The Miracle Mile Murders, also known as the Miracle Mile Massacre or the Koreatown Slayings, was a 2003

mass-murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more p ...

Koreatown, Los Angeles Koreatown ( ko, 코리아타운) is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street. Koreans began immigrating in larger numbers in the 1960s and found housing in the Mid-Wilshire area. Many open ...

. The crime was notorious for its savagery and its apparent lack of motive, and it went

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

until March 2009. DNA evidence from the crime scene was ultimately used to tie the murder to Robin Cho, a 56 year old immigrant from

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. In June 2012, Cho was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

without the possibility of parole.

The Crime

According to

LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

, the nanny Eun Suk and the toddler Nathan were at home on the evening of May 5, 2003, when the killer entered their house, took them into the bathroom, and then shot them. Approximately 30 minutes later, the mother Charis entered the house, where she was bound and gagged with

packing tape Box-sealing tape, parcel tape or packing tape is a pressure-sensitive tape used for closing or sealing corrugated fiberboard boxes. It consists of a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated onto a backing material which is usually a polypropylene or ...

. She was then killed execution style with a single shot to the head. Following the crime, detectives received a mysterious tip letter alleging the crime to the work of

professionals A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, hired by Byung Song, the husband of the murdered woman, to make room for a girlfriend. The authors of the letter, "Scott Song" and "Jay Lee", were never identified. At trial, prosecutors alleged that the letter was sent by Robin Cho to implicate Byung Song. While prosecutor Frank Santoro alleged that the murder was a burglary gone wrong, no valuables were stolen from the apartment. Santoro told the jury "Who cares why Mr. Cho committed this murder ... he pulled the trigger six times.” To this day, the motive of the crime remains unknown. Fragments of Latex glove were found on the tape that had bound Charis. DNA from the glove was later tied to Robin Cho.

Robin Kyu Cho

Robin Kyu Cho immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1970s, where he became a financial agent. Between 1998 and 2003, he was accused of defrauding nearly $2.2 million dollars out of 15 investors, in what prosecutors described as an elaborate

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

. The only hard piece of evidence against Cho was the DNA on the latex glove. Even following his conviction, he continued to maintain his innocence. The California Innocence Project is considering taking his case, as of November 2021.

List of Victims

* Charis Song, age 30 - ''the mother'' * Eun Suk Min, age 56 - ''the nanny'' * Nathan Song, age 2 - ''the toddler''

Media Coverage

The Miracle Mile murders received extensive coverage in the

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

newspapers of

Koreatown A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have ...

in their aftermath. The crime remained perplexing due to the lack of motive and relative weakness of the evidence. In 2021, the murders were featured in a 10 episode podcast called
StrangeLand
', hosted by

Sharon Choi Sharon Choi (born Choi Sung-jae; 1994 or 1995) is a South Korean interpreter and film director. She received widespread recognition and praise as Bong Joon-ho's Korean–English interpreter during the 2019–2020 film awards season. Early life a ...

and Ben Adair.

References

{{reflist 2003 murders in the United States May 2003 crimes in the United States