Original subtitles

(ominous music plays )

- Ed Shin and Chris Smith wanted to make a lot of money.

- Chris is a very laidback kind of a guy.

Ed was surrounding himself with Playboy models.

He wanted to escape from reality.

- He had this plan to sell gold coins in Rwanda.

Something is terribly wrong.

- To the point to where the hair on the back of your neck stands up.

- Did Chris open the door to his killer?

- And allow this monster to enter?

- (theme music plays)

- San Juan Capistrano is a smaller city

in the southern portion of Orange County,

which lies in between San Diego Counties

and Los Angeles Counties in California.

- It's a beach community.

A very trendy place to go to, a lot of families, tourists.

- It's one of the safest cities in Orange County,

with a violent crime rate of 44% less than the national average.

- San Juan Capistrano is attractive for businesses.

There's business office space, commercial areas,

as well as residential areas, which makes it a attractive balance

for families to come and live.

- 2009, Ed Shin and Chris Smith got together

and developed a company, 800 Exchange.

- The 800 Exchange would buy airtime for marketing ads

for a host of companies throughout, really, the country.

Ed Shin and Christopher Smith grew the 800 Exchange

to be an extremely profitable company in less than a year.

- (eerie music plays)

- Chris Smith, you could say, has it all.

I mean, starting as an entrepreneur that's just rocketing

and really successful.

Chris was involved with his girlfriend

in this incredible relationship that was really blossoming.

- Chris and his girlfriend were very close to getting married

and spend the rest of their lives together.

- But by June of 2010, Chris was ready to leave

the corporate world behind.

- Chris was a very serious surfer and had the goal

of getting away from it at all, travelling the world,

living a life without all the distractions of the busy,

everyday business end of his life.

Chris decides to sell his portion of the company to Ed,

which was estimated to be around a million dollars.

A goal of his was to leave the corporate world at some point

but it was not expected to be this soon.

- That very same day, Chris writes to his attorney saying,

"Ed and I worked everything out.

I'm going to be paid this amount in shares

and this amount in gold coins, and we've come to that agreement."

And that was sent on Friday, June 4th,

around 6 p.m.

RAY: Chris writes to his family that he is going to charter

a yacht and travel the world, and he's gonna leave behind

his cell phone and communication devices.

- Chris sends a text to his girlfriend

and breaks up with her prior to leaving on this trip,

which to his family is, this is not Chris.

- Chris's family gets another bombshell email from Chris

stating he's now travelling to the Galapagos Islands

with a Playboy playmate named Tiffany Taylor.

- The family were all questioning his decision making,

but they also embraced the fact that maybe he was going through

a lot with the business and wanted to escape from reality

for a short period of time.

- (dramatic music plays)

- October 2010, Ed Shin takes Paul Smith, Chris's brother,

and other employees of 800 Exchange, to Las Vegas

as a networking type trip.

Paul runs into Tiffany Taylor, the same Tiffany Taylor

that allegedly is with Chris on this adventure that he's taking.

- Paul approaches Tiffany, who is supposed to be

travelling with his brother and asks her,

"How's my brother doing?

Have you seen him lately? Do you know where he is?"

Tiffany looks at Paul and has no idea what he's talking about.

- Paul was left with many questions at this point,

and he just knew that something was not right.

- The dad suspects something.

Steve Smith is a former law enforcement

and he's also a fire captain.

So, his senses are heightened.

It just doesn't seem right to him,

and he starts to question whether these emails are,

in fact, Chris.

At one point, Steve emails Chris

and states, "Chris, if this is you,

tell me what lake you grew up on and what boat towed you skiing."

- Steve Smith receives an email back

and it says the name of the lake,

Kelly Lake, but it ignores the question about the boat,

which Steve believes is suspicious.

- The day after Christmas, the Smith family received an email from Chris

saying that he was in Rwanda and he had this plan

to sell gold coins to a dealer there.

That was when the family became very worried.

This does not sound like their son,

and they became very concerned about his wellbeing.

- In early 2011, Steve contacts the State Department

to see if they could check and determine if Chris's passport

has been used to not only leave the country,

but also if there's any indication as to where Chris

could possibly be or could have possibly travelled to.

