Tay Suspects Give All Answers--Except Why : Slaying: Teens held in Orange student’s death told police of protracted beating, crime reports say.

Before the sun had risen Monday, Detectives Matt Miller and Jorge Desouza were knocking on Kirn Kim’s door. Kim, a junior at Sunny Hills High School, had reportedly told a friend that he knew what happened to Foothill High School honor student Stuart A. Tay, missing since New Year’s Eve.

Kim, 16, accompanied the detectives to the Orange Police Department. His father, Dr. Yong Ho Kim, waited in the lobby. For the next several hours the boy slowly unraveled the mystery of Tay’s disappearance, describing one of the most chilling murders in Orange County history.

Within 15 hours of going to Kim’s home, four more Sunny Hills students were arrested on suspicion of murder and Tay’s body was unearthed at 9 p.m. from a shallow grave in Buena Park. Statements made to police by four of the suspects indicate that Tay was beaten for more than 20 minutes before his body was wrapped in a bedsheet and buried.

Police records and interviews with investigators provide a rare, detailed account of how Orange detectives and a Santa Ana private investigator hired by the Tays built the case that has shaken two high school campuses and engulfed some of the community’s more prominent Asian-American immigrant families.

A 15-page police report filed in Municipal Court lays out the who, what, when and where. Still unclear, however, is perhaps the most troubling question of all: why?

Was it as police contend, that Tay and the five suspects were planning to rob an Anaheim man of computer parts and that Tay was killed when the group realized he was using a phony name and feared he might be an undercover agent?

Or was it a crime of passion, as the Tay family’s private investigator suggests? While not dismissing the police theory, investigator Lee Roberts contends that Tay may have been murdered in part because he was dating a girl who had jilted one of the suspects, 18-year-old Robert Chan. The girl, a Taiwan-born cheerleader at Foothill, introduced Tay and Chan several months ago, a family attorney said.

“This is so elaborate and bizarre it borders on the crazy,” Roberts said.

According to police records, Tay was lured to the Buena Park garage on the promise of obtaining a gun and was immediately set upon by his attackers. He had used the name Martin Gore, who in reality is a keyboard player in Tay’s favorite rock group--Depeche Mode.

On Dec. 31, around 4 p.m., Stuart Tay told his sister that he had to run “an errand” and left the family’s home, a sprawling mansion in an exclusive section of Orange.

Stuart’s mother, Linda Tay, was the first to worry.

At 2:40 a.m. on New Year’s Day, she reported her son missing. Linda Tay told Orange Police Officer Bob Martinez that Stuart always called if he planned on staying out for more than a few hours. She had begun calling Stuart’s friends around 6 p.m. No one had seen him. Her son carried a beeper and she tried to page him.

“There was no response,” the police report says.

Orange police learned nothing more until 9:50 p.m. New Year’s Day, when Compton police found Tay’s 1990 Nissan 300 ZX stripped and abandoned in an alley. The cherry red sports car had been given to Tay by his parents as a 17th-birthday gift and as a reward for his good grades.

Detectives Miller and Desouza spent part of the next day interviewing Tay’s friends. One friend had been with Tay the afternoon he disappeared and told the investigators that Tay had “talked about buying a Beretta handgun from a subject named Robert Chan,” according to the police report.

Chan--an 18-year old Sunny Hills student in the running for class valedictorian--has yet to enter a plea in the Tay case. Chan applied to Princeton University earlier this year and is awaiting word whether he has been accepted. He has declined to speak to police.

Tay’s friend told police that Chan and Tay had agreed to meet at a Denny’s restaurant in Fullerton about 4 p.m. on New Year’s Eve to “negotiate the obtaining of the handgun.”

Shortly after midnight on Jan. 4, private investigator Roberts called Miller and said there were two teen-agers at the Tay home who had heard a few things about Stuart Tay’s whereabouts from another student. Their statements led detectives to Kirn Kim.

