This is Jeppard Roberts with 2020. For more than four decades, 2020 has brought you an incredible variety of compelling stories. Well, now we're going to bring you back to some of the most heart-stopping ones from the 2020 true crime vault. We're going to give you updates on what happened to the people involved. Thanks for listening. Coming up. Every surfer that anybody knows has a dream of sailing off in the sunset with a beautiful woman and a bunch of money. And that's what Chris Smith's family thought he was doing. But they couldn't have been more wrong. Why hasn't he called? He's skipped town. What would make him turn away from all the things he held so dear? There's pirates in the water, so I was terrified. Why hasn't he sent us any pictures? Chris Smith is realizing day by day that Ed Shin, his partner, is a crook. With a straight face, he would look you in the eye and be stealing from you. Ed Shin had two lives: his church, and then it turns out he had a real love of gambling, loved to go to Las Vegas. Ed was the perfect Jekyl and Hyde.

Gambling a lot of money, seeing hookers. It's like two worlds about to collide. It was Helter, Skelter. Ed, I need you to be honest. I'm honest. Now is the time for you to tell me. You get one shot at it. I'm sorry, just a second. I'm John Quineones. Two business partners, young, successful, living the good life in Southern California. Ed Shin was a family man, a church member, the picture of stability. Chris Smith, on the other hand, was a dreamer, always itching for adventure. So when Chris emailed and said he was giving up the business to travel the world, it didn't strike family and friends as odd. But as time went on, Chris's emails took a more ominous turn, and some close to him began to wonder if the person they were communicating with was really Chris at all. As we first reported in 2020, this is a story where one man was not what he seemed. The question was, how far would he go? And would that deception lead to murder? Chris Smith was a real surfer. He dedicated his life to this, and he loved it. Chris was tall, dark, and handsome. Women were drawn to him.

Very all-American surfer, slash business casual professional guy. Chris grew up in Watsonville, California, which is outside of the beach town, Santa Cruz. It was a place where he got really into things like wakeboarding and surfing. A good place for a guy who is athletic and liked to do stuff outdoors. I don't know many brothers that were as close as we were. We just had a unique bond. Ever since I was really little, he felt like he was there to protect me, to provide for me. Were he and Paul always as close as they were towards their later years? Always. They were just the best of friends. We had just a great childhood. My dad was a firefighter. My mom was a preschool teacher. We lived on a private ski lake, so we grew up water skiing. I'm a big fan of weightboarding. Chris Stennel. Chris wasn't a gifted student. He was dyslexic but devilishly smart. His mind was always going, and that continued through his life. He just was a constant thinker and didn't want to be put in a box. Where he really excelled was in sports and especially water sports. Chris was almost like an adrenaline junkie.

He had more of a drive than anybody else out on the lake. No fear. And he always would practice, practice, practice. He went and bought himself a trampoline and he did drive a nail on top of the roof of our new house to anchor the rope. And he would hold on to it, and he would practice and practice on that, and then we take it to the water. Chris was known for his audacious tricks. He would try things that other people just thought were simply too dangerous. And it was doing one of those tricks that he blew out his Achilles tendon, and that was it for his pro wakeboarding career. The water was his source of relief, love to surf, love to be at the beach. He was a lot of fun. I felt like he was always the life of the party, like people just gravitated towards him. He was always full of adventure. If you think about Chris Smith, you got to remember he loved the ocean, loved action, loved beautiful cars. So he had that quest for adrenaline. He liked that, thrived on that. Outwardly, he was the jock, the surfer, the extreme sports guy.

He looked the part, he just fit that stereotype of the beach guy. But his friends say that he always had ambitions, he had plans. He was very passionate about what he did, but he was very interested in being successful in making money. He wanted it all. His dreams involved having a good amount of cash. And so he was striving for her to be able to travel the world to be very successful in business. Chris Smith is doing great. He's living in Orange County. He's got an apartment in Laguna Beach. Orange County attracts very wealthy people. The rich people, famous people. Just south of Los Angeles, a lot of the movie stars, a lot of the famous athletes wind up moving to Orange County, particularly in the area that Chris lived in. Beautiful houses, beautiful boats, beautiful cars, all of that. He's driving a Range Rover. He's surfing whenever he wants. He's encountered great business success in the lead generation business. Debt 10,000 offers services to get you out of debt fast. Chris becomes involved in this extremely lucrative part of the advertising and marketing industry that sells sales leads from people calling into 800 numbers.

And he teams up with a man named Ed Shin, another young, promising entrepreneur. And together they form a company called the 800 Exchange. 800 Exchange got to be very successful. They reached a point where they were making millions of dollars. He was making a lot of money. After I graduated college, he wanted to give me a gift, and I said, Let's go on a surf trip. And he's like, All right, where do you want to go? I said, Tahiti. So we went on a... He booked a 23-day surfing trip for us. Yeah, it was incredible. After years of that free, spirited beach guy lifestyle of chasing waves and beautiful women, well, guess what happens? Chris meets perhaps the one. A wonderful woman named Erica, and she seemed to fill every void when it came to romance. Tell me about his girlfriend, Erica. She was sweet. Yeah, I was looking forward to having her as a sister-in-law. Did it seem like it was serious? I could tell that he really liked her. He had expressed to me that I was thinking about getting even more serious in terms of proposing to her. So I knew he really liked her.

She had said then she just loved him so much, and he had told his father he loved her. Did you think that he may propose? We did. We thought he was. He was talking about it. If you looked at Chris from the outside, you would see this hunky guy living in beautiful Southern California who has this incredibly lucrative job, this beautiful ballet dancer with dazzling green eyes as a girlfriend. And you think he has it all. But there were signs of stress. The company that he had founded with Ed Shin, it starts to look like it could be in jeopardy. Chris was always talking to his friends about, Hey, we should go, we should quit all this. He had visions of these faraway places and that he could live a simpler life there. If you knew Chris, you would know about how he believed in conspiracy theories and certain things. He was like, anti-government and taxes like we shouldn't pay taxes, that thing. He wanted to make it big so that he could cut out. He was quite dissatisfied in many ways with the modern world. It looks like 31-year-old Chris Smith finally makes the decision to do just that, sever all ties and just get off the grid.

Chris emails his family, telling them that he and Ed met and they reached an agreement. Ed had bought him out of his share of the company. They founded 800 Exchange. Everyone knew that Chris was a free spirit and that he wanted adventure. But it was a little bit surprising when suddenly, unannounced, they find out through emails that Chris is off the grid. He's leased a yacht. He's gone on a world traveling adventure. But nobody knew about it until they got these sudden emails. Monday, June seventh, 2010. I'm going on a vacation. Probably a three week trip to Galabagos Islands in Costa Rica. Love you too. It made total sense to you that Chris would just up and leave it all. Yeah. I remember him in the kitchen saying, I'm so over all of it. I'm just going to be done. I'm going to go be a bartender on the beach. Amazing sailing for the past two weeks. There's no internet or phones, just us in the sea. Every surfer has this dream of sailing off into the sunset with a bunch of money and a beautiful woman. In this case, the problem is it was not Erica.

