James Kim

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This article is about the CNET editor. For the Korean guitarist, see Kim Se Hwang. For the Korean-American physician, see Jim Kim.
James Kim

James Kim with his two daughters
Born August 9, 1971 (1971-08-09)
Died December 3/4, 2006
Josephine County, Oregon, U.S.A.

James Kim (August 9, 1971 – December 3/4, 2006) was an American television personality and technology analyst for the former TechTV international cable television network, reviewing products for shows including The Screen Savers, Call for Help, and Fresh Gear. He most recently worked as a senior editor of MP3 and Digital Audio for CNET, writing more than 400 product reviews. He also co-hosted a weekly video podcast for CNET's gadget blog, Crave, and a weekly audio podcast, The MP3 Insider (Both podcasts are co-hosted with Veronica Belmont).

His disappearance and death, and his family's ordeal, made them the subject of a brief but intense period of news coverage in December 2006.

Contents

[edit] Early life and background

Kim graduated from Ballard High School in Louisville, Kentucky[1] in 1989 and from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1993 where he double-majored in Government and English and played for the varsity lacrosse team.[2] Son of Spencer H. Kim,[3] an aerospace company executive and internationalist,[4] Kim and his wife, Kati, owned two retail stores in San Francisco.

[edit] Career

James Kim was most widely known as a television personality on the international cable network TechTV, where he was a senior technology analyst for TechTV Labs. He made frequent appearances testing new products for shows including The Screen Savers, Call for Help, Fresh Gear, and AudioFile. He was best known for his "Lab Rats" segments, in which he reviewed the latest electronic gadgets. After leaving TechTV, he became a senior editor for CNET, a technology trade journal, which he had joined in 2004. He wrote product reviews and co-hosted a weekly podcast for CNET's gadget blog, Crave. Prior to working for TechTV, Kim had been a legal assistant at law firms in New York and France; a media relations assistant for baseball's American League; and a script reader for Miramax Films.

[edit] The Kims become snowbound in the wilderness

After spending the 2006 Thanksgiving holiday in Seattle, Washington, the Kims (James, Kati, and their two daughters, Penelope and Sabine) set out for their home in San Francisco, California. On Saturday, November 25, 2006, having left Portland, Oregon on their way to the Tu Tu Tun Lodge, a resort located near Gold Beach, Oregon, the Kims missed a turnoff from Interstate 5 to Oregon Route 42, a main route to the Oregon Coast. Instead of returning to the exit, they consulted a highway map and picked a secondary route that skirted the Wild Rogue Wilderness, a remote area of southwestern Oregon.

After encountering heavy snow at high elevation on Bear Camp Road, they turned, by mistake, onto one of hundreds of unpaved logging trails loosely supervised by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A road gate which was supposed to prevent such mistakes was open in spite of BLM rules requiring that it be closed. Media outlets reported that vandals had cut a lock on the gate, but a subsequent investigation showed that BLM employees had left it open to avoid trapping local hunters and others who might have ventured past it.[5]

Early on the morning of November 26, the family stopped due to fatigue and bad weather. As more snow fell around their immobilized station wagon, the Kims kept warm by running its engine. When the vehicle ran out of gas, they made a campfire of dried wood and magazines. Later, they burned their car's tires to signal rescuers. Search efforts began shortly after November 30, when co-workers of Kim filed a missing persons report with the San Francisco Police Department.[6] After investigators learned that the Kims used their credit card at a local restaurant, search and rescue teams, including local and state police, more than 80 civilian volunteers, the Oregon Army National Guard and several helicopters hired by Mr. Kim's father, Spencer Kim, spent several days looking for the family along area highways and roads, to no avail.

