Family believes BYU student missing from China to be alive

Family believes BYU student missing from China to be alive


5 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

PROVIDENCE, Cache Valley — A husband and wife whose son disappeared eight years ago in China say they have new information suggesting he may still be alive.

In August of 2004, 24-year-old David Sneddon disappeared while in the mountains of Southern China, where he was last seen hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge in the Yunnan Province alone. A student at Brigham Young University, he was spending the summer studying Mandarin in China.

Sneddon's father and two brothers went to China to look for the man with search teams, who found a backpack belonging to the man in a hostel near the gorge. Inside of it was a Book of Mormon, camera, some clothing and a toothbrush.

In the area he was hiking, it is unusual to see Westerners, particularly Americans. That fact, as well as his language proficiency in both Chinese and Korean, have led the Sneddons to believe that he was arrested by North Korea as a mistaken aid to North Koreans crossing into China.

"That was our assumption going in: that somehow they had misconnected David with the underground railroad for North Korean Christians," his father, Roy Sneddon said.

Still looking for answers eight years later, the Sneddons traveled to Japan in the fall, where they attended a delegation of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea. While there, they'd met with family members of individuals kidnapped and held captive in North Korea. In that meeting, there were high ranking members of the Japan government and academic scholars who study the plight of North Korean captives.

When a delegation from that meeting came to the United States in May, they brought a report generated out China. An informant spoke of man matching their son's description who was detained by the national police on suspicion of moving North Korean nationals through China and out through Laos.


That was our assumption going in: that somehow they had misconnected David with the underground railroad for North Korean Christians.

–- Roy Sneddon, father


"The age, the language abilities and so forth matched," Roy Sneddon said.

The informant said the national police turned David Sneddon over to five agents from the North Korean government.

Another source, who the family won't identify, told them of another sighting.

"They told me he was in good health, which I was grateful to hear," said David Sneddon's mother, Kathleen Sneddon.

Over the years, the Sneddons have made phone call after phone call and tried to jump start a more thorough inquiry into their son's fate. With this latest information, they have enlisted the help of Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and say they are emboldened by his passion to help them.

"The more I've learned about this case, the more I've become convinced that there's a possibility that we could find him," Lee said. "And as long as that possibility remains, I want to keep investigating."

Lee said he will continue working with the family and the State Department, and he plans to look into Sneddon's disappearance for as long as it takes to confirm or refute the information they have.


The more I've learned about this case, the more I've become convinced that there's a possibility that we could find him. And as long as that possibility remains, I want to keep investigating.

–- Sen. Mike Lee


Roy Sneddon said he believes his son has been sequestered away for use like some prized poker chip in a future game of wheeling and dealing involving North Korea, China and the United States.

The answers haven't been forthcoming, he added, because of a sort of naiveté that exists out there.

"The roadblock from our perspective is that people in our government in essence do not want to believe that sort of thing can happen. It is inconsistent with their belief system both relative to North Korea and China," he said. "And because their belief system controls their policies, it is better to ignore than investigate."

But the Sneddons believe this latest information, coupled with a bit of applied, but subtle political pressure, will lead to the right people asking the right sources for information on their son's whereabouts.

And they are hopeful, too, that the more the public becomes aware of the situation, the louder the chorus for answers will become.

The Sneddons hope that somehow, their son knows his family hasn't given up either.

"We cannot give up and leave him languishing there and not knowing we're coming for him," Kathleen Sneddon said.

Hoping he might have a clandestine radio with him and the broadcast reached North Korea, the Sneddons were guests on the "Voice of America" broadcast, on which they talked about their efforts to find him.

For now, they continue to wait, and continue to hope. Their prayers, of course, have never stopped.

"You live your life as normal as possible and don't let this constant albatross around your neck get you down," she said. "You don't listen to the naysayers who say he is not really out there. You listen to the spirit and do your best to move forward."

Photos

Related links

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Sandra Yi and Amy Joi O'Donoghue

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast