Exponent Online


8/17/2001	Welcome Back Issue

Purdue community copes with murder of sisters

FEELING THE LOSS: ABOVE: Two young women sing hymns at the memorial service Aug. 10 for Yuenkyung Woo and her sister Hyo Kyung Woo. The sisters were brutally murdered Aug. 2 in the apartment they shared at Purdue Village. BELOW: A mourning woman places a floral arrangement outside the Woo sisters' apartment following the memorial service that was attended by more than 650 people.

By Megan Finnerty
Features Editor

The air outside apartment 9 at 151 Arnold Drive in Purdue Village is thick with the scent of flowers, even days after the memorial service for two Korean women murdered two weeks ago.

Although a motive has been reported, and the prosecutors are moving forward in the case of Zhan Yin, 27, a graduate student in biology and suspected killer, those mourning the sisters are still trying to find a way to deal with their grief.

Some sought counseling or attended the more than 650-person memorial service held for Yeunkyung Woo, 31, a graduate student in biology, and her sister Hyo Kyung Woo, 29, of Chicago, Aug. 10 as a way to say goodbye.

Others continue to leave flowers.

A note attached to orange tiger lilies and yellow daisies read: "Young — you are such a wonderful person and we'll never forget you. You made a big impression on me."

The lush mums, zinnias and irises are a sharp contrast to the shiny, slick coroner's tape sealing the apartment shut.

Chris Shorts, a sixth year student in the Pharmacy Doctorate program, and his wife were Woo's neighbors, and walk past her apartment each day.

"We were home when it happened," he said with a sigh. "We did laundry. We were walking past the door and downstairs as it happened."

Shorts said he and his wife have been having a hard time sleeping, tortured by the "what ifs."

"It's scary; you think, 'I could have stopped it if I had heard something,' or you think, 'Maybe I'd be dead if I had.' There's some guilt involved. We have really mixed emotions."

Although the couple thought about moving, they decided against it because they didn't see the point in just moving to a different apartment within Purdue Village.

But at least two apartments near Woo's have been vacated following the murder. And Shorts admitted that it's hard to walk past the sealed door and not be disturbed by thoughts of what happened just steps away from his own door.

For another one of Woo's neighbors, the visual reminders of the sisters' deaths — the crime scene, police presence and flower memorial — were overwhelming. So much so that the neighbor decided to move to a more centrally located apartment in Purdue Village.

"It just kept on reminding me of that sad happening. Everything was going on in my mind — how the parents would have felt, how the girls were suffering — that was just too much for me," the neighbor said.

Michael Brzezinski, director of International Students and Scholars, is also having a hard time dealing with the murders. As director of the center that facilitates and arranges international students' studies at Purdue, Brzezinski knew both the murderer and the victim.

"I have been affected by this personally," he said, sounding tired. "This has been a hard week for me. I met with the family (of the Woo sisters). I met with some grieving students and I know that the students have concerns and I'm trying to meet those concerns."

He said the office has sent out numerous e-mail messages to keep students up to date with the newest information and has provided counselors and support networks for grieving students.

"We're trying to be as supportive as we can."

Brzezinski said the majority of inquiries his office has received in recent weeks have been about grief and how to deal with the loss. He said grieving in the international community can sometimes be more acute because traditional support networks aren't available; students are left without family and familiar friends, and so must turn to new friends or countrymen who are also studying abroad at Purdue.

"Many students have close support groups in the students from their home countries, but it's different than when you're at home with your closest friends and family members," Brzezinski said.

Gloria Joung, a senior in the School of Technology and head of the Korean American Students Association, said the Korean community on campus is a close one and news of the murders shocked its members.

"The community here is pretty small; we all know each other here by our faces," she said. "It's not like we're all related to each other, but we all know each other pretty much well. We were all shocked."

She said since Yin declared his motive in the killings, there is less fear among Koreans and that the murders shouldn't taint the University's image overseas.

Joung said that in South Korea, Purdue is only well known in certain academic circles such as engineering and is not widely known among the general student population. But following the murders, she said the University has received so much press, most of it benign, that it has raised Purdue's profile among her countrymen.

"I don't really think this is going to affect Purdue overseas because it didn’t have anything to do with Purdue."

Joung said, however, that she does see closer interaction between Chinese and Korean student groups as a possible response to the murders. She said that although students are usually not political, China and South Korea do have what she referred to as "issues."

"Since this happened, there might be some negative feelings and our organizations will have to work on that."

However, Brzezinski said that everything he's read and heard doesn't indicate that the murders were an ethnic crime.

"I think the facts are bearing it out that this is a very tragic, but very rare, isolated incident on this campus," he said.

Erica Sagon contributed to this report.

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