Cindy Song

On the evening of 31 October 2001, Hyun Jong Song - better known as "Cindy" - went with some friends to a costume party at a nightclub in State College, Pennsylvania. Having just started her senior year at Penn State, the 21-year-old was still getting over a recent breakup but had a fun Halloween with her friends, dancing until the early morning hours of November 1st…

Halloween is a holiday that appeals to almost all of us.

For children, it's a day to dress up as anything: a cop, a pumpkin, a monster, a princess. For at least a few hours, kids can become a character in their favorite movie, their favorite video game or book, or even something out of their imagination. It's also a day in which free candy is prevalent, which, when you're a kid, is like being given free money. Maybe even better.

As we get older, Halloween begins to take on a different type of excitement. We begin to experiment with different types of costumes, and continue to view it as an expression of our deepest fears or desires... after all, Halloween is one of the few socially accepted days for everyone to cut loose and get as weird or wacky as one wants. Hell, if you just want to watch scary movies, October is the month for you.

Yet, for some, Halloween doesn't contain that same sense of spooky wonder anymore. For them, it's a grim reminder of a personal tragedy: the disappearance of a young woman in one of America's most renowned college towns, who went missing after a fun night out with friends. In that case, leads and clues have been almost nonexistent since this story began unfolding back in 2001, making it seem as this young woman had disappeared right into thin air.

This is the story of Cindy Song.

Hyun Jong Song, better known as Cindy Song, was born on February 25th, 1980 in Seoul, South Korea. There, she would grow up alongside her parents and her brother, Kihoon, becoming known as an infectiously energetic young girl that loved being active and took great pride in what she did. However, as her mother Ban Soon Song, would later tell the Associated Press:

"She loved the United States. She wanted to see the world, and she had heard so many great things about the United States. Even from a young age, she would study American culture and was really fascinated by America."

For that reason, at the age of sixteen years old, Cindy moved to Springfield, Virginia to live with her aunt and attend school in America. Her brother, Kiho, would later tell the Centre Daily Times:

"She came by herself... but was able to settle into a different country. She has a strong pride."

There, right outside of Washington D.C., Cindy began attending high school in a country she'd just moved to. But she began thriving, attending Hayfield Secondary School for a year-and-a-half before transferring to Randolph-Macon Academy, where she ultimately graduated with good grades. Her aunt and guardian in the U.S., Young Kim, told the Centre Daily Times:

"She was liked in high school. She loved it. She (was very comfortable) with family, friends and school work. Everything."

After graduating from high school, Cindy would then go on to attend Pennsylvania State University, beginning her freshman year in 1998. There, she quickly settled upon a major: integrative arts. Cindy held aspirations of one day becoming a successful graphic and/or fashion designer, and viewed this as her best ticket to gain the knowledge and expertise to do so. And there, at Penn State, she continued to thrive. Her grades would remain solid throughout her time there, and she assimilated quickly into college life, due in no small part to her inclusion in the Korean Undergraduate Student Association. While Cindy loved America and its culture, she still gravitated towards those that had similar life experiences and could speak Korean, which is totally understandable.

In State College, the town that is home to Penn State, Cindy quickly embedded herself in the community, becoming fast friends with some other students. She became known for her persistent smile and energetic attitude, even when times were tough. She was also known for her ability to work hard, in and out of the classroom.

When not in class or studying, Cindy could often be found at work. On Fridays, she worked at the nearby Seoul Garden Restaurant as a waitress, but would also fill in when other waitresses called in sick or needed time off. She would even come in on nights that she wasn't working to help take care of and play with the owner's children, with the owner, Song Yu, telling reporters:

"She's just like my niece."

When not working at the restaurant, Cindy would also work at Penn State's Pollock Laptop Library on Wednesdays and Thursdays, working the 12:00 AM - 8:00 AM shift. Which, I can tell you, having worked pretty similar shifts at the Washington State Holland & Terrell Library back in the day... those can be long hours, but are thankfully pretty quiet, when not having to deal with drunk students. But it likely provided Cindy some working time to study and work on classwork.

