As for the ruse about Chris Smith setting sail and leaving his worries behind, Wert said that Shin admitted that he'd concocted all of that. He hijacked Smith's e-mail accounts and crafted the narrative of a globe-trotting escape so that people wouldn't be suspicious about his partner's sudden absence.

Allan Stokke, one of Shin's attorneys, argued at the preliminary hearing that this elaborate fiction didn't prove that Shin had premeditated his crime, which he characterized as "a self-defense situation...a heat-of-passion or a sudden quarrel situation." Stokke wouldn't even concede that Smith was dead rather than simply missing. But even assuming the former, Stokke said, Shin was culpable for manslaughter, at most.

The prosecutor’s characterization of Shin’s self-defense claim can be summarized with one word: bullshit.

Shin's trial, which has been delayed numerous times as the lawyers on both sides haggle over evidence and motions, is scheduled to take place later this spring. The prosecutor's characterization of Shin's self-defense claim can be summarized with one word: bullshit. If Smith had fallen and hit his head during a fight, there wouldn't be blood on the ceiling; the only way you would get that is if Shin had either stabbed Smith or hit him with a blunt object. "There is blood on the ceiling of the office, which we submit is a classic case of cast-off that is also totally inconsistent with Shin's story," said Matt Murphy, the Orange County prosecutor, in the preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors say Shin had a clear motive: not wanting to pay $1 million to Smith. He was already paying off the $805,000 to LG for the embezzlement, and Ramey speculates that Shin may also have had a six-figure gambling debt to pay off in Vegas. If Shin did in fact accidentally kill Smith during the "heat of passion," as his attorney postulated, Shin regained his composure quickly. At 7:10 P.M. on June 4—when Smith was likely already dead—Shin e-mailed a buyout agreement to Smith's attorney with terms that were significantly revised in his own favor: Instead of $1 million, the paperwork indicated that Smith was now willing to be bought out for a mere $30,000 and 10 gold coins worth about $15,000 total. Shin "cashed in on this murder," Murphy said.

If so, he apparently wasn’t very careful about covering his tracks. Police discovered that right after the crime, Shin rented a truck (despite his story about calling Johnny “Vegas” to help with the body). Reviewing his cell phone records, they discovered that he made a call to Enterprise for vehicle assistance at 2:30 A.M. on June 7. The location, based on cell phone tower pings, was a remote area east of San Diego along the Mexican border. "I believe it is possible that Shin was disposing of the MP's [missing person's] body in the desert when he made the call," a sheriff's investigator wrote in a search-warrant application.

The phone call wasn't the only screw-up. Shin instructed the 800Xchange's employees to work from home for the entire week after the crime so that he could have the office professionally cleaned. When a maintenance man for the office complex showed up at suite 123, he noticed "a lot" of blood on the walls and carpet; Shin told him that he had cut his arm while slicing an apple, according to police.

As a murder mystery, ultimately, Smith's did not befit Sherlock Holmes. It could have been cracked by Scooby-Doo. But if it weren't for the unlikeliest chance happening—a private investigator having an office a few doors down from that of 800Xchange—and Shin's penchant for not paying his bills, he might never have been arrested. Incredulous that detectives didn't probe Shin's lies more forcefully or even search the office before Dalu did, the Smith family considered filing a lawsuit against the Laguna Beach Police.

Two months before his arrest, Shin started a blog called "Mr. Shincredible." Its lone post mixed narcissism and self-justification with bromides about faith and forgiveness. "No matter if you are a hardened killer hanging on the cross just a few hours away from your death, or born into a good Christian home whose family guides you to Jesus before you even commit serious sins, we are all people," Shin wrote. "...So yes, I'm sorry. And yes, one day I will make good the best way that I can on the things I've done."

Shin had fooled the police and Smith's friends and family; the blog's show of remorse, arguably, demonstrated that he could even delude himself. This speaks to Shin's true talent—not as a particularly deft killer but as a masterful liar. An experienced con man, Shin knew that brazen plays better than sly. He knew that the solution to being caught in a lie was to lie again. And he knew that if he employed many bits of truth—like Smith's genuine desire to expatriate—he could get people to swallow a gargantuan lie. Among the people Shin conned was Paul Smith, who, as it happened, also worked for the 800Xchange and continued to do so, alongside Shin, for seven months after Chris disappeared. "This guy's a Christian?" Paul now says. "More like the devil. And he wears a mask."

James Vlahos is a writer in Berkeley, California. His book, Talk to Me: Inside Silicon Valley's Quest for Conversation, will be published later this year.