Back to Main MenuPolice Interview No. 1, Case 3764, Ginny Kim Murder
Subject: John Stanton, 28, Graduate Student, Urban Planning, University of California at Berkeley Reason Interviewed: Boyfriend of victim. Reported her missing. Date: November 19, 1996 Excerpts: Inspectors Linda Altamira and Alexis LeDuke Interview Summary: --Stanton says Kim called him from her office at 7:30 P.M. on November 13, 1996. --Stanton says he was asleep by 8:00 P.M. on November 13. Alcohol and marijuana involved. --Verification of missing persons call at around 6:30 A.M. on November 14. --No history of violence. --No prior record. Action: Financial check on Stanton commenced 11/19. Insurance check on Kim commenced 11/19. Notes: Stanton/Kim residence has wood floors, red and black rug in living room. Car is a 1988 Toyota Tercel, dark gray, black interior. Check fiber analysis from crime lab, due back 11/23. Application for Search Warrant #254998 Interview Transcript: AL Ready. JS Yeah. Before we start, can you just tell me if you have any idea who did it? AL We are considering all possibilities at this time. JS You don't have any clues. AL We're considering all ideas. JS Was it a robbery? AL Mr Stanton, how can I say this differently -- all things are possible. JS So you have no idea who did it? AL Mr. Stanton... JS Did you find a knife? The coroner said she was stabbed. AL Mr. Stanton, we are not here to answer questions, we are here to ask questions. JS But Š AL Do you understand? JS I'm just really upset, okay? My girlfriend just got stabbed to death in a truck, and I have no idea what happened. AL Believe me, we are just as concerned as you are about what happened. We just have to tackle it one step at a time. JS So this is step one. AL We obviously start with those closest to the victim. JS Look, I'm in full cooperation, okay, I'm just upset. I can't believe this is happening to me. I was going to marry Ginny, you know. AL Let's start at the beginning. Take a deep breath, and just answer our questions. JS All right. Whatever you say. AL Okay. Tell us about your relationship with Ginny. Where did you meet her? JS We were in a design class together at Berkeley. AL When was that? JS 1993. AL Were the two of you getting along well at the time of her disappearance? JS We were talking about marriage. AL Was that your idea? JS It was a mutual understanding. AL Did you have a date in mind? JS When I finished my Ph.D., maybe next summer. AL Was Ginny happy about that date? Did she want to get married sooner? JS No. We weren't in a hurry, really. AL Did she ever have an affair while you were going out? JS No. AL Are you sure? JS Yes. AL She was very attractive. You weren't jealous of her working all day around men with a lot of money? JS No. We had enough money. Our relationship wasn't about money. AL She disappeared after leaving her office. There's no one at her job that she might have been involved with? JS No. She talked all the time about what assholes she worked with. Her boss's husband was sleeping with every designer who came in the door. AL What makes you think he wasn't sleeping with Ginny? JS Well for one thing, he was forty-five. And for another thing, he's having a serious affair. He didn't have time for Ginny. AL Is it possible this affair was with Ginny? JS No. No! Please, this is the wrong direction. AL Perhaps she was having a fight with someone at her office? JS No. She quibbled a bit with the other secretary, what's her name, Kinsley, but that's neither here nor there. AL Describe a typical Ginny week to me. JS You mean, like describe what she did? AL Yes. JS Basically she did three things -- work, hang out with her friends, and hang out with me. AL I'm talking about daily details. JS Uh, well, she worked from about nine to six or even seven. Mondays she had class at Berkeley Extension. On Wednesdays I have a late seminar, so she usually went out with friends. We go out together on the weekends‹movies or music, sometimes a gallery. Um, our friends went out with us a lot. On Sundays, she or both of us usually had dinner with her parents. AL Can you give me the names of some of her friends? JS Sure, um, Yoon Pak, Janet Watt. I can give you their numbers. AL Thank you. Now are you sure Ginny was going to class? Are you sure she was going out with her friends? Is it possible she was doing something else? JS No. No! She wasn't living some secret double life. I talked to her friends a lot. I hung out with them. They always talked about what they did. I mean, I suppose theoretically she could have been having an affair, but that would surprise the hell out of me. AL Were there tensions between you? JS Not really. We had little domestic issues. I'm kind of a slob, but it's not the end of the world. We had talked about hiring a maid so we wouldn't have fights over stuff like the bathtub. AL You never had physical fights? JS No. Of course not. AL You never hit Ginny? JS Oh, Jesus, no. AL Did you two ever use drugs? JS What kind of drugs? AL The illegal kind. Heroin, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, acid? JS No, never. AL What about Ginny? JS No. AL I need you to be completely forthright. I noticed you had a pipe filter in the that jar of rubber bands in your foyer. Is it possible this murder is drug-related? Is it possible Ginny was trying to buy something in SOMA? JS Absolutely not. Oh god, what a mess. Look, it's my pipe. I get my own stuff. Ginny doesn't smoke. I have to say I think pot is pretty harmless. AL I don't think the possession of illegal drugs is your primary problem right now. I'm more interested in knowing if Ginny was getting something for you last Wednesday? JS No. Ginny was pretty paranoid about walking around in the dark. Buying drugs would be the last thing she would do. AL Let's talk about her walking around in the dark. Tell us about the night Ginny went missing. JS I was here asleep. Well, that's a simplification. AL Start with the afternoon. What did you do that day? JS Can we just break for a second. I'd like some water. AL Sure. Water for you, Linda? LA Yes. (Silence recorded for two minutes. Noise of water running, glasses on tray.) AL Okay, ready? Tell us about what you did on the afternoon of November 13th. JS Well, I had a pretty depressing day. I met with my thesis advisor