- Chris's family is originally under the belief

that he's travelling abroad, but ultimately it's determined

that there's no record of his passport clearing

any exit controls.

The State Department has a record of every time a US passport is used

coming in or going out of the country.

So, unless he's smuggled himself out

through some underground means, there's no way that Chris is abroad.

- The Smith family knows that something is terribly wrong.

If Chris never left the country,

who have they been communicating all this time with over email?

- On April 11th, 2011,

Steve filed a missing person's report

on Chris with the Laguna Beach Police Department.

JOE: In late 2010, 800 Exchange closes their business.

On January of 2011, they vacate their,

their office space, and at this point

are thousands of dollars in debt for back rent.

So, the property manager now hires us to track down Ed Shin

for payment, but I'm having a real hard time finding him.

The property manager came back to us

and said that Laguna Beach PD

was in the area looking for Ed as well,

because his partner, Chris Smith,

has been missing and his father filed

a missing person's report.

So, now I reach out to Chris Smith's father

and immediately we started working the investigation.

So, at this point in our investigation,

we're still conducting interviews with various people.

But I wanted to look in the office.

We learned that it was still vacant, it wasn't occupied,

and we requested the manager, if we could take a look.

When I walked into the office,

I noticed that certain walls were painted

and others were not,

and including Chris's office,

the entire office was painted in his space.

And the entryway from the outside door

leading into the office,

that wall was all painted.

So, there was some contrast in it that didn't look right to me.

And I go back into Chris's office.

As I'm scanning, I look down

and notice on the door frame

a dark brownish colour that looks like blood

that's been dried.

I look in the break room and I found on the light switch

a brighter colour red, of like, a thumbprint

consistent that could be what, like blood.

At that point I remember going, this has got to be evidence.

So, I backed myself out of that to secure it.

Once I found the blood, I knew something had to happen

in this office, whether he died there

or whether the initial attack was in that office.

As a former police officer and seasoned investigator,

I notify local law enforcement about what appears to be blood

in the office.

Because 800 Exchange is located in San Juan Capistrano,

which is the Orange County Sheriff's jurisdiction,

Detective Ray Wert was assigned to the case.

- At this point, it's been almost a year since anyone

has seen Chris at all.

And with the discovery of, what is believed to be blood,

raises our suspicion that there is

possibly foul play that occurred.

We decide we need to go and examine the office

as soon as possible.

- Chris's case is one of those circumstances

where police initially investigate it as a missing person's file,

but very quickly the red flags start adding up

whereby foul play has to be considered.

So, you're really running a homicide investigation

baked within a missing person's investigation,

in which case they have a much more complicated road ahead.

- We meet with the property manager

who lets us into the office,

which has now been vacant for nearly a year, and is well preserved.

And we start to walk into various offices,

and we come to an office

where Chris used to work.

I noticed a small droplet of what appeared to be blood

on the inside of the door jamb of Chris's office.

When I look up at the ceiling, I see what also appears

to be another blood droplet on the ceiling panel

in the middle of the office.

I see additional apparent blood on the baseboard

and near a wall switch on the inside of Chris's old office.

There's apparent blood spatter

on the inside of his door,

which would indicate higher velocity type blood.

We decide to start pulling up the carpet to check

to see if the underside, as well as the padding,

and even the concrete below,

possibly has blood stains or staining on it.

We notice a lot of apparent blood stains

and large areas that appear

to be pooling of apparent blood.

After our examination of the office, it becomes apparent to me

that there was a very serious assault, if not a murder,

that occurred in this office.

Our crime scene forensics team begins to photograph,

as well as swab all the areas where there's apparent blood

for testing in the laboratory.

- The carpet in the office was removed and collected as evidence

and the door in Chris's office was actually taken off the hinges

and brought in for further analysis.

The crime lab was able to do a presumptive test

on all of the blood droplets and stains

that were found at the scene and they were able to identify

that those were from a human being.

- And at this point we need to try to establish

also a DNA profile for Chris Smith

to see if this apparent blood belongs to Chris, or not.

Since we don't have a DNA profile for Chris,

we need to reach out to Chris's family

and collect their DNA to establish a profile

through familial DNA to determine

if the blood from the office is Chris's, or not.

