THE HONOR ROLL MURDER // Detective: Teen love played
part in killing
DATE 01/28/93
NEWSPAPER THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION NEWS
EDITION MORNING
PAGE a01
STORY LENGTH 63 INCHES
HEADLINE THE HONOR ROLL MURDER // Detective: Teen love played
part in killing
BYLINE/CREDIT Dan Froomkin:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS OC:MURDER:STUDENTS:COMPUTERS:INVESTIGATIONS:LOVE
KEYWORD-HIT.
It was teen love gone wrong.
The private investigator who broke the case of the "honor-roll
murder" said Wednesday that love, infatuation and an adolescent
scheme to dump an unwanted suitor were key to the tale of Stuart
Tay's lost life.
Lee Roberts, a retired Newport Beach police detective, was hired
by Alfred and Linda Tay to find their son, Stuart, after he
disappeared from their spacious Orange home on New Year's Eve.
Instead, after four days of investigating, Roberts led police to
the shallow grave where Tay's brutally beaten body had been buried.
In the ensuing weeks, the crime has fascinated and horrified
people in Orange County and the nation. It has left parents worried
that their children could be in danger. It has baffled those who
have tried to figure out what went wrong.
And while Roberts thinks some elements of the Tay case may never
be explained, he said he has pieced together the story of how Tay,
17, first met Robert Chien-nan Chan, the Sunny Hills High School
senior who is accused of masterminding and executing Tay's slaying.
In short: There was a girl involved.
Police say Tay, Chan and the four other young men he met the
night he was killed were planning the burglary of the home of a
computer salesman with whom Tay had done business. And, police say,
Tay died because the others feared he would betray them.
But it turns out, Roberts said in an interview, that the
burglary plot is only part of the story _ and possibly only part of
the motive.
Tay's first meeting with Chan occurred about three months
before the murder, Roberts said.
And far from spontaneous, the meeting was elaborately plotted by
Tay, his girlfriend Jennifer Lin _ a classmate and cheerleader at
Foothill High School _ and one of Lin's friends.
But the reason was far from criminal, Roberts said. Lin just
wanted Chan to leave her alone.
Roberts said his findings are the result of hours of interviews
with Lin, other friends of Tay, and a girl he calls "Jane Doe" _
the fourth person at that first meeting.
Chan, who has pleaded innocent but could face the death penalty
if found guilty, has so far refused to talk to police.
Chan's attorney, Marshall Schulman of Santa Ana, said Wednesday
that Roberts' story is "pure fiction."
" That's a pure created illusion," Schulman said. "What else do
you expect from a private investigator who's interested in a book
(deal)?"
Neither Lin nor her friend would agree to be interviewed. And
Edward Djang, an attorney who represents the Tay family and Lin,
called the Roberts account "wrong," though he refused to elaborate.
Linda Tay, Stuart Tay's mother, said Wednesday that she didn't
know anything about the relationship between Lin and Chan or about
the meeting Roberts said took place.
Roberts said his employment by the Tays ended soon after the
discovery of the body, and that he recently has been acting on his
own.
But the Roberts account jibes with other information The Orange
County Register has obtained.
Roberts' story starts about a year and a half ago, when Lin and
Chan met in driving school.
Chan, who classmates said virtually never went out with girls,
was infatuated with Lin, Roberts said.
He asked her out and they went out at least once, but Lin broke
it off. She told Chan she was involved with someone else.
Roberts said she told Chan, "Call me in a year."
Almost a year to the day later _ about four months before the
murder _ Chan called and asked Lin out again. She agreed to see him.
But for a variety of reasons, she didn't want to see him again,
Roberts said. And she got frightened when Chan talked about being a
member of the Wah Ching, a Chinese criminal society, and about
beating other teen-agers up.
At the same time, Roberts said, Lin began dating Tay. And soon,
their relationship started getting serious.
Lin was faced with a problem: how to dump Chan for Tay, but not
put Tay in danger of getting beat up.
It was then, Roberts said, that Tay, Lin and "Jane Doe" cooked
up a plot full of teen-age playacting and subterfuge _ with no idea
of the stakes.
Roberts said that although Lin had never told Chan about Tay,
she had told Tay about Chan.
And Tay had even called Chan one day _ apparently because he was
intrigued by Chan's criminal connections and wanted help staging
the robbery he had in mind, Roberts said.
Tay had also already introduced himself to Chan using a fake
name: Martin, short for Martin Gore, the name of the keyboard
player for Depeche Mode, a British rock group Tay idolized.
With those things in mind, Roberts said, Tay, Lin and "Jane Doe"
sketched out a little play.
The four young people would get together.
