Illinois Department of Corrections/Facebook Catherine Suh
Catherine Suh’s long-term boyfriend, Robert O’Dubaine, was shot twice and killed as he was going into the garage of the home he shared with Suh in Chicago in late September 1993. Suh was subsequently interviewed by police and ended up admitting that she’d lured her 31-year-old boyfriend there to a waiting gunman, court documents showed, which led to her arrest and murder charges.
Weeks after O’Dubaine’s murder, authorities interviewed Suh’s brother Andrew Suh, who was a 19-year-old college student and on his way to Indianapolis to post his sister’s bond. While speaking with detectives, Andrew Suh “began crying, hugged one of the officers, and told them that he wanted to ‘tell the truth,'” court documents revealed.
He said his sister Catherine Suh had continuously asked him for help killing her boyfriend who she said was abusing her and gambling away their money. On the day of the murder, he hid in the garage and Catherine Suh called O’Dubaine, telling him she was having car troubles in the garage. When O’Dubaine entered, Andrew Suh shot him twice in the head and fled the scene with O’Dubaine’s wallet and car, according to court documents.
Where is Catherine Suh today?
Suh Was Found Guilty & Sentenced to Life in Prison in Absentia as She Fled to Hawaii Before Her Trial Started
Illinois Department of CorrectionsCatherine Suh’s sentencing information
Suh was out on bail after her arrest but fled the state a couple of days before her trial was set to begin in 1995. However, the trial took place despite her absence and a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery in October 1995, after only two hours of deliberation. She was also sentenced in absentia to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In March 1996, she turned herself in to the FBI in Hawaii and was extradited back to Illinois. In a court appearance in June 1996 after she was returned to Chicago, Suh refused to address O’Dubaine’s family as the judge ordered that her life sentence start immediately, the Chicago Tribune wrote.
Suh, now 52, is serving her sentence at the Logan Correctional Center where she is set to remain for life as she is ineligible for parole, public records show. There is not much public information about whether Suh’s filed any appeals in her case and about her time in prison.
In 2007, the Chicago Reader reported that Suh hadn’t had a visitor at the prison in years and has had no contact with her brother. In fact, Andrew Suh revealed to the Chicago Tribune that he reached out to his sister soon after her arrest and received a short letter in reply that said, “I don’t know who you are. I do not have a brother. Don’t ever contact me again.”
Suh Was Featured on ‘America’s Most Wanted’ Because She Disappeared Before Her Trial & Was Living Under a False Identity in Hawaii
FacebookCatherine Suh in Hawaii with her boyfriend Kelmer Beck
Suh was charged with O’Dubaine’s murder and posted bail soon after her arrest, at which point she moved into a luxury condo building in Chicago and took on the identity of real estate agent Kasia Kane. She continued that life until 1995 when two days before her murder trial was set to begin, she fled the state to Hawaii, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Suh reinvented herself once again in Hawaii, this time as Tiffani Escada. She lived in Hawaii as a fugitive for several months and dated a surfer and personal trainer named Kelmer “Kelly” Beck. One day, Suh saw herself on “America’s Most Wanted” and fled her life with Beck, remaining at large in Hawaii for a few weeks until she decided to turn herself in to the FBI, the Chicago Tribune wrote at the time.
According to a UPI article at the time, one of Beck’s friends also saw the episode of “America’s Most Wanted” and called the FBI when he realized that his friend’s girlfriend Tiffani Escada was actually Suh.
READ NEXT: Social Media Influencer Set on Fire & Killed by Ex-Husband, Family Says