In Autumn 2001, Cindy began her senior year at Penn State, living at an university-provided apartment nearby the campus. Cindy took to her Penn State profile to express herself, posting pictures of herself with friends, along with her likes and dislikes, things like that (stuff that would now get posted to Facebook and other social media sites). But on October 25th, weeks after the beginning of the school year, Cindy posted a poem she'd written:

sad but happy

crying but laughing

ugly but pretty

hungry but full

hurt but fine

weak but strong

I pretend

10.25.01

The meaning of this personal piece of poetry would loom large over family and friends in the weeks to come.

On Wednesday, October 31st, 2001 - Halloween night - Cindy went out with some friends to a club.

The Player's Night Club, now known as the Basement Nightspot, is a club in State College that has gone through many iterations, making it an iconic part of Penn State's nightlife. Before being known as the Player's Night Club, it was known for decades as Mr. C's. In 2008, it changed ownership and became Indigo Nightclub, and went through a similar rebranding a decade later, in 2018, when it became the Basement Nightspot.

But on Halloween 2001, the Player's Night Club was hosting a costume party, which Cindy attended alongside two friends of hers, Stacy Paik and Lisa Kim. Cindy had dressed up as a Playboy Bunny, but as noted by her friends, this wasn't a revealing or necessarily "sexy" outfit. In fact, as noted by her friend, Stacy, on the program "Unsolved Mysteries," Cindy typically tried to dress "cute" on nights out but never "sexy." Her costume was no different.

The three friends partied at the club throughout the evening, enjoying a number of beverages and dancing - sometimes together, sometimes with others. Cindy spoke with a handful of young men throughout the evening, including a pair of twins that she seemed to hit it off with. But when the club turned off the music and shut down at 2:00 A.M., Cindy left with her two friends.

Afterward, the three dropped by a friend's apartment at the Park Hill complex roughly half a mile northeast, and stayed there for an hour or so, playing video games and just having fun. But at around 3:30, Cindy was taken home by her friend Stacy Paik, who drove Cindy home to her apartment located at 349 Clinton Avenue, a few miles west.

Just before 4:00 AM, Cindy was dropped off at her apartment, and Detective Brian Sprinkle would later tell the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Cindy's friend Stacy, who drove her home:

"... watched her go up to the apartment but not in the door... before she drove off."

Sadly, Cindy Song was never seen again.

Hours later, Cindy's roommate, Youngjoo Kim (also known as Catherine), returned home. She had been away on a family trip for days beforehand, and returned on the afternoon of November 1st, 2001. As she entered the apartment, she found it locked from the outside, and was surprised to find it quiet and empty inside. Catherine had made plans to see Cindy that day and catch up after days apart, and the two had planned to go and visit friends later that evening. But Cindy wasn't in her room, and wouldn't show up.

In the many hours that followed, no one would hear from or see Cindy Song. She was a no-show for classes and work that Thursday and Friday, which struck everyone as odd. While she might have missed classes here and then, she never missed her work shifts without calling out, especially not at the Korean restaurant she worked at, where the owner regarded her as family. For that reason, her friends quickly became suspicious that Cindy hadn't just gone home to visit family or anything, and reported her missing that weekend. The one who reported her missing on the morning of Saturday, November 4th, was none other than Stacy Paik, the last person who saw Cindy early on Thursday morning.

Sadly, because the detectives for the nearby Ferguson Township Police Department were off of work that weekend, the case was initially handled by some patrol officers, who took statements and presumed that Cindy was missing of her own accord. They assumed wrongly that Cindy might just turn up again within days - maybe even hours. It wasn't until Monday that the case file came across the desk of Detective Brian Sprinkle, who began looking for the missing 21-year-old in earnest.

Police arrived at the apartment Cindy shared with her roommate, and there, found no sign of forced entry nor any sign of a struggle taking place. In fact, things seemed absolutely normal. The fake eyelashes that Cindy had been wearing on the evening of Halloween were found inside, apparently having been taken off after she'd gotten home. The backpack she'd been carrying that night, which contained her cell phone, was also inside her bedroom, giving credence to the notion that she made it home safely. The only items of Cindy's missing from the scene, other than her, were her purse, her driver's license, and her credit/debit cards. Also missing was the rest of her Halloween costume, which Cindy had still been wearing when she'd arrived back home.

It seemed like Cindy had made it back home, but had then seemingly disappeared for some unknown reason.

