petition for New York cold case detectives - murder of Su-ya Kim DNA

Su-Ya Kim
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From Unsolved Mysteries Website

Real Name: Su-Ya Kim
Nicknames: No Known Nicknames
Location: New York City, New York
Date: June 29, 1991
Su ya kim2 suspect

A composite of Su-Ya's killer
CaseEdit

Details: In 1981, Su Young and Su-Ya Kim were married and soon moved to the United States from Korea. By 1991, they both lived in New York with their two sons and owned two successful stores. However, their happy life was ruined on June 29. Su-Ya dropped her two sons off at their grandmother's house and went shopping. When her husband came home later, she had not returned, and he later found her car parked in their parking garage with the engine stone cold. The next day, police identified the remains of a young woman has Su Ya's. She had been murdered by nine stab wounds from an unknown man; her remains coldly dumped in a trash dumpster. Police determined that she had been the victim of random violence, but were able to find a witness. Before her body was found, a security guard witnessed an unidentified man early in the morning acting strangely around the garbage can that was later found to have contained Su Ya's remains. The man soon left and the security guard began looking through the garbage and found her body. He hailed a passing ambulance, but Su-Ya had been dead for several hours. The security guard gave a description of the man and the license plate, which was later found to belong to a Taiwanese college student who had nothing to do with the case. Police began looking at the security guard as a suspect, until a lie detector test proved he had nothing to do with the murder either. The police are now looking for leads in her murder. For nearly two years, husband Su-Young Kim stayed in the United States, but the memories of his wife proved too painful to bear. In April of 1993, he shut down his business and returned with his two little boys to South Korea, his wife's killer's identity still a mystery.
Suspects: The unidentified person seen by the security guard was a white man wearing round glasses. He may have worked in or lived around the area that the garbage can was located. He has never been identified.
Extra Notes: This segment ran for the first time on October 20, 1993.
Actor Daniel Dae Kim, who played Jin in the TV-series "Lost," as well as appearances on "Hawaii-Five 0" and "24," appears in this segment as Su-Ya's husband's brother.
Results: Unsolved

CASE DETAILS

New York City has always promised the hope of a new start to immigrants like Su-Young Kim and his wife, Su-Ya. In 1981, they married in Seoul, South Korea, then moved to the United States. Su-Young and Su-Ya worked in flea markets until they were finally able to open two stores, one in Long Island and the other in Bushwick, a section of Brooklyn known for its ethnic diversity.

Su-Ya’s nude body was found in a dumpster

As the business grew, so did the Kim family. Su-Ya and Su-Young had two sons, and often the whole family could be found at the Brooklyn store. The Kims eventually moved to a spacious apartment in Queens. There, on the afternoon of June 29, 1991, just five days after Su-Young and Su-Ya had celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary, Su-Ya left the boys with their grandmother while she went shopping. When Su-Young came home at 8 PM, his wife had not returned from her shopping trip. He called all her friends, but no one knew where she was. Su-Young’s concern mounted after he found Su-Ya’s car still parked in the garage, its engine stone cold:

“My wife had never been out that late for the 10 years of our marriage. I was getting more and more worried. I could not stop thinking that something bad must have happened to her. I stayed up all night waiting for her but she did not come home.”

The next day, Su-Young Kim was summoned to the medical examiner’s office to identify a body:

“I could not and did not want to believe what was going on. As soon as I recognized my wife’s body, I felt everything was over. The whole world seemed to crash down on me. I could not think of anything else except my children.”

A guard caught a man in the alley at 3:00 AM

Su-Ya Kim had been stabbed nine times. Her body was dumped in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, seven miles from the Kims’ apartment in Queens. Although she was nude, there was no evidence of rape. Su-Ya appeared to be the victim of random violence. But unlike many random crimes, this one had a witness. Joe Jones was a private security guard hired to patrol an abandoned building in Bedford Stuyvesant. Around 3:00 AM, ten hours after Su-Ya had disappeared, Jones noticed a man behind a building:

“He hesitated a couple seconds. And he said what if I give you $20. So I said yeah, okay. So at that time when I’m taking the $20, I see that he had blood on him. So I said, how you get blood on you like that?”

The man’s demeanor made Jones suspicious. He got a brief glimpse of the license plate before the car backed out:

“He gets in the car, drives away, but he stops at the corner. I think he thought I was going to go back and see what he put in the garbage. And I really got suspicious when he was looking at me and I was looking at him. So when I went back, I looked on the ground and I saw spots, spots of blood going toward the garbage can.”

An ambulance arrived, but it was too late

Joe Jones recruited a friend who happened by. Together, they cautiously searched the contents of the dumpster. Amidst layers of debris, they saw a woman’s hand. It was the body of Su-Ya. In an uncanny coincidence, the first vehicle to pass by was an ambulance, but it was too late. Su-Ya had already been dead for hours. Thanks to Joe Jones, however, Detective Derrick J. Parker had a description of the killer and his car:

“We ran all the Nissans that fit that description with that plate number in New York City and we tried to match registered owners by using a partial plate. And we were able to come up with one match.”

The vehicle was registered to a Taiwanese exchange student at a Long Island college. She said she had not driven it since about ten o’clock the night before. There was no blood in or on the car. And when Detective Parker checked the engine, he found it had not been driven for hours:

“There was a blue Nissan that fit the description that Mr. Jones told us, however it wasn’t the car.”

Police then began to look at their star witness, Joe Jones, as a suspect. They requested that Jones take a lie detector test. He passed with flying colors and police were positive he had nothing to do with Su-Ya’s murder.

For nearly two years, Su-Young Kim stayed in the United States, but the memories of his wife proved too painful to bear. In April of 1993, he shut down his business and returned with his two little boys to South Korea:

“I could not stand being in the store anymore because everything there reminded me of my wife. Now there are no good memories for me here in America. Since it happened, I lost all my hopes and dreams. I have suffered so much. I’m still struggling hard to get over my wife’s death for the sake of our children. I still truly love and miss her.”

Police have one particular theory which may yet help identify Su-Ya’s killer. The dumpster in Bedford-Stuyvesant was not easily visible from the street, so police believe the killer may be a delivery man or a cab driver, someone with detailed knowledge of the neighborhood.