Chris sends Paul an email and attached to it is a picture of his traveling companion, and she is stunning. She's a former Playboy playmate, Tiffany Taylor. This may seem like Chris's dream trip, but it's nothing but a nightmare for Erica. So through a message from Chris, she learned she's been tossed overboard. Most people would be like, A Playboy playmate? Come on. But Chris was good looking enough, wealthy enough that that actually made total sense. Yeah. I remember I got one email from Erica, and she was really mad. And she said, What the? What's going on? Is he bipolar? And I said, Well, no. Sometimes he just needed to get away. There's only my friend and me and the crew. I miss you guys too. I see things so much more clearly now because I've unplugged myself of that crazy society and fast lane, something I should have done so much sooner. I'm basically saying I'm headed to Peru. I'm going to travel a bit. I remember saying, Wow, I love you. Take picks. Have a great time. I'll be home probably around early to mid-August. I want to get up to Buenos Aires if possible.

The seas are choppy, sometimes smooth. At first, Chris said that this trip would last a couple of weeks. Those weeks turned into months, and suddenly he's on this round the world epic adventure. Hey, guys. I just finally docked in Uceuia, a port in Argentina. You have about 20 to 25 more islands to explore. The question is these emails develop are, is he running to something or is he running away from something? Because as time went on, originally, it looked like he just needed a break. And then the emails started to look like he might have been running from something. Chris has dropped off the grid, and he has taken off to this wonderful surf trip with a beautiful woman. He's got no phone, he's got no camera, and they're only getting periodic emails regarding what he's doing. As time goes on, the emails take a downright sinister turn. Chris was emailing stuff about not wanting to come back. Just paint a picture that he was lose in sight of who he was. His messages are not the kinds of things you'd really expect. They're wondering, What is going on? This past year and a half was such a nightmare for me.

And I even contemplated doing unspeakable things because I was so stressed, angry, scared, and confused. At that point, it was just, This isn't making any sense. This guy, he's lost his mind. Chris's family didn't know what to think because he seemed so up in some of his emails, and then he talks about even contemplating suicide. Yeah, we were replying the best way we could to comfort him, to reassure him, do anything we could. Yeah, they were super worried. I don't know if I'll ever get over some of the things in my life. But this traveling and living on a sustenance level has really started to change how I see things and what matters to me. I'm actually journaling now. And one day, I'll share some of the things I wrote down about our relationship growing up and what the fuck happened within our family. This disclosure about problems that Chris said that he experienced as a kid, this comes out of nowhere for the family. As far as they knew, he never experienced any emotional trauma. That was strange to me because we had a good relationship. What he was saying wasn't true. It was just like someone that was just very conflicted.

And so that's when it got really alarming to my parents. And they started getting emails like that about my brother's past in childhood, and we started to have suspicions, but didn't want to entertain that train of thought too much because of where it would lead to. I think it was so emotionally hard to even think about. Chris has been gone for several months now, and his emails reflect a lot of mood changes, erratic behavior, almost. In the beginning, he's very happy. Then, he reveals that he's very depressed, considering the unthinkable. Then, he goes back to feeling very happy and adventurous once again. According to his emails, Chris has now ditched the playmate, and he's on his own. As time goes on, the family gets increasingly worried, and they begin to wonder, Are some clues that we've missed? What would make him turn away from all the things he held so dear? So naturally, it makes sense that they want to talk to his old business partner, Ed Shin. What might he know? Ed Shin was the son of immigrants, and he grew up in a conservative Christian home, and they demanded achievement from him, and that's what he delivered.

He was a really good student. He was a good athlete. Pretty much everything he did, he did well. And eventually, he goes to UC San Diego. On paper, Ed Shin was more naturally set up for success. Chris struggled in school. He didn't make it through college. Ed was doing all the right things, getting his degree, getting his first jobs. He had the more obvious path to becoming successful in business. Ed Shin was an upstanding member of his community. He was a married father of three. He was the member of a Christian mega church and was religious, dressed very nicely. He just looked the part of the successful business and family man. Ed and his wife were members of our church. Hes here in Tameculah, California. Joseph Kree, who's actually run successful companies, and he's a completely legitimate businessman. And he meets chin in this church group Bible study. There's a sense of camaraderie that's developed in groups like this where you see people on a week-to-week basis. Maybe you spend personal time over the holidays with friends like this. I think as part of that camaraderie, you want to try to help people. I thought he had some skills that ironically were in the vein of what we were looking for as we were starting a new company called Lead Generation Technologies.

Listen up, America. Have you been denied credit? Lead Generation, if you hear this ad that says, Reduce your credit card debt, get a new mortgage, and they tell you an 800 number at the end of it. You call in, they take down your information, and then they actually sell that off to companies that are in the mortgage business or in the credit card business. A few examples up here. The tax 10,000 network has helped people all over America. Call 800. It's really just a way of grabbing customers and selling them off to the highest bidder. So call us now. So the more phone calls that are generated by these television ads, the more money your company gets. This is how Google makes most of its revenue today. They sell clicks online. Right. We're selling phone calls. So Shin is hired by Joseph gray. Joseph gray gives him a job and it's a position of trust. What I really needed was somebody to go out there and develop a marketplace for the leads that we would be generating off of our television advertising. And I felt he could be employee number one. We gave him that title.

In early 2008, Ed and Chris were both working in the lead generation industry, meet each other and hit it off. And Ed recommended to Joseph that this guy, Chris, would be he's a promising up and cmer. I think we should bring him on board at LG Technologies. On the sales side, Chris would have been employee number two, but I would say that at that moment, Ed and Chris were the face of the company. So I was optimistic. The guys seemed to know what they were doing. It seemed like they were executing and we were growing. Now the key to building a successful lead generation company is finding buyers that are willing to pay big money for those leads, those calls that come into the 800 numbers. To find those buyers, there is no better place, perhaps on Earth, than the convention circuit in Las Vegas. And that's where Ed goes to try to rustle up these buyers. While Chris is back at LG Technologies, Ed is trying to entice these new clients with parties and booze and women. Along for the ride in one of these incredibly lavish junkets to Las Vegas is one of Joe Gray's most trusted employees.

He's an ex-marine called Michael Montgomery. So we landed in Vegas. We get picked up by the Phantom Fuel Rolls-Royce that was part of the win. They would pull us up to the entry of the win. The suite was bigger than any room I've ever seen. Three bedrooms, it had a massage room, its own dining room. Just picture this, one of the nicest hotels in Las Vegas. It is a two-storey suite with Butler service, its own billiard room and an elevator. Ed would hire what are known as Atmosphere models or Arm candy models. And these are beautiful women in Las Vegas who, for a fee, will come and hang out at your party. So it would just look like to Ed's associates like, This guy is the coolest guy in town because, look, he shows up and suddenly these women flock to him. My early impressions of Ed were he seemed very charming, but then there were sides of him that I really started to see that were not so charming. Ed Shin had two lives. He's got his churchgoing, upstanding, community member life in Orange County. And then it turns out he had a real love of gambling.