Police would analyze Cindy's credit card and bank statements, and found no activity after arriving back home at around 4:00 AM on November 1st. They also didn't find anything indicating she'd planned to leave, such as a bus or plane ticket, anything like that. Furthermore, phone records revealed that she had not received or made any calls after arriving back at her apartment, so it's not like she made plans to go out and see someone. Investigators would even examine Cindy's email accounts, finding nothing strange about her correspondence there that hinted at her whereabouts.

Inside Cindy's apartment, though, they found clues hinting that Cindy had not disappeared of her own accord. She had two tickets for an upcoming Britney Spears concert, and a receipt for a new computer that was due to be delivered later that week, on November 6th. She'd also recently printed out a letter and resume for a graphic design internship the following year that she was hoping to land. Usually, when people disappear or plan to take their own life, they don't leave behind these future breadcrumbs, leading police to the realization that Cindy had not planned on disappearing like she had.

Investigators would begin to reach out to Cindy's family and friends, hoping to learn that she'd simply gone out to stay with or visit one of them. But none of her family had seen her, and all of her friends were concerned for her well-being. Young Kim, Cindy's aunt and guardian in the U.S., told the Centre Daily Times:

"We have no idea where she is."

After labeling her a missing person, authorities would begin to search the area around Cindy's apartment, including a large wooded area along the perimeter of Penn State. There, search-and-rescue teams focused primarily on wooded areas and bike paths, but were aided by numerous helicopters searches, which scanned the areas surrounding Park Hills, Park Forest, and Teaberry Ridge inside of Ferguson Township. Later, these searches would extend all the way out to the Greenbriar apartment complex on Sleepy Hollow Road, as well as other locations that police wanted to check out.

Multiple search-and-rescue operations would take place in the weeks to come, expanding out from Cindy's apartment, the place she had last been seen, to locations further and further way. This included not just search teams from the local PD's and sheriff's departments, but also citizen-led organizations from around the area who wanted to help out. State College wasn't known for having disappearances like this, so many in the community were understandable unnerved by it and wanted to help out however they could.

Because of the specific details of the case, authorities did not believe that 21-year-old Cindy Song had disappeared of her own volition. She had not expressed any sign of suicidal ideation or wanting to harm herself in the past, and had just gotten back from a fun night out with her friends. Yet, that isn't to say that there wasn't any evidence of a recent emotional struggle.

About a month before her disappearance, Cindy's boyfriend, Richard Chae, had broken up with her rather-unexpectedly. This left Cindy rather upset, as the two had dated for approximately six months and were living together at the time, but Richard had decided to leave her and their shared apartment. As a result, Cindy had been withdrawn as of late when speaking to family members back home in Korea, and had even seemed distant when visiting her aunt in Virginia. But Cindy's friends in State College believed that this was something she'd "moved on" from, and it hadn't been a persistent drag in her life the last few weeks before her disappearance.

Based on the evidence left behind at her apartment (or rather the lack of any evidence) it seemed like Cindy had just disappeared into thin air. For that reason, authorities struggled to label it an abduction or whether "foul play" had been involved. But before long, that would become the only explanation for Cindy's strange disappearance the morning after Halloween, with Cindy's roommate, Catherine, telling the Centre Daily Times:

"Nobody has any clue where she could be."

Ferguson Township Police Lt. Drew Clemson told the same publication days later:

"It's like she vanished into thin air."

At the time of her disappearance in November of 2001, Cindy Song was 21 years old, standing around 5'1" tall and weighing approximately 110 pounds, with long black hair and brown eyes. She had pierced ears and a pierced navel. At the time she was last seen, she had still been wearing most of her Halloween costume, which included a white tennis skirt, a pink t-shirt with a bunny logo, brown knee-high boots, and a red-hooded parka.

Cindy had no boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, but had spent her final hours out with some friends at a nearby nightclub, drinking, talking, and dancing with strangers. Police wanted to speak to them, but would have trouble finding several, including the twins Cindy had been seen chatting with late on Halloween.

After being dropped off at her apartment early on the morning of November 1st, Cindy had then just disappeared. She failed to show up for classes or work the following two days, and was reported missing that weekend. But there was no activity on her credit card or bank statements, and Cindy's cell phone - which she almost always carried on her - had been left behind in her apartment.