This is going to take some time.

- While Chris was a laidback, free spirit,

Ed was a devoted family man and a member of a Christian church.

Growing up in Orange County,

Shin had played the violin in high school,

he was a member of many clubs, and was even on the golf team.

Shin graduated from the University of California,

San Diego in 2001.

- Chris is a very laidback beach dude, kind of a guy,

who is just low key in how he lives his life.

Whereas Ed enjoys driving higher-end cars,

having higher-end meals,

dressing in flashy, designer clothing.

- For all their differences, Chris and Ed were one common goal:

they were very ambitious, very smart,

and they wanted to make a lot of money.

Laguna Beach PD talk to Ed to find out

what he knew about his former business partner, Chris Smith.

Ed tells them at this point that they had a separation agreement.

And he tells him that, "Hey look, Chris is outgoing.

He just basically, 'I'm tired of it. I want to see the world.'"

- Ed tells us that he has no idea where Chris is.

He has not heard from Chris at all.

- So, at this they conclude their interview with Ed,

and Laguna Beach release Ed for no further questions.

- The blood found in the office is determined to be

from a single source and is a match

to being a close family member

of Steve and Paul Smith.

The blood belongs to Chris Smith.

MICHAEL: Every criminal investigation involving a crime

against a person, particularly a homicide,

involves a practice known as victimology.

And it's basically who is your victim?

What does the victim have in common with the offender,

or what is the link between the victim

and the offender?

So, really, the victim is where the crime begins and ends.

RAY: I went to Chris's former apartment

and met with the property manager who was responsible

for renting the apartment to Chris.

The manager tells me that there's a man living

in Chris's apartment named Kenny Kraft,

who told him that he's just taking care of Chris's apartment

while he's out of town.

- So, to an investigator, we're looking at this,

how does this even occur?

They still don't know what happened to Chris.

He was still living there.

So, it brings up many red flags,

to the point to where the hair on the back of your neck stands up.

- Investigators learn that Kenny is actually working for Ed Shin

as his personal assistant.

- (suspenseful music plays)

- Kraft began working for Ed Shin.

And Kenny basically did,

like, gopher type work.

He would go to the dry cleaner, he would drive Ed places,

he would pick up Ed's wife at different locations.

Kenny Kraft is a grifter type of a person

who I would classify as a couch surfer.

He would go from place to place if somebody had a couch

he could sleep on.

- Most of the time he was working as a doorman or a bouncer

at local bars down there.

So, he didn't really have a particular career at this point.

- (mysterious music plays)

- Kenny landing in Chris's $4,000 a month apartment

was a huge find for Kenny.

Kenny was just going from place to place

trying to find his next dollar.

So, I found out that Kenny was selling some of Chris's property,

some of Chris's surfboards,

and was also keeping some of Chris's personal property

for himself.

- So, investigators at this point look at Kenny Kraft,

and they have to ask themselves a question,

does he have something to do with the blood found in the office?

Is he connected to Chris's disappearance?

So, they're going to take a step back

and really look into Kenny Kraft.

- I reach out to Kenny Kraft and I explain to him

that I am involved in a missing persons case

and I would like to have a meeting with him.

Kenny indicated to me that he was a little unsure

and worried about meeting with me

and asking if he might need an attorney?

And that was very unusual

based on my experience

with a witness who has no involvement in a case.

I told Kenny that he's more than welcome

to consult with an attorney

and the attorney could even join us for our meeting.

But it was important to try to meet sooner than later.

We scheduled a time to meet.

Shortly thereafter, Kenny called me back

and cancelled our appointment.

I never heard back from Kenny.

This further raised suspicions that Kenny

could very well be involved with Chris's disappearance.

- So, we began checking licence plate reader databases,

toll road databases, to see locations

where the licence plate to the Range Rover

had been picked up.

- In the vast majority of successfully prosecuted

no-body homicides, a forensic analysis

of the victim's vehicle has almost always been

a cornerstone of the case.

Vehicles, where they're left, where they're serviced,

where they show up on automatic plate readers or on traffic cameras,

and what the onboard GPS and infotainment system

onboard computer can tell investigators, is significant.

