Detailed update on family massacre in PA:42 y.o.man shoots wife & 2 child-slavces,aged 10 & 13,to death,then kills self
Joe1orbit
In these bust crime times, it is easy to overlook or miss or forget about a
particular TC news incident, as new incidents occupy our attention. Still, I
try my best to give deserving news items a proper amount of attention. Two days
ago I posted a very brief wire report on a family massacre/triple
murder-suicide that had occured in Pennsylvania. I then got busy with other
things. Did I forget about this case? Of course not! Triple murders earn a
permanent spot within my active and well developed brain, and today I took the
time to research this triple murder-suicide further, via local online
newspapers. The result is this nicely detailed update.
42 year old Steven Kim did indeed use a handgun to slaughter his wife and
their two child-slaves, aged 10 and 13. Only after successfully accomplishing
this triple family murder, did Stephen blow his own brains out. All the victims
were shot right in the head. Wife Diana had two bullets in her brain, everybody
else only had one, but it was well-placed, and achieved the desired fatal
result. It looks as though the 3 victims were either sleeping or getting ready
to go to sleep, when they were shot. They were dressed in pajamas &
nightclothes.
Steven left no suicide note, but police have learned that he was having
financial problems, and are seizing upon this fact as a likely "explanation"
for the massacre. It's just so RIDICULOUS, how you humans and your society try
to come up with external and false RATIONALIZATIONS and explanations for why
people undertake acts of dynamic violence. If you think about rationally, you
realize that the notion of "financial problems" causing a person to commit a
triple murder-suicide, is ABSURD. Steven committed this rampage because he felt
homicidal rage and hate. Because he knew that life was and is worthless.
Because he believed his wife and sperm creations to be his SUBHUMAN PROPERTY.
Because he believes in the insane god myth and doesn't accept the Truth if what
death entails. Those are LIKELY reasons why Steven committed this rampage. The
notion of "financial problems" being the cause, is nothing more than an
irrational smokescreen, placed in front of your eyes by your society, which
seeks to deny the TRUTH behind all mass and serial murder and other predatory
acts.
We get the usual commentary from neighbors, who express their surprise &
shock & describe the family as being "quiet". One neighbor did hear Steven
arguing with his wife last week. The Kim's WERE a Korean family. Koreans are
known for generally being quite shy and quiet, at least the ones that have
emigrated to the USA.
What is unusual about this Korean family is that they didn't socialize with
fellow Koreans either. They kept to themselves, pretty much completely. Daddy
Steven emigrated from Korea about 25 years ago, when he was in his teens. He
recently worked at a grocery store, but the store closed and the family had to
move to this SMALLER house, from a much larger one. He apparently was looking
for a job in recent months, but had not found one. Steven owed about $20,000 to
the IRS, according to police. But still, to suggest that this massacre was
"caused" by financial problems, only serves to divert and falsely mislead
people from digging DEEPER and confronting the TRUE, CORE reasons, behind these
types of family massacres.
Anyway, it is my pleasure to honor Steven, our sadly deceased triple
murderer, with a bit of international Usenet exposure, for his life
accomplishment on the true crime front.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 11/5/98 online edition of The
philadelphia Inquirer newspaper:
Family is found dead in Montco
Montgomery Twp. authorities say a man killed his wife and two daughters before
killing himself.
By Angela Pomponio
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
11/5/98
MONTGOMERYVILLE -- A 42-year-old man shot and killed his wife and two daughters
in their beds before turning the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide
discovered yesterday by relatives, Montgomery Township police said.
About 9:15 a.m., the bodies of Steven Kim; his 38-year-old wife, Diana; and
their daughters, Angela, 10, and Victoria, 13; were found in the family's
Longleat Drive home, police said. The couple's parents had not heard from them
in several days and went to the house to check on them, police said.
Police Chief Richard Brady said that the Kims had all been shot in the head,
and that a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun was recovered at the scene. Diana
Kim and her daughters appeared to have been asleep or ready for bed, Brady
said.
"The time of death has not been estimated yet," Brady said at a news
conference. "It could have been Friday, we really don't know."
There was no suicide note, Brady said, and an investigation was continuing to
determine a motive for the shootings. Police said the gun was near Steven Kim's
body.
Montgomery County Coroner Halbert E. Fillinger Jr., who was performing the
autopsies last night, said Diana Kim had been shot twice in the head. Her
daughters and her husband each had one gunshot wound.
A woman who stopped to retrieve mail from the Kims' mailbox after investigators
left yesterday would not comment on their deaths. Two cars sat parked in the
driveway in front of the beige home with green shutters, which was cordoned off
by yellow police tape. A heart-shaped wreath with yellow and white flowers hung
on the door.
News of the family's deaths shocked neighbors in the well-manicured Westgate
development, in which the Kims had lived for about a year and a half. Kathy
Grosso, who lives next door, said she had talked to them only a few times.
"They were very quiet. They kept to themselves pretty much," she said. "We
didn't ever know what they did."
Grosso said she heard the Kims arguing sometime last week while she was
standing on her front porch. She did not think much of it until she saw police
cars outside their home yesterday.
