West Virginia woman arrested in death of Pitt student last year

A West Virginia woman has been arrested in the murder of a Pitt student who was killed in a… A West Virginia woman has been arrested in the murder of a Pitt student who was killed in a Seoul, South Korea, hotel room last year.

At a press conference this morning, officials from the FBI announced the arrest of Kenzi Noris Elizabeth Snider, a 20-year-old from Huntington, W. Va. FBI agent Bill Crowley said when confronted with the charges, Snider confessed.

Penich, a junior majoring in anthropology who was in Korea studying at Kiem Yung University for the semester, died March 17, 2001. Though initial reports indicated she was strangled, police later said she was stomped to death. There were several imprints of jogging shoes on her chest, and she had sustained head, neck and facial injuries.

Snider was in the same exchange program as Penich, and the two had been out dancing in the hours before Penich’s death. Officials gave no motive for the killing and Crowley said that Korean officials want to have Snider extradited to be tried for homicide there.

“[Snider] was arrested last night at the request of the Korean authorities in accordance with an extradition treaty,” Crowley said. Snider is being held in prison in Charleston, W. Va.