Evidence lacking, so probe into death
of American student in Korea starts anew
By Jeremy Kirk, Seoul bureau
chief
Bob Donaldson / Post-Gazette
Patricia Penich watches her husband, Brian, speak of their frustration with the
investigation of the murder of their daughter, Jamie Lynn Penich, in Korea, during a news
conference at their Derry, Pa., home. |
SEOUL — The murderer of a 21-year-old American exchange student seemingly has done
the impossible: left no trace.
South Korean police said they have no conclusive physical evidence and must start from
scratch in the investigation of the stomping death of Jamie Lynn Penich.
"We are going to start over from the beginning," said Hwang Woon-ha, chief of
detectives at Yongsan Police Station.
The police are looking for a single clue that will link the murderer to the crime
scene.
"If we have a suspect, and have DNA samples from the scene, we can match it,"
said Lee Won-tae, chief medical examiner and director of the forensic medicine department
at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation in Seoul.
In the last 10 weeks, South Korean police have led an investigation in which the U.S.
Army Criminal Investigation Command, known as CID, has assisted.
Acting U.S. Ambassador Evans Revere has asked the legal attaché to the embassy —
who is also an FBI agent — to lend "technical assistance" to the Korean
National Police, sources said.
And the FBI has interviewed the victim’s parents, Patricia and Brian Penich, in
Pennsylvania.
But results have produced nothing to link a suspect with the crime, Hwang said.
South Korean police have ruled out robbery as a motive.
They have centered their investigation on people who interacted with Penich at
Nickleby’s, an expatriate bar where the victim and her friends celebrated the night
of St. Patrick’s Day.
Stars and Stripes has interviewed South Korean police, CID, Penich’s friends,
former suspects and experts about the murder.
Lt. Kwon Young-heoi of the Yongsan Police Station has said, in his professional
opinion, there is an 80 percent chance the killer was among the people seen dancing and
socializing with Penich. After the murder, CID homed in on U.S. soldiers who were close to
Penich and her friends that night. CID also played a key role in evidence collection, an
embassy spokesman said.
At least five U.S. soldiers gave blood samples or clothing. Some were placed in police
lineups and given polygraphs.
One suspect met a key witness face-to-face in a CID parking lot.
However, Hwang said, no evidence has linked the soldiers to the crime.
About 90 items — including blood samples, hair and other <CL10.1>crime scene
evidence — have been tested by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation,
Seoul’s autopsy and evidence testing lab, said police and forensic officials.
Jamie Lynn Penich, in a photo
taken last year. |
South Korean police said they found a bloody shoeprint at the scene that they believe
came from a size 9 or 10 Skechers or Timberland brand shoe.
Lee, the medical examiner, said Penich died from a blow to her neck and chest from a
shoe or boot with a tread likely from a Skechers or Timberland product.
The lab tested four pairs of shoes taken from three U.S. soldiers. Two pairs were
Skechers brand shoes. A third pair was a brand of boots that cannot be identified. The
fourth pair was Dr. Martens brand, Lee said.
Test results were given to the Yongsan Police Station from his lab, Lee said. Items
tested included a handkerchief, Marlboro and This brand cigarette butts, a scarf and
razor, he said.
During an interview, Lee shared with Stars and Stripes part of a three-page summary of
DNA testing. The full report was not made available. He said the full report has been sent
to police, who have authority over interpreting the results.
The police "only ask us to test evidence, and we only report the results,"
Lee said, who worked for two years in Michigan for the Wayne County Medical
Examiner’s Office. "We can’t interpret because we don’t know the whole
story."
One issue is whether Penich had consensual sex with her attacker or was sexually
assaulted. The lab found semen on the underwear of Penich and the student who shared the
hotel room with Penich. During the autopsy, they also recovered semen from the body, Lee
said.
But Hwang repeatedly disputed Lee’s remarks, saying no semen was found on the
underwear or during the autopsy. Tests for semen were performed, Hwang said, but were
negative.
In a later interview, Lee reaffirmed finding semen.
Autopsy results indicated Penich hadn’t been raped, Lee said. But rape hasn’t
been ruled out, he said, because rape cannot always be physically detected.
"We cannot definitely say she was not raped," Lee said.
Penich’s roommate told Stars and Stripes that she disputes the finding of semen on
her clothing. She said she had no contact with a man while in South Korea.
She also said she doesn’t believe Penich had intimate contact with a man that
weekend or since arriving in South Korea on March 1. Hwang said South Korean police
didn’t ask the Dutch woman if she had sex because it would have been an invasion of
privacy.
Penich and she were "always together," said the 22-year-old woman from the
Netherlands last week. "I would have known if Jamie had sex with someone. I think she
would have told us if she had."