And he was the type of player who could win or lose $100,000 in the space of a couple of hours. I come down and I'm walking through the casino floor and I saw Ed sitting right at the blackjack table. I would suspect that he had about $20,000 worth of chips sitting at the table there. Ed Shin is gambling so much money in Vegas that they comp him that sweet. I heard crazy stuff like that. I felt based on the relationship that we developed, things I had done for him personally, I felt that there would be some measure of loyalty. That Ed might be one of the last people that would take advantage of my generosity and kindness. But it all boiled down to one salient point in my mind. Ed was living beyond his means. I think I spent the next week working from my home, trying to figure out what's going on here because we knew there was some fraud that had taken place. I think it was at that moment that I realized, Oh, boy, we've got a big problem. Businessman Joseph gray has put his trust in fellow church member Ed Shin, and hired him to run his company, LG Technologies.

Shin, in turn, has brought Chris Smith on board. But gray has become suspicious of his protege, and the information he uncoveres will show the staggering extent of Shin's deceptions. Now the question is, is it possible Shin will betray Chris as well? I learned we've been bambooled here. Ed was embezzling the money out of LG Tech. At the same time that Ed was supposedly being the President of LG Technologies looking out for that company's interests, he had formed a rival company doing more or less the same thing. Ed Shin had embezzled a lot of money from Joe and stole clients. Ed and Chris have launched their own company, 800 Exchange. In this partnership, Chris has just under 50 % stake. And while this is a fresh start with a brand new company, Ed is still up to his old tricks. So at home, he's this model husband and family man. On the road, he's a high stakes gambler and a womanizer. Eight in an exchange was by far the biggest opportunity that Chris had had. They were generating 1500 phone calls a day. They were making money hand over fist. These were the heady days of making money, and they were killing it.

And given what you just said, it sounds like the vast majority of that was profit. About 80 % of it was profit. When the business took off, Chris's circumstances were transformed. He was putting down roots. It just seemed like that thing he'd been reaching for for so long was finally there for him. He bought along with Ed, a bunch of gold coins. In 2009, Chris Smith starts increasing his stockpile of gold. And his favorite form of gold is this. It's called a Kruegerand. It's minted by the South African government. And in 2009, an ounce of one of these is worth about a thousand dollars. And it's very popular among people like Chris Smith who don't trust banks or governments. How much gold did Chris have? I don't know the full amount, but it was tens of thousands of dollars that he stored in his condo. While Ed and Chris are trying to get this company off the ground, Ed is living the high life, the finest suits, the most luxurious car, the most lavish trips to Las Vegas. How often do you think Ed took people to Vegas? A couple of times a month, once a month.

When he was in Vegas, he liked to party. He liked to be around beautiful women. He liked to be at the center of the action. He wanted to be instead of that squeaky clean nerd in the golf club, he wanted to be the cool guy at the center of the action in Las Vegas. In 2009, while Chris's business, the 800 Exchange, is taking off, he invites his younger brother, Paul, to come work with him there. Chris is only two years older than Paul, but not only have they always been incredibly close, but Paul says that he saw Chris as something of a protector and a supporter. When Chris asked you to come down to Orange County, what was his pitch? My brother said, We have a successful lead gen company. It's already been up and running for a couple of months. We'd like you to come and work for us and be in sales. We flew down to look at rentals because we wanted to move down there once Paul started working for Chris and Ed let us use his car, took us out to lunch like I held his kids. He was very charming.

He was a religious guy, had a family. At this point, Ed and Chris are living large spending a lot of money. It's also at this point that Joe gray completes his audit and realizes that Ed Shin has been diverting business, embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars, stealing clients. How much money do you think Ed Shin embezzled from you? We think it's like two and a half million in total. That's a lot of money. That is a heartbreaking, a dollar amount. At what point did you feel like you understood the totality of Ed Shin's personality? I think during that week of that Perry Mason forensic audit exercise I went through, I lived it. I lived the betrayal. Ed was the perfect Jekyl and Hyde. Joseph gray extended a helping hand to Ed when he really needed that help. Ed responded by biting the hand that was feeding him. I had a mandate. My mandate was hold him accountable. Do whatever I had to do to make sure that the district attorney in Riverside County would hold him accountable. This case won't be that hard to prosecute because they've got records, they've got documents, they've got proof that Shin is skimming money from the company.

And he's using it to pay off big gambling debt. Hands, high-priced cars and clothes and women. In the end, he's charged in October of 2009 with felony and bail. Chris Smith is realizing day by day that Ed Shin, his partner, is a crook. He did not care who he hurt or how he hurt people to get what he wanted. With a straight face, he would look you in the eye and be stealing from you. Who does that? Chris, his senses were on high alert. He wrote his attorney. He said, Ed is itching for a way to commit fraud against me. You've got to keep that from happening. So just a week after he moved to Laguna to take this job with 800X, Ed's arrested for bezzling from LG. It was a brand new city, new job, and then the boss is arrested. We're like, What? It was a shock to us, distressing. We just brought our kids down there. I got out immediately. When Paul approached Ed, he smoothed it over like, Well, no, it's fine. You don't need to worry about it. It's taken care of. Chris was shocked by it too. I asked Chris if he had anything to do with it, and he said, Absolutely not.

The veil was lifted and Chris could see that Ed was just somebody to watch out for. And this company was making money. I heard something maybe a few months later, but to the tune of a million dollars a month. The company, I was doing very well. There was a lot of money floating around. Even in the face of this serious embezzlement case, the company, 800 Exchange, is still making quite a bit of profit. And that means for Ed continuing his lavish lifestyle, which includes the trips to Las Vegas. Ed would sometimes bring members of 800 Exchange with him to Las Vegas to talk business and to have some fun. It's on my tables. No one ever knew how much money he was spending. My brother didn't have access to the business accounts. I remember sitting on the couch with Chris. I said, Where were all your financial records? He said, Well, Ed handles all that. And I'm like, There should be complete transparency there, especially given his past behavior. At what point do you really become suspicious of him? March of 2010, things started to change. I could tell my brother's relationship with Ed had soured a little bit.

Chris started to realize that Ed was someone who couldn't be trusted. He had swindled from his previous company, and it seems that Chris started to wonder if he did it before, why wouldn't he do it again? Chris is realizing that he's in business with a con man. Chris is concerned that Ed is going to steal Chris's rightful share of the 800 Exchange, and so he hires a lawyer, Ernesto Aldivar. Chris came to me and he said, My partner is a liar, and I'm afraid that he's going to take all the money that we're making. I need your help to see if we can secure some of my interests. Ed Shin is convicted of felony and embezzlement in May of 2010, and then he reaches an agreement on the sentence to avoid prison time. He'll pay restitution of roughly $800,000. And the only way he does not violate his probation and go to state prison is if he comes up $800,000 that he has to get from 800 Exchange. The only way he can get that out of 800 Exchange is if Chris Smith agrees. Because Chris Smith is a part owner of the 800 Exchange, Ed needs Chris's signature to free up the funds that Ed is going to need to resolve that settlement deal.

