Overland Park man’s Italy murder case is ‘quite shocking’ to those who met him
Two days after the killing of a shopkeeper in small town Italy, a picture is emerging of the 22-year-old Overland Park man accused of beating to death the elderly clothing store owner weeks after he arrived in the country.
Michael Aaron Pang was arrested Saturday on charges he bludgeoned the 74-year-old worker with a stool after he was unable to pay for clothes in Viterbo, northwest of Rome, according to Italy’s paramilitary police. He faces murder and robbery charges.
The worker, Norveo Fedeli, was found dead in his shop Friday, local media reported. The town’s mayor told reporters the killing, which quickly gained international attention, has “shattered us all.”
Before he found himself in an Italian jail, Pang was said to have been in a dangerous car wreck with a friend, played violin in a youth symphony and briefly pursued a degree in computing and engineering.
Born in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Pang attended Oxford Middle School in Overland Park and then graduated in 2015 from Blue Valley Northwest High School, a former friend said.
Pang can be seen in yearbook photographs with the high school’s varsity and junior varsity football and wrestling teams in 2014. His yearbook photo shows him smiling in a blue Under Armour shirt.
When Pang was in high school, he was involved in a crash that injured one of his friends, Brian Hudgens, Jr., who is now 22, according to a lawsuit Hudgens filed in Johnson County court.
Pang was driving a Toyota Camry in the early hours of July 26, 2014, with Hudgens in the passenger’s seat, the lawsuit claimed. Blocks from his childhood home, Pang tried to slide the car around a corner in an attempted drift maneuver at West 121st Terrace and Knox Street, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, Pang drove into a tree, Hudgens told The Star.
“It should’ve killed him,” Hudgens’ mother, Kathy Hudgens, said Monday. “He had glass and blood all over him.”
Hudgens recalled that, just before Pang tried the driving technique, he asked: “Are you ready for this?”
The crash left Hudgens with injuries that included brain and kidney damage, he and his mother said Monday.
Hudgens’ lawsuit, which accused Pang and his parents of negligence, was dismissed by a judge because it was filed after the statute of limitations, court records show.
Hudgens was surprised when he saw Pang was arrested in Italy. Sharing a screenshot of a CNN story on Facebook, he wrote: “I can’t believe this is the same guy who nearly killed me in a car wreck” in high school.
Court records do not show any charges against Pang in connection with the wreck. However, he pleaded guilty to consuming or possessing liquor as a minor on the same day Hudgens said the wreck occurred. He was sentenced to nine months of probation.
Neal Fowles, an Olathe attorney who represented Pang in the minor in possession case, said Pang seemed like a normal, nice and congenial teenager who had some difficulties when he was young.
Fowles recalled Pang as having musical talents and playing string instruments. On his LinkedIn account, Pang wrote he played violin for the Youth Symphony of Kansas City from late 2013 to early 2015. The symphony confirmed he was a musician there for two seasons.
Pang then attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City for two semesters, in fall 2015 and spring 2016, a UMKC spokesman said. He was enrolled in the college’s school of computing and engineering but did not earn a degree.
About two months ago, Pang arrived in Italy on a tourist visa, according to his lawyer, Remigio Sicilia. Described as a graphic designer, Pang reportedly rented a room at a bed and breakfast in the village of Capodimonte, a town that touches Lake Bolsena.
Pang wanted to learn Italian and work in Italy, his attorney said. He does not speak Italian and used his mobile phone translator to communicate, something that has proved difficult when talking with his lawyers.
“He’s 22, but he is like a child,” the lawyer told local reporters. “He’s a well-behaved boy from a good American family.”
In a call Monday with The Star, Sicilia described his client as courteous, kind and educated. Pang did not speak during his first court appearance, but he planned to Tuesday morning before a judge, the attorney said.
Pang allegedly ordered designer clothes worth about $670 from Fedeli’s store. Before Friday, he went to the store twice to purchase the clothes but his credit card was rejected, authorities said.
Police said a scuffle broke out between Pang and Fedeli before Pang killed the storekeeper. Pang allegedly changed his clothes and took Fedeli’s wallet before fleeing with one of his shoes covered in a bag.
Investigators allegedly found Fedeli’s wallet and other evidence in the room Pang rented. When Pang was arrested, he had cuts on his hands and “traces of blood on his shoe,” according to a reporter in Rome for The Guardian.
A local prosecutor told reporters he had strong evidence to charge Pang. Images from outside the shop showed crime scene investigators, dressed in white protective clothing and blue shoes and gloves, photographing the area.
Fowles, the Olathe attorney who represented Pang in Kansas, could not remember anything unusual about Pang. He called Pang’s arrest “quite shocking.”
“A terrible thing to happen anywhere, let alone a foreign country,” Fowles said. “It seems like whatever happened obviously was a tragedy of some sort.”
Pang’s family is not traveling to Italy, his attorney told a reporter with Il Messaggero, an Italian newspaper based in Rome. Pang’s parents, who are listed as living in Overland Park, did not return calls Sunday.
Viterbo’s mayor, Giovanni Arena, declared Monday a day of mourning for the shopkeeper, according to media reports. According to The Guardian, he called Fedeli “a good and kind man.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 6, 2019 at 7:01 PM.
