This true crime murder mystery was featured on 20/20, Dateline, and other news magazine shows, which is how I learned of Ed Shin. The story intrigued me because Ed was Asian like me, and, as I would later learn, both of us experienced the expectations that came with our culture. Yet, we took two very different paths. Ed’s journey was full of excess and greed, while my journey guided me toward law enforcement.

I reached out to Ed and asked for permission to write his story. Through my literary attorney, Ed finally agreed—after we had spent months corresponding and sharing stories. 

Statutes stemming from the “Son of Sam” law prohibit convicted murderers from profiting from books written by or about them. The 1977 law originated in New York after convicted serial killer David Berkowitz (aka “Son of Sam”) was offered a significant amount of money for the rights to his story while serving a 365-year sentence. Ed knows he cannot profit from his story.

To understand Ed, one must understand his past and all the events that led him to end up in prison. I went back and explored his family history. I contacted Ed’s parents in hopes that they might shed light on their son’s past behavior. 

I contacted one of Ed’s former employers, who, after 10 years, was still markedly enraged about being duped by Ed. That same employer didn’t tell me anything other than what he had shared with the media, then refused to speak with me any further.

Ed’s other former business associates either didn’t return my telephone calls or respond to my emails. One primary witness simply declined to be interviewed by me, even though he had appeared on numerous television programs to explain his critical role in the investigation. Chris’s family also declined my interview request through the District Attorney’s Office.

As Ed was in the process of appealing his conviction, he either wouldn’t or couldn’t answer some of my probing questions. Meanwhile, I explored his childhood and family life, asking him questions that the media had not. He was my firsthand source of information, and it took months of correspondence between the two of us before I discovered Ed’s Achilles’ heel: his four young children.

This case is unsolved. Yes, there was a verdict, and yes, Ed was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. However, I don’t believe this case will be closed until all of Ed’s appeals have been exhausted and Chris has been found—dead or alive.