Everything from when the radio was turned on,

to when the seatbelt was fastened, to the speed the vehicle reached,

to when the brake was initiated, it is essentially a black box

that can be used to confirm the vehicle's movements,

and by extension, the victim's final movements.

- I wanted to be very careful about keeping our investigation

very secretive because if Ed found out,

there could be a destruction of evidence,

or if Ed was, in fact, involved,

he could flee the country or the area.

I've also flagged Ed Shin's passport

so that if he attempts to leave the United States,

I will be immediately notified.

- Ed Shin tells Steve that the last time he saw Chris

was when he decided to sell the shares to his company

in the office at 800 Exchange back in June of 2010.

Ed Shin now tells Steve that leading up to when he left,

that Chris had been drinking heavily, got drunk, urinated,

vomited in the office, had spilled red wine on the walls

and all over the, the office floor.

And therefore, he had to have a professional cleaning company

come in there, repaint, clean the carpets

for it to be presentable for everyone else

that worked in that environment.

- Steve enquires with Ed about Chris's passport

because Chris had never left the United States,

according to the State Department.

Ed's explanation for that is that Chris had gone to Los Angeles,

obtained a fake passport, and then went with Tiffany Taylor,

this model that he met in Las Vegas, and left the country.

Ed Shin explains to Steve that he doesn't know what name

or what assumed name Chris was using on the passport.

- Ed says Chris just wanted to go off the grid.

He didn't want to be found.

He wanted to just embrace life and just get away from everything.

- Ed Shin insists he does not know where Chris is.

He tells Chris's father that Chris sold his shares

and he left to go travel.

- The stories that Ed is giving, that we're learning,

are highly suspicious and don't make a lot of sense.

- It's important, I think, for people to remember

that as much as criminal investigations

have become scientifically standardised,

and there's, you know, rules and regulations,

and levels of oversight, and scrutiny,

a lot of effective detective work boils down

to an unquantifiable hunch.

- Ed has this persona in one aspect of his life,

of being a good father, a good husband, a hard worker,

entrepreneur, going to church, and just a,

a real outgoing family guy.

But now, you have this other area of Ed's life

that is very secretive, very dark.

- When Ed would go to Las Vegas,

he lived a very luxurious lifestyle

with getting high-end hotels.

Ed was surrounding himself with models,

Playboy models.

Coworkers reported seeing

Ed Shin gambling in Las Vegas

and losing, at times, hundreds of thousands of dollars

at a card table.

And this money was from company profits.

This is 800 Exchange money

financing these trips to Las Vegas.

Ed Shin had contacts in Las Vegas who would assist him

with getting private jets,

stays at casinos, dinner reservations,

as well as female escorts for his trips.

One of these associates was named Jack Valero.

We look into Mr Valero

and we discover that he has an outstanding arrest warrant

for larceny in Nevada.

We're not able to find Mr Valero,

so, we ask Nevada officials to flag his arrest warrant

so that when law enforcement contacts him,

they will also immediately notify me that they have found him,

and I could go and attempt to interview him as soon as possible.

- The more I learned about Ed Shin, I discovered he owed

a lot of people money.

He defrauded a lot of people.

Detectives also learn that Ed Shin had faked his own kidnapping

in order so he can extort a large sum of money in ransom

from his own parents.

This was all orchestrated by Ed Shin.

Ironically, his parents didn't want to press charges.

- Investigators dig deeper into Ed Shin's past

and they learn that he had actually embezzled money

from a former employer, LG Technologies,

and he pled guilty to that crime in May of 2010.

- In order to avoid going to prison,

Ed Shin took a plea agreement to pay back $700,000

in restitution.

- Detectives think that this sounds like a possible motive

for Ed Shin to kill Chris Smith.

This way he can get Chris out of the way

and have access to the company money

in order to pay the restitution to avoid going to state prison.

This would give Ed Shin unlimited access

to the company finances,

which Chris had recently wanted to put limits

and controls on.

- Police are always on the lookout for signs of deception

or evasion, and one of the foremost recurring indicators of deception

is when a story changes.

- Ed Shin claimed that Tiffany Taylor

was travelling with Chris,

but later when Paul met Tiffany, she denied it.

- So, now we are even more baffled, confused,

and becoming worried that there's something amiss here.

