A Halloween Mystery: The Chilling Disappearance of Cindy Song
After a night of fun with friends, 21-year-old Penn State student Cindy Song was dropped off at her apartment by a friend. This would be the last time she was ever seen
Background
On Halloween night 2001, Korean-American college student Cindy Song was partying with friends at a nightclub near the campus of Penn State University. In the early morning hours, Cindy returned home to her apartment. After that, she was never seen again.
Over the years and decades, there have been theories and speculation as to what happened to Cindy. However, none of them has ever proved conclusive. To this day, the disappearance of Cindy Song remains a strange and haunting mystery.
Cindy Song
Cindy Song or Hyun-Jong Song was born on February 25, 1980, in Seoul, South Korea, to a loving family that recognized her potential from an early age. Not only was she academically gifted, but she also had an affinity for sports.
Also, according to her mother, Cindy was fascinated by the United States, and from an early age she studied American culture. It was due to this affinity for the United States that, in 1995, a teenage Cindy moved across the world to live with her aunt and uncle in Springfield, Virginia.
Despite having to assimilate into a new culture and language, by all accounts, Cindy thrived. She attended Hayfield Secondary School for a time before transferring to Randolph-Macon Academy.
During her high school years, Cindy developed a keen interest in the arts, particularly film, writing, and photography. After graduating in 1998, she was accepted into the prestigious Penn State University to pursue a degree in the arts.
College Life
While at Penn State, Cindy maintained her grades while also participating in various activities and student groups, including the Korean Undergraduate Student Association. She was personable, bubbly, likable, and had a supportive group of friends with whom she studied and socialized with.
In addition to her studies, Cindy worked two part-time jobs. She worked as a waitress at a nearby restaurant called Seoul Garden. She also worked the overnight shift from 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays at Penn State’s Pollock Library.
Cindy reportedly fell hard for a young man in her friend group named Richard Chae, and the two began dating and moved in together in an off-campus apartment. However, the relationship reportedly ended abruptly in September 2001, and he moved out
Cindy seemed to have had a hard time recovering from the loss, resulting in her going to counselling to process this difficult life shift. She tried her best to look forward to the future, pouring everything she had into her studies and friends.
She soon found a new roommate, and the two became close. She also posted her thoughts and feelings online to her Penn State profile. She used this as an outlet to process her emotions.
Halloween Night 2001
On Halloween night 2001, Cindy and two friends went to a costume party at the Player’s Night Club near campus. They dressed up for the Halloween-themed night. Cindy opted for a costume as a Playboy Bunny, comprising a short white skirt with a cotton ball tail, a pink t-shirt with a bunny cartoon on it, brown knee-high boots, and a rabbit-ear headband.
She and her friends danced and drank well into the night, enjoying themselves and socializing with others at the party. After the club closed at 2 a.m., the three of them went to a friend’s apartment, where they hung out and played video games.
Around 3:30 a.m., Cindy got a ride back to her apartment from her friend Stacey Paik. According to Stacey, she dropped Cindy off at her apartment shortly before 4 a.m. This was the last ever confirmed sighting of her.
Disappearance
When Cindy’s roommate, Youngjoo Kim, also known by her English name as Catherine, returned to their apartment the following day after a family holiday, there was no sign of Cindy. Because nothing was out of the ordinary, Catherine did not worry at first.
However, as the hours passed, she grew increasingly uneasy. Over the next two days, no one had heard from or was able to reach Cindy. When it was learned that she had missed her classes and not shown up for work, her friends knew that something was terribly wrong.
On Saturday, November 3rd, Stacey Paik reported Cindy missing to the Ferguson Township Police Department. However, since detectives were not working that weekend, Cindy’s case was initially handled by patrol officers who mistakenly believed that she had disappeared on her own accord and would return soon.
On Monday, November 5, the case was assigned to Detective Brian Sprinkle. The investigation began with a search of Cindy’s apartment. At first glance, the police had little to go on. There were no eyewitnesses or signs of breaking and entering.
When Cindy’s roommate, Catherine, came home from her short holiday, the doors were locked from the outside. However, evidence indicated that Cindy had been inside at some point.
Her fake eyelashes were on the sink. Her backpack and cell phone were there. However, her purse, wallet, and keys were missing. Her Halloween costume was also absent. Authorities checked her phone records and found that no calls had gone in or out since she had been dropped off.