Lee said the lab used an enzyme to test for semen, and the reaction on the two pairs of
underpants was "very, very slight." A lab assistant who conducted the test said
the sexual contact might have occurred three to four days before the murder.
Greensburg (Pa.) Tribune-Review photo
Patricia Penich holds a prepared statement during a press conference in the back yard of
her Derry Township home. |
Lee described his assistant’s estimate is speculative, not scientific. The
assistant said he doesn’t believe the alleged sexual contact happened the night of
the crime.
Labs can acquire DNA from sperm and skin cells, said Lee. But his lab was unable to
recover either.
It is not unusual for labs to be unable to recover sperm or semen from a sample, Lee
said.
A jacket belonging to Penich was given to a CID agent for testing in the United States,
Hwang said. But Marc A. Raimondi, chief of public affairs for CID in Virginia, said Monday
had no knowledge of the jacket.
The Netherlands woman said when she found the body, a jacket covered Penich’s
face. Two friends, Jeroen Kuilman of the Netherlands and Kenzi Snider of the United
States, also said they remember a covering they believed to be Penich’s black jacket
over the victim’s face. The black jacket tested positive for Penich’s blood, Lee
said.
However, none of the crime scene photos viewed by Stars and Stripes showed a jacket in
the position described by Kuilman and Snider. In some photos, the jacket is seen next to
Penich’s body.
None of the shoes collected from suspects tested positive for blood, the only test the
South Korean police requested, Lee said. Socks from the victim and her motel roommate were
collected from Penich’s motel room and tested. But no socks of suspects were brought
for testing to the lab, Lee said.
Although the lab is able to analyze evidence for fibers, the lab didn’t test any
fiber evidence in this case, Lee said. Korean police tell the lab what to test, and the
lab complies with those requests, he said.
The lab also tested a motel towel soaked with blood, Lee said. The towel — seen
near Penich’s head in one crime scene photo — tested positive for the
victim’s blood.
Police recovered no identifiable fingerprints from the scene, Hwang said.
Korean police have hypnotized twice a witness who believes she laid eyes on the killer
leaving the victim’s room. Park Jong-soon, 51, told police she saw a clean-faced,
white man with short hair and wearing a checkered shirt and beige pants walk calmly from
Penich’s room out of the motel around the time of the murder.
No further details about what Park saw came from the hypnosis.
The language barrier has proven to be especially troublesome in the case — with
both Penich’s friends and the U.S. servicemembers.
The exchange students who were questioned shortly after finding the body said the
translation problems were as frustrating as they were intimidating.
They said the translator provided by the South Korean police was inadequate.
The translator appeared to be inserting his opinion into the translation, the
Netherlands woman said.
"He only understood basic ideas that you were saying," the woman said.
"When he translated, he just translated what he thinks was happening, not what I was
saying."
The police statements Snider and the Netherlands woman signed were in Korean, they
said.
"It was weird signing something you couldn’t even read," Snider said.
Snider said she called the U.S. Embassy from the Itaewon police station. The
Netherlands woman said Snider requested a translator from the U.S. Embassy, but none was
provided, she said.
Sometime during their questioning at the Itaewon station, Penich’s friends saw
U.S. military police bring in a man who had blood on his clothing. The man was white, had
short hair and spoke in English with a European accent, Snider said.
The man was belligerent, the Dutch woman said. South Korean police let the man go after
10 or 15 minutes, Kuilman said.
"He had a strange look in his eyes," Kuilman said. "I just don’t
know why they let him go if he didn’t have any ID."
Hwang told Stars and Stripes that the blood the man had on his clothes was his own,
although they did not say they tested it. The police have the man’s name, Hwang said,
but would not release it to Stars and Stripes. Another South Korean police official said
the man had a beard and tennis shoes and didn’t fit the description of the suspect,
so they let him go.
Later at the Itaewon police station, Snider said three male CID agents questioned the
group. Around 7 p.m. that day, CID agents took the Dutch woman and Snider to Yongsan
Garrison.
They were asked to identify soldiers who were at Nickleby’s, Snider said. They
looked at photographs provided by CID, and left around 11 p.m., she said.
For the next few days, Snider and the Dutch woman said they experienced long hours of
questioning by South Korean police. Both were accused at some point of killing Penich,
they said.
"It never crossed my mind that they would accuse me of something like that,"
the Netherlands woman said. "I was scared I was going to have to go in a cell."
"I’m still running over and over trying to find little pieces because
it’s so mysterious," Snider said. "I haven’t any good dreams since it
happened."
Beverly Sargent, Franklin Fisher and William Son contributed to this
article.
RELATED STORY:
U.S. forensic expert says
investigation was flawed
PREVIOUS STORIES:
May 7: Family frustrated by lack of
progress in investigation
May 6: Information sought in murder of
American student
May 6: Long-awaited trip to Korea
turned to tragedy
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