It didn't make sense.

Tiffany is a very attractive woman

and happens to be a former Playmate model.

She would accompany Ed during his business trips in Las Vegas

and act, as we would call it,

arm candy for Ed.

Tiffany tells me that she has never met Chris

and doesn't know who he is.

She did remember meeting Paul Smith in October of 2010

in Las Vegas.

Tiffany told me that when she met Paul,

he had told her that his brother Chris

had advised he was travelling with Tiffany.

Tiffany thought this was very strange

because she didn't have any idea who Chris was

and she expressed that to Paul.

- Police further investigate Tiffany's passport

and they learn that Tiffany's never left the country

or even travelled to any of the countries

that Chris claimed through emails.

- After doing a investigation on Tiffany

and interviewing her,

I determined that she has no involvement whatsoever

in Chris's disappearance,

nor does she know his location.

Tiffany Taylor is not a suspect

in the disappearance of Chris Smith.

On August 12th of 2011, we were notified by a police officer

in northern California

that Chris's car had been located

at a car dealership in the city of San Jose.

We canvassed the neighbourhood where Chris's car had been found,

and we located a witness.

Our investigators showed this witness a photograph

of Kenny Kraft and that witness identified the photo

as being the person responsible for dropping

Chris's car off.

- We believe Chris's body had been placed in the back

of the Range Rover for a period of time.

We were able to obtain cell phone records for Ed Shin's phone,

and in our analysis of those records,

we saw that in the week

following Chris's last-known sighting,

that Ed had gone to a very remote area

along the California and Mexican border

late in the evening on two different occasions.

- Financial records reveal that Ed Shin

also rented a truck from U-Haul at this time.

- When we located that rental car,

we discovered that the mileage matched the distance

between Chris's and Ed's office

and the remote area

where Ed's cell phone had gone to.

We believe that Ed Shin had done a scouting mission

of the remote area near the Mexican border,

and then went back after the pickup truck

had been rented, this time with Chris's body,

where Chris's body was disposed of.

On August 28th, 2011, I was alerted

that Ed Shin's passport was flagged

at Los Angeles International Airport

and it was related to a flight going to Toronto, Canada.

Upon learning of this development, I became very concerned

that Ed Shin was possibly fleeing the country.

I had about one hour to intercept Ed Shin at the airport

before he could get on the flight.

I contacted Los Angeles Airport Police.

- Detectives rush to arrest Ed Shin at LAX,

but it might already be too late.

They learn that he's already boarded the plane.

LAX police find Ed Shin and a business colleague

sitting on the plane as it's about to leave.

- Ed Shin and his companion were escorted off the plane

before it took off.

- Ed Shin's business colleague was questioned

and his bags were searched,

and there was no indication that he had any involvement

in Chris Smith's disappearance.

Ed Shin, being on probation,

was not allowed to leave the country,

and the fact that they caught him on a plane headed for Canada

gave the police the authority to arrest him

for that probation violation.

Shin is transported back to Orange County headquarters

where he is interviewed for several hours.

- When Ed is back in our interview room at the Sheriff's Department,

his demeanour is very relaxed.

Ed isn't flustered at all.

And for a person who's just been pulled off a plane

he's very calm.

- At first Ed Shin tells me he has nothing to do

with Chris's disappearance or death.

- And he doesn't want to talk to us anymore.

Soon after leaving the room,

Ed indicates that he would like to speak to me again

and he has something to tell me.

RAY WERT: OK.

- (ominous music plays)

- Ed admits to me that he is responsible

for Chris's death.

Ed's version of the story is that he and Chris

were speaking about their separation in the business.

During this discussion, an argument broke out

and Chris became very agitated and aggressive toward Ed.

- He's also talking about this knockdown drag out fight

that he had with Chris.

And in the course of that, at one point

he talks about jumping on the desk

and they both hit each others heads like rams.

And then at one point Chris fell and hit his head

on the corner of the desk

and dropped right there.

- However, detectives know from the evidence

that there was no fist fight or accidental death.

- I was able to actually locate Chris's desk, examine it,

and there was no physical way

this desk could hold two men fighting on top of it.

