toward the arcade.

They were near the Space Mountain tunnel.

A “second Mickey” was spotted near the fountain.

Surveillance in 1985 was limited. No footage showed the twins leaving the park. No one matching that Mickey costume was seen at any exit. Then came the chilling detail — the performer assigned to that Mickey suit during the 2:30 p.m. shift never returned to staff rotation.

An Impostor in Costume

Anaheim police launched one of the most intense searches in city history. Disney executives provided rosters, costume checkouts, and security logs. But the Mickey seen with the Chen twins didn’t match any employee on duty. The suit was slightly faded. Gloves stitched at the fingertips — not regulation. Height didn’t match any cast member.

Someone had walked into Disneyland in an unregistered Mickey Mouse costume and left unnoticed. The FBI was brought in. Leads went nowhere. Weeks turned to months. No ransom, no bodies, no suspect. The case froze in time.

Fernanda refused to declare her daughters dead. Every July 15th, she left two yellow ribbons outside the park gates.

The Head in the Drain

February 2013. Disneyland was renovating Tomorrowland, requiring underground work in long-sealed utility corridors. Just past midnight on February 17, workers clearing an unmapped concrete drain shaft found something wedged in a rusted grate: a mummified human head encased inside a full-size Mickey Mouse mask.

Forensics identified the remains as Robert Ellis, a former Disney cast performer who vanished in 1981. The problem? Ellis had been dead for years before the twins disappeared in 1985. So who wore the costume that day?

The Hidden Costume Room

Two weeks later, Inspector Natalyia Reeves, assigned to the reopened case, received an anonymous letter:

“The others are still below. Behind the old prop cellar, door 3C. Ask for the keys Disney never logged.”

The “prop cellar” was an abandoned storage area closed in the 1970s. On March 5, 2013, Reeves and a forensics team entered a sealed corridor beneath Adventureland. Door 3C was painted black, rusted, and absent from current blueprints.

Inside were dust-covered mannequins, rotting crates marked “Fantasyland 1975,” and five garment bags. Four held standard character suits. The fifth — a darkened Mickey variant with muted colors, elongated gloves, and wide eyes — had never appeared in the park.

Forensics found human hair, bone fragments, and a partial femur inside the suit lining. DNA confirmed it belonged to Liliana Chen. After 28 years, her fate was confirmed — hidden inside the lining of a costume meant to entertain.

Mariana was still missing.

“Room Zero”

Three weeks later, Reeves received an anonymous email:

“Room Zero was real. I was there in 1985. The twins were not the first.”

Attached was a grainy photo of a concrete hallway ending at a metal door marked “RZ01.”

Disney had no official record of “Room Zero,” but retired maintenance staff recalled rumors of a sealed pilot tunnel under the original Fantasyland.

On April 11, 2013, Reeves followed an access path beneath the “It’s a Small World” maintenance lift. Faded cartoon faces were painted over cracked plaster and exposed wires. At the end stood the RZ01 door, locked with three deadbolts.

Inside: a 30-foot-wide chamber lit by flickering fluorescent tubes. A rusted metal table was bolted to the floor. On the wall, eight names were scrawled in faded marker — six crossed out, two not: Liliana and Mariana.

Children’s shoes and decayed fabric scraps littered the floor. A reel-to-reel tape player looped distorted Disney songs with what some swore were whispered voices layered beneath.

In a sealed trapdoor box, wrapped in a Space Mountain T-shirt, was a child’s femur. DNA confirmed it was Mariana Chen. Both sisters had been beneath Disneyland for nearly three decades.

The Face Behind the Mask

The break came when 63-year-old Dennis Laroo was arrested for trespassing in Bakersfield. Fingerprints linked him to an old sealed file — a former Disneyland maintenance subcontractor from 1980 to 1986.

When questioned about July 1985, Laroo became erratic, referencing “the tunnels” and whispering, “Mickey was never supposed to bleed.”

A search of his home revealed a hidden “archive room” — Polaroids of children in character dressing rooms, fragments of vintage costumes, dark Mickey gloves, warped audio labeled “training.” His diary described July 16, 1985:

“The twins were perfect. They smiled. They trusted me. The tunnels are mine now. Room Zero keeps secrets.”

Laroo had maps to a sealed “Mirror Room,” lined with one-way mirrors facing ride queues. It was where he had watched and selected children.

Aftermath

Laroo was deemed unfit for trial and institutionalized. Fernanda Chen buried her daughters in 2014 and died two years later. Room Zero was sealed permanently; Disney denied official knowledge of its purpose.

Yet employees still whisper about the tunnels — and about the day Mickey smiled just a little too wide.

Do you believe Laroo acted alone — or was he part of something bigger still hidden beneath the park?