Posters with Cindy's face would soon go up all around State College and the surrounding area, with Cindy's friends and family receiving a lot of support from groups and organizations at Penn State, such as the Black Caucus, who helped raise awareness for Cindy's disappearance in the weeks and months that followed.

On November 15th, 2001, Lt. Drew Clemson of the Ferguson Township Police Department told the Centre Daily Times:

"We're just kind of banging our heads against the wall... We've just gotten nowhere."

By that point, various search-and-rescue operations had been conducted throughout State College and the surrounding area, looking for any sign of Cindy Song. They had all failed to turn up a trace of her, even when aided by bloodhounds and other tracking dogs near her apartment. At the same time, police had spoken with those close to Cindy multiple times, and had been unable to come up with any tantalizing leads, with those interviews failing to translate into any evidence.

Frustrated, Ferguson Township police had turned to the FBI for help when it came to analyzing Cindy's cell phone records, her bank statements, and her online correspondence, which included not just her Penn State email account, but her personal AOL account. They were unable to turn up anything, and subsequent searches at Cindy's apartment failed to find anything. As far as investigators were concerned, Cindy's apartment wasn't a crime scene because there was no evidence whatsoever that a crime had been committed there.

Cindy's mother and brother would leave Korea and fly to the U.S. that November, hoping to aid in the search for the missing 21-year-old. Speaking through an interpreter, Cindy's mother Ban Soon Song said at a public meeting hosted by Penn State's Black Caucus:

"I felt I lost my daughter (on Nov. 1). But it seems everyone here lost a daughter, too."

In the days and weeks that followed Cindy's unexplained disappearance, authorities began operating under a couple of possible theories: that she'd either gone willingly with someone that she'd met at her apartment early that morning, or that she'd gone somewhere after getting dropped off, perhaps a nearby 24-hour supermarket. While headed there or headed back, she may have been abducted. Those were the only two possible explanations, since Cindy had made it back home at around 4:00 AM. After stepping inside, she'd set down the bag she was carrying, which contained her cell phone and part of her costume (the bunny ears she'd been wearing), and then took out her fake eyelashes. But then after that, she'd vanished. Her leaving her apartment and locking the door behind her was the only explanation that made sense, but that left behind two vital questions: why had she left, and where had she gone?

Early on, investigators looked into the possibility that Cindy's ex-boyfriend had been involved, but they seem to have dismissed him as a suspect almost immediately, due in no small part to him having a strong alibi for that time frame. It's also worth noting that he'd broken things off with Cindy, so he wouldn't have had a reason to harbor any resent or ill will toward her. If anything, it'd be the other way around.

A few days after Cindy's disappearance, Ferguson Township received reports from police in Philadelphia, where a potential abduction had been witnessed. There, a witness had seen a woman matching Cindy's description being forced into a car by an unidentified man along Philly's North Fifth Street, in the city's Chinatown district. Throughout the brief ordeal, the young woman sitting in the passenger seat was calling out for help, and the man, an Asian or Middle Eastern male with an olive-to-light brown complexion and medium length hair, had gotten out of the car and ran around to the passenger side. There, he seemed to be checking in on the woman in the passenger seat, possibly tightening some rope or restraints inside. The witness, who saw this unfolding, was told by the man:

"Get out of here. It's none of your business."

Moments later, the man then hopped back into the driver's seat and sped away from the scene.

Authorities began to investigate the possibility of the connection, but were initially put off by the distance, with Philadelphia being 200 miles southeast of State College. They were also unable to nail down the specific timeline of events, with investigators believing that this incident may have taken place in October, before Cindy had even disappeared. The witness had given conflicting statements to various investigators when questioned about the specifics, so police were unable to confirm or deny any aspect of their report.

Another woman, who lived a few blocks away from Cindy, would later report that in September, roughly one month before Cindy's disappearance, a man had exposed himself to her while standing outside her window. According to this woman, the individual responsible had a pale complexion, a slim and/or athletic build, sandy blonde hair, a mustache, and a goatee. Detective Brian Sprinkle later told reporters about this account:

"If (the man) was doing this behavior outside of her apartment, maybe he was doing it around others nearby. Possibly his behavior escalated to something else."

