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South Korean authorities want the United States to return a West Virginia woman to Seoul to stand trial in the slaying of a fellow exchange student from Derry Township there last year.

The Ministry of Justice of Korea has initiated a formal request for the extradition of Kenzi Noris Elizabeth Snider, 20, of Huntington, W.Va., on a single charge of murder.

The former Marshall University student is accused of brutally stomping to death University of Pittsburgh junior Jamie Lynn Penich, 21, in Kum Sung Motel on March 18, 2001.

U.S. Attorney Larry Ellis said Monday he submitted a "notice of filing" to U.S. Magistrate Court, Southern District of West Virginia, in response to a formal extradition request from the Republic of Korea on April 24.

Complete extradition request documents have not yet been turned over to the court, and no date has been set for an extradition hearing.

"The request and materials accompanying will be forwarded upon completion of a declaration from the Legal Advisor's Office of the State Department of the United States," stated Ellis, who reported those materials may be filed later this week.

U.S. Magistrate Maurice G. Taylor issued a provisional arrest warrant for Snider on Feb. 27 after receiving a warrant issued the same day by Judge Jin-Sudung of the Western Branch of the Seoul District Court in the Republic of South Korea.

She has been held at South Central Region Jail in Charleston since her arrest by FBI agents at her apartment on Feb. 28.

Taylor denied her release on bond after a March 11 hearing.

The formal extradition request "just made the 60-day deadline," Snider's defense counsel, Edward Weis, said yesterday.

Weis, who is first assistant federal public defender, added he has yet to see the complete extradition request and accompanying documents.

"I don't have a copy yet," he said. "But when I receive it, I will review it and we'll decide where to go from there."

Weis said his client "is holding up OK, considering that she's in a regional jail. That's about all I want to say at this time."

Korean National Police, the FBI's legal attache in Seoul and the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Army had been investigating Penich's murder for nearly a year.

Throughout that probe, the victim's family had been led to believe the suspect in the brutal murder was a white male, possibly a U.S. soldier.

"The arrest was a big relief," Jamie's mother, Patricia Penich of Millwood, said yesterday. "But we were shocked to find out it was Kenzi. And we don't believe the story she's telling."

According to the federal complaint, Snider confessed to the murder after interviews with U.S. officials at the Ramada Inn in Huntington from Feb. 4-6.

Penich and Snider had been studying at Keimyung University in Taegu and had traveled to the nation's capital with a group of other exchange students to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

They had been out drinking and dancing in the busy Itaewon region on the night of March 17, 2001. When they returned to the hotel early in the morning of March 18, Snider became enraged when Penich made sexual advances toward her, she told prosecutors.

Snider allegedly struck Penich in the head, which "caused her to fall down into the bathtub," the complaint alleges. She "then picked her up and moved her out of the bathroom and repeatedly tramped down on her face, neck and chest very hard, with her shoes on," causing Penich "to die from suffocation."

Snider left Penich's nude and bloody body on the floor of Room 103 after "covering her face with a jacket," the complaint alleges.

Officials at the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea in Washington, D.C., did not return telephone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Penich, a 1997 Derry Area High School graduate, had been majoring in cultural anthropology and religious studies at Pitt. She was fluent in French and could read both Japanese and Korean.

Patricia Penich said she and a number of other family members plan to be present in Huntington when the extradition hearing is held.

"We will definitely be going to that," she said.

Patricia Penich also has expressed a desire to attend court proceedings in Seoul if extradition is granted.

Snider, who was born in Italy and has lived in Africa, Holland and other places, graduated from high school in Kuwait prior to attending classes in Huntington.

Her mother, Heath Bozonie, an elementary school teacher in Thailand, has said she also will travel to South Korea if her daughter is extradited.

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