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Did GIs party with slain Pitt student?
Wednesday, March 21, 2001 By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
South Korean authorities have concluded that University of Pittsburgh student Jamie Penich was murdered and have approached U.S. Army investigators to find out if she was with American soldiers before she died.
The U.S. State Department said yesterday that investigators are checking reports that several foreign exchange students, including Penich, 21, from Derry Township, Westmoreland County, spent part of Saturday night drinking or dancing with Army personnel stationed in Seoul.
South Korean police said Penich, a junior, was found dead at about 8 a.m. on Sunday with massive chest, neck and facial injuries, in her hotel room in Seoul. A female roommate from the Netherlands found Penich lying naked in front of the bathroom, police said.
Penich and about seven other students had traveled to the city for a weekend of sightseeing.
The investigation into her death appears to be focused on Itaewon, a neighborhood of shops, open markets and nightspots that is a magnet for foreign travelers. It is near the Yongsan Army base and is frequented by military personnel, State Department officials said.
South Korean police approached the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command "because Miss Penich and another female student were seen in the company of men purported to be Army soldiers," said Christopher Lamora, a spokesman for the State Department's bureau of consular affairs.
Jinhwan Choi, a reporter with the Korea Times in Seoul, said local press reports indicated that several students, including Penich, rented four rooms in a hotel in or near Itaewon. The accounts indicated that Penich's roommate may have been drinking and returned before her to the hotel room and went to sleep.
"When she was awakened, Jamie was dead beside her. Jamie was bleeding in the mouth and nose," Choi said, quoting a local news report.
South Korean police said several footprints of large jogging shoes were found on Penich's chest. Her jaw was broken into three pieces and pushed back, and her right ear was partly torn. Initial findings show there are no signs of rape.
As the investigation continued yesterday, grieving family members made initial preparations to bring Penich's body back to Pittsburgh. But it was unclear when the body would be released. An autopsy has been performed, but Lamora said he did not know if the results would be made public.
At Pitt, a flood of e-mails of sympathy continued to pour in yesterday from across the nation. Annagene Yucas, a director with Pitt's Study Abroad program, said it was the first such incident in her 20 years working with Study Abroad.
"It's rocked the entire community of international educators," she said. "It's just awful."
She and other advocates of foreign study said such incidents are rare and that study abroad programs are a safe way for students to immerse themselves in other cultures. Her program at Pitt sends about 600 overseas a year.
Penich, who was engaged to be married, left for Korea March 1 and was scheduled to return June 22.
She was pursing a dual major in anthropology and religious studies and a minor in Korean. Upon arriving in Korea, she enrolled as a student at Kiem Yung University in Taegu.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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