LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Just days into the admission process for Soldiers of Christ, Sehee Cho was faint and weak.
The 33-year-old had come to the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville from South Korea in July to heal from a traumatic experience. Instead, police say, the Soldiers group led by two Korean-American brothers held her captive for weeks, tortured and starved her until she died.
Officers discovered her rotting body, which weighed just 32 pounds, in the trunk of a car in September, and prosecutors have charged the brothers, their mother, a third brother and three others with murder.
The gory details – which have been widely reported in Korean news media in the US – have shocked the large Korean community in metro Atlanta. Community leaders say the case is a wake-up call for Korean Americans to be more vigilant about religious sects and potential threats to newcomers from South Korea.
“It really reminded people that we shouldn't be so comfortable,” said Sarah Park, president of the Atlanta chapter of the Korean American Coalition.
The murder's proximity to the heart of Korean social and cultural life in the region was disturbing, she added.
The brothers and mother lived in a part of Gwinnett County dubbed “The Seoul of the South” for its abundance of Korean restaurants, bakeries and other establishments. The car containing Cho's body was left in the parking lot of a popular Korean spa on a main road in Korea's business district.
“Normally, Koreans are good people, so they don't guard themselves or look at strangers,” said Sunny Park, a prominent Korean-American businessman. “But now they will.”
Community leaders say what is even more disturbing is the relatively young ages of most of the defendants – five are in their 20s and one is 15 – and their religious affiliations. The mother and brothers attended the local church, at least for a while, and the father is a pastor in the area. No charges have been filed against him.
The church is a respected and essential part of Korean life in the US, and some local pastors fear the killing could indicate broader cult-like activities that have gone undetected. Religious sects are a concern in South Korea.
“Korean Christians in the United States need to be aware of their existence and their reality,” said Rev. Byeong Cheol Han, senior pastor of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.
Investigators have not been able to find any members or affiliates of Soldiers of Christ beyond the small group of defendants, police say. Still, Han and other preachers organized a seminar in November to inform local students about Korean sects and how they operate.
Prosecutors say Joonho Lee — the founder of Soldiers of Christ — wanted 12 disciples and tried to recruit a Korean-American student at Georgia State University after Cho's death. David Boyle, a lawyer for another defendant in the case, Eric Hyun, 26, has said his client was also recruited and tortured by the group.
One of the defendants told police that Joonho Lee had received instructions directly from God, investigators say.
A Gwinnett County police detective testified at an Oct. 19 hearing that the group videotaped themselves beating Cho with a belt and placing her in ice baths — once when she appeared weak and a second time when she looked weak. like she was almost dead. . Five of the defendants sat stoically in the courtroom, listening through headphones to a Korean translation of the grim evidence.
Lee's attorney, Scott Drake, said outside the hearing that he was still gathering information and could not immediately comment. He did not respond to multiple phone messages and emails.
Lee, 26, told investigators that Cho had voluntarily gone through the initiation, prosecutors said. Cho's mother knew Lee's mother in South Korea and brought Cho to the Lee family home on July 21 to “find God” and ease her depression, Gwinnett County police said. Angela Carter said this during the hearing.
However, messages the defendants exchanged show that Cho tried to quit the training almost immediately after it started, but the group wouldn't let her go, prosecutors say. “There is no end to this program,” the 15-year-old defendant, Junyeong Lee, told investigators, according to police.
Prosecutors charged him as an adult. He, Joonho Lee and a third defendant also described by police as the group's leader, Joonhyun Lee, 22, are brothers. Their mother, Mihee Lee, 54, was arrested about a month after they were taken into custody in September.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages with an attorney for Junyeong Lee, David Whitman. Attorney Jason Park, who represents Joonhyun Lee, said he is not allowed to speak about a case that is still active.
Mihee Lee's attorney, John Burdges, declined to comment. However, during the Oct. 19 hearing, he questioned Cho's mental state and the claim that she was being held against her will.
The dedication took place in the Lee family's modest home in a Lawrenceville neighborhood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. No one answered the door on a recent afternoon, although the windows were open and the front lawn was mowed and cleared of leaves.
Jung Wook Lee, an attorney of Korean descent in nearby Duluth, said acquaintances of hers met the Lee family at church and thought nothing was wrong.
“We're just kind of curious how it started and how it unfolded in such a bad way,” she said at a networking event and lecture for Asian Americans in Norcross, Georgia, on December 11.
Jongwon Lee, another attorney, recalled receiving help from a Korean church in Doraville, Georgia, when he arrived in the U.S. with limited English skills more than a decade ago.
“Korean people are shocked that some people have done something terrible in the name of religion,” he said.
The other two defendants are Gawon Lee, 26, a cousin of the Lee family who was visiting from South Korea, and Hyunji Lee, 25, Joonho Lee's fiancée. Gawon Lee's attorney, John Kim, did not respond to phone calls and emails. In addition to murder, all seven suspects are charged with false imprisonment and concealment of death.
Ashley McMahan, Hyunji Lee's attorney, said her client was treated like an “indentured servant” by the other defendants. She was also in South Korea part of the time, while prosecutors say Cho was being held and did not know what was happening, McMahan added.
However, prosecutors say Joonho Lee told Hyunji Lee in an instant message shortly after the initiation began around July 27 that Cho apparently hadn't even had water in three days and kept passing out, according to a criminal complaint filed on November 29.
On August 17, Cho screamed for food, Junyeong Lee reported in a chat message. His other brother, Joonhyun Lee, instructed him to hit her if she screamed again, the complaint said.
Two days later, prosecutors say Joonhyun Lee wrote a chat message to himself with dates when he said Cho began “fasting” and was attacked. The end date in the message was 8/18: “1 a.m. time of death (estimated time).”
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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.