- With regards to Ed Shin,

his colleagues stated they didn't see any injuries

on him whatsoever.

I don't care what kind of fighter you are,

you're going to end up with some type of scratch,

bruising, red marks, some type of injury.

It's going to happen in any struggle like that.

So, in order for Ed to have no marks on him whatsoever

in this event that he described was so violent and a struggle,

tells me and tells seasoned investigators

that Chris was caught off guard.

- There's no doubt in my mind

that Ed Shin walked through Chris's door

with the intent to kill him.

We know that Ed Shin was in the sports memorabilia business

and actually kept

a baseball bat in his office.

And we also know that after June 4th,

this baseball bat had never been seen again,

indicating to us that the bat

could have been the actual murder weapon.

- (sinister music plays)

- On Friday, June 4th at 6:01, Ed Shin now writes

to Chris's attorney as Chris stating,

"We've settled. Everything is good."

- This proves that Ed Shin was lying in wait.

That's a legal term that means that he set up that meeting

for the sole purpose of killing Chris.

- After the murder, Shin transported the body to a remote location

in the California desert near the Mexican border.

- Cell phone pings showed that Ed Shin's cell phone

was located at that place that night.

- Ed Shin tells me that he did not touch the body

or move the body, and that he called Jack Valero

to find someone to help do that.

Ed Shin was put in contact with a man,

described as a Eastern European,

to do this task.

- Jack Valero denies this ever happened

and Shin's claim is never substantiated.

- After the killing, Ed spends months

impersonating Chris to his family and friends and business colleagues,

that he was alive and well, and travelling the world.

- On Friday, June 4th, 2010,

Ed Shin agrees to meet Chris Smith

at the office of 800 Exchange.

Shin arranges this meeting for after 5 p.m.

when he knows no other staff will be at the office.

- Tensions had been escalating

between the two business partners.

- Ed did not allow Chris to have access to their books

because what Ed was doing, he was taking money from the company

and hiding it or using it.

- The term often used in many investigations

is follow the money, but the same logic applies

when there is no money to be found.

That's as much a red flag for investigators.

And in this case, it turns out Chris's partner

is in financial dire straits.

Immediately right there, given that they are partners in this business,

provides motive.

With Chris out of the way, he remains the sole shareholder,

the controlling officer of the company.

He can draw shareholder loans, he can sell the company,

he can take any number of steps that Chris may have prevented

in order to ameliorate or mitigate this,

this terrible financial situation.

- Chris wanted to put limits and controls

on the company spending.

Chris was frustrated with the amount of money

that Ed was spending.

- Ed Shin did not have the money to pay out Chris

because he needed $700,000 to pay the restitution

for the embezzlement case.

RAY: Between 5 p.m. and 6:01 p.m... - (blows)

- Ed Shin kills Chris Smith in their 800 Exchange office.

- Ed continued to write family and friends of Chris,

impersonating him

until the blood was found in the office,

and at that point, that's when Shin's whole world

started to come undone.

- In December of 2018 Ed Shin

is convicted of first degree murder

with special circumstances in the killing

of his business partner Chris Smith.

- Special circumstances are circumstances that,

if attached to a murder, increase the penalty

to where you could actually potentially get the death penalty

or life without parole.

And in this particular case,

the special circumstance was murder for financial gain.

Ed Shin is now serving life without the possibility of parole

in a California state prison.

- Chris's family is extremely relieved

that the person responsible for their son's death

has been arrested.

Although many questions still remain,

they're relieved that the person responsible is now in jail.

Shin has never indicated where Chris's body is

and he's indicated that there are secrets

that a man can never give up.

I think he's still hoping to use it down the road to get out.

It's like his only remaining card that he has.

- The one thing that lives with me is getting to know Chris

through his family and friends and not having the opportunity

to have met him.

I feel that I have, but there were so many good things

that I found about him that it would've been an honour

to meet someone like him, just being vibrant in life.

- Chris went into this business partnership

with great intentions

and had no idea the person

that Ed Shin really was.

- Basically Chris opened the door to his life

and allowed this monster, Ed Shin, to enter it

in the most intimate settings,

where Chris would be vulnerable and Ed Shin took advantage of that.

Ed Shin is a predator, there's no doubt.

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