On December 2, James Kim left his family to look for help, wearing tennis shoes, a jacket, and light clothing. He believed the nearest town (Galice) was located four miles away after studying a map with his wife.[7] He promised his wife to turn back the same day if he failed to find anyone, but he did not return.[8]

[edit] Rescue of Kim's wife and daughters

Although the Kims had a cellular phone with them, their remote location in the mountains was out of range of the cellular network, rendering the phone unusable. Two Edge Wireless engineers, Eric Fuqua and Noah Pugsley, contacted search and rescue authorities offering their help in the search. On Saturday, December 2, they began digging through the data logs of cell sites, trying to find any towers the Kims' cellphone may have connected to. They discovered that on November 26, 2006 at around 1:30 AM, the Kim's cellphone made a brief automatic connection to a cell site near Glendale, Oregon, and retrieved two text messages. Through the data logs, the engineers determined that the cellphone was in a specific area west of the cellular tower. They then used a computer program to determine which areas in the mountains were within a line-of-sight to the cellular tower. This narrowed the search area tremendously, and finally focused rescue efforts on Bear Camp Road.[9]

On the afternoon of December 4, John Rachor, a local helicopter pilot unaffiliated with any formal search effort, spotted Mrs. Kim and her two daughters alive walking on a remote road. After he radioed the family's position to authorities, the three were airlifted out of the area and transferred to a nearby hospital.[10]

Law enforcement officials said that the discovery of the cellphone connection, and the subsequent analysis of the log data, was the critical breakthrough that ultimately resulted in the rescue of Kim's wife and daughters by helicopter.[9]

[edit] Death

Officials continued to search for Mr. Kim, at one point finding clothing that he had discarded along the way, likely as signals to searchers. Oregon officials stated, "These were placed with our belief that little signs are being left by James for anyone that may be trying to find him so that they can continue into the area that he's continuing to move in."[11]

On Wednesday, December 6 at 12:03pm, Mr. Kim's body was found in Big Windy Creek.[12][13] (42°38′44″N 123°43′25″W / 42.645575, -123.723575 (Location of Kim's Body)) Lying on his back in one to two feet of icy water, he was fully clothed and had been carrying a backpack which contained his ID among other miscellaneous items.[14] He had walked about 16.2 miles (26 km) from the car to that point, and was only a mile from Black Bear Lodge, which - although closed for the winter - was fully-stocked at the time. An autopsy revealed that Kim had died due to hypothermia and that his body had suffered no incapacitating physical injuries. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy guessed that Kim had died roughly two days after leaving the vehicle.[15][14]

[edit] Map and route controversy

Because of Mr. Kim's background as a technology analyst, observers speculated that the family had used online mapping to find their route.[16] However, Mrs. Kim told state police that they had used a paper road map,[17] an account supported by the Oregon State Police, which reported that the Kims had used an official State of Oregon highway map.[18] Mrs. Kim later recounted that, after they had been stuck for four days and were studying the map for help, both she and Mr. Kim noticed that a box in the corner of the map bore the message: "Not all Roads Advisable, Check Weather Conditions."[19]

Bear Camp Road is lightly used between October and April, even by local residents, due to its difficult terrain, spotty maintenance, steep dropoffs and often inclement weather.[20] As they drove along the road, the Kims passed three prominent warning signs that state: "Bear Camp Rd. May Be Blocked By Snowdrifts."[21] Mrs. Kim later told police that they had noticed only one warning sign.

[edit] Intense media coverage

Wikinews

The Kim family's ordeal became a lead story on most major U.S. news networks, even amidst breaking news of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations on America's war in Iraq. MSNBC.com reported one million page views on the story, making it the top story in the hours after Mr. Kim's body was found. CNN.com reported twice as many page views that afternoon as the Iraq story.[22] Within a week Mr. Kim and family appeared on the cover of People magazine. Newspapers in the region, led by The Oregonian and the San Francisco Chronicle, devoted heavy coverage to the events and their aftermath.

