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Saturday, March 02, 2002

By Gary Rotstein, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The beating death of University of Pittsburgh student Jamie Lynn Penich in Seoul, South Korea, last March puzzled investigators for months as they ruled out numerous suspects, primarily U.S. soldiers who had been seen with Penich in a nightclub district.

	A photograph from the family of Jamie Lynn Penich shows Penich, left, with Kenzi Noris Elizabeth Snider in Seoul, South Korea, shortly before Penich's death in March 2001.

In a startling twist, the investigation led them across the globe to Huntington, W.Va., to another female exchange student who was visiting the same Korean university as Penich, 21, and was out drinking with her the night of her death.

Late Thursday, FBI agents arrested former Marshall University student Kenzi Noris Elizabeth Snider, 20, at her Huntington apartment, with plans to extradite her to South Korea to face murder charges.

Snider confessed to the killing early last month but it took several weeks to receive paperwork from Korean authorities enabling her arrest, FBI officials said.

In her confession, Snider claimed she became enraged by sexual advances from Penich in Penich's hotel room after a night of drinking, according to a document filed Thursday by federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court in Huntington.

That account was immediately dismissed by relatives of Penich, who was engaged to be married at the time of her death.

"There's no possible way that Jamie would ever do anything like that," said Penish's uncle, Bill Sherback, who spoke for the girl's parents at their home in Derry, Westmoreland County. "We feel Kenzi's just trying to cover her tracks any way she can and grasp at straws."

Brian and Patricia Penich planned to discuss the latest development in their daughter's death at a news conference today. Brian Penich traveled yesterday from Myrtle Beach, S.C., where he was on a golf trip when the family received word Thursday night of Snider's arrest.

"Right now, they're trying to get a grasp of what's going on," Sherback said. "It shocked everybody."

Snider gave statements to the Korean National Police and FBI as their investigation of the March 17 killing began, and even spoke freely of bar-hopping that night with Penich to a reporter from the military's Stars and Stripes newspaper. She described herself last spring as a drinking companion, accompanying Penich to the same bars frequented by U.S. soldiers, with no idea who murdered her after they returned together to the hotel.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, which also took part in the probe because of initial suspicions that military personnel were involved, said the trail seemed to run cold until a review of all the statements taken in the case showed inconsistencies in Snider's accounts.

FBI and Army investigators traveled from Korea to visit Snider Feb. 4 through Feb. 6, and their questioning resulted in the confession, officials said.

Penich, an anthropology and religious studies student in her junior year at Pitt, was found naked and beaten to death in her room in Seoul by a roommate who said she somehow slept through whatever occurred. Authorities said Penich had been stomped on and died of massive chest, neck and facial injuries.

Penich and Snider were among six or seven students who had taken a break from studies at Kiemyung University to travel about 150 miles to the capital for sightseeing and celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Snider stayed in a different room at the same hotel.

The court document describing Snider's confession said that after a night spent drinking, the pair returned to Penich's room, where "Penich asked Snider to help her to take a shower as she was overcome with alcohol."

In the bathroom, according to the defendant's account, Penich disrobed and "Snider and Penich began to kiss and have sexual contacts. When Penich attempted to take off Snider's pants and fondle her, Snider became very enraged at Penich.

"Snider hit Penich's head and caused her to fall down into the bathtub. Snider then picked her up and moved her out of the bathroom, and repeatedly trampled down on her face, neck and chest area very hard, with her shoes on. Snider thus caused Penich to die from suffocation."

Larry Ellis, assistant U.S. attorney in Charleston, W.Va., said he could not comment on the accuracy of Snider's account, only that she gave it.

Photos received by the Penich family from their daughter's hotel roommate showed Snider and Penich smiling together the day before the killing.

Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, who has reviewed records of the case as an unpaid consultant to the Penich family, said Penich was 5-foot-5, 119 pounds, and had a blood alcohol content of 0.11 at the time of her death. That amount, while illegal for motorists, would not ordinarily be enough to incapacitate a young person, Wecht said.

Because of the night of drinking and nature of the beating, with no known weapon used, Wecht was among many officials interested in the case who assumed a male soldier was responsible.

In hindsight, Wecht said, the absence of evidence of sexual assault of Penich despite her lack of clothing could have provided less certainty that a man was involved.

The one thing that made sense if Snider's account were true, Wecht said, is the strong, violent reaction that can occur when two individuals of the same gender have different feelings about having sex.

"You can see more injuries than are necessary to kill, and injuries that are designed to inflict serious trauma, nothing of a casual nature," Wecht said, although he was not vouching for the accuracy of Snider's version.

At a hearing in Huntington yesterday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Maurice G. Taylor set a bond hearing for March 11 for Snider, who will be held until then in the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston. He instructed the federal defender's office in Charleston to represent her.

She will subsequently face an extradition process. Authorities in the Republic of Korea intend to put her on trial there.

Marshall University officials said Snider had not attended the school since the fall semester, but declined to give out further information about her, citing confidentiality restrictions.

Friends attending her hearing yesterday were dismayed by the charges. They said she was an elementary education major incapable of such violence.

She had been a member of a student honorary society, Phi Eta Sigma, reserved for high honors students, and was active in the university chapter of the Lions Club, a community service organization.

"We all know her well and this doesn't seem possible," said student Carmen Dillon. "She doesn't eat meat because she can't stand the idea of killing animals."

The FBI said Snider's previous home was in St. Cloud, Minn. Her friends said she was born in Italy, where her father was in the U.S. diplomatic corps. Her father now lives in Thailand and her mother in Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.