Kyung Ho Song is Found!

U.S. Authorities have located this International fugitive in his native country of South Korea. It has literally been more than a decade since Song fled Cook County, IL. How is this possible right? He ran when the time and clock were ticking down for his trial with the charges of Driving under the Influence and Reckless Homicide. It was this horrific accident that took the life of an innocent 43-year-old single mother with such a long life ahead of her.

This case had seriously gone dormant for ten years. The search for Song was reactivated last spring after Chicago Authorities had located Kyung Ho Song in December. It is our local authorities that truly needed the help of South Korean officials to bring about justice and have him extradited back to Illinois.

This is definitely a red flag of how our system truly has gaps within the criminal justice system that allows border-crossing fugitives to avoid prosecution. Something seriously needs to change. For some reason, officials have been avoiding why there was no progress in this case for so many years. Let's name off the departments that were honestly not connecting or communicating for all this time. It all stems from the departments of the police, county prosecutors, federal agents and Justice Department officials. Bottom line is who is at fault and really, how did a mistake like this happen?

It was the "Fugitives from Justice" series that named over 200 international fugitive cases from northern Illinois and thousands more nationwide. Unbelievably, it is this series that spotlighted Song's case in November, 2011. Song was hiding out in a gorgeous condominium in a quiet, residential suburb in Yongin, South Korea. There were 4 interviews and the once famous shoe store owner who is now 73 realized that it's now his time.

The daughter of Song's alleged victim, the 43 year old single mother that passed, said she was shocked that he had finally been found. It's only taken about 16 years to do something that should've been taken care of a long time ago.

So the question remains, "How did this happen and the case just disappear with so many sectors of our judicial system all working on this?" How do we prevent it? Something has to change.