Meet Tenny. I first met Tenny last summer when I was stayed with my friend Sunny in Busan, South Korea. He seemed nice enough. Quiet, mildly shy, kind of goofy. More or less good-natured. Certainly didn't seem like a killer.
They seemed happy. Sunny was an English teacher at a popular prep school chain in Korea where she met Tenny. For the most part, he seemed good to her. He did what she told him to do, seemed to let her have her way with most things, and hand baked her a cake for her birthday! They wore matching bracelets.. they were cute.
So, it was quite shocking when I found out that Sunny was dead. This was the Sunny my friends and I knew:
And sadly, this was all that was left of her:
Sunny had lots of dreams and goals. When I asked whether she saw herself marrying Tenny, she said she wasn't sure. There were many things that she wanted to do. Right before her death, she had just signed a contract for a job offer. Excitedly, she contacted her family in hopes of having a reunion.
The police reported that Sunny tried to break up with Tenny and in a fit of anger, he strangled her to death. He then carried her body out of the apartment by putting her in a suitcase. Then, he buried the suitcase in the hills and covered it up with cement. He tried to hide her disappearance by pretending to be her. He messaged friends and family on her phone.
In the end, he "attempted" suicide and turned himself in to the police.
I couldn't believe that this happened, but sadly it seemed that he had been abusing Sunny for a while during their relationship.
Now, Tenny awaits sentencing and will supposedly get off with a lesser sentence because he showed an act of "remorse" when he attempted suicide.
As he awaits his sentence, Sunny's family is struck with the heartbreak of losing their daughter. Burdened with heavy debt that accrued from the cost of their children's education, Mr. and Mrs. Kim now have to find ways to pay for the funeral services for their daughter, as well as, the legal costs of ensuring that Tenny gets the sentencing that he deserves.
In an attempt to help the Kim family, the sisters of Kappa Phi Lambda have started a Gofundme page. In the first day that the page went live, we were able to raise $14k, but we are still quite short of our goal.
We realize that doing this will not bring Sunny back to our world. We only hope that we are able to shed some light on tragic cases of domestic violence like Sunny's and bring some peace to the Kim family. We hope that the #storyofsunny will continue to spread and that we will be able to reach our goal to help the Kim family in their time of need.
Please consider sharing this story and donating at our GoFundMe page. Every little bit helps. You may not have known Sunny. She may not have been your friend, sister, or daughter, but her story could've been their story. It could've been yours.
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