Parents of slain student giving scientist power of attorney to investigate death
By Jeremy Kirk, Seoul bureau
chief
Wecht |
SEOUL — The parents of a murdered 21-year-old American coed are
giving a renowned forensic scientist legal power to investigate their daughter’s
death.
Dr. Cyril H. Wecht — who worked on the O.J. Simpson and JonBenet
Ramsey cases — will be given power of attorney to investigate Jamie Lynn
Penich’s death, a move that will give him the same power as a family member, said
Patricia Penich. Her daughter was found brutally murdered in a Seoul motel room March 18.
Wecht, coroner for Allegheny County, Pa., is criticizing U.S.
military and South Korean investigators for failing to recover more evidence from the
crime scene.
So far, Wecht has a translated version of the Korean autopsy report
and photos. The Penich family wants Korean and U.S. Army investigators to share “any
and all information that he (Wecht) needs regarding Jamie’s case,” Patricia
Penich said in a telephone interview.
When the power of attorney procedure is complete, Wecht said, he will
contact officials involved in the case and local and national legislators.
Dr. Lee Won-tae, Seoul’s chief medical examiner, said he would
meet with police investigators this week to see what evidence could be sent to Wecht.
Hwang Woon-ha, chief of detectives at Yongsan Police Station, has
said rules prohibit him from sharing information. If Korean police needed an outside
expert on the case, they would have consulted one, Hwang said.
Korean police are conducting the investigation with U.S. Army
Criminal Investigation Command — known as CID — but have no evidence linking a
suspect to the unsolved murder.
Police were unable to recover any fingerprints from Penich’s
motel room.
At the request of Korean police, CID agents from Yongsan Garrison
questioned U.S. soldiers who were around Penich at Nickleby’s Bar the night of the
murder. The CID lab at Fort Gillem, Ga., is testing Penich’s black jacket, found
lying over her head.
The Korean police asked CID to test the jacket because they do not
have the equipment to test for fingerprints on fiber.
Penich family members say they would like to see CID do more than
just respond to requests from the Korean police.
“We want the CID to work in conjunction with the Koreans, not
wait until the Korean police say ‘I can’t do this test,’” Patricia
Penich said. “I want them to go over ... to the Korean police and say ‘can we
assist you in this?’
In my way of thinking, the CID are not offering assistance, they are
waiting until the Korean police ask.”
Wecht agrees that Army investigators should be obligated to work more
on the case because Penich was an American.
“It just seems to me it is coming back to the military’s
failure or refusal to pursue this,” Wecht said. “Her death should have demanded
a greater response in terms of the military’s investigation.”
Marc A. Raimondi, chief of public affairs for CID at Fort Belvoir,
Va., said Friday that he has no information on the case.
“Since it’s not our case, I haven’t really been
looking into it,” Raimondi said. “Again, this is the Korean National
Police’s case, and I really think you need to ask them.”
Through Raimondi, CID commander Brig. Gen. Donald J. Ryder declined
to be interviewed about the case.
A CID special agent at Yongsan who was contacted Tuesday said he
could not comment on the case.
Wecht said Friday that he believes Jamie Penich died from being
strangled and stomped, a determination that matches the South Koreans’ finding.
The attacker left a bloody shoeprint that may have indicated a
Skechers or Timberland shoe.
“This kind of prolonged contact — assailant and victim
— there’s no way in the world there would not have been incriminating forensic
science evidence in that room,” Wecht said.
A “tremendous” amount of information would have been left
in the motel room to help get a suspect, Wecht said. The Penich case, he said, is not
“the world’s greatest mystery.”
“I don’t say this in a denigrating way, but I’m sure
they are (investigators) not the most sophisticated criminalist team in the world,”
Wecht said. “That doesn’t mean that what they did obtain wasn’t sufficient
to point them in the right direction.”
Little new information has come from the State Department or the U.S.
Embassy, Patricia Penich said Friday. The FBI, which is working on the case at the request
of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said the family would receive the same information as the
press because it’s an ongoing investigation, the mother said.
Wecht said he would consider traveling to Korea if the costs were
covered.
He has agreed to donate his services to the Penichs, whose New Derry,
Pa., home is an hour’s drive from his office.
“It’s a tragic case,” Wecht said. “It’s in
my community. I feel an obligation.”
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