Is the teacher naked in the well of the village? A serial killer aiming for a red car.

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: December 27, 2024 (Fri)
■ Host: Lawyer Jeong Tae-geun
■ Lawyer Noh Bum-rae

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◇Jung Tae-geun: When the cold winter passes and the warm spring wind comes, rural residents are busier than ever. The Yakcheon village in Gangwon-do was the same. A, who felt frustrated little by little about what happened to the well water, opened the lid of the well because he thought there might be a tree branch or something stuck at the entrance where the water came out. Was a tree branch really hanging as A thought? Surprisingly, found in a well, it was not a tree branch, but the body of a woman found curled up. The quiet village was completely turned upside down by this incident. However, the investigation continued to stand still as there were no signs left by the suspect. And it's been three months. Were the police able to catch the true culprit of the well murder in Yakcheon Village belatedly? Let's take a closer look at this case in today's case X file. Hello, I'm lawyer Jung Tae-geun of Case X file. Today, we are with handsome lawyer Noh Bum-rae. Welcome, lawyer.

◆Nobumrae: Hello. I'm Roh Bum-rae, a lawyer at Loel Law Firm.

◇Jung Tae-geun: This incident, which I will introduce to our listeners today, happened in a village in Donghae, Gangwon Province. A shocking incident occurred in which the body of a woman was found in a well used by the whole village. It's been known. I wonder how surprised you must have been.

◆No Beom-rae: Yes, it's a really shocking incident. It happened 18 years ago in the spring of March 14, 2006. Mr. A, who visited Yakcheon Village in Simgok-dong, Donghae-si to help his relatives with their farming work, was thirsty while working, so he found a well. It was the beginning of the incident to find the body of a small, slender woman curled up naked after opening the lid in the well, thinking it was a little strange that the water stream, which normally comes out cool, was weak.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: Since you said it was a well, isn't there a possibility that you tripped and fell or drowned?

◆ Noh Beom-rae: The police also suspected drowning at first. However, the village well is only 70cm deep, so it is unlikely that there would have been a situation where a joke was made by mistake. In addition, the lid of the well was also covered when the victim was found. If it was an accident, the well lid would have been open, so the possibility of drowning is unlikely.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: Then someone brutally murdered and abandoned him. This is the story, but I think the first thing to do is to identify the victim.

◆ Noh Beom-rae: Yes, once we checked the victim's body, we found traces of someone strangling him and killing him. In addition, in light of the fact that there were only minor traces on the victim's vulva, no body fluids were found, and that they were found naked without major trauma, the police judged that someone killed the victim after attempting to rape him and dumped him in a well in Yakcheon Village. At that time, a woman of the same age was reported missing in the city about 6km away from the well. The missing woman was the same person as the victim who died in the well. The victim had been reported missing a week before he was found dead. At around 8 p.m. on the same day, an apartment in Bugok-dong, Donghae-si, lost contact while returning home from a home-visit study sheet class.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: I'm so upset just to think about how much my heart collapsed for my family who must have been waiting for my daughter to come home. Isn't the only way to relieve the clots of your family not to scour who did this terrible thing and get the right punishment? In order to do that, we need to know the cause of death first, but we did an autopsy, right?

◆No-beom: Yes. An autopsy revealed that the victim's cause of death was neck compression suffocation, and the food served by the mother of the student in the last class remained intact on the victim's stomach. Usually, food stays in the stomach for about 5 to 6 hours, but it seems that the victim was killed on the day of his disappearance as there was food left in his stomach.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: The place where the victim did home visit training and the place where the body was found are different. There are more than a few questions about where the crime was committed and how the body was found in Yakcheon Village. Did you find any CCTV or something?

◆Nobumrae: Yes, I've checked it. Once the body was found, the victim's red Matiz car was found at the waterfront of a parking lot about 7 to 8 kilometers away from Yakcheon Village, where the body was found the afternoon after the discovery. The police judged that the criminal kidnapped and killed the victim who was climbing into a car after a home visit class in Bugok-dong, Donghae-si, and then moved to Yakcheon Village, about 4km away, and dumped the body. Police checked all CCTVs installed on the route and checked the victim's car captured by forest fire surveillance cameras near Yakcheon Village, but no further tracking was possible. At the time of 2006, there was a lack of absolute CCTV numbers because CCTV became common, and even CCTV footage, which was barely secured, was filmed late at night, so it was a low-resolution video that could not even identify whether the driver was a victim or a perpetrator. We also searched the victim's vehicle thoroughly, but we found the victim's underwear and clothes, but we couldn't find any traces of the criminal, such as DNA. This is because the criminal meticulously wiped the inside and outside of the car with a wet mop. It was not a coincidence that the car was found in the waterfront of the parking lot, but the criminal was a willing choice to erase his traces.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: There is no trace left by the criminal, and the victim's car was found elsewhere, so I think this criminal was very premeditated and that he used his brain to confuse the police investigation even after the crime.