[edit] Later developments

On January 6, 2007, The Washington Post published an op-ed article written by Spencer Kim, James Kim's father, criticizing various government entities that had, in his estimation, played roles in his son's death. The elder Kim blamed the BLM for not locking the gate to the logging road; privacy laws that he claimed had delayed the start of search and rescue efforts; local authorities for "confusion, communication breakdowns and failures of leadership" during the search; and the Federal Aviation Administration for not keeping media aircraft out of the search area.[23]

On February 18, 2007, a memorial service was held for James Kim at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.[24]

On April 16, 2007, The Oregonian was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news, presented in print or online or both, for their coverage of the Kim family story.[25][26] The staff of the Oregonian was lauded for "its skillful and tenacious coverage of a family missing in the Oregon mountains, telling the tragic story both in print and online."

On September 12, 2007, Kati Kim gave an exclusive interview of the ordeal to UK blogging site DollyMix.

[edit] See also

  • Bear Camp Road -- A road that figured prominently in the ordeal.
  • Dewitt Finley -- A man who died of starvation after he was stranded for weeks in the same area due to a winter storm in 1994.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Missing father graduated from high school in Louisville", Associated Press, December 6, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-11. 
  2. ^ Janie Har and Larry Bingham. "James Kim's love for family, friends left lasting impression with many", The Oregonian, December 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-11. 
  3. ^ Julia Prodis Sulek. "Deputy says Kim may have been dead only hours when found", San Jose Mercury News, December 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-07. 
  4. ^ Mr. Spencer H. Kim. Pacific Council on International Policy. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  5. ^ Sleeth, Peter. "BLM left gate open on road to Kims' fate", The Oregonian, 2006-12-14. Retrieved on 2007-06-05. 
  6. ^ San Francisco Police Department. "SFPD:Missing Persons:Kim Family", San Francisco Police Department, 2006-11-30. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 
  7. ^ Peter Fimrite, Marisa Lagos. "Kims thought they were only 4 miles from help", San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-07. 
  8. ^ David R. Anderson. "Update: Mom, daughters found; dad still missing", The Oregonian, December 4, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-05. 
  9. ^ a b "Tragic End To Search For Missing Dad", December 6, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-06. 
  10. ^ Video: Rescuers find Kim family members; search continues for editor. CNet Networks. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  11. ^ Video: Searchers: We will find James Kim. CNET Networks. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
  12. ^ Alex Johnson, Alan Boyle. "Distraught rescue crews come up just short", MSNBC, 2006-12-06. 
  13. ^ "Body of Missing San Francisco Dad Found in Oregon", Fox News, 2006-12-06. 
  14. ^ a b James Kim died of hypothermia, autopsy reveals. CNET Networks. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
  15. ^ Jeff Barnard. "Autopsy: Missing man died of hypothermia", Associated Press, 2006-12-07. Retrieved on 2006-12-07. 
  16. ^ Leslie Fulbright. "Maps: Internet travel directions need to be checked carefully", The San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2006. 
  17. ^ Jeff Barnard. "Missing San Francisco man found dead", Associated Press, December 6, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-07. 
  18. ^ Update: Information Discussed During December 6 10:00 a.m. Media Briefing on Search for James Kim. Oregon State Police (December 6, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  19. ^ In Kati Kim's own words. Medford Mail Tribune (January 19, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  20. ^ Jaxon van Derbeken and Marisa Lagos. "Missing dad leaving clothing and map markers", The San Francisco Chronicle, December 6, 2006. 
  21. ^ Drew Griffin. "Warning signs marked Kim family's journey", CNN, December 11, 2006. 
  22. ^ SFGate.com: A Family's Tragedy Gripping Story: It was tracked by millions. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  23. ^ Lessons In My Son's Death. Washington Post Co.. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
  24. ^ Man honored for fatal bid to save family. Yahoo News. Retrieved on 2006-07-17.
  25. ^ 2007 Pulitzer Prize award announcement from pulitzer.org
  26. ^ Announcement of award from oregonlive.com

[edit] External links

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