Kim, like Tay, loved to tinker with computers and he regularly helped his mother with her volunteer work, as on Thanksgiving when he helped the Boy Scouts pack food for the needy. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Kim told investigators he had gone to the home of Abraham Acosta--a sophomore at Sunny Hills--in the late afternoon on New Year’s Eve day. There, he met Tay, Acosta, Chan and Mun Bong Kang, a junior at Sunny Hills.

Kim said Tay went into the back yard of Acosta’s home with all of the other boys. Kim, according to the police report, said he stood in front of the Acosta home and served as a lookout.

“Kirn Kim stated he thought they were going to teach Tay a lesson and beat him,” according to police records. Chan, Kang and Acosta emerged later, without Tay.

Kim said Chan told him they “took care” of Tay and had buried him. Chan then instructed Kim to drive Tay’s car to Compton and handed Kim a pair of rubber gloves, to avoid leaving prints inside the vehicle.

Chan and Kang, in “a white foreign sedan,” followed Kim to Compton, the report says.

After interviewing Kim, Detectives Miller and Desouza left the Orange Police Department and drove to the Acosta home in Buena Park. They got the family’s permission to search the property. Acosta’s sister Claudia told police that her brother and some friends had recently told their mother they had dug a grave for a dog in the back yard.

Detective Desouza and Miller walked to the rear yard, largely barren of grass and sprinkled with brown and yellow leaves from a nearby rubber tree. As they looked around, the officers “saw recently disturbed dirt,” Miller wrote in the police report.

While waiting for a search warrant to dig in the yard, Miller and four detectives went to Sunny Hills High School on Monday afternoon. It was the first day of class since the long holiday break.

At 12:40 p.m. in the office of Assistant Principal Steve Roderick, the detectives arrested Acosta, Chan and Kang. Soon afterward, a final suspect--Charles Choe, 17, of Fullerton--was picked up. All the suspects were interviewed Monday afternoon with the exception of Chan, who declined to talk.

By 9 p.m., under the glare of police floodlights, Stuart Tay’s body was exhumed.

“Stuart Tay was discovered buried in the rear yard of the residence. Detective Varga told me there was blood evidence found throughout the inside of the detached garage to the rear of the residence,” Miller wrote in his report.

Initially Kang, a quiet but popular 17-year-old Sunny Hills student, told police he didn’t know Tay. He said he had spent New Year’s Eve watching a friend play golf and eating pizza at another friend’s house. He said he then went to a New Year’s Eve party at the Beverly Hills Hilton.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder.

“I told Kang that I had spoken with Kim and that Kim had admitted taking the victim’s car to Compton with him,” Miller said. “Kang told me to bring Kim to the interview room and have Kim tell him to his face that he was involved.”

Miller put Kang and Kim together, then began to interview Acosta at 5 p.m.

The police report indicates that Acosta--a special education student--didn’t understand at first what an attorney was and couldn’t comprehend what the detectives meant when they told him he had a right to “remain silent.”

“Acosta said he was a 10th-grader but couldn’t read,” Miller said. “I told him, ‘You don’t have to say anything.’ ”

Deputy Public Defender Denise M. Gragg, Acosta’s attorney, said Thursday that she thinks her client may be retarded and “very well may have been manipulated” by the other boys. He has not entered a plea to date.

Nevertheless, police said, Acosta told them he “wanted to talk.”

Acosta said Chan had come to him sometime before the day of Tay’s death and asked for “a favor,” according to Miller’s report. Acosta could earn $200 if he helped Chan “get rid of somebody.” Acosta told detectives that on Dec. 30 Chan brought digging tools to the Acosta home and told Acosta to dig a grave.

Miller, according to the report, noticed blisters on Acosta’s hands during the interview. Miller had the youth’s hands photographed by a forensic technologist.

Acosta said Chan appeared at his house New Year’s Eve with Kang and Tay. All the boys, including Choe, went to a detached garage in the back yard. They handed Tay a heavy box wrapped in tape.