◆No Beom-rae: Yes, that's right. Yakcheon Village, where the body was found based on Bugok-dong, where the victim was first kidnapped, was about 4km to the north, and the parking lot where the vehicle was found was about 4km to the south, which seems to have been a trick of the criminal who cleverly used his head to confuse the investigation. In addition, in light of the bold dumping of the body into the well knowing that there was a well with a lid in Yakcheon Village, the criminal is likely to be a local resident who is well-versed in the local geography. However, at that time, neither black boxes for vehicles nor CCTVs for crime prevention were common, so it was no longer possible to find traces of the criminal. However, on June 1, 2006, about three months after this incident, another incident occurred in Bugok-dong, where the victim was last found.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: What kind of incident was it? Was there any connection to the well murder?

◆Nobum-rae: Yes. A woman in her 40s trying to board her vehicle near an apartment in Bugok-dong, Donghae-si, was attacked by a gunman. At the time, the criminal tried to rape the woman and started strangling her when the woman reacted violently, and when the woman fell unconscious, the criminal abandoned the victim on the side of the road and ran away. However, the place where this woman was abandoned was near the well of Yakcheon Village where the victim was found. Also peculiarly, the woman's car was also a red car with the same color as the victim's car that was killed several months ago. And at the crossroads of life and death, this woman dramatically regained consciousness.

◇Jung Tae-geun: I'm so glad the victim saved her life, but did she say she saw the criminal's face?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: Unfortunately, the victim of this incident was also attacked from behind in the middle of the night, so she hardly remembered the impression kick. Given that the victim did not remember the criminal, the police speculated that he was a man with no knowledge, and searched the victim's car again for traces of the criminal, but no trace of the criminal was found this time. But three weeks later, another similar incident occurred.

◇Jung Tae-geun: Was it a crime aimed at a red car again this time?

◆Nobumrae: Yes, that's right. Again, it was a crime aimed at a red car. And as in the previous case, there was something in common that they targeted women who were small and alone. The criminal indiscriminately assaulted a woman in her 40s who was about to get out of the car, pushing her into the car. As the victim violently resisted and shouted, the criminal quickly fled to a nearby alley. At this time, an active-duty soldier who was smoking on the veranda of the apartment ran out after hearing a woman's scream and chased the criminal, but he missed the criminal again.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: There was a witness this time, right?

◆Nobum-rae: Yes. Unlike the previous incident, there were witnesses, but because the incident occurred late at night, we could not get any information from witnesses or victims. Instead, the police began a thorough examination of the red car in which the victim and the criminal had a physical fight, and this time secured a clue.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: Have you got any clues that can help you?

◆No Beom-rae: I was able to secure a hair that was stuck in the room mirror frame. Given the victim's statement that she had engaged in this violent physical fight while resisting the criminal who pushed her into the car, it was very likely that the strand of hair found belonged to the criminal who fell out during the physical fight. The investigation was a bit lively, and the police contrasted the genes with the same criminals and violent criminals in the area, as well as the people who were on the suspect list when investigating the first victim. Unfortunately, however, in the end, there was no matching gene and no trace of any other culprit was found. As expected, CCTV or vehicle black boxes were not common at the time of the similar incident, and the fact that there were few witnesses due to the incident late at night made it more difficult to solve the case.

◇Jung Tae-geun: Nowadays, it's really hard to find a car without a black box. It's a shame and frustrating feeling, but are you still in a situation where you haven't solved the case and haven't specified the suspect?

◆No-beom: Yes. Even 18 years have passed since the incident, the case is still in mystery, with not only the true culprit but also the suspect not identified. Currently, the case has been transferred to the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency's team in charge of the unpublished case, and we are still persistently tracking the case. On March 11, 2019, the U.S. Case Task Force announced its plan to review the case from the ground up using brainstorming techniques, which is a way for many people to come up with ideas to find a solution to a problem. About 20 people, including profilers and analysts from the National Forensic Service, participated in the investigation from the investigation team in charge of the U.S. case, and the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency also proposed the case as an agenda for the police case review citizens' committee.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: Did you make any progress?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: Unfortunately, despite all the efforts made by the National Police Agency, this case remains an unsolved case and is still under investigation.

◇Jung Tae-geun: But this criminal's DNA remains. These days, criminals' DNA databases are so well established that I think we should not give up until the end with the hope that someday we will be able to find the culprit.

◆ Noh Bum-rae: I believe the criminal will be brought to justice as we have been able to secure a DNA database through your DNA method, and as scientific investigation techniques have advanced to identify suspects with DNA obtained from evidence.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: As you said, what kind of punishment will you be if you find the criminal now?

◆ No Beom-rae: It depends on whether the crime of murder will be established and the causal relationship between death and sexual assault is recognized, but if you attempt to rape a victim and fail and kill the victim, as in this case, you can also apply rape and murder. The court sentence for rape and murder is one of the most severely punished crimes with the death penalty or life imprisonment. In principle, it is believed that the crime of concealing the body of the victim is also established for moving the victim's body in a vehicle and hiding it in a well, but unfortunately, the statute of limitations has been completed, making it difficult to prosecute the crime of concealing the body. As it is a really heartbreaking case, I hope there will be progress in the investigation.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: Case X File Today, we looked at the murder of a female teacher in the Donghae study paper found in a well in Yakcheon Village, Donghae, in 2006. That's all we prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.