Chris didn't want to sign the settlement because he wanted to make sure that the money that belonged to him was secure. There was a deadline for the settlement to be signed. We knew that it was early the week of June seventh. Ed was under a lot of pressure from a lot of fronts. He owed $800,000 in a settlement to LG. He allegedly had some big gambling debts in Las Vegas to pay off. He's becoming cornered financially. So you've got this brooding conflict and you've got one guy with an attorney trying to do everything right, and then you've got another guy who is completely shady. So it's like two worlds about to collide. So Chris and Ed met on June fourth, allegedly to finalize the agreement. Part of the deal was that Chris would get access to the accounts. And what he expected to see there is millions of dollars just sitting there. That's all the profit that their business had been making over the past year. The only thing we were waiting for that day is that Chris had to be given access to the bank account so he could see that the money was still there.

This is an email from Chris to me dated June 4, 2010 at 12:34 PM. I'm meeting with Ed now to go over statements. He fixed the login. Everything looks normal. After that, a curious thing happens, which is that Smith's attorney gets an email from Chris Smith with a buyout agreement. So this is a shift. Instead of providing guarantees that Chris would have access to all the bank accounts, now Chris emails his lawyer telling him that he's selling his share of the company. This is an email from Chris Smith at 6:01 PM. It says, Ernesto, I agreed in principle with Ed to buy me out. $700,000 of the reserve will be paid in three installments. When Ed sends details, I'll forward and we can discuss. Chris. And then I got this one page resolution says both Smith and Shin agreed to execute the settlement in exchange for a good faith payment. My first reaction was, Well, why is he doing this? This isn't what we had been negotiating for the past two weeks. When Ernesto Aldivar received that 601 email from Chris, it was a complete game-changer. All of a sudden, it's a complete 180 from everything they've been talking about.

The following Monday on June seventh, 2010, I received an email from Chris that says the documents are still being prepared, but I'm going on vacation for a few weeks to South America, and that let me know if you need anything. Chris has finalized his settlement with Ed, and he's taken off. Unbeknown to Paul and his family who've been up in Oregon for the last two weeks, so they're completely out of the loop. Paul and Leah had flown up here to go to my nephew's wedding. So tell me about this trip. You flew up here to Oregon to visit family. Chris dropped you off at the airport. It was sad that we were leaving. I gave him a hug, flew up to Oregon. We were there for a couple of weeks. We communicated via text that he'd be there to pick me up at the Long Beach Airport. Just never showed up. Chris Smith, it seems, has made a sudden decision, selling his share of the business he had founded with his partner, Ed Shin, and taking off on an unexpected vacation. Chris's attorney has been puzzled by the sudden about-face, but he's not the only one Chris has taken by surprise.

Paul goes on vacation with his family. Chris takes him to the airport and they come back from vacation. Chris isn't there to pick him up. Well, that's odd. I'm calling, texting, I can't get through to him, and eventually I get a hold of Ed, and Ed said, Oh, yeah, he doesn't have his phone. We came to a settlement. I bought him out of the company, and he took off with some playboy playemate to the Galapica Islands. You think given how close Chris and Paul were and the fact that Paul worked in the same company that Paul would have been the first person to know that Chris had just sold his share of the business to Ed, Shin. But Chris could sometimes just take off and disappear without notice. I felt it hurt. We were so close to just up and leave and not talk to me about it first. Didn't sit well, but Chris expressed to me that it was such a tremendous amount of stress and he's been put under from Ed in this situation. So when I heard that there was a settlement. I was in a way happy for him. Did you worry what it meant for you?

A little bit, that I was there without him now. I was a little bit stressed out about it, but I just figured, Hey, I have a family here I need to support. I need to be strong. So just carried on as usual. What was the atmosphere like in the office? Ed wasn't showing up to work as much, and the situation was more quiet in the office. It was the way I would describe it. A little bit eerie. With Chris gone with no notice, just picked up and left. So I think a lot of people had questions. Not long after he gets back to work after this massive upheaval in the company, Paul finds there's a new employee and he's sitting in Chris' office. Kinnecraft just showed up all of a sudden in June. I just moved back from Hawaii and I was looking for work at the time and ended up meeting Ed, had a party and headed off pretty well. Probably started working there a couple of weeks later. At first I was like, okay, why is this guy here? What is his role? Why do we need him here? And I was told that he was there just to run errands for Ed.

You came on to try to do sales. And then he tells you what? He said, I'd rather have you as an assistant and stay close to me. And Ed decided to bring me on as an assistant, driver, sitting in the office next door to his and just basically playing on the computer until he needed something for me. I feel like this guy hired you, and for most of the time, you're just sitting there. Driving to and from like lunches, driving home, get the kids. Did you know about Chris at the time? I had a vague understanding of what had happened. After speaking with Paul, he said it seems perfectly normal that his brother uprooted and took everything with him and went on some crazy adventure surfing. It's now two months after Chris supposedly sold his share of the 800 Exchange, and by now, he's been to the Galapagos, around the tip of South America. At some point, he's ditched Tiffany Taylor, and it seems like he's got no intention of ever coming home. Tuesday, August 31st, 2010. I'm still backpacking through South America. I'd like to spend more time down here. There are these emails.

It sounds like the Amazing Race or something. It was more very sporadic. And usually I wrote a lot more emails because I'm missing them. I'm wondering, where are you? I was starting to feel like, I don't know. This is all really fishy here. I just said him a question. I said, Chris, what lake do we live on and what type of boat we have? Just trying to confirm what I knew. And it took a while to get the emails back, but he confirmed what I was saying, Yeah, we live on Kelly Lake. Considering that one of those answers is a password to an account, what city were you born in? Then I'll tell you about Kelly Lake. They just solidify for me that he was Chris. The answers give Debbie and Steve Smith some peace of mind. They're reassured, maybe not convinced, but they are feeling better that things are okay and that Chris is having a good time. But then several months go by. Wednesday, October 20th, 2010. Hey, mom, I'm in Mubai, India. I'm headed to Cyprus and Africa after this. I miss you too, but I have so much to see and do.

What began as a one-month trip has now turned into this epic five-month journey. No credit cards or bank accounts, bro. I'm off the grid forever. I actually was able to use some gold as currency in India. I'm telling you, they use it all the time there. I was able to pay for my boat ride to Cyprus for a half-ounce Krueger. What an incredible round-of-world trip it sounds like. It sounded incredible that he was a surfer. He'd be in places like Hawaii or Tahiti and Costa Rica. At this point, Chris seems to be going to places that are out of character for him, not places on the globe that would be part of his itinerary. In the meantime, Paul is still working at 800 Exchange. He's got a family to feed. And part of the job includes business trips to Las Vegas. Ed was gambling most of the time while we were at the convention meeting with clients representing 800 Exchange as a company. And there was a big dinner that Ed had planned out for the company employees. And Ed invited women to attend the dinner. I think some of them were Playboy Playmates. While we were there talking business, I happened to see the same girl that I got an image of in an email of the girl that Chris had left with.

