Six days before she disappeared, 21-year-old Hyun Jong “Cindy” Song posted a short poem on her Penn State web page. It was built on contradictions — sad but happy, hurt but fine — and she titled it “under construction.” On Halloween night 2001, a friend dropped Cindy off at her apartment outside State College, Pennsylvania, between 3:30 and 4 a.m. She made it inside. Nearly 25 years later, that’s still the last thing anyone knows for certain.
Who Was Cindy Song?
Cindy was born in Seoul, South Korea, on February 25, 1980. As a teenager, she came to the United States on her own to live with her aunt in northern Virginia, while her parents and older brother, Kiho, stayed in Korea. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Academy in 1998 and, after turning down a chance to study in France, enrolled at Penn State.
She majored in integrative arts with her sights set on graphic design. She volunteered with the Red Cross, belonged to the Korean Undergraduate Student Association, and worked two jobs: waiting tables at Seoul Garden, a Korean restaurant downtown, and working overnight shifts at the university’s laptop library. Friends remembered her smile above all else.
By fall 2001, she was registered for spring classes, had a new computer on order, had applied for internships, and was holding tickets to a Britney Spears concert. She was months from graduation.
Halloween Night, 2001
Halloween fell on a Wednesday that year. Cindy wore a costume she made herself — a pink top with a rabbit design, a white tennis skirt with a cotton tail, bunny ears, brown knee-high boots and a long red hooded parka — and went to a Halloween party at Players Nite Club on West College Avenue with two friends.
They stayed until the club closed at 2 a.m., then spent a couple of hours playing video games at a friend’s apartment. Her friend Stacy Paik drove her home and watched her walk toward her building between 3:30 and 4 a.m. on November 1. Paik later said Cindy was in her usual upbeat mood.
The Empty Apartment
Cindy’s roommate was away on a trip home and didn’t return until the afternoon of November 1. She found Cindy’s false eyelashes on the bathroom sink, part of her costume, her backpack and her cell phone, which Cindy almost never went anywhere without. Her purse, keys, driver’s license and credit cards were gone. There was no sign of forced entry or a struggle.
At first, her friends weren’t alarmed. Cindy sometimes visited family in Virginia or New York without telling anyone. But when she missed classes and a shift at Seoul Garden, worry set in. Paik reported her missing early on Sunday, November 4. Police didn’t get inside the apartment until Monday, November 5 — four days after she was last seen.
“No Body, No Crime Scene”
Because her apartment complex sat just outside the State College borough line, the case went to the Ferguson Township Police Department, led by Detective Brian Sprinkle. Searchers combed nearby woods and bike paths, a state police helicopter flew overhead, and bloodhounds were brought in. Investigators worked with the FBI to review her phone, internet and bank records. Her bank account and credit cards were never used again.
In late November, police decided the apartment was not a crime scene, and a planned forensic search never took place. Sprinkle summed up the challenge: no body, no crime scene, no evidence a crime had occurred. His working theory was a crime of opportunity — that Cindy walked to the 24-hour grocery store across the street, as she often did, and encountered someone along the way.
A Family’s Fight for Answers
Cindy’s mother, Bansoon Song, arrived from Seoul on November 16. She spoke little English and communicated with police through interpreters, yet she began hanging missing-person fliers almost immediately. Her brother, Kiho, arrived a week later and moved into Cindy’s apartment. In early December, Bansoon had to return to Korea to care for Cindy’s father, who was ill, leaving Kiho on his own.
The family wasn’t alone for long. Members of the Penn State Black Caucus called the search effort inadequate and helped form the Coalition to Find Cindy Song. When investigators considered marking the case inactive in early 2002, the family’s attorney, Jin Han, and the coalition held a press conference to keep it open. Students gathered more than 15,000 signatures on a petition, and Pennsylvania’s governor urged Ferguson Township to accept full-time state police help. In South Korea, Cindy’s case drew national attention, and the Korean Consul General traveled to Pennsylvania to press for more resources.
The Leads
Philadelphia. In December 2001, a woman reported seeing someone resembling Cindy calling for help from a car in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, nearly 200 miles away. The family’s private investigators had the witness hypnotized and produced a composite sketch. But her account changed several times, and police ultimately concluded the woman she saw was not Cindy.
The taxi passenger. In October 2002, state police asked the public to help identify a taxi passenger dropped off at Cindy’s apartment complex around 4 a.m. on November 1, 2001. We found no later reporting that identifies that person.
Hugo Selenski. In June 2003, informant Paul Weakley led investigators to the Luzerne County home of Hugo Selenski, where multiple bodies were found buried. Weakley claimed Selenski had told him that he and another man abducted Cindy. But Weakley had been in federal prison when Cindy disappeared, had researched her case online, and his credibility was later challenged in court. None of the remains on Selenski’s property matched Cindy’s DNA. Selenski denied any involvement and has never been charged in her disappearance; he is serving life in prison for two unrelated murders. Investigators have said they can neither prove nor disprove the claim.
Where the Case Stands Today
Cindy’s case remains an open missing-person investigation with the Ferguson Township Police Department. Over the years, the file grew to 21 binders. Working with the FBI, investigators collected DNA from Cindy’s mother and family in South Korea, and her DNA profile and dental records are in national databases, including CODIS and NamUs. A 2014 grand jury report revealed that the remains of about a dozen people were recovered from Selenski’s property, and some physical evidence from that investigation has never been identified.
In 2022, Detective Jonathan Mayer said investigators know Cindy made it inside her apartment — but not what happened after. He believes a DNA match may one day provide answers.
Cindy would be 46 today. As of 2022, Penn State had never created a memorial in her honor.
How You Can Help
If you have any information about the disappearance of Cindy Song, no matter how small, please contact the Ferguson Township Police Department at (814) 237-1172.
Listen to the full episode, “Under Construction: The Disappearance of Cindy Song,” on Vanished Voices on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us @VanishedVoicesPod on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, and help us refuse to let these voices vanish.
Crime Clueless, our sister show, is covering the full case of Hugo Selenski this week in a two part series. If you want to hear more about his case, read more here or start with part 1 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts..
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