Investigation
As is typical, the investigation focused on Cindy’s immediate circle, her friends and family. Investigators tried to find a possible connection with her recent breakup, which could have led her to harm herself. However, this was unlike her. She had many hopes for the future and was set to graduate in 2002. She had also just ordered a new computer and was planning on attending a Britney Spears concert that week.
None of Cindy’s family or friends had heard from her since she was dropped off in the early morning hours of November 1st. Several searches were conducted in the areas surrounding Cindy’s apartment and the Penn State campus, including bike paths and wooded areas. However, these searches yielded no results.
Investigators believed that Cindy was likely abducted either on the way to or returning from the GIANT grocery store, which was open 24 hours and located across the street from Cindy’s apartment complex.
According to her friends, it was not unusual for Cindy to sometimes go to the store in the middle of the night. However, there were no purchases made on her credit card that night, and no video surveillance footage of her in the store.
Eventually, the relationship between law enforcement and Cindy’s family became contentious. They were understandably frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation. There was heavy criticism and allegations of racial bias as “police were focusing too much on due process, and too little on finding Cindy.”
Finally, the Ferguson Township Police refused to deal with the family any further. Despite the frustrations, the family leaned on the school and local community, who set up The Coalition for the Search of Cindy Song, working tirelessly to plaster posters of her all over campus and raise awareness of her case.
Possible Leads
There were several promising leads. A few days after Cindy disappeared, a witness claims to have seen her or someone looking like her being dragged into a car, kicking and screaming, by an aggressive olive-skinned Asian male in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
Despite sketching out the suspect, the police were unable to locate him. According to Detective Sprinkle, “We were able to determine that it wasn’t Cindy.” Though he did not elaborate further.
In August 2002, an unlikely development emerged. At the behest of the Penn State Paranormal Research Society, a renowned medium named Carla Baron was brought in to assist the police in determining what had happened to Cindy.
Carla claimed that she sensed a small group of men had abducted her, and she died shortly after. This “revelation” did not seem to bear any fruit.
In June 2003, a potential breakthrough in the case occurred when a felon named Paul Weakley came forward and offered the police information on Cindy in exchange for time shaved off his burglary sentence.
He claimed that Hugo Selenski, a convicted killer, and his accomplice, Michael Kerkowski, mistook Cindy for a prostitute, abducted her, raped her, and kept her inside a safe where she died.
Weakley claimed to have heard this information firsthand and that Kerkowsi had kept Cindy’s bunny ears as a “souvenir.” Weakley also informed police that Selenski had later murdered Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fasset, and buried them on his property.
With this information, police began digging on Selenski’s property, eventually unearthing several bodies, including Kerkowski and Fasset, two local drug dealers, and a fifth unidentified body. This body was ultimately determined not to be Cindy.
According to Weakley, Cindy was just one of more than a dozen bodies that Selenski had disposed of within the area. Though his claim may be dubious, Weakley’s information on the location of the bodies of Kerkowski and Fasset turned out to be accurate.
Though he was acquitted of the murders of the two drug dealers found on his property, in 2015, Hugo Selenski was found guilty of the murders of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fasset. He was sentenced to life in prison.
It was later learned that Paul Weakley had searched for information about Cindy Song’s disappearance online prior to giving information to the police. It is thought that he may have been trying to muddy the waters and merge the cases in order to help himself.
Since then, there have not been any further credible leads.
The case is currently in the hands of Jonathan Mayer at the Ferguson Township Police. If you have any information regarding this case, please call 814-237-1172.
Sources:
Engel, James. “‘A light should burn’ | 21 years on, Penn State student Cindy Song remains missing.” The Daily Collegian, 17 January 2022, https://www.psucollegian.com/features/a-light-should-burn-21-years-on-penn-state-student-cindy-song-remains-missing/article
“Cindy Song.” Unsolved Mysteries, https://unsolved.com/gallery/cindy-song/
Whelan, Michael. “Cindy Song.” Unresolved, 27 October 2024, https://unresolved.me/cindy-song
“Have You Seen Me? Case #2 – Cindy Song.” WTAJ, 22 November 2019, Updated 16 September 2020, https://www.wtaj.com/wtaj-plus/have-you-seen-me/have-you-seen-me-case-2-cindy-song/
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