This is Tiffany Taylor. Tiffany Taylor, yeah. Tiffany Taylor was one of the atmosphere models hired by Ed Shin. Paul sees Tiffany and his eyes pop out of his skull. I was very excited to see her because I hadn't talked to anybody that had been with my brother, and so I sat right next to her. And he says, Tiffany, I thought you were sailing around the world with my brother. You went to the Galapagas. How was it? You left with my brother, right? Where is he now? A house, Chris. What's going on? And then she just stared at me like I was crazy. Picture this scene. There's a business meeting in Las Vegas. Ed is there, Paul Smith is there, and Tiffany Taylor is at this event. It's Tiffany Taylor. This November 1998, Playboy playmate, Tiffany, who was supposedly on this sailing trip with Chris. You were sure that you recognized her? Yes, it was the same exact girl as the picture that I got. And she just looked at me with a blank stare like I was nuts. Tiffany said, I don't know your brother. I didn't go on any a trip with him. What are you talking about?

This is crazy talk. Then Ed just looks up at me and just goes like this and just shakes his head after the dinner was over, said, That was the girl that I got a picture of that Chris left with. And he reassured me that was not the same Tiffany Taylor, it was a different Tiffany Taylor. Well, think about it. Another Tiffany Taylor. It seems impossible. But also think about Las Vegas. There's no shortage of gorgeous women probably named Tiffany. And on top of that, Ed is so convincing. The other wor thing for Paul is that things are taking a rather dark turn when it comes to 800 exchange. There's so much money coming in from the clients, and our largest buying partner was not receiving any payments for media. Where was the money going? It was going into Ed's pockets. It was this feeling of something's wrong. We have to get out. With Chris gone, Ed's spending a ton of money. He's isolating himself in his office. Ed seems rudderless. I immediately got an attorney, explained to him what was going on, and he said, put in your resignation via letter. So I did, and just depart quietly.

And so within, I think, three days, we packed up the house and we left. I didn't want to be a part of Ed's world anymore. I knew it was going to get worse. Hey, Dad. I just finally got to Johannesburg and tried calling Paul internationally. Found a conflict diamond for Paul. I'm going to give it to him for his birthday I missed. I was like, What are you thinking? You don't need to risk your life to get me a diamond for my birthday. So remember, Chris has been on this five-month whirlwind dream trip. In Oregon, his family has been on an emotional roller coaster. Now, it's during the holidays that the family gets together, and now they're getting really worried. And it's at this point that Paul tells them about this weird incident at the 800 Exchange at just about the time that Chris disappeared. June fourth was a Friday, and that's the day that Ed and Chris reached this settlement. The following Monday, employees of 800 Exchange getting a message from Ed saying, Hey, don't come in for the whole week. We got to get the office cleaned. I went into the office when I wasn't supposed to that week.

I needed to grab some stuff and it smelled really bad, like a rotten stench. There's fans on. It was very damp. All the carpets were wet. The walls had been painted. I looked down and I saw a big stain outside of Chris's office on the floor. And Ed tells everybody Chris was super drunk. He vomiting and urinated in his office. And that's the source of the smell. He didn't drink at the office. I mean, to puke and pee, urinate at the office, I mean, it's totally not normal. He would never do something like that. I was like, Okay, something's really foul here. It's just not really suspicious to me because it's not Chris. You're going to go make a million dollar deal and you're going to get drunk going to it? You made no sense at all. So I thought, What the hell? Chris's father, Steve, was once a cop, but really once a cop, always a cop. So he has those instincts that tell him something does not smell right. And he realizes it's very possible that Ed chin may have something to do with the disappearance of his son. Steve sends an email to Chris, but he's thinking in the back of his mind that Ed is really seeing this email, and his hope is to bring him out of the shadow, possibly respond to him so he can get information about his son.

I said to him that, Chen, have you heard any one of my sons? I'm going to f*cking up. And this is the start of your nightmare. But then I got a reaction to it. To Steve Smith. Friday, December 17th, 2010. Dad, I'm fine. Stop tripping. I just needed to get some f*cking out of my head. Did that sound like a. Yeah, it's not that. Okay. But I still have feelings there's something wrong. December 26th, 2010 to Paul Smith. Just realized it's Christmas. Is it snowing and bend? It's summer down here with it being so warm. I'm headed back up to the Congo. I'll be offline for a couple of weeks. I found a dealer in Rwanda that will pay 30 % markup on Krugues because the Mint ones are impossible to find. And so it's just after Christmas that Chris's emails abruptly stopped. It's radio silence. The Smith family is so worried because according to the emails they're receiving, it's no longer just sand and surf and yachts and playmates. We're talking about war-torn nations, really dangerous parts of the world. And they are so troubled about what might happen to their son. His mom starts to think he fell in with some criminals when they found out he had this gold and he's been murdered somewhere abroad.

I was searching through all the deaths that were happening in Africa and Rwanda and everywhere. If anything was a Caucasian male, 30 years or so, just searching everywhere. During the month of December, the family did get a sliver of hope. When Chris promises Paul that he'll meet him in Costa Rica in February. Here's an email I received from Chris. I'll make my way north to Egypt to cross over to Spain and then head to Costa Rica. Meet me there in February so we can surf and talk about everything. Chris. In February, Paul and Chris are supposed to go to Costa Rica together. And eventually, Paul calls the hotel that they're actually supposed to go to, and he learns from the hotel that there's no reservation in the name of his brother, that his brother has made no plans to meet up with them. And that really was probably the nail in the coffin and the family needed to get some help. Steve Smith went to the State Department, and he very soon hears this is early in 2011, passport control has no record of your son even leaving this country. As far as we're concerned, he never left.

For the family, this is a stunning revelation given all the emails that they've received, how could this possibly be true? Steve thinks this doesn't make sense because he would need the passport. So now he's got to ask people, Well, how would he leave? And one of the things he did was to go to Ed and ask him what he knew. I was worried for his safety, though, because I really felt like this guy could probably be really dangerous. When you see that passion and that love for a family member, it's very real. You could only imagine that long drive from Oregon. Ed actually brought a gun with me. The main thing is I was wanting to find my son. Either he knows what happened to Chris or he knows he's responsible for it. Nine months go by and the family is losing their minds because they haven't seen Chris, they've gotten these emails, but they have no idea what's actually happened to him. So they decide to begin their own investigation. I think it was in the spring of 2011, we got to the point where we needed some answers. I look at Steve as being the rock of that family.

