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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

American Freed By Koreans Kills Himself

Associated Press

Evan C. Hunziker, held by North Korea for three months as a suspected spy after he crossed the border from China to preach the Gospel, was released just before Thanksgiving.

The 26-year-old man was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head Wednesday in the restaurant-bar area of a ramshackle downtown hotel owned by relatives of his Korean mother, Jong Nye Hunziker of Anchorage, Alaska.

Police said no note was found but the Pierce County medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide.

A .357 Magnum was found at the scene, police spokesman Jim Mattheis said.

“I am very saddened by this sudden turn of events,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., the U.N. ambassador-designate who helped secure his release from North Korea.

“Evan was a gentle young man who sought peace for all people. I express my heartfelt condolences to the Hunziker family.”

Hunziker’s release was seen as a gesture by North Korea to thaw relations strained by his August arrest and by the September incursion of a North Korean submarine into South Korean waters.

Hunziker’s father, Edwin Hunziker, was saddened and bewildered by his son’s death.

“I don’t know what happened to this young fellow. I thought he was doing so well” since he got back from North Korea, the elder Hunziker said.

“He just went off the deep end, I guess.”

When his son came back from Korea, the elder Hunziker said he noticed two red marks on the lower part of his throat that looked like rope burns. Evan wouldn’t answer questions about them, he said, but the North Koreans said he had tried to kill himself.

In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns called Hunziker’s death “a very, very sad case.”

“He went through a lot in his imprisonment in North Korea,” Burns said, adding that his remarks did not imply the North Koreans were responsible for Hunziker’s death.

The elder Hunziker said his son had problems with drugs after high school.

“That little experience over there and the drugs he was on before probably did it,” Hunziker said.

Hunziker’s stepmother said he was quiet after his return and wouldn’t talk about his experiences.

“The only thing he would tell me and everyone else who tried to talk to him was that they treated him humanely and they had (lousy) food,” his father said.

“I don’t think he knew what he wanted to do. People wanted him to wise up and get a job,” his stepmother said.

Hunziker was arrested in North Korea on Aug. 24 after he entered the communist country from China. North Korea accused him of spying for capitalist rival South Korea.

After his release, Hunziker said he entered North Korea without a visa or other documents “out of curiosity and to preach the Gospel.”

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition

Cut in the Spokane edition