Cindy Song
Real Name: Hyun Jong Song
Nicknames: Cindy
Location: State College, Pennsylvania
Date: November 1, 2001
Bio
Occupation: College Student
Date of Birth: February 25, 1980
Height: 5'1
Weight: 110 lbs
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: Asian female with long black hair, brown eyes. She was last wearing a white tennis skirt, pink t-shirt with a bunny logo, brown knee-high boots, and a red hooded parka. She has pierced ears and a pierced navel.
Case
Details: Cindy Song grew up in South Korea. In 1995, she moved to Virginia to live with her aunt and uncle and attend high school. After graduating high school, she went to Pennsylvania State University. On Halloween 2001, Cindy, now a senior, went to a costume party at Player's Nite Club with two close friends, Stacy Paik and Lisa Kim. She was dressed as a Playboy Bunny. All three friends partied until 2am the next morning, when they left and stopped off at a friend's apartment to play video games. At 4am that morning they dropped Cindy off at her apartment. She was never seen again.
A search of her apartment found no signs of a struggle or forced entry. The false eyelashes that she had worn to the party were there, along with her backpack and cell phone. The only things that were missing were her purse that contained her driver's license and credit cards. Police believe she was wearing her Playboy Bunny costume when she vanished, as it was not found in her apartment. An analysis of her phone found that she had not made or received any calls after she was dropped off. There was also no activity on her credit cards. Finally, there was no suspicious activity on her emails.
Police and volunteers searched a wooded area near the campus. However, no trace of her was found. Authorities don't believe that she ran off on her own. Two Britney Spears concert tickets were found in her apartment. A printout for a computer that was due to be received on November 6 was also found. Her friends and family don't believe that she was the type of person to just disappear. They also did not believe she was depressed or suicidal. Her friends remembered that she was happy and upbeat on the night she vanished.
Authorities believe that she left her apartment to go to a 24-hour supermarket and that she was abducted there or along the way. Another theory was that she left her apartment with someone that she knew and then was killed by them. A few days after she disappeared, a woman matching her description was seen in Philadelphia being forced into a car by an unidentified man. Police do not know who the man was or if the woman was her, but they would like to question him. A $27,000 reward is available for this case.
Suspects: A possible suspect in the case was an unidentified man who was seen trying to force a woman matching Cindy's description into a car. She was "screaming, crying for help" and he yelled at the witness to leave. The incident occurred in Philadelphia's Chinatown district, 200 miles from her apartment. He is wanted only for questioning, and is described as an Asian male with olive to light-brown complexion and medium length hair. He has never been identified.
Extra Notes: This case first aired on the September 18, 2002 episode.
Results: Unsolved. Investigators have stated that they no longer believe the woman calling for help in Philadelphia was Cindy. In 2003, police connected Cindy's disappearance to a bank robber and suspected serial killer named Hugo Selenski. A co-defendant of Selenski's told police that Selenski and an accomplice, Michael Kerkowski, had abducted and killed a woman from State College that matched Cindy's description. The informant led police to the location of five bodies on Selenski's property. However, DNA testing proved that none were Cindy's. One of the bodies was of the alleged accomplice, Kerkowski. The informant claimed that she was buried on another part of the property.
Authorities believe the informant is telling the truth because his information on the other five cases turned out to be correct. Selenski also confessed to kidnapping Cindy, but claimed that Kerkowski killed her and kept her bunny ears as a souvenir. Surprisingly, in 2006, Selenski was acquitted of the murders of two drug dealers who were found on his property. He was, however, convicted of abusing their corpses.
In January 2014, authorities announced that the badly destroyed remains of seven other people were found on Selenski's property. They have looked into the possibility that one of the sets of remains belongs to Cindy; however, she has not yet been linked to them. They also announced that Selenski's attorney and a private investigator were involved in witness intimidation and other crimes relating to Selenski's case. Finally, in 2015, Selenski was convicted of the murders of Kerkowski and his girlfriend Tammy Fassett, who were also found on his property. He was sentenced to life in prison. He is still considered a suspect in Cindy's case. However, her body has never been found.
Interestingly, Selesnki is an associate of Steven Martin, a suspect in the disappearance of Phylicia Thomas and murder of Jennifer Barziloski. However, it is not believed that their cases are connected to Cindy's.
Links:
- Cindy Song on Unsolved.com
- Cindy Song on the Charley Project
- Cindy Song on the Doe Network
- Authorities baffled by disappearance of student at PSU - December 16, 2001
- Case of missing student baffles police and family - January 22, 2002
- Students upset over Cindy Song investigation - January 31, 2002
- Cindy Song group criticizes investigators - February 1, 2002
- Still no clues in Penn State student's Nov. 1 disappearance - June 7, 2002
- ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ featuring Cindy Song case - July 12, 2002
- Show generates few calls about disappearance - September 28, 2002
- Investigators, mother seek accounts of Cindy Song - October 31, 2002
- Investigators seeking link between missing students - November 16, 2002
- Police say body found not Song's - October 8, 2003
- Police want to question Hugo Selenski about missing PSU student - October 18, 2003
- 8 years after Penn State student disappeared, case narrows to 1 active lead - November 9, 2009
- Luzerne County case may yield information in 2001 Cindy Song disappearance - January 29, 2014
- Potential break in cold case of missing Penn State student linked to bodies in Luzerne County - January 30, 2014
- Vanished: The Story of Hyun Jong Song - August 13, 2014
- Hugo Selenski convicted of murder after bodies of at least 5 people found in yard - February 12, 2015
- Cindy Song: A Bone-Chilling Halloween Disappearance - October 31, 2017
- Unpacking the cold case of the Halloween bunny that disappeared into the night - November 24, 2018
- Have You Seen Me? Case #2 – Cindy Song - November 22, 2019
- SitcomsOnline Discussion of Cindy's Case