He drove all the way down here from Oregon to talk to Edson himself. I'd actually brought a gun with me, so I left in the car. But I did take a digital recorder to record the conversation. Hi, how are you doing? Appreciate this. Yeah, no problem. We're just getting real nervous. We haven't heard from him in three months. We're just freaking out that he'd be killed somewhere mugged or beat up. He went on for about an hour's conversation about all kinds of stuff. I have a feeling I can help find him if you really want because the weekend before we went to Vegas together, I know he got a fake passport. There was a guy in Vegas who referred Chris to this other guy in L. A. He was the one who got him the passport. Okay. Do you believe anything that he's saying to you? No. I think there's something really wrong. He's lying to me. Either he knows what happened to Chris or he knows he's responsible for it. The significance of the fake passport story from Ed is either it explains why the State Department has no record of Chris ever leaving the country, or it means that Ed Shin is lying through his teeth, and that is a whole other problem.

After a couple of months of doing his own investigation, Steve Smith reported him missing officially to Laguna Beach PD. They launched their investigation. And in June 2011, a full year after Chris goes missing, Edd comes in for questioning. He's here today at the Laguna Beach PD. He begins describing the story about Chris being drunk and being a flaky guy. He hit me so much. He hit me. He hit me everywhere. He had broken a couple of bottles of wine. It was a mess and it smelled. I had to send our employees home because they were complaining about the smell and we had to get it all cleaned. When is the last day you saw Chris? The first Monday of June, I think. I think it was the third or fourth. We're not there yet. He went to Las Vegas that weekend. Okay, I guess I dropped him off at home. And that was the last time I saw him. I don't know where he is. I mean, he's on the other side of the world. I think he doesn't want to be found. Thank you. Three weeks later, Detective Julia Bowman is on the case.

I looked at all of that circumstantial evidence, the timeline of when things happened, listened to Edson's explanation of what had happened in the office, and none of it seemed plausible. Detective Bowman isn't the only person investigating this case. Enter a gentleman by the name of Joe DeLue. So Joe DeLew is a private investigator, and it's by complete coincidence that he gets involved. Joe DeLew moves into an office just a couple of doors down from the abandoned 800 Exchange. It's 2011 of April. We were in there for probably just a couple of months, and we were contacted by the property manager. He knew we were a private investigation firm, and he said that one of their tenants, Ed Shin, had skipped out on their lease. The amount that was owed was around 40,000, I believe. He advised us at one point that a local law enforcement agency was trying to get a hold of Ed Shin as well because someone filed a missing persons report on his business partner, Chris Smith. So that perked us up a little bit, too. I do remember going, Would you mind me taking a look at this for you and help find your son?

We started conversing between us. In a short period of time, he actually became friends. He eventually sent me the emails and everything that he had, all the things that he did trying to look for his son and the people that he spoke with. And we just started collecting that and taking a look at it. The family even hires a computer expert to analyze the data in Chris's emails, trying to figure out where they originated. He takes a look at them and he says, No, I believe these both came from when to the United States. It was a very delicate situation. How do you tell somebody that I think something serious happened to your son that's not just a missing person? It turns out that the property manager gives Joe DeLue the most incredibly important piece of information. Let's rewind to June of 2010. Ed calls up the property manager and says, How do you get blood on the carpet? They then actually send over a portal to look at the blood on the carpet? The portal goes in there and sees blood. And Ed explains to the portal, Oh, I cut my hand when I was cutting an apple.

Joe starts doing some research. As an investigator, he thinks like, Hey, maybe we should go look in the office. We learned that the office was still and we wanted to go take a look. So the property manager allows you in? Correct. We're walking around with our flashlight, and that's when we discover some blood or what we think is blood. It was very surprising that anything could be found at the office. It had been a year since he had left that office. We heard from Edson himself that he had cleaned the office twice. I contacted Don Boat in the Orange County Sheriff Department, and he said he thought maybe there was a murder had occurred in there. I explained to Joe that a stretch at this point. So we went to the office park with the Orange County crime lab. They closed the door and they had sprayed luminol all over the inside of Chris's office, which would present any type of blood that was in the office. And it almost makes it like a fluorescent green color, and it lights up like the Christmas tree. So we know this isn't just someone cut their finger.

There's a crime scene here. We started coming into Chris' office. And one of the things we first picked up on was the blood on the door jam. We came into the office and I pointed out this possible blood drops to the crime lab. And they sprayed lumenol. They found there were blood stains and they were everywhere. They were on the door frame. They were on the light switch. They were on the floor. They were on the wall. They were on the ceiling. It was Helter Skelter. We had obtained a DNA sample of Chris Smith's parents. Their DNA matched the blood DNA that was found at the scene. That's when we realized all this blood in the crime scene does belong to Chris Smith. We knew at this point that we were going to arrest Ed Shin for the murder of Chris Smith. On August 28th, we found out that Ed Shin had boarded a plane at LAX, and he was headed to Canada. So I gave the Green Light, rip him off the plane, and we're going to hook him up at this point. We technically arrested him for violating his probation because Ed Shin had been arrested in Riverside County for embezzling.

He's not allowed to leave the country. So we arrested him and brought him back. Of course, the sheriffs had a wealth of information that he didn't know that they knew. We got him talking. We started talking about Chris Smith. He went missing in June, and they didn't talk to you until-No, no, no. He left the country in June. I think he went missing in December. Orange County homicide investigators Don and Ray Wurtt spend hours questioning Ed Shin. Ed sticks to that same story that Chris sold his shares of the 800 Exchange and just vanished out into the Pacific somewhere. We ultimately decided we're going to confront him with the evidence that we have. There's blood on the walls. There's blood on the doorway. It's a scientific fact. I'm not making it up. We know it's Chris' blood. We gave him an opportunity to tell us his story. Ed's response to us was, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't kill Chris. What I want to say is I want an attorney. Ed asked for a lawyer, and so the interrogation is immediately ended. Then half an hour later-You want to talk again? -investigators, Vot and Wurt are told he actually wants to come back and set the record straight.

Ed went on to tell us I didn't murder Chris Smith, but him and Chris had been involved in this knockdown, drag-out fight. Somehow he was able to grab me and he picked me up and had the men to throw me across his desk. I jumped up and then he jumped up on the desk and we almost like two rams, collided on his desk. And that's probably where the blood got on the ceiling. I was able to position myself to where I was charging him into his office again. Literally, that's when I think his head hit the desk and he was unconscious. I mean, there's blood all over his office. Pool of blood coming from his head. It's during this interrogation that all of these revelations just start spilling out. It now says this wasn't murder. This was self-defense. We had a fight and Chris just died. And all of those emails to the family, all of them were Ed's imagination. Even those cruel emails breaking up with his girlfriend, Erica, that was all Ed Shin's doing. Chris had not been sailing the world with an exotic Playboy, Playmaid. Chris had not been visiting Rwanda and Chile and Ecuador.

