The reason why she couldn't find the cohabitation who was buried in the veranda even after reporting her disappearance

[YTN Radio lawyer Lee Won-hwa's case X file]

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Air date: September 30, 2024 (Monday)
■ Host: Lee Won-hwa Lawyer
■ Dialogue: Attorney Lee Seo-yeon

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

◇ Dualization: If an adult who is not a minor goes missing, the police cannot launch an investigation carelessly, no matter how hard the family is suffering. This is because there is no law on adult disappearance. Due to this situation, unfortunate events are often repeated because they miss the timing of the investigation of adult disappearance due to violent crimes. Even if the disappearance report is made long after the incident, the situation will inevitably become more difficult. Thirteen years have passed since a woman went missing. The frustrating thing was that we had no idea whether this woman left voluntarily or died in an accident. Then, one day, surprisingly, a woman who went missing was found trapped in a concrete structure in the rooftop room where her boyfriend lived. What the hell happened? Let's talk about this in detail in today's case X file. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Lee Seo-yeon of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: Hello, I'm Lee Seo-yeon, a lawyer at Royal Law Firm.

◇ [Dualization] Oh, this is an incident that almost left unsolved. Mr. B was recently arrested, but he was arrested on murder charges, right? What happened?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: Yes. Male B and victim A were in a relationship. Mr. B was arrested on October 1, 2008 on charges of killing him by hitting him in the head and face with a blunt instrument while arguing with his partner A in the rooftop room where he lived.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: But didn't you just say it was 2008 that you killed your girlfriend? But it wasn't long ago that he was arrested. It was 16 years ago, why was it caught now?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: Yes. First of all, A's death itself was known late because of the way B hid A's body. After killing A, B put the body in a travel bag, buried it in the outdoor veranda of the one-room rooftop room where he lived at the time, stacked bricks around it, and poured cement to create a concrete structure. The structure is in a veranda blind spot, so it is hard to see without going over the window, and it is thick and sturdy, making it difficult for the building owner or other tenant to notice that the body is buried because the smell of rot does not leak out. Also, the report of the disappearance of victim A itself was very late. Mr. A has not often interacted with his family, so no one noticed Mr. A's death or reported him missing around 2008 when he was killed. Mr. A's family only reported him missing around 2011, three years after Mr. A's death.

◇ Dualization: Reporting the disappearance of an adult is not appropriate, so even if you report it right away, you can proceed with the investigation right away, but it would have been more difficult if you reported it missing three years after it disappeared.

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] Yes, that's right. When A's family reported him missing, it was difficult to secure CCTV footage or phone calls because it had already been three years since the crime. In addition, the police who received the missing report conducted a reference investigation against B, who was A's housemate at the time. Mr. B has already stated that he doesn't know anything because he broke up with Mr. A a long time ago.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: The police authorities also thought the man they lived with was suspicious, but there was no reason to hold him. Still, I wonder what it would have been like if I had raided the house at the time, but it wouldn't have been easy.

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] That's right. While being investigated as a reference, B stated that it has been a long time since he broke up with victim A. In fact, it's already been three years since A's death, so it's very natural, but there was no sign of the victim living in B's rooftop room. Above all, it was difficult to apply for an arrest warrant for B because the life and death of the victim were unclear and the body was not found.

◇ Dualization: So the disappearance case remained unsolved without any results?

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] Yes, that's right. The investigation has not progressed further due to the lack of any human and physical evidence and has remained an unsolved case. Then, around August of this year, 16 years after the crime, an incident that triggered a reversal occurs.

◇ [Dualization] What happened?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: A bag containing A's body was found during the building's veranda leak prevention work in August this year. At the time of discovery, the body had turned into a wax figure in the bag. Fortunately, the body was not completely whitewashed, so the fingerprint was also confirmed, and it was confirmed that the body was the woman who went missing in 2011.

◇ I think it was an incident that would have been buried forever if it hadn't been built. I think that the case can be connected and solved like this.

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] Yes, that's right. An autopsy by the National Forensic Service confirmed that the cause of death of the victim was head damage caused by blunt force. Police identified the man who lived with the victim as a prime suspect and arrested him urgently.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: It's a bit funny to say this part is funny, but the criminal did cement concrete for his complete crime and buried the victim in it, which resulted in the perfect preservation of the victim, so it was possible to conduct an autopsy and I think it resulted in him stepping on his tail. But the reason why the criminal wasn't so meticulous is that he couldn't have forgotten that he killed someone and buried it on the veranda.

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] That's right.