Later in November of 2001, Ferguson Township police responded to a tip provided by a security guard in State College, who claimed he'd received information putting Cindy's body and her missing belongings in a 14-acre plot of land behind the nearby Lion's Gate Apartments. That area was indeed a "dumping ground," as described by Ferguson Township Police Lt. Drew Clemson, and the police found an assortment of used and discarded items during their search, but none seemed to belong to Cindy. Nor did they find any trace of her or her body, with the mystery of her disappearance only deepening as weeks continued to pass without any sign of the missing college senior.

Detective Brian Sprinkle told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"There are no suspects."

On her Penn State online profile, Cindy had listed many of her positive traits, such as her energetic personality and her imagination. She'd also listed some of her negative traits, which included "gullibleness," something that was confirmed by many that knew her. Yong Sin Yi, one of Cindy's first friends at Penn State, told the Centre Daily Times:

"She always trusts what other people tell her. She's kind of naive."

Since there was no sign of a struggle or forced entry in Cindy's apartment, and no one in her large apartment complex had seen or heard anything, it was assumed that she hadn't been forcably abducted from there. However, investigators theorized that she might have been lured by someone out of her apartment, or that someone may have happened upon Cindy along the street.

FBI Special Agent Stephen Collins told reporters with the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette:

"Usually, we have physical evidence. It's surprising that there's no physical evidence... it could be a deft abductor."

In mid-December 2001, more than a month after Cindy's disappearance, authorities began to approach the case as a possible abduction, despite there being no "hard" evidence indicating such. Rather, they reasoned that there was no evidence indicating she'd considered running away or taking her own life, and at that point, her being abducted was the only thing that made any sense. They began putting out feelers into the community for anyone that may have been out and/or about in the early morning hours of November 1st, 2001. In particular, in the area of two establishments: the Giant Food Store in Northland Center, nearby Cindy's apartment, as well as the North Atherton Street Wal-Mart, not too far away. They wanted to find anyone that had been there between the hours of 3:00 and 7:00 AM the morning after Halloween, who could help fill in the gaps in their current timeline.

Cindy's friends at Penn State recall that she often kept weird hours because of her overnight work shifts at the library, and that it wasn't unusual for her to run to the store late at night to grab something she needed. Sometimes it was a snack, maybe a drink, and other times it was just something she needed for her apartment, such as paper towels. Both of the stores listed by investigators, the Giant Food Store and the Wal-Mart, were open 24 hours and located within walking distance of Cindy's apartment. It was theorized that she may have gone there in the early morning hours after getting dropped off by her friends, and had perhaps been abducted while heading there or heading back.

Sadly, by the time investigators tried to look at the surveillance tapes for both establishments, they'd already been recorded over. So authorities hoped to gather statements from employees and customers, as well as anyone that had been in the area at the time and may have seen something.

Detective Brian Sprinkle theorized to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette:

"Either someone came to the door and she answered it, or she went to the supermarket... but we believe that she voluntarily left that apartment. It's when she walked out that door that something happened. At 4 a.m., walking alone, going through a dark area... It probably was a crime of opportunity."

As weeks turned into months, some of Cindy's friends and family members began to publicly criticize the ongoing police investigation. Most noteable among them was her brother, Kiho Song, who had flown from his home in Seoul and stayed at Cindy's apartment in State College for several months, trying his best to assist in the ongoing search for his sister.

Early on, Kiho criticized the police for not doing enough, such as not conducting a thorough forensic examination of Cindy's apartment for months. The police, however, noted that they didn't have the authority to do so; after all, they didn't believe Cindy's apartment was a crime scene, so they didn't have the ability to conduct a forensic examination like that without probable cause. But things like that began to eat away at Kiho for weeks, causing him to email a letter to the Centre Daily Times in mid-December.

In this letter, Kiho Song claimed that he wished police had been "more active" in his sister's disappearance, claiming that they had not done enough to rouse clues from Cindy's apartment and the surrounding area. This included the giant apartment complex she lived in, which housed hundreds of students, none of whom had been reported as hearing or seeing anything. But Kiho claimed that police hadn't spoken to everyone there, and too much time had passed to gain any tangible evidence from potential witnesses. He also claimed that police had bungled a tip from a convenience store employee in Jonestown, a small town in central PA, who claimed to have seen Cindy there and called Ferguson Township police multiple times. By the time authorities got around to checking out their information, the security tapes at the convenience store had already been recorded over. Things like that - simple oversights - seemed to be mounting.

