What happened to Michael Pak? All about Shannan Gilbert’s driver from Gone Girls

Michael Pak was one of the individuals involved in the chilling case of what came to be known as the Long Island Serial Killer of New York. The details of the decade-long case have been documented in Netflix's docuseries Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer, which was released on Monday, March 31, 2025.

Widely known as one of the most complicated cases of homicide in New York, this case involved the murders of at least seven women between 1993 and 2007, most of whom were s*x workers. In July 2023, Rex Heuermann, a 60-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, was arrested as the killer based on DNA evidence.

The first victim to alert the authorities about the serial killer was 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert in 2010, who claimed that someone was after her. She was an escort and had traveled to meet her client, Joseph Brewer, in Long Island, accompanied by her driver, Michael Pak. She had placed a call to 911 before she disappeared, thus making Pak one of the last people to have seen her alive.

Investigation into Gilbert's disappearance led to the police finding of the bodies of four other women, who came to be known as the Gilgo Four. This prompted the investigation into the Long Island Serial Killer. Gilbert's body was found a year later in 2011.

Follow along with the article to learn more about Michael Pak and his involvement with the case.

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Who is Michael Pak from Gone Girls - explored

As per Moviedelic, Michael Pak was Shannan Gilbert's driver. He was a Korean immigrant who grew up in the US. He graduated from high school in 1987 and from college in 1993 and eventually became a writing technician at AIG Insurance in 1998.

He married a woman named Jisuk Son in 2004 and moved to Los Angeles to find better opportunities for both of them. The same year, he was allegedly offered $3000 plus a flight back to LA in exchange for assisting with the travel arrangements of a Chinese migrant.

This, however, led to him unwittingly becoming a part of a human smuggling network. He found himself with a ticket to Sri Lanka and was detained at the airport but was later allowed to fly back to the US.

When this incident repeated itself, Pak was arrested, charged, and convicted of passport misuse along with the illegal transportation of individuals. He received a sentence of six months in federal prison, causing his wife to leave him and for him to lose his job.

He moved back to Manhattan, New York, to be with his family and picked up odd jobs to make ends meet. He landed a job as a driver for Manhattan’s Prestige Escort Agency, where he met Shannan Gilbert.

Michael Pak and Gilbert had worked out an arrangement for him to drive her to and from clients' places. On April 30, 2010, he had taken her to Oak Beach, Long Island, where the client informed him around 4.50 am that Gilbert was refusing to leave.

Pak went to look and claimed that Gilbert was acting paranoid even after his reassurances to drive her home. She ran away, and despite his efforts to chase her down and subsequently search for her, she disappeared.

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What happened to Michael Pak, and where is he now?

Michael Pak was Shannan Gilbert's driver (image via Pexels)

Michael Pak was extensively questioned by the police after Gilbert's disappearance. While initially considered a suspect, he was later cleared and pronounced a non-party witness after he reportedly passed a polygraph test. Even though he informed the police about everything he knew, he failed to answer what had made the woman so paranoid to begin with.

As per Moviedelic, the 56-year-old now leads a quiet life in Flushing, New York, with his loved ones.

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Watch Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer only on Netflix.