Tay began to unwrap the box, evidently thinking it was the promised Beretta handgun. Acosta said Chan “looked at him and motioned him to the baseball bats that had been placed against the garage wall.”

Acosta said he then hit Tay in the head with one of the bats. Tay turned around and said “Hey what the (expletive)!” While Tay was looking at Acosta, Chan picked up a second baseball bat and began hitting the victim “at least 10 times,” Acosta said.

Complaining that Tay “was taking too long to die,” Acosta went into his house to find a bedsheet. Tay’s body was wrapped in the sheet and buried in the back yard.

Miller wrote that Acosta “said he was ‘freaking out’ with all the blood that had splattered his garage. Acosta said he took a rubber hose and ‘hosed down the garage.’ ”

Acosta identified Kim as the lookout. He said that Kang helped him carry Tay’s dead body and that Choe was present in the garage at the time of the murder, according to records.

When finished with Acosta, the investigators called Kang back in for more questioning. By 5:50 p.m. Monday, Kang had changed his story and began to tell police about Tay’s murder, the report indicates.

Kang said he met Tay and the other boys in Acosta’s garage and handed Tay a heavy box. Then Kang and Choe went into a separate room in the garage.

“He said he heard Tay screaming and heard sounds as if a person was being hit on the head,” Miller wrote. “He said he hugged Choe and wondered what to do. He said he and Choe were very scared.”

Kang said he later helped Acosta and Chan move Tay’s dead body. Kang said his pants were soiled with Tay’s blood and Chan demanded that they be burned.

Miller and Detective Mike Harper then drove to Choe’s home in Fullerton and arrested him.

Choe is a B+ student at Sunny Hills who earned the extremely high score of 1,350 on his college entrance exams. He has aspirations of attending an Ivy League school. He has pleaded not guilty to Tay’s murder.

At 7:44 p.m., Choe began to tell his version of events. Choe said that Kang gave Tay a heavy box and that he and Kang left the room, but not before Choe saw Tay being hit in the head and stomach with a sledgehammer.

Choe “heard Tay asking for help. He heard Tay say to Chan, ‘What did I do to you?’ ” the police report says. “After Chan beat Tay for approximately 20 minutes Tay’s body was moving and alive.”

Choe said alcohol was poured down Tay’s throat and his mouth was covered with duct tape. Choe helped carry Tay’s 180-pound body to his grave before driving to Compton to pick up Kim, police said.

Chan had taken Tay’s wallet, Choe claimed, and divided up $108 found inside. Choe and Kim each got $20, Kang was paid $48 and Chan kept $20 for himself, Choe said. Acosta was paid $100 of the $200 allegedly owed him, Choe said.

“Choe said he didn’t know that the incident was going to end like it did,” the police report says.

After Tay’s death, Choe said Chan collected the baseball bats, Kang’s pants, the box said to have contained the gun, a big bag and Tay’s wallet. Choe said Chan later gave those items to an unidentified Asian man who spoke Chinese.

Choe, Chan and Kang then went to a New Year’s Eve party, Choe said.

The report makes no mention of Tay’s cheerleader girlfriend. But earlier this week private detective Roberts advanced the theory that a love triangle was a motive in the slaying.

While doubting that theory, police investigators spent Wednesday and part of Thursday searching for the girl. The Tay family attorney said she has been in seclusion.

But by Thursday afternoon an Orange police spokesman, Lt. Timm Browne, said detectives had questioned the girl and do not believe any rivalry for her affection was a factor in the slaying.

Tay Services

A visitation for Stuart Tay is scheduled today from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Fairhaven Memorial Park Mortuary, 1702 E. Fairhaven Ave., Santa Ana. The funeral will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 161 S. Orange St., Orange. The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Stuart Tay Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 1969, Tustin, Calif. 92680.

Times staff writers Matt Lait, Jodi Wilgoren, Gebe Martinez, De Tran, Tim Chou, Rene Lynch, Eric Young and Leslie Berkman and correspondent Mimi Ko contributed to this report.