Episode 151:
She Escaped a Grammy-Level Producer's Basement, How He Brainwashed and Tortured the Victim for Years
On the evening of December 30, 2018, a man driving to his family's home in Nashville, Tennessee, slammed on his brakes when a woman ran into the middle of a dark road. Both of her eyes were ringed with bruises, her face was swollen, and blood was running down from a wound on her head. In broken English she begged him for help. He drove her to a hospital, where staff called the police, as Tennessee law requires when a patient shows clear signs of assault.
She was a Korean national in the United States on a tourist visa, referred to here by the alias Eunju Baek. She told officers that six days earlier, on Christmas Eve, she had gone to an acquaintance's home, where he took her phone, locked the front door, and beat her every day until she found a key and ran. Her account was vague, and she would only call her attacker "that man." Police concluded she was too frightened to say his name. When she finally did, it was one that people in Nashville's music business knew: 47-year-old Baeho Shin, known professionally as Bobby Shin.
The Producer With a Spotless Reputation
Shin grew up in Seoul, moved to the United States after college, and settled in Nashville, where he built a career producing Contemporary Christian Music. He also worked in pop, with an engineering credit on Jason Mraz's hit "I'm Yours," wrote a song for a 13-year-old cancer patient through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and was a visible supporter of fellow Korean immigrants. In 2016, Eunju sent him a message on Facebook as a fan. He wrote back warmly, and they stayed in touch for two years before meeting in Nashville and becoming a couple. Shin had a wife and three children, and told Eunju the marriage was over in all but paperwork. In November 2018 he persuaded her to come back to the U.S., promising to sponsor her studies. They fought, and when she said she was leaving him, he smashed a glass bottle over her head, pushed her onto the broken glass, and came after her with a kitchen knife. She locked herself in a bathroom and called the police. Shin told officers she was a mentally unstable prostitute who had broken into his home. He was charged with aggravated assault. Then his wife came to Eunju, apologized, found her a lawyer, interpreted for her, and asked one thing: that she say nothing in court. At the hearing on December 13, Eunju stayed silent, and without her testimony the case collapsed.
Six Days Behind a Padlocked Door
Eleven days later, on December 24, Shin called and told Eunju to come collect the belongings she had left at his house. When she arrived he was sweet, as if nothing had happened, inviting her to stay for dinner and to a party the next day. She said she needed a moment and stepped outside to smoke. That was enough to set him off. He forced her vape pen into her mouth, smashed it with a hammer in front of her, then punched her, dragged her by the hair, beat her with a vacuum pipe, and wrapped a cord around her neck. When she passed out, he woke her and started again, for about ten hours. He took her phone and passport and padlocked the door. Over the following days he tore her scalp and knocked out her front teeth, poured hot water on her wounds, filmed her naked and told her she would kill herself if the footage ever went online, and tried to make her sign a contract to be his slave for life. Between beatings he would turn gentle and tend to her injuries. On the evening of December 30, Eunju went downstairs saying she would make dinner, saw a set of keys sticking out of his bag, unlocked the door, and ran for the road. Shin was arrested, told police it had been a small argument between a couple in love, and walked out after posting about $196,000 in bail.
Controlled From a Jail Cell
The first thing Shin did after his release was contact Eunju, and in April 2019 she went back to his house. The violence began again. A few days later a friend who couldn't reach her called the police. When officers arrived, Shin dragged Eunju from the garage and hid her in a storage closet in his second-floor studio, but they found her, and he was arrested again. From jail he sent her letters every day, delivered by his wife, asking her to stay on his side. The letters, and his phone calls from the detention center, also contained strings of unrelated words and numbers: frog, soda, button, lilac, mister. Right after one of those calls, Eunju withdrew her testimony and submitted a statement saying her injuries were the result of her own panic disorder and that she had falsely accused him. Some believe the words were a code. The judge, looking at the medical reports and the record of what police had found, suspected she was not deciding freely and ordered her admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Cut off from Shin and given treatment, Eunju recovered, withdrew the false statement, and agreed to testify.
Final Thoughts
Investigators thought the pattern was too practiced to be new, and they found an earlier victim. In 2012, a Korean gospel singer identified as Won-young had paid Shin about $21,600 to produce her album. She testified that he called at all hours, drove four hours from Nashville to Atlanta again and again, and pressed her to marry him, which she later understood was about her U.S. citizenship, since he was on a work visa and already married. When she tried to end it, he beat her with a wine bottle, choked her, and slapped her until her eardrum burst, and he fractured her wrist and ribs. After she attempted suicide, he came to the hospital, raged that she had tried to die without his permission, and sexually assaulted her. Shin was a major figure in her industry and his sister led Nashville's Korean association, so she stayed silent for eight years, until she heard what had happened to Eunju. In January 2020 she testified. Shin argued that Eunju had injured herself to qualify for a visa given to crime victims. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and the sentence was upheld on appeal. The first case against him fell apart because one frightened woman was talked into silence. The second held because two women spoke.
After escaping, the victim went back to Bobby Shin's house, and later told the court she had made everything up, until a judge ordered her separated from him and she recovered enough to testify. How should courts and police handle a victim who withdraws an accusation when there are signs the withdrawal itself is the result of the abuser's control?
WE DOCUMENT.
YOU DECIDE.
Our interpretation is only one possible perspective.