In his letter, Kiho wrote that:

"The investigation seems to show no progress at all."

He also feared that the upcoming winter break would cause this story to fall between the wheels and get slowly forgotten to time, which - as you can imagine, based on the mere concept of this podcast - did indeed happen.

However, Kiho Song wasn't alone in directing this criticism at the Ferguson Township police and other authority figures in State College and Penn State. If you recall, I mentioned minutes ago that the Penn State Black Caucus had gotten involved to help raise awareness for Cindy's disappearance. They had only done so because they believed that the police and the school's response to her going missing was inadequate. After all, police didn't really seem to consider Cindy a victim of foul play until December 2001, more than a month after she'd gone missing... vital time that was now impossible to get back.

Despite their relationship with Cindy's friends and family members beginning to fray, members of the Ferguson Township police continued trying to raise awareness for Cindy Song, who'd been missing for months. Unable to find any new information on their own, authorities reached out to major news publications and programs like "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries" to air segments on the case. The latter of which happened, with "Unsolved Mysteries" (still hosted by Robert Stack at the time) airing a segment on the case in 2002.

Meanwhile, that same year, the story gained some local attention for the wrong reasons.

In early 2002, a pair of local teenage girls called Ferguson Township police, claiming that they had received panicked phone calls from a mysterious "Cindy" at around 2:30 A.M. But when police went to go speak to the girls, they discovered that this was nothing more than a prank call, earning the teens a charge of disorderly conduct. Yet this wouldn't deter a pair of Penn State students from using the same story - the mysterious disappearance of Cindy Song - to harass some female students, sending them instant messages on AOL that claimed they had abducted Cindy and were targeting them next. Both students were also prosecuted for wasting police resources.

But the silver lining to these hoaxes was that it kept Cindy's name in the press. Police had long since stopped receiving any tangible information in the 21-year-old's bizarre disappearance, with Detective Brian Sprinkle telling the Philadelphia Inquirer early in 2002:

"We have no clues, no leads."

Detective Sprinkle would encourage anyone to come forward with any possible information, stating:

"Somebody might not realize what they saw, didn't think twice about it and still might not think about it, but publicity might jog their memory: 'Hey I did see something that was suspicious!'"

At around the same time, Ferguson Township chief of police Ed Connor told the Associated Press:

"No one has seen or heard from her since. We have no eyewitness accounts of her leaving the apartment, getting into a vehicle, going or being taken somewhere else. People simply don't just disappear, but nobody has come forward nor have we been able to locate anybody who knows anything specific.

"Early on, there was the college atmosphere and the holiday weekend, but there was something about this early on that gave my officers cause for alarm. We had a detective assigned to it immediately, and we had as many as eight officers working on this in that first week or so."

Yet despite that, police had found no sign of life from Cindy Song since the early morning hours of November 1st, 2001. It was as if the Earth had swallowed her whole.

By February 2002, Ferguson Township Police Chief Ed Connor said that Cindy's disappearance would be declared inactive if no leads began to materialize by the middle of the month. This came just 3.5 months after Cindy's disappearance, and wouldn't necessarily close the case, but would make it so that there was no one detective actively working it. Chief Connor told the Centre Daily Times:

"Basically, nobody is actively pursuing the case at that time, but they revisit it periodically if a new idea is triggered, when a detective comes up with a new thought or things slow down on their case load."

Before this happened, however, Chief Connor and the Ferguson Township police decided to consult with members of Pennsylvania State's Police Criminal Investigative Assessment Unit (that's a mouthful) to gain some new perspectives on it. Afterward, they decided to keep investigating the case for months afterward, finalizing a forensic search of Cindy's apartment in March 2002, four months after her disappearance. This failed to turn up any sign of blood, fingerprints, or strange hair fibers. Throughout that summer, police would procure the help of both state police resources and even consulted a psychic on the other side of the country... which, as you can imagine, led to nothing new being uncovered.