Chan would be the audience.
Lin would play herself.
Tay would play "Martin Gore," a tough guy who shouldn't be
crossed.
And, lastly, Doe would play the ingenue. She would be introduced
as Martin Gore's girlfriend, but would come on to Chan so strong
that he would fall for her instead of Lin.
Roberts said they hoped the result would be that Chan would no
longer be interested in Lin, and would be afraid to cross the guy
he knew as Martin Gore.
"It was a crazy plan," Roberts said. "An elaborate, crazy thing."
According to Roberts, the meeting took place as scheduled, about
three months before the murder. But nothing worked the way it was
supposed to.
Chan didn't go for Doe. And Tay apparently got along so well
with Chan they decided to go ahead with the burglary plan, the
investigator said.
Roberts said he thinks that Lin saw Chan again during the
ensuing months because she was afraid to disentangle herself from
him _ even as she and Tay started talking about maybe getting
married someday.
And Tay also saw Chan occasionally, while Chan found four other
prospective burglars from among his friends and acquaintances at
Sunny Hills, Roberts said.
"It's very convoluted," he said. "There's a lot of interaction
among all these young people."
Roberts said he doesn't believe that Tay had ever done anything
criminal before allegedly planning the burglary. And he said he
doesn't know what led Tay to that point.
"I don't see that this kid is bad," he said. "Maybe he was
looking for some excitement in his life."
In fact, Roberts said, "We had a bunch of kids who, I believe,
for whatever reason, were creating excitement for themselves."
There are still many gaps in the story of Tay's last weeks.
For instance, police and Roberts still don't know _ or at least
aren't telling _ how Chan found out that Tay was not really Martin
Gore.
They think that happened about Dec. 27. It was about then,
according to police, that Chan met with his fellow conspirators _
minus Tay _ and told them Tay had to die.
He allegedly told them that Tay's plans for the burglary were
inept, and that the fact that he had given them all a false name
meant he was getting ready to betray them.
Roberts speculated that Chan may have kept secret a more
important reason to want Tay dead.
"A good possibility is that Chan really found out who Martin
Gore was," Roberts said. Namely, he found out that "Martin" was
dating the girl he wanted for himself.
Lt. Timm Browne, spokesman for the Orange Police Department,
declined to comment on Roberts' account Wednesday. But he did say
that no information obtained by police disputes the police's
original theory _ that the motive for the killing was largely a
fear of betrayal.
"We still believe that to be true," Browne said.
Police have interviewed Jennifer Lin at length. And Roberts said
they also have talked to "Jane Doe."
Roberts said he is certain that on Dec. 30, Tay called Chan
from a friend's house and agreed to meet Chan and the others in
Fullerton on New Year's Eve, to pick up a gun to use as protection
during the burglary.
And the next day, he got in his cherry-red sports car and left
home for the last time.
Roberts helped crack open the case when a friend of Tay's whom
Roberts had talked to earlier called with news _ that the friend
had gotten third-hand _ that a Sunny Hills student was talking
about Tay's murder.
That eventually led Roberts and police to the Buena Park back
yard where Tay was buried Dec. 31 after Chan and the others
allegedly beat him.
"It's just bizarre," said Roberts, who is talking to several
film producers and book publishers about the rights to Tay's story.
"Everyone has said, let's try and figure this out. But I don't
think you're going to be able to do that.
"It's damned bizarre."
SIDEBAR
Status of suspects in Tay killing
On the evening of Dec. 31, Stuart Tay was brutally beaten, then
buried in a shallow grave in a Buena Park back yard.
The 17-year-old Foothill High School honor student's life was
full of promise. But so were the lives of the five Sunny Hills High
School students in jail charged with his murder.
Police say Robert Chien-nan Chan, 18, was the ringleader of the
group. A brilliant student who, like Tay, was hoping to attend
Princeton University, Chan is accused of luring Tay to a friend's
house, beating him with a baseball bat and a sledgehammer _ then
pouring rubbing alcohol down his throat and taping his mouth and
nose shut.
Chan allegedly planned and rehearsed the killing beforehand with
the other four students now in jail:
Abraham Acosta, 16, is accused of striking the first blow against
Tay, with a baseball bat. It was his house where the killing
allegedly took place.
Mun Bong Kang, 17, is accused of helping to bury Tay in Acosta's
back yard after the beating.
Charles Bae Choe, 17, also an honor student, is accused of taking
part in the burial.
Kirn Young Kim, 16, a computer whiz whose parents are leaders of
the Orange County Korean community, is accused of being lookout and
driving Tay's car to Compton where it was ditched, keys still in
the ignition.
All five teen-agers have pleaded innocent.