◇ I don't know how to look at this because I just left it behind.

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: Mr. B lived in this rooftop room for 8 years until 2016 after the crime. Later, B was arrested for drug administration around 2016, served a year in prison, and after being released the following year, he lived in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, so the rooftop room was left empty for a long time.

◇ [Dualization] It's been left empty. This man came out of his life on drugs. She said this.

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] Yes, that's right. During this investigation, B was also confirmed to have taken methamphetamine.

◇ I did it again. Listening to the story reminds me of a case covered in Case X file. The case was similar in that the woman killed a wealthy man with billions of won, moved the body to an officetel, and abandoned it. At that time, cement was applied to one side of the room like a flower bed and the body was abandoned in it. Did you hear this too, lawyer? Do you remember?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: The case you mentioned is the one in which a wealthy man was murdered in April 2014 and the woman hid the man's body with her daughter. The mother and daughter hid the body by laying it in the living room of the villa, stacking bricks around it, and pouring cement into it. Eventually, the man's mistress was sentenced to 30 years in prison for robbery and body concealment, and the mistress's daughter was sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting the body concealment. Looking at the method of concealing the body itself, the 2014 incident has many similarities to the case introduced today. However, in the case of the 2014 incident, not long after the man was killed, the family reported him missing. Therefore, it was easy to collect evidence such as CCTV footage and search records. However, today's case is a big difference in that it was not easy to collect other evidence because the disappearance report itself was late, and the criminal was arrested 16 years after the crime occurred.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: By the way, this man, who was identified as a suspect, reported missing in 2011 and said he was investigated as a reference when the investigation was conducted. You already broke up for a long time at the time, but this time, did you admit that you did that?

◆ [Lee Seo-yeon] Yes, I'm a poet. Mr. B initially denied the crime until he was arrested by the police. As the investigation progressed, he eventually admitted his crime. Mr. B testified that he was killed while arguing with Mr. A, dumped the blunt instrument used for the murder off Geoje, and used the cement and bricks that the landlord had left to repair the boiler room to hide the body. However, during the investigation, B also reportedly showed a brazen appearance of blaming the victim, saying that my life became like this because of A.

◇ [Dualization] It's absurd. If the police conduct more reinforcement investigations and hand over the case to the prosecution, the trial will now proceed, and of course, the murder charge will be applied.

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: It seems that murder charges will be applied to the part that killed A. Charges related to methamphetamine administration revealed during the investigation are also expected to be applied and punished.

◇ [Voiceover] That's right.

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: You may be worried about the completion of the statute of limitations because this case occurred 16 years ago, but fortunately, in August 2015, the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act to abolish the statute of limitations on murder cases, and the case also had no problem with the statute of limitations.

◇ [Dualization] Yes, thank God.

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: However, there is one part of Mr. B's crime that cannot be punished due to the statute of limitations. It's a charge of hiding a body. The statute of limitations for concealing a body is 7 years. The statute of limitations on this part has already been completed, making it difficult to apply the charges.

◇ Dualization: What I'm worried about while listening to the story is that even if I confess now, I'm not actually doing that during the trial. There is no possibility of changing words, especially the details of the crime. He said he threw it off the coast of Geoje, but he won't be able to find what he threw away in the past, and he said that the statute of limitations was expired, but I hid it because I was scared and surprised at the time, but I didn't kill him. The possibility of reversing his statement is absurd to hear, but it's not like this hasn't happened. What do you think, lawyer?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: We cannot rule out the possibility of reversing the statement at all. This is a case that was dealt with before in Case X file. In 2015, there was also a case in which a woman in a relationship was killed and the body was concealed with cement. During the investigation, the criminal testified about how he dug a hole, how he poured cement and water into the bond, and when he was sentenced to 18 years in prison in the first trial, he suddenly changed his attitude, and in fact, the victim died of asthma and did not kill himself. He appealed, claiming that he only concealed the deceased victim. Fortunately, the appeals court in the 2015 case did not accept the perpetrator's claim at all, and the sentence of the first trial was confirmed after an appeal.

◇ Binaryization: I hope this case will have a similar result. He is also suspected of taking drugs, but when it comes to drugs, I am concerned about the possibility of claiming mental and physical weakness. If this is accepted, I'm worried that it will be a factor of commutation. What do you think of this part?

◆ Lee Seo-yeon: Yes, first of all, it seems difficult to be acknowledged that he was suspected of taking drugs at the time. Even considering the criminal method and the method of concealing such a body, such claims of mental and physical weakness are expected to