These emails had all been written by Edward Shin, using Chris' email accounts. It was all a charade. They were business partners. They work in the same office. They went to dinner. He got to know him so he knows the way he speaks and he knows what his dreams were. He can do a pretty good impression. It's utterly ruthless. It is fundamentally awful what he's doing here. Only a true psychopath could do this. And they charged him with first-degree murder. Good morning, America, breaking news. A bizarre and extremely cruel murder and cover-up. Police say a California man killed his business partner, then covered his tracks by creating a virtual life online. Once they've confirmed that Chris Smith is actually dead, one of the most brutal, difficult things in law enforcement is making that call to the family, and they had to do that. It was awful. It's like you can get it. It's just like a horrible nightmare, and we're living this out. This is like, horrible. We drove over to Paul's house, and we got there. He was out in driveway crying. It was a tough day. Just fell to my knees and stuff. The images that come into your mind at that point of someone you love being murdered brought in a lot of emotions and just heartbreak.

It's hard to see how much it hurt Paul because they were like twins. There's nothing to help the family that you can give us right now to indicate where Chris's body might be for closure for the family. I understand. No, I don't have anything. Shin claims he gets in contact with a Russian man, whom he pays $10,000 to $15,000 to dispose of the body. The next morning, Chris's body is gone, and Ed claims he has no idea where it is. And so Monday, came around. I got back to the office. He's gone. The reason the office smelled so bad, despite all of Edson's stories about Chris throwing up, the real reason it stank is because underneath those carpets is decaying human tissue in the form of Chris's blood. He won't say where the body is because he would then have to show the cause of death, which would absolutely prove that it wasn't mutual combat. Detective Bowman analyzes all of Edson's cell phone records and these cell phone tower pings. And then she finds that on two occasions, June seventh and June ninth, Ed drives 170 miles into the desert near this town called Boulevard, California, which is this desolate desert area right up against the Mexican border.

There's no reason for Ed Shin to have driven in the middle of the night and sat there for two hours unless he's dumping the body of Chris Smith. After we got those cell phone pings, they had helicopters and ATVs and dogs, and they had 80 people looking for them. And the problem is that so much time had gone by. There's no body. No body. There's no murder weapon. No murder weapon. It's very challenging to try somebody for murder without the body, right? Because the body will tell you everything. You see the Smith family out there, right? Last chance, Mr. Shin. Show us where the body is. More than a year after Chris Smith disappeared, Ed Shin has admitted killing his business partner. Shin insisted it was an accident, the result of a fight that spun out of control. But prosecutors aren't buying it. And now, finally, they're about to get the chance to prove their case. To argue it was premeditated murder, and to bring justice to Chris's family. The Superior Court of the state of California and for the County of Orange is now in session, I will break out the record to the presided, please be seated in the room.

This trial took a long time to get underway. Yeah. You're just in the suspended reality of not having closure and answers. You just get stuck. I had a lot of rage. It just felt like and then we're out. So if you were to boil this case down into the simplest terms, how would you characterize it? Ruthless, diabolical greed to the extreme. I mean, that's really what this boils down to. This is now seven years later that he's going to trial. So for the Smith family, this has just been painful waiting. And now finally, in 2018, Ed Shin is finally standing trial. He's charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances. Special circumstance being it was for financial gain. If convicted under California law, you get a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence is going to show that in trying to legally protect his own financial interests, Chris Smith became an obstacle for Ed Shin. Ed Shin was in a corner. Chris Smith had him in a corner. The way he could solve his problems financially, business-wise, everything else is murder Chris Smith, make him disappear, and take all of his money.

The evidence is going to show, ladies and gentlemen, that Chris Smith's office on June fourth in the evening hours, there was Helter Skelter in there. There's blood on the ceiling, there's blood on the carpet, there's blood on the walls, there's blood on the furniture. The evidence is going to show that man there beat or stabbed Chris Smith brutally to death in that office. Matt Murphy is going to argue this was a premeditated murder. The key piece of evidence is the timing of one email sent by Ed Shin, pretending to be Chris Smith to Chris's attorney on the night of the alleged murder. At 6:01 that night, did you receive an email concerning what appeared to be a change in heart or change in direction from Mr. Smith concerning the future of these companies? Yes. So that's our window where we know the murder had to take place. That email, it's perfectly written. It's not done in a panic. It makes sense. It has the right tone, and it's attached to an exhibit with a fake signature on it. So there's virtually no way Ed Shin showed up in that office without that email and that attachment ready to roll.

That means he's already decided he's going to kill him. I solemnly swear to testimony you're about to give, and the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. I do. According to Ed Shin, Smith was responsible for everything. He lunged at me again, and I think at that point, I felt I had to fight back. I don't know if I threw him or if I shoved him, but somehow I pushed him into this area, and that's when he fell and he hit the desk really hard. It's always risky for a defendant to take the witness stand because the entire case then comes down to do the jurors believe Ed Sheid? Every single word, every facial expression, every motion becomes critical. So how is it, Mr. Sheid, you didn't have a bruise or you didn't lead somewhere? Can you explain that for us? I cannot. Okay. There you are. He's on the floor of the office. He's just sustained a significant physical injury, and you can dial 911 and they can come save him. So if you don't want him to die, why don't you dial 911, Mr.

Shin? Because I was in shock. You didn't dial 911 because you knew that if he died, you got his money. Isn't that true? No. This is murder that's repeated itself throughout history. You got one guy who wants something from another guy, and the way to get it, if you want to agree, is kill him and take it. Then there was this moment during cross-examination in which Ed Shin looked like he was about to cry. He was shedding a tear. Are you tearing up a little bit right now? I'm okay, sir. Was he feeling sorry for himself? Whatever it was, Matt Murphy saw that and went in for the kill. Were you tearing up when you wrote that email to Debbie Smith saying that her son was committing suicide or suggesting that he was going to do that? Were you tearing up when you did that? Yes. Okay. You were actually at the computer tearing up as you were going to break a mother's heart by essentially blaming her for the death of her son. That was making you feel sad. It was one of the many emotions I felt, yes. That was 100 % con.

That was manipulator par exelence trying to work my jury. He's trying to make the jury feel sorry for him after all the destruction that he's caused. There's no getting emotional when you're a ruthless killer like that. In front of the jury, Edson does not budge from his claim that this was all self-defense. As for the body? Well, Edson has an answer for that as well. He claims he hired a Russian to dispose of body. Even if that was plausible that Edson had somehow hired some Eastern Europeans to dispose of Chris' body, it does not explain why investigators, when they found Chris' $100,000 Range Rover, looked in the back and found there was blood. The Range Rover, like that office, had been cleaned. There was blood that had seep down in the cracks. There was blood that had seep down in between the different components of the back of the car and the cargo area. I've always believed he drove him out to the desert and he dumped him. You're familiar with the phrase, The truth will set you free? Yes. So here we've got a skull somewhere out there in the world right now that if your story is true, it's going to match what you said.

