31,536,000 seconds. 525,600 minutes. 8, 760 hours. 365 days.
No matter how it is measured, a year is a long time when a person is missing. And in the case of Penn State student Cindy Song, life has not gotten any easier for her friends and family as the time has passed.
"My life is my family and to not know what happened to my only daughter is devastating," Bansoon Song, the missing woman's mother, said in a prepared statement.
Last Halloween, Song and her friends went to a Halloween party at Players Nite Club, 112 W. College Ave., before going to a few other apartments. That Wednesday night, she was dressed as a Playboy bunny, wearing a white skirt with a cotton bunny tail, a pink sleeveless shirt with a picture of a bunny on it, a red knee-length coat with a hood, brown suede knee-high boots, bunny ears and false eyelashes.
Thursday, Song and her close friend Stacey Paik had plans to go out. Song had also recently ordered a computer, purchased tickets to the upcoming Britney Spears concert and registered for classes for the following semester.
But Thursday came and went, and Song was nowhere to be found.
"I tried to call her all day, and her phone was off," Paik said a week after Song's disappearance. "It's just kind of strange -- she usually calls me."
By Friday, friends and co-workers became worried when Song did not show up for work at the Seoul Garden Korean Restaurant, 129 Locust Lane.
Paik, who also worked at the restaurant with Song, said her friend was very responsible about work.
But the South Korean native never made it to the restaurant. She never made it to the Britney Spears concert. And she never attended a single class the following semester.
On Nov. 6, the Ferguson Township Police Department, led by Det. Brian Sprinkle, searched the then 21-year-old's State College Park apartment for the first time. Song's backpack was in the apartment and there was nothing to make investigators believe the integrative arts major would leave the area. Sprinkle said there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle.
But a week had already passed since Song disappeared and investigators declined to comment on the possibility that important evidence could have been destroyed. However, they did say her departure was not intentional.
"Her leaving or disappearance was not something she planned," Sprinkle said.
He added that investigators were unable to recover Song's keys, purse or wallet -- items she would have taken with her.
Only three days later, the Centre County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team, aided by the Elk County search and rescue team and Alpha Fire Company, scoured the area around Song's apartment complex. However, no clues were found.
About a week later, Ferguson Township police employed the use of bloodhound search dogs to once again look for clues in the areas surrounding Song's West Clinton Avenue apartment, but found nothing.
Around the same time, police filed Song as "possibly endangered," saying she disappeared under "suspicious circumstances."
Her mother and brother arrived in the United States around this time as well.
But the subsequent searches provided even less information for detectives on the case, causing student groups to get involved.
On Nov. 26, an e-mail was sent to campus student groups calling for Penn State students and State College community members to assist in the month-old investigation.
In the days that followed, groups began meeting to discuss ways to help find the missing student and started canvassing the borough with posters of the self-described "independent" and "responsible" woman.
Investigators finally got a break in the case on Dec. 3, when tips led detectives to Philadelphia. But once again, no new information was found, and police were left with what they already knew -- Song had not used her cell phone, her credit cards and had not accessed her bank account.
Upset with the progress of the investigation, Song's family and a coalition of students held a press conference in the HUB-Robeson Center to express discontent over the lack of progress in the case.
But investigators then and now feel such comments are unjustified.
Pennsylvania State Police Department Sgt. Steven Byron said when his department joined the case in May, the amount of paperwork he and others had to sort through was evidence of the Ferguson Township Police Department's work.
But the case started to grow cold. The numbers of leads received began to dwindle, as did their quality. Investigators continued to work, but additional searches of both Song's bedroom and the areas surrounding her home came up empty.
In the summer, Ferguson Township police began to employ the services of a psychic. But once again, nothing of use was found. The television program Unsolved Mysteries arrived in State College during the summer to film a segment on Song's disappearance. The show, which aired on Sept. 18, yielded three tips from viewers -- but nothing of significance.
Today, one year after Song was last seen walking up the steps to her apartment, investigators still have hope.
Byron said despite a decline in frequency, investigators receive new tips daily.
