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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

MILESBURG, Pa. -- Maybe, if police knew anything at all about the passenger who took an early-morning taxi ride to the apartment complex where Penn State University senior Cindy Song lived, they might have a thread to unravel the year-old mystery of how she vanished.

Or maybe if somebody recounted noticing an abrupt change in an acquaintance -- perhaps a sudden hankering for drugs or alcohol, sleep disturbances or a fixation with news accounts of Song's disappearance -- it could be a case-cracking clue.

"I'm convinced that somebody has information that they don't believe is important but that will break this case," Lt. Drew Clemson of the Ferguson police department near State College said yesterday.

But yesterday, a day short of a year since Song disappeared, police updating reporters could offer no breaks in a case that has baffled them and tortured Song's family back in her native Korea. Instead, investigators appealed for clues and kept some information -- such as whether they have suspects -- close to the vest.

"My life is my family and not to know what happened to my only daughter is devastating," Song's mother, Bansoon Song, said through an interpreter. "I need your help to learn about Cindy."

Song came from Seoul and has held vigil in State College for most of the past year.

"She doesn't sleep. She cries," friend Mira Meyerdierks said as she sat beside Song, a small, pale woman wearing a button with her daughter's photo and the words: "We have hope."

Cindy Song, 21, spent Halloween night 2001 partying with friends, then caught a ride with one of them to her apartment off Penn State's University Park campus.

That was the last sighting, as she climbed steps to her apartment.

In the intervening 12 months, Gov. Mark Schweiker instructed state police to aid the investigation, detectives went off to interviews ranging from Philadelphia to Song's native Korea, police could find no physical or credit card trail, and the puzzle was featured on the television program "Unsolved Mysteries."

The case isn't close to being filed with dead-end investigations, Sgt. Steven Byron, the local state police crime unit supervisor, said yesterday. But to date, even though investigators informally say that the case was an abduction, likely carried out by a man, police haven't found clues to officially classify the matter as more than a missing persons case.

Her purse is missing. But the absence of signs of struggle in the apartment, paired with the fact that she left a backpack and cell phone behind, suggest to police that Song left the apartment willingly, intending to return.

Byron asked yesterday for public help in fleshing out one lead: Handy Delivery Taxi Service took a rider less than a mile, from University Commons apartments to State College Park apartments were Song lived. Taxi company records show that fare came at 3:57 in the morning on Nov. 1, within 15 minutes of Song's arrival home.

What taxi records don't show is any information about the rider.

Police also asked for information on anyone who showed a sudden behavior change -- maybe abruptly leaving the area, withdrawing from friends, turning to religion, drinking or showing sudden weight gain or loss -- at about the time Song disappeared.

Callers can contact police at 814-355-7545 or toll-free at 800-479-0050. Korean-speaking callers can phone 717-712-2028 or 215-418-4530.

"We will keep uncovering stones until we find something underneath one," Byron said.

Tom Gibb can be reached at tgibb@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1601.