Had he lived past October 26, Yongsang Soh would now be 23 and likely starting law school, looking forward to the day when he would graduate and take over the family business. Instead, private investigators continue to pick through the detritus of his life.
Watkins, never one to pull punches, says he believes Soh was murdered and unwillingly ingested the LSD that night. The attorney says he has shared all the evidence uncovered by private investigators with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The most significant hole in the lawsuit, however, may be Soh's relationship to Sigma Alpha Mu. The fraternity's executive director, Leland Manders, says Soh's name is not on the organization's official rolls. A former member of the Washington University Phi chapter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggests that Soh's absence from the registry doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't initiated or a part of the fraternity family. It could be the paperwork got lost or was never properly filed.
In the comment section of the Student Life article reporting his death, Soh's classmates and friends expressed disbelief, shock and heartbreak.
"Yong did not commit suicide," wrote one commenter. "He is not the kind of person to do something that would break his friends and family's heart. I was a close friend of Yong and he was a happy guy and a pure soul, very determined and future-driven. We even made plans for upcoming weekends and breaks. Such a tragic accident that brought a huge loss to all of us...rest in peace and you will be greatly missed forever."
"Yong was a great guy," wrote another. "Unassuming, gracious, and always supportive. Just a wonderful human being."
At his memorial, a Dorchester resident recalled how gleefully he played with her dog.
"Yong loved all animals," Soh's brother, Won, tells Riverfront Times in an email. "He told me that he found an innocence in them that at times was missing in people. He valued this."
The last time Won saw or spoke to his brother was in August 2013 when the siblings convened in South Korea to celebrate their father's birthday. Both Won and Yong were getting ready to return to their respective colleges, Yong to Wash. U., Won to University of California-Berkeley. The brothers discussed their travels in China, as Yong had spent the previous summer in Shanghai in preparation for his future managing the family's business interests there.
"His loss to us is still shocking and surreal," Won writes in a November 9 email. "I expect to see him when I am home in Seoul, bounding around a corner of our home. His loss to our family is difficult to express in words, and thus I cannot. We were twins, of a group of triplets that included my sister Hyunjung, and because of this we miss him even more deeply. Yong's spirit will continue to influence us all, and our memories of him drive us forward to seek justice for the tragic events that happened to him, if justice is due."
Follow Danny Wicentowski on Twitter at @D_Towski. E-mail the author at [email protected]
