The Korean Nationals

Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho, Korean nationals, who had been in the United States and living in Savannah, Georgia for more than a year, went missing in October of 1974.  Their bodies were found in December of 1974.  

They became the subject of a search when an automobile was found abandoned off of US 17 in a rest area.  The Colleton County Sheriff’s office became involved in the search when the car was reported by a trucker who had stopped at the same rest area, noticed the vehicle and items on a picnic table.  When the Sheriff’s office arrived to investigate they found further evidence that something was wrong.  Besides the abandoned car, the rest area picnic table had three nearly full bottles of soda, food, and keys to the abandoned car.  There were also three sets of chopsticks and boiled eggs on the ground, one seemingly crushed into the concrete around the picnic table.  

 The 1973 Buick La Sabre belonged to Jung Sol Byun, fiancé of Sook Hi Le.  Through the investigation it was determined that the two women, Sook Hi Lee and Sook Ja Cho, had worked at a nursing home him Sylvania, Georgia and Jung Sol Byun owned a wig shop in Savannah.  When law enforcement searched the vehicle at the picnic area, the women’s purses were still in the car.  The vehicle also had a full tank of gas.  

Further investigation showed that on October 26, 1974, Sook Ja Cho had left work to visit Sook Hi Lee in Savannah.  She was supposed to return to work on October 30, but that never happened.  Their disappearance date was listed as October 27, 1974.  One newspaper article claims that the day they went missing, they were returning from a four day trip to the mountains in North Carolina.  According to a credit card slip found, the three had stopped at a gas station in Charleston.  The gas station attendant was interviewed, describing the trio, and that they had asked for directions to downtown Charleston (although another article says they were asking where they could get Chinese food).  There is no mention of the name of the gas station where they stopped.  

Then in December 1974, two months after they disappeared, two squirrel hunters found the bodies of Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho.  The hunters reported finding the bodies to law enforcement, but due to thick brush and time of day, they were unable to show law enforcement where the bodies were until the next day.  They were found 200ft to 300ft away from where they had stopped to eat.  They were found lying next to each other, about 4ft apart.  All three were shot in the back of the head.  

The Colleton County Sheriff’s office, under Sheriff John I. Seigler, conducted the investigation into the deaths of the Korean nationals.  Seigler’s theory was that a recently deceased serial killer by the name of John Paul Knowles, could be responsible and wanted access to Knowles’ diary, which were tapes he recorded of himself talking about some of the murders he committed.  Sheriff Seigler was quoted as saying “There is no sense in going out and beating your head against a brick wall looking for suspect when it may be somebody already dead” (The Greenville News, Page 13, Dec 28, 1974).

 

The Casanova Killer

John Paul Knowles, also called The Casanova Killer, who claimed to have murdered 35 people.  We know for sure he murdered 20.  He made a diary of his crimes and gave it to his lawyer before being captured, with instructions to release the tapes after his death.  On December 18, 1974, after he had been caught, John Paul Knowles, was handcuffed in the back of a law enforcement vehicle, traveling with Sheriff Earl Lee and GBI Agent Ronnie Angel.  Knowles went for the Sheriff’s handgun and was able to get it out of the holster as the Sheriff was also trying to maintain control of the vehicle.  GBI Agent Ronnie Angel shot Knowles in the chest three times, killing him.

We know that John Paul Knowles was in Woodford, Virginia October 18, 1974 because he killed Doris Hosey, 53, with her husband’s shot gun.  And we know that Knowles was in Milledgeville, Georgia on November 6, 1974, as he stabbed Carswell Carr and strangled his 15 year old daughter.  And we know he was captured on November 17, 1974.  Where he was in between October 18 and November 6 is hard to determine, but he seemed to move up and down the east coast so he could have been in South Carolina, but I’m not so sure it was him.  As far as I can tell the Knowles tapes have never been released and I have found no information linking him to the three Korean nationals killed in Colleton County in October of 1974. 

Planned Execution 

 

The Colleton County coroner at the time, PJ Maxey, stated that he believed the killings of Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho was a planned execution.  None of their personal effects were taken as the women’s purses were found in the car and Byun’s wallet was found in his pants and two of the victims had their watches on them when they were found.  Interestingly enough, during law enforcement’s investigation into the case, it was determined that Jung Sol Byun had a partner in his wig shop, O.K. Kwan.  On October 18, 1974, O.K. Kwan sold the wig shop, packed everything up in U-Haul and left for New York and law enforcement wasn’t able to find him after that.  If they were partners, and Kwan and Byun both owned the store legally, Kwan would not have been able to sell it without his partner I would think, unless it was some sort of shady transaction.  Leaving almost a week before Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho were murdered is suspicious for sure, but it’s hard to say.  I’ve tried looking into the background of the wig shop from back then but haven’t been able to come up with anything except an address, which links to a residential neighborhood.  

What they were doing in South Carolina is also a little confusing.  One newspaper article states they were taking a trip to the mountains in North Carolina.  Another article says that Sook Ja Cho left work on October 26, 1974 and went to visit Sook Hi Lee and was supposed to return to work on October 30, 1974.  They “disappearance date” was October 27, 1974.  They were in Charleston on, what looks like October 27, 1974.  They ended up in Colleton County around lunch time.  This doesn’t strike me as a trip to the mountains because there was also no mention of luggage in the car.  To me, it’s almost like they were taking a day trip to Charleston from Savannah.  Obviously newspapers aren’t always accurate, but I need to point stuff like that out otherwise it looks like I’m not really paying attention when I am researching.  

I searched Korean newspapers as best as I could.  I also requested records from the FBI, but haven’t received a response yet.  I am planning on sending a FOIA request to SLED sometime this week.  I wasn’t able to find pictures of Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho, unfortunately, or find any of their family members.  Per the newspaper articles, it looks like their family was still in Seoul, South Korea in 1974.  The names of the family members are never mentioned in the paper, but it does seem that the bodies were to be shipped back to their home country.  The owner of the nursing home where the girls worked tried to get the state of Georgia to pay for the cost of shipping the bodies, so the families would not have to incur the expense of flying to the United States to deal with everything.  Unfortunately, it was denied, however, the request was forwarded to see if the federal government could assist.  I wasn't able to find anything about whether they did or not.

There is one more thing I would like to mention about this case and its similarities to The Lost Boys’ case, going with the assumption that James Allen Crosby and William Edward Huff were indeed shot, as the rumors say.  All the victims were laid next to each and shot in the head.  The victims all seemed to be having a normal day.  Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho stopped to eat lunch.  James Allen Crosby and William Edward Huff decided to skip school for the day and hang out together.  They disappeared and the Sheriff’s office spends months looking for the victims, in the areas where their bodies are eventually found, but the Sheriff’s office is never the ones to find the bodies.  It’s people involved in hunting.  Two squirrel hunters found Sook Hi Lee, Jung Sol Byun, and Sook Ja Cho.  Two airport workers running deer trails found James Allen Crosby and William Edward Huff.  The clothes of all victims were in good condition.  If the murders hadn’t happened two years apart and there was definitive proof the boys from Walterboro had been shot in the head, I would think they might be connected.  How about you?

M.