"We all argue," she said. "They weren't super loud. I couldn't hear what they
were saying."
Other neighbors also said they knew little about the Kims, though they saw
their daughters leaving for school in the mornings. Angela Kim was a fifth
grader at Montgomery Elementary School, while Victoria Kim was in the eighth
grade at Pennbrook Middle School.
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The following appears courtesy of the 11/5/98 online edition of The
Philadelphia Daily News newspaper:
Family tragedy
Cops: Despondent dad shoots wife, daughters, self
by Myung Oak Kim, Yvette Ousley
and Nicole Weisensee
Daily News Staff Writer
11/5/98
Image is very important in Korean culture. Family problems, no matter how
awful, are kept secret.
The Kim family was no different.
They smiled politely at neighbors, kept their lawn neatly manicured and were
never seen squabbling.
By all accounts, they were a normal middle-class family.
But the Kims were unusually private.
The father, who came to the United States during high school, shunned visits
from Koreans trying to get to know them. The family never socialized with
neighbors, not even with Koreans, a group known to be close-knit and active in
the dozens of Korean churches in the area.
The only people who visited their home on Longleat Drive in North Wales,
Montgomery County, were a handful of immediate relatives.
So when the couple and their two daughters were found dead in their home
yesterday morning in an apparent triple-murder-suicide committed by the father,
it was no surprise that neighbors were clueless about what caused 42-year-old
Steven Kim to snap. What was surprising is that nobody in the Korean community
knew either.
But there were signs that Steven Kim's world was unraveling.
Kim apparently faced financial straits when he moved a year-and-a-half ago to a
house half the size of the home he had lived in a mile away on Cathedral Drive
for about seven years. Before then, he had been working with his parents and
other relatives in a grocery store in Frankford. But Kim's father died, and the
store was sold.
After an attempt to start a dry-cleaning business, Kim apparently had been
jobless for the last few months. It was unclear whether his wife had a job.
There were other problems too. At the urging of his wife, Kim began taking
computer programming classes in May at Computer Learning Centers Inc. in
Plymouth Meeting, according to Richard Sin, who also attended the school.
But he complained that the work was too difficult. And in July, he stopped
going to classes, telling his teacher that he had family problems, said Sin, a
Korean immigrant also from North Wales. School officials would not confirm
Kim's status there.
Whether it was financial ruin or problems with his marriage, Steven Kim's
answer was brutal, desperate -- and private.
The family may have been dead for more than five days when worried relatives
found the bodies at 9:15 a.m. yesterday in their home on a cul de sac in the
Westgate development.
Everyone had been shot once in the head, said Montgomery Township police.
Steven Kim and his wife, Diane, 38, were found in their bedroom. Victoria, 13,
and Angela, 10, were found in their bedrooms. They were wearing pajamas, which
made police believe that they were shot in their sleep.
A .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun was found in the father's hand, said
Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Bruce Castor.
Castor said he had no doubt that the deaths were a murder-suicide. He said
there were no signs of forced entry.
Montgomery County Coroner Halbert Fillinger said it was possible that the
family had been dead since Halloween, but he had to do further tests to make
sure.
The girls' grandmother -- one of the family's few visitors -- collapsed into
relatives' arms in front of the house shortly after the bodies were discovered,
said Kathy and Nick Grosso, who live next door.
Steve Telesmanic, another neighbor, said her daughter was supposed to go
trick-or-treating Saturday with Victoria. But they couldn't reach the family on
the phone, and nobody answered the door on Halloween.
Both cars were in the driveway at the time, Telesmanic said.
"I thought maybe they had gone on a trip," he said.
Nobody reported hearing gunshots. Police said they had not been called to the
house recently for domestic problems.
Nick Grosso said he shared a beer with Steven Kim last summer while mowing
their lawns. They chatted briefly and laughed. But other than that, the Grossos
had little contact with the Kims. They didn't know even what the Kims had done
for a living -- "That's how private they were," said Kathy Grosso.
Kathy Grosso said she was horrified by the news.
"How can you understand this?" Grosso said. "They have a family that could have
taken care of those two girls. I don't know what drives someone to do this."
Christie Patterson, 14, who went to the same bus stop as Victoria, said
Victoria and Angela hadn't been to school all week. She said it was rare for
them to be absent.
"We knew something was wrong but we didn't know what," Patterson said. "We had
no idea that this had happened."
Victoria was an eighth-grader at Pennbrook Middle, and Angela was a fifth-
grader at Montgomery Elementary.
Pennbrook principal Mario Berlanda described Victoria as a hard-working, quiet
student who had some difficulty with English. He said there were no signs that
Victoria had problems at home.
Berlanda said that staff and students who knew Victoria were devastated by the
news and that the school would have counselors on hand today for anyone who
needed help.
Hyung Ki "Adam" Kim, president of the Korean American Association of Greater
Philadelphia, said nobody knew the Kim family well. Hyung Ki Kim is not related
to Steven Kim. A large percentage of Koreans have the same last name.
The family had been struggling financially and Steven Kim was looking for work,
said Hyung Ki Kim.
