Ed Shin posed as dead business partner Chris Smith
![Ed Shin posed as dead business partner Chris Smith Ed Shin posed as dead business partner Chris Smith](https://www.oxygen.com/sites/oxygen/files/2021/06/edward-shin-pd.jpg)
Handsome businessman Chris Smith seemed to have it all: a successful business, a beautiful girlfriend and a relaxed Californian lifestyle.
But in the summer of 2010, Chris seemingly threw his old life overboard, sold his business shares, broke up with his girlfriend via text message and set off on a boat trip around the world, as Dateline: Unforgettable.
For six months, Chris’ family received a series of emails from the jetsetter describing his adventures with a Playboy Playmate as they traveled from one exotic location to the next.
But when the email traffic suddenly stopped and Chris’ family contacted the U.S. State Department to determine their son’s whereabouts, they made a shocking discovery: Chris had never left the United States. Instead, months earlier, he had suffered a cruel fate at the hands of a cunning and heartless killer who later assumed the dead man’s identity to deceive his close-knit family for months.
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“For a family, a thinking, caring family, it was like a year in a house of illusions,” noted correspondent Keith Morrison.
Who was Chris Smith?
Chris had always been a fiercely independent, creative thinker who loved the outdoors and surfing.
“He was one of those people who thought anything was possible,” recalled his brother Paul Smith.
After attending community college, Chris found success as an entrepreneur specializing in advertising in California’s thriving technology world.
In 2009, Chris was looking for his next adventure and moved to Laguna Beach, California, where he co-founded 800XChange, a lead generation company, with Ed Shin.
In many ways, the business partners seemed to be opposites. While Chris was a laid-back single who spent his free time riding the next wave, Shin was married, father of four children, and a regular churchgoer.
But together, the business flourished. Chris began dating a beautiful girl who he confessed to his family might be “the one.”
Chris Smith’s emails to family members
Then, in June 2010, Chris seemingly abruptly changed course. He broke up with his girlfriend via text message and sent an email to his family telling them he had sold his share of the business and was leaving for a three-week sailing trip to the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica.
Chris’ family was surprised, but he had always been impulsive and, according to Paul, seemed “very stressed” in the weeks leading up to the life-changing decision.
“I wanted the best for him, no matter what decision he made,” Paul said.
Chris told his family in the emails that he had made the trip with a Playboy Playmate – a detail that struck them as odd. As the weeks went by, Chris emailed that he had decided to extend his trip and travel through South America and toward Africa.
In a final email dated December 26, 2010, Chris told his family that he was planning a dangerous plan: he would sell his gold Krugerrand coins to a dealer in Rwanda who would pay him a “30% premium.”
“Only out here is this (swear word) like real currency,” he wrote.
Paul admitted that he thought his brother had “lost his mind” by carrying out such a dangerous plan and that he suspected that something was wrong.
Chris’ father Steve, a former police officer, felt the same, and when the emails stopped coming, he contacted the U.S. State Department in the hope of tracking his son’s movements using his passport.
But Steve was stunned to learn that Chris’ passport had never been used and there was no evidence that he had ever left the United States.
Steve drove to Laguna Beach and spoke with Shin, who told him that Chris had left the country using a fake passport. However, Steve still didn’t feel comfortable with it and decided to report his son missing to the Laguna Beach Police Department.
When investigators spoke to Shin, he told them that Chris wanted out of the business and agreed to sell Shin his share of the company before he left. According to Shin, he had kept in touch with Chris via email and even wired him money to India as part of a regular payment for his shares in the business.
“I don’t know where he is,” he insisted. “I mean, honestly, I think he’s on the other side of the world.”
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A crime scene is uncovered
Shin’s claims began to fall apart after private investigator Joe Dalu was asked by the property manager to investigate the situation in which the This is where 800XChange’s office used to be.
The company had already moved out months earlier, leaving behind a large amount of unpaid bills.
Dalu went into the office and was surprised to find what he thought was blood on a light switch and a door frame.
He called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which called in crime scene investigators.
They discovered more blood, including a large dark stain on the concrete beneath the carpet. DNA tests later showed that the blood was Chris’s.
Investigators also learned that Shin was on probation for embezzling funds from another company at the time of Chris’ disappearance. If he did not pay $700,000 in restitution in that case, he would go to prison.
“Ed Shin is desperate, he has a lot of debt to pay off because of a criminal case, and he has a wife and four children,” former Sergeant Ray Wert told Morrison.
Ed Shin’s confession
Orange County detectives brought Shin in for questioning.
At first he denied knowing anything about Chris’ death, but when investigators told him they were arresting him for premeditated murder, Shin changed his story. He claimed he killed Chris in self-defense after a paranoid Chris attacked him in the office. Shin claimed Chris fell, hit his head on the desk and died.
He then admitted that he had spent months assuming Chris’ identity online in an attempt to ditch his family.
Prosecutors, however, did not believe Shin’s story and were convinced that the married father had murdered Chris in cold blood after suspecting that he might steal from the company.
“This case was about greed at its most diabolical and despicable,” said prosecutor Matt Murphy. “He killed a really nice guy for money so he could go gamble in Vegas. But to then assume his identity online and torment his family like that is horrific.”
He claimed to a jury in 2018 that Shin beat or stabbed Chris to death in his office before disposing of his body. Shin has never disclosed the location of the body.
To throw everyone off his trail, just minutes after Chris was murdered, Shin sent an email to a lawyer posing as his murdered business partner and falsely claiming that he had agreed to sell his shares in the company to Shin.By having complete control over the business, Shin was able to divert the money he needed.
However, Shin’s lawyers again claimed that Chris was killed in self-defense after attacking Shin in the office.
It took the jury less than an hour to find him guilty of premeditated murder for financial gain.
Shin, who is currently serving a life sentence behind bars, continues to refuse to provide information about the location of Chris’ body.
“There are simply secrets for which a man is willing to sacrifice his life,” Shin said threateningly to Morrison behind bars.