By the time the one-year mark of Cindy's disappearance came around that Halloween, police again encouraged anyone with information to reach out to them. In particular, they asked to know about anyone who exhibited "sudden, unexpected changes in behavior" at around the time Cindy had vanished. This included:

- Personality changes

- Sleep disorders

- Sudden changes in employment

- Drug or alcohol use

- Unexpected membership in church (or newfound religious zeal)

- Gained or lost a lot of weight

- Had become more withdrawn

- Paid a little too much attention to Cindy's disappearance in the news

They also again asked to speak to anyone they hadn't spoken to yet, which included those close to Cindy or anyone that may have seen her on Halloween 2001.

At around the same time Cindy Song disappeared, a morbid saga was playing out miles away. It began with, of all things, a pharmacist in Eaton Township, approximately 2.5 hours northeast of State College.

[This may get a bit confusing at times, but trust me, it's going somewhere.]

In October 2001, shortly before Cindy Song went missing, a 37-year-old pharmacist from Eaton Township named Michael Kerkowski was arrested for illegally selling painkillers out of his pharmacy. That investigation had started after a customer of his had overdosed on the pain pills, which had been given to him by Kerkowski through a fake prescription. Weeks later, the pharmacist was charged with involuntary manslaughter, as well as a slew of other charges.

Months later, in April 2002, Michael Kerkowski pled no contest to many of those charges, including reckless endangerment, insurance fraud, delivering prescriptions in bad faith, and Medicaid fraud. In doing so, the more serious charges filed again him - such as manslaughter and practicing with a suspended license - were suspended. Yet he still faced upwards of 64 years in prison, along with hefty fines for the financial crimes.

Weeks later, though, Michael Kerkowski's girlfriend, 37-year-old Tammy Fassett, disappeared under very suspicious circumstances. Those that knew her claimed foul play was responsible. Shortly thereafter, in mid-May 2002, Kerkowski failed to show up at his sentencing hearing. He too, had gone missing, and was unable to be found by authorities, who labeled him a fugitive from justice.

That would be it for several months, until a third party, a strange young man named Hugo Selenski entered the picture.

Months after the disappearance of Michael Kerkowski, Hugo Selenski showed up at the home of Kerkowski's father, demanding money. He took $60,000 in cash, which had been left behind in a lockbox by Michael Kerkowski. But Selenski returned again in September, assaulting Kerkowski's father and stealing roughly $40,000 in cash and jewels from him. Months later, the elder Mr. Kerkowski reported this theft to police, who had already started an investigation into Hugo Selenski.

Having had a criminal record dating back to his teenage years, Selenski was a convicted bank robber and car thief in his late twenties who had already spent years in prison. But as police began to dig into Selenski's record, they discovered that he was likely responsible for a local string of drug deals and thefts, and this group of miscreants he oversaw didn't specialize in any one crime, but dabbled in a little bit of everything. This small group, which included Selenski and a couple of associates of his, had likely been dealing drugs and targeting rival drug dealers for theft and/or murder. This group also had a surprising connection to the still-missing Michael Kerkowski.

[You following? Like I said, I know it can be confusing, but trust me, we're going somewhere. Buckle up, because it gets weirder.]

While conducting their dive into Hugo Selenski's background, they discovered that a former cellmate of his, Paul Weakley, was currently incarcerated. And when they began to speak to him, Weakley was more than willing to roll over on his former-associate, having been involved in this group of local scumbags that robbed, thieved, and dealt drugs. As Weakley told it, they had even murdered a number of people, although that number has been disputed over time.

In June 2003, police searched Hugo Selenski's home in Kingston Township, where he lived alongside his girlfriend, Christina Strom. There, they discovered the bodies of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, buried in a shallow grave. It was believed that Selenski and his associates, Patrick Russin and Paul Weakley, had targeted Kerkowski for his money, and killed him following a violent robbery. Kerkowski's girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she too had been killed by the group.

However, as police dug around Selenski's property, they discovered additional bodies. They would determine that two were rival drug dealers, who Selenski and his associates had killed and burned following another robbery attempt. Two were Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett. The fifth, however, remained unidentified.