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The following appears courtesy of the 11/6/98 online edition of The
Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper:
Finances may have led to shootings
Family members told Montco police that Steven Kim may have been under stress
before he killed his family and himself.
By Angela Pomponio
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
11/6/98
MONTGOMERYVILLE -- Mounting financial troubles may have played a role in an
apparent murder-suicide discovered Wednesday that left a family of four dead,
police said yesterday.
Montgomery Township Lt. Gordon Simes said investigators were continuing to
interview relatives of Steven H. Kim, 42; his 38-year-old wife, Diana; and
their two daughters, Angela, 10, and Victoria, 13, for more personal and
financial information.
The Kims' bodies were discovered in their beds at their home on Longleat Drive
by concerned relatives, who had not heard from them in several days. Police
said Steven Kim apparently shot his wife twice in the head and his daughters
once each in the head with a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun that was found
near his body.
Autopsies have shown the shootings occurred Friday or Saturday, Simes said.
Some family members indicated to police that Steven Kim may have been under
stress recently, Simes said.
"We're still working on the causation," he said. "It's leaning toward
despondency on the part of Mr. Kim because of employment issues and finances."
Simes said Steven Kim had been working only intermittently.
According to tax documents, Kim, who was once a principal of a business called
Steven's Quality Meat in Lansdale and Philadelphia, had about $20,000 in IRS
liens against him.
"It's a very difficult situation," Simes said, describing the investigation's
slow pace. "Because of the magnitude of the tragedy, we have to proceed
compassionately. It takes some time to do all of the interviews."
Attorney Michelle Skalsky of the Tyson Legal Center in Philadelphia said
yesterday that two of her clients were scheduled to close a $135,000 deal
Wednesday afternoon on a Lansdale home on Beacon Court with Steven Kim, his
mother, Ki In Kim, and a brother, Hung Seon Kim. When none of the Kims showed
up for the settlement, the deal did not go through, Skalsky said.
"It's a shame," she said. "It was the first time I went to a settlement in 22
years where something like this happened."
James Kim, one of Steven's brothers, said yesterday that his mother had last
seen Steven and Diana Kim about a week ago.
"We're not doing well," he said. "We're trying to make plans for the funerals."
While the couple's neighbors in the Westgate development tried to cope with
news yesterday, police monitored reporters' comings and goings. As school buses
drove by the Kim home, several students peered out the windows and pointed at
it.
The Kims, who moved into the development about a year and a half ago, often
kept to themselves and were quiet, neighbors said. The family bought the
Longleat Drive home in 1997, after moving from a more expensive home on
Cathedral Drive, about a mile away.
Brigitte Fluehr, who lives across the street from the Kims, said she hardly
slept at all after Wednesday's discovery.
"The saddest thing really was looking at one of the girls' grandmothers. Just
the looks on the family's faces. I can't imagine what they must be going
through," Fluehr said. "It's too late for them to figure out why he did what he
did. I don't think anyone will ever really know."
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The following appears courtesy of the 11/6/98 online edition of The
Philadelphia Daily News newspaper:
Relatives grapple with murder-suicide
by Myung Oak Kim
Daily News Staff Writer
11/6/98
As relatives tried to focus on burial arrangements yesterday, they struggled to
understand what drove Steven Kim to kill his wife and two daughters and then
himself.
Some relatives still cling to the hope that Kim, 42, didn't commit the murders,
that the slayings were done by someone unknown, despite the fact that
authorities are convinced of a multiple murder and suicide.
The bodies were discovered by relatives Wednesday morning in the Kims' home on
Longleat Drive in North Wales, Montgomery County. Authorities believe Steven
Kim shot his wife, Diana, 38, and two daughters, Victoria, 13, and Angela, 10,
while they were asleep before turning the gun on himself. All were shot in the
head.
The family may have been dead since Halloween. Relatives said yesterday they
did not know what triggered the desperate act. "I don't understand what
happened," said Steven Kim's oldest brother, Hung Sun Kim, 50, of Lansdale.
"They are a normal family with not many problems."
The elder brother went to the Longleat Drive home Wednesday morning after
hearing from relatives about the slayings. But he could not get in the house
because of the police investigation.
Hung Sun Kim said his brother was not troubled by finances. On the contrary,
Steven Kim had enough money to pay off his two cars and his house. Kim and his
four brothers apparently received large sums of money from the sale of the
family grocery store in Kensington three years ago.
The only problem the elder Kim mentioned was recent arguing between Steven and
Diana Kim over Diana's night work at a Japanese restaurant, a job she had for
the past year. Kim wanted his wife to quit the job so she could stay home with
the family. Hung Sun Kim denied reports that the couple had talked about
divorce.
Hung Sun Kim said he last saw his brother a couple of weeks ago, and he talked
to him last Thursday. His brother gave no indication of problems during the
phone conversation, the elder Kim said.
He said he knew his brother had a gun. It was bought by his father for
protection while they were operating the grocery store. The father gave guns to
his sons to keep. The .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun was found in Steven
Kim's hands in the couple's bedroom.
Funeral arrangements have not been set.