There's going to be a single impact wound back to the skull that looks like a quarter of a desk, right? Yes. Edson says Chris fell down in the middle of this fight and hit his head. And he died from that. That means he's going to have a skull fracture that indicates a single blunt force trauma, and he's going to be able to prove what he said. So why doesn't Ed Shein set himself free by telling us where the body is? Because it's complete nonsense. It's not true. That skull has multiple blunt force trauma, and that's why Ed didn't give it up. The jury gets the case on December seventh, 2018, and it takes them less than an hour to reach a verdict. If please, if you would please read the verse. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Edward Young-Hun Shin, guilty of the crime of felony to it, violation of Section 1. My feeling when the verdict was read is total relief that he's going to be somewhere where he can't hurt anybody else again. The verdict came down the same day that we interviewed Joe gray, and so we were there with him as he broke the news to his wife, Patty.

They got him for first-degree murder. That should be sentencing, should be life in prison. Oh, my God. He won't be hurting anyone else, babe. Nine years after he murdered Chris Smith, Ed Shin is back in court with the same judge about to learn his fate. After we get the verdict, you have a sentencing, and each family has an opportunity to either address the court or to have an advocate address the court. Shin's mom, Mrs. Shin, her statement was very emotional, and she tried to take all the blame. Your Honor, my name is Jennifer Shin, mother of Edward Shin. Please know how sorry I am to both the Smith family and to this court. This is my fault. After college, Edward wants to be a pastor so he could lead Children's Ministry. I know he wouldn't be here today if I didn't ask him to change his decision. Please, mercy my son. Thank you, Honor. I felt sorry for his mom who is in court every day, but she knows what his background is. Ed not only ruined our family, but he ruined his own family and his mom and dad's family. Just a lot of loss.

Even in a wrongful condition, God will ask the support to show me no mercy. I must bear the responsibility of doing so many awful things. And if it means a life of physical suffering, so be it. God put me on this earth to serve him and gave me every opportunity and talent to tender as sheep. Instead, I chose the path of the world. The court will send to the defendant then to life without possibility of parole. He's been leaving wreckage everywhere he's gone. It's like a boat going through the water. And instead of a wake of water, it's a wake of destroyed or ruined lives everywhere he goes. We're actually inside the O'Lacey facility, and we're about to interview Ed Shin 16 hours after the sentencing. The primary question everybody wants to know: where is Chris's body? How are you doing? A small part of me is relieved because there's some closure now. In court yesterday, you described going down the path of the wolf. When did you begin to choose the path of the wolf? Well, my first job out of college was as a stockbroker. So I'm being conditioned, especially as a young professional, that it's all about the money.

I'm born and get go from Wall Street. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. But there is a difference between greed and crime. Absolutely. And you cross that line between greed and theft. Because you're making so much money and then the money is fast, quit. That's addicting. It seemed that you were living a double life. You were this father at home in California, but in Vegas, you were gambling a lot of money, seeing hookers, doing other things. It's safe to say that that's true? Yeah. Basically, the money you were supposed to use to pay back Joe gray you were sending to the casino. Yes, I did that on a few occasions. When you're on your high, consequences be damned. You're invincibleible at the point. You can do whatever you want. June fourth, 2010, Chris Smith wants access to the books. Why did you kill him? You're in a fight? There are fights and then there's killing someone. I wasn't trying to kill him. Why did you finish him off? Finish him off? You could have called 911. I was in total panic. What are you supposed to do at that point? You could have said, Hey, the guy rushed me.

He attacked me. I had no choice but to defend myself. He fell. I was already in a criminal case. Had that not been active, I probably would have called 911. But no one's ever going to believe me. These cops aren't going to believe me. So you have this dead body on the floor. What do you do with it? Me personally, I didn't do anything. And so who is the person? I can't talk about that right now. Ed, you're facing the rest of your life in prison. I am. You are. I'm going to spend the rest of your life in prison, it seems, if there's no appeal. I am, and I'm here against the advice of my attorney, so... And now you're holding the location of his body over on his parents. I'm not holding it because I don't know it. But you know the person who can get it. The day after Ed Shin was sentenced to life in prison without parole, Matt Guttman sat down to talk with him. Shin has admitted he was involved in the death of Chris Smith and his cover-up of the crime. Now, he's about to peel back the layers on what he says behind some of those emails.

But there is one lingering question he refuses to answer. You've admitted to the worst of this, right? You've admitted to stealing. You've admitted to killing Chris Smith. Right. Why did you assume Chris's identity after you killed him? At first, it was just to buy some time. I had every intention to either run away. I even had a lot of suicidal thoughts, too. And unfortunately, this sick and evil plan in the heat of the moment popped up. You've admitted to writing the emails you hacked into his life. You broke up with his girlfriend and you told his parents that he was traveling across the world and then that he was suicidal. Yeah, that was like, perhaps that was the exit strategy, but I couldn't go through with it. Because you had to find a way to kill off Chris, at least the email version of him. That was a potential exit strategy, yes, but I couldn't go through with it. There was still that little last shred of, I guess, morality or whatever you want that prevented me from doing it. I mean, in some ways, it seems like you killed him twice. In some ways, yeah.

In the sentencing yesterday, you said, I hope that someday I'll be given the opportunity to help locate Chris's body. That gives the indication that you know something that you're not telling. That you know where... I don't know where it is. No. Now you're holding the location of his body. I'm not holding it because I don't know it. But you know the person who can get it. Yeah, but that's just not... There's no way I can get to that at this point. And there's no way that I'm going to do it. I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you more, but it's something bigger that I just can't talk about. Maybe it's a bargaining chip for the future, although one would think you would have used it. No, it's not. You have to think about it. If someone's willing to give up his life to protect a secret, there's a reason, right? Okay. He knows exactly what happened to Chris because he killed him, and he knows exactly where the body is because he took the body out there and buried him. So Ed Shin is a liar. Of course, he's not going to cough up where the body is.

But we'll find it eventually. We will find it eventually. Tell me about that paddle out. That was for all of his friends, and they needed to remember him. A paddle out, it's a part of surfing culture. After Chris died, about 25 of his good friends and Paul did what's called a paddle out. It's like a funeral service, almost. It's a memorial that surfers have for other surfers. I brought their boards and they made the reeth. The sea was flat. But except for the dolphins and birds out there. And all they went out and did the paddle out. It was beautiful. Chris, how are you doing? At his Memorial service, I found a song by Jars of Clay that we played, and it talks about, It doesn't matter where my body lays. Where I lay. Let all my tears be washed away. And so it's just such a prophetic song to what's turned out. So we don't have anything, nobody, but we know where he is. And we'll see him again. We can feel his spirit still. We're confident that we're going to see him again someday. We have that hope. So we cling to that hope.

There's an odd feeling because if you've had a child and the child has grown inside of you, feels like part of you is somewhere out in the desert, and it feels strange. There's a part of you that is us, that is out lying in the desert. This is Deborah Roberts. As of 2023, Chris Smith's body still has not been found. Meanwhile, Ed Shin has been unsuccessful in attempting to overturn his conviction. For more on this story, we hope you'll check out Cutthroat Inc, a six-part podcast series from ABC Audio available wherever you get your podcast. Tune in on Friday nights at nine o'clock for all new broadcast episodes of 2020 on ABC.