Paul Weakley, the longtime associate of Selenski's who had since become a police informant, told investigators that Hugo Selenski had been responsible for abducting 21-year-old Cindy Song from State College, Pennsvylania, having then taken her out to Michael Kerkowski's propperty in Hunlock Creek. In an official police affidavit, it was written that Weakley claimed he'd heard directly from Selenski that Michael Kerkowski "had his way with" Cindy Song, and kept her in a safe on his property, getting "rid of her" a short time later. Weakley claims that he heard this information firsthand, and that both Hugo Selenski and Michael Kerkowski had been responsible for abducting and killing Cindy Song, with the latter hoping to keep Cindy's bunny ears, part of her Halloween costume, as a souvenir.

Detectives began to look into the possibility that Cindy Song was the unidentified victim found buried on Hugo Selenski's property, but would eventually rule it out. However, it was claimed by police informant Paul Weakley that Cindy was just one of sixteen or so bodies that Selenski had disposed of in the region, most of which were never found. While this may have seemed like a ridiculous claim, Weakley had led police to the five bodies buried near Selenski's home, so it was hard to write off his claims entirely.

What gave them real pause, however, was the revelation that Paul Weakley had searched the internet for information about Cindy Song and her disappearance, likely gaining the information he told authorities about her from these searches to try and pin it on Hugo Selenski, his former partner-in-crime.

Forensic examinations would later reveal that the fifth body found on Hugo Selenski's property was not Cindy Song, but that didn't quiet the rumors that she had been targeted by Selenski and Michael Kerkowski, the latter of whom wasn't alive to defend himself against these accusations, having been murdered by the former. Yet it's still theorized by some that Selenski may have had something to do with her abduction, since his story was far from finished after his arrest in 2003.

While awaiting trial for murder, Hugo Selenski would escape from prison, literally fashioning a rope out of bedsheets and throwing his mattress over razor wire. He remained on the run for three days, before turning himself back in to police. Afterward, he somehow had the charges for his escape dismissed due to some clerical errors. His luck continued when he was acquitted in the murders of the two rival drug dealers found on his property, but was successfully convicted for abusing their corpses... a fine needle to thread for his lawyers, I guess.

However, Selenski's luck would later run out in 2015, when he finally stood trial for the murders of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, during which his former accomplice and police informant Paul Weakley copped to his own involvement in the double-murder and testified against Hugo Selenski. Both were sentenced to life in prison.

In the years since, it has been reported that the decomposed remains and/or body parts of upwards of ten victims have been found buried on or near Hugo Selenski's property, but I've been unable to confirm this in any official reporting. Even then, it's been reported that no forensic testing has linked Cindy Song's disappearance to him or these bodies. The only confirmed unidentified victim found on Hugo Selenski's property was successfully ruled out as being Cindy Song, and the only thing linking these stories together is the testimony of a police informant who sought out information about Cindy's disappearance online. For that reason, it's not known that the two stories are actually linked in any way.

Just like with most things in this case, there's no evidence of Hugo Selenski's involvement... or anyone's, for that matter. But that is what makes this entire story so frustrating. As sad as it is, Hugo Selenski and Michael Kerkowski are the closest things to suspects in this case that we have, and even then, their link to Cindy's disappearance are incredibly weak and tenous. For all we know, they just happened to commit crimes in the same state at around the same time. Because of the wide range of Selenski's violent crimes, it is possible that he was involved, but the only thing indicating that is the testimony of his former partner. No evidence has ever surfaced connecting him to Cindy's story in the decades that have since passed.

Back in 2001 and 2002, Cindy Song's family pled for members of the public to come forward, hoping that they could still be reunited with their missing daughter, sister, niece, cousin, and friend. Kiho Song, Cindy's brother, remained a vocal advocate for her case, speaking to local publications about the tragedy his family had endured, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"What makes it even sadder is that nobody knows exactly what that tragedy was."

Kiho and Cindy's mother, Ban Soon Song, would remain in the U.S. for quite some time, with Cindy's mother remaining in State College for years. She temporarily moved stateside to help look for her daughter, but eventually returned to her native Korea. It's unknown if Ban Soon is still alive, but the remainder of Cindy's family undoubtedly continues to hope that answers can be found in her unsolved disappearance. Now, though, as the 23rd mark of her disappearance approaches this Halloween, Cindy has been missing for longer than she was alive.

If you know anything about the disappearance of Cindy Song, you are encouraged to reach out to Ferguson Township Police at 814-237-1172. Until such a time, the story of Cindy Song will remain unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on October 27th, 2024

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan

Outro/theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Sources and Other Reading

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