By: (AP) The South Korean parents of a Penn State student fatally beaten last week were notified of their son's death after a California journalist helped police contact them.
State College police tried for two days to locate the parents of Youngcheol Park, 24, before succeeding early Thursday afternoon with the help of a journalist at a Korean-language newspaper in Los Angeles.
The journalist, who had been following the case online and was also searching for the parents, called State College authorities with information on the victim's parents in Seoul.
"We contacted the police in their precinct and had them notify the parents," Sgt. Mark Argiro said.
Visas are being arranged for the parents to travel to State College, Argiro said.
Park, an undergraduate studying aerospace engineering, died Feb. 23 of multiple blows to the right side of his head. Andrew Rogers, 28, has been charged with first- and third-degree murder. Denied bail, he remains in the Centre County Correctional Facility.
On Monday, Rogers walked into a police station in his hometown of Uniontown and told an officer that "there may be a body in my kitchen."
Rogers described a brawl over cocaine and money with Park, an apparent poker buddy, and a third man, identified only as "Sweet," police said.
Rogers also confessed to striking Park several times with a baseball bat and a rolling pin, police said.
According to Rogers' statement, he blacked out during the fight, awoke on top of Park's corpse and, after washing up and taking Park's wallet, left the house. Police on Monday found Park's battered body and a bloody baseball bat.
As of Thursday, police had neither turned up evidence of Sweet at the crime scene nor learned anything about his whereabouts, Argiro said.
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