Evan Hunziker

Early life Hunziker's father, Edwin Hunziker, was an American veteran of the Korean War who had spent 12 years stationed in South Korea with the United States Forces Korea, and while living there, met Hunziker's Korean mother, Jong Nye, a South Korean citizen. The two later moved to the United States, settling in Tacoma, Washington, where they had three children, and Hunziker's father worked in a variety of jobs including as a bus driver and cement layer. Hunziker's father developed a drinking problem, and in 1974 Hunziker's father and mother divorced. Hunziker moved with his mother to Anchorage, Alaska, where he spent most of his childhood with various relatives of his mother's. Hunziker and his mother eventually moved back to Tacoma, where she opened the Olympus Hotel. In 1988 Hunziker graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma. He went on to attend colleges in Yakima and South Seattle on a football scholarship, but began drinking and using drugs, and did not graduate. Hunziker's mother later introduced him to a young South Korean woman in the hopes that the two would develop a relationship, and they married soon after. In mid-1996, Hunziker decided that he wanted to go to South Korea to find a job as an English teacher and evangelize. He borrowed money for an airline ticket to Seoul, and left the United States in July, staying with his cousin Yun Jae-hun. From Seoul, he took a trip to the People's Republic of China beginning on August 16, spending one week in Beijing before proceeding to northeast China by train.

Detention in North Korea On August 24, 1996, Hunziker swam across the Yalu River from Dandong on the China–North Korea border, on a dare from a friend with whom he had been drinking alcohol. North Korean farmers found him and summoned the police, who arrested him. Soon after, Hunziker was moved from the hotel where he had been held initially to a detention center. Edwin Hunziker would later recall his son's description of the food, that it "was edible and it was sustainable, but it was lousy food".

Release by North Korea Eventually, Bill Richardson, a New Mexico congressman who had a history of negotiating for the release of Americans held by countries with whom the United States had poor or no formal relations, arranged to go to North Korea to discuss the matter. Richardson went as a private citizen, but was accompanied by a representative of the United States Department of State, arriving in North Korea on November 24. He arrived back in the United States via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Death After his release, Hunziker moved back to Tacoma, into the Olympus Hotel owned by his mother, as he would not return to Alaska due to the three outstanding warrants for his arrest by the Anchorage police. According to friends, relatives, and fellow hotel residents, he seemed happy, though not talkative. Hunziker often spent his nights in the hotel restaurant, where he was found dead on the morning of December 18, lying on a bench with a gunshot wound to the head and his cousin's .357 Magnum revolver lying next to him.