Heartbroken Family Answer Call, Caller Mentions North Korea
News About Their Son
When she picked up the phone, she had no idea who would be on the other line. What they had to say shocked her to her core. She could not speak, and all she could do was look at her husband with wide eyes. He got up and rushed to her side.
The voice on the line told her that he knew about her son, David and that he was in North Korea. The woman and her husband were shaken. They hadn’t seen their son for seven years. He’d been missing for all that time.
Looking For Adventure
Washington Post
David Sneddon was an American who had always wanted to fill his life with adventure. The Brigham Young University student had a fascination with different, and it was no surprise when, in 2004, he thought China would be a wonderful place to travel to.
He had been to Asia before, considering he had visited South Korea a few years prior, but he felt there was more for him to see. But something awaited him that he least expected.
Plans To Travel
Washington Post
The Washington Post approached Roy, David’s father, who explained that his son had finished his coursework. “He had a plan to travel before he came back,” he said. “He wanted to go to southeast China.”
His family had encouraged him to go, not knowing that what would happen to their son would become one of the biggest mysteries not even the highest government officials could solve.
Just A Joke
Public Domain
His mother had received an email from her son about how much he was looking forward to some “real” traveling. He explained that he only had three weeks, so he was confining himself to traveling through southern China.
He joked in the email and said that if they never heard from him again, they should look for his body in the western Yunnan Province of China or the Yellow Mountains of Anhui but later assured them in the email that he was excited. However, he had no idea how seriously his parents would take what he had written.
