Dateline: Unforgettable is examining the murder of businessman Chris Smith by his business partner Edward “Ed” Shin at their shared office in Orange County, California.
The last time anyone saw Chris Smith alive was on June 4, 2010. However, his friends and family weren’t overly concerned; the 31-year-old surfer and successful businessman always had wanderlust, and his loved ones soon received emails from Smith explaining that he was traveling the world.
Extended family members, friends, and girlfriends all received emails from Smith claiming he had fallen for a Playboy model and had decided to travel the world on a yacht with his new beau and a stack of gold coins.
Smith said he had already visited South America and Africa. He had previously invested in gold coins, so parts of this scenario didn’t seem too crazy or out of character for him.
The emails further claimed that he had decided to sell his side of the business to Ed Shin. Smith and Shin ran a media advertising company called The 800 Exchange.
However, it was in December 2010, when Smith supposedly declared in emails that he had emptied all his funds and would never return to the United States, that his family reported him missing.
A clever computer data analyst hired by the family discovered that all of Smith’s emails had been sent from within the US.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelEd Shin was pretending to be his murdered business partner, Chris Smith
Eventually, the authorities concluded that Shin had killed his colleague and had been impersonating him in the emails ever since.
The cops discovered a quantity of blood matched to Smith at their shared office. Initially, Shin claimed the blood came from when he cut himself, but when the detectives told him it was Smith’s blood, he finally confessed.
Shin admitted that he had gotten into a physical fight with Smith at their office, and the latter had been killed. He claimed it was an accident and he hadn’t meant to kill him.
The police have still not found a body, and Shin claims he doesn’t know where the remains are because he paid a third party to dispose of them. He claimed an unknown Eastern European man took the body away.
Ed Shin sentenced to life for killing Chris Smith
From the outside, Shin appeared as a respectable church-going family man, but he led a double life as a gambling addict with regular weekend trips to Las Vegas. He had previously been convicted of fraud after he was caught embezzling funds from another firm.
The cops suspect Shin killed Smith to steal his company and his money.
In December 2018, Shin was convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dateline: Unforgettable airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.