about a chapter I had just turned in. He wanted me to reorganize my whole thesis, basically. The first draft is due December 18th, so it's kind of like asking me to rewrite War and Peace in a month. I was floored. So I decided to turn in early and not wait up for Ginny. AL So what time where you expecting her? JS At seven-thirty she gave me a call saying she was leaving the office. AL So when did you expect her? JS She had to take BART. Around eight, eight-thirty. AL And when she didn't arrive what did you do? JS I didn't realize she didn't arrive till the next morning, because I fell asleep around eight. AL Is that when you usually go to bed? JS Well like I said I had a really bad day. AL I see. JS Maybe I did have a little too much to drink. AL You were drinking? When did you start drinking? JS Around five or six. AL Is that a usual thing? JS No, I told you already I had a really bad day. AL Okay, so when did you wake up? JS Around six a.m. AL What did you do then? JS When I saw Ginny wasn't here and that there were no messages from her, I panicked and called her friend Yoon Pak. I thought she might have been there. AL What did she say? JS She said the last time she talked to Ginny was Monday. She was very concerned. She called Janet and Ginny's parents. I called my friend Bobby, and then I called the police. AL Who is this person, Bobby? JS He's my best friend, my college roommate. He lives in San Francisco. I thought maybe BART had shut down and maybe Ginny had gone to his house. He said he'd been on the Internet all night and hadn't heard from Ginny. AL So why didn't you call Ginny's parents? JS Yoon knows them very well. She wanted to call them. They called me right after I talked to Bobby. AL What did they say? JS They were very upset. Angry at me, to tell you the truth, because I didn't know what had happened. We talked it over and I called the police. Then I went down to meet them near her office. We waited there until the first person showed up, around eight-thirty. Mrs. Kinsley, the other secretary. AL Back up. What time did you call the police? JS Around six-thirty. You must have that logged somewhere. AL Uh huh. But you estimate around six-thirty. JS Yeah. AL And then you went to her office? Why did you do that? JS Well, we thought maybe she'd stayed there all night or something. We didn't know. I called the switchboard and didn't get anybody. So we went to Fiat Lux to see what was going on. We looked around the office, asked some people in cafes. Nobody knew what had happened. AL Do you have any idea why this might have happened to Ginny? JS I can't imagine. She led a low-key life. I just don't see why anyone would want to kill her. I feel like she had to have been mugged or caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. AL Maybe. Did she ever mention anyone threatening or anything strange at work? Did she ever have someone stalking her? JS No. I would know about it, believe me. AL Okay. So let's summarize here. You were asleep. You don't know what happened. You got no message. When you woke up you called everyone you could think of and then went to her office. JS Yeah. Oh yeah, and I called Arthur Fielding, her boss. He wasn't home, so I left him a message. AL This is the man who's having all the affairs? JS Yes. AL How did you get his number? JS I called information. AL You thought Ginny might be at his house? JS No. No, please, I don't believe for a minute that Ginny was at his house. I just thought if something had happened at the office he would know. AL He wasn't home at six-fifteen? Where does he live? JS San Francisco. AL Okay, John. I have one more question, and then I'll turn you over to Chief Inspector Altamira. JS Okay. AL Describe Ginny's key ring to me. JS The key ring itself. AL Yes, and the keys on it. JS Oh, the key ring was a miniature Swiss army knife. There was a key to our apartment, one for the gate downstairs, and one for the door. She had a key for Fiat Lux, a key to her locker in the gym, a key to her parents house, and a car key. Why do you ask? AL We just wanted to verify that the evidence we found belonged to Ginny. Did you have your car that day? JS Yes, but I didn't drive it. AL Okay, well, that's all I'm going to ask right now. Thank you. Do you have any questions for John, Linda? LA Yes I do, Inspector. John, you were asleep a really long time. You say you went to sleep at eight and woke up at six the next morning. JS That's exactly what happened. LA Is there some kind of medical condition you might have that would make you sleep that much? JS No, I told you I had one too many to drink. LA How many is one too many, John? JS I don't know, seven or eight beers. LA And maybe a joint too? JS Yeah, a joint too, okay? That's what knocked me out for real. LA Did you go out at all that night? JS No, I stayed in. I was in a bad mood. LA But you were asleep? JS Yes. Like I told you. LA So no one saw you that night, like your friend Bobby? JS No, no one saw me. LA You see you have no alibi. JS Yes, I know that. But I didn't kill Ginny. LA You realize that more women are killed by husbands and boyfriends than by anyone else? JS Yeah, I know that. I didn't kill Ginny. I didn't! Do you know how shitty I feel? I came home and got drunk the night she was murdered. It's not like I could have done anything, but maybe she tried to call me. Maybe she only called for a second before she got in trouble. Anything could have happened. Plus, her parents are hysterical. They hate me. I know they think that if she had been living with them this wouldn't have happened. LA John, what were you wearing that night? JS Jeans and a T-shirt. My Pitt sweatshirt. LA What color is the sweatshirt? JS Sweatshirt color, you know, grey with black letters. LA Are those clothes here right now? JS Yes, of course. Well, actually, no. I dropped them at the laundry yesterday. LA But you have them? JS Yes. Look, I don't know what you're getting at, but I was home all night on November 13th. If I'm guilty of anything it's being a drunken moron. LA I want you to think very hard about that night. If you come up with anything to verify your presence here, you need to call us. Here's my card. We're going to go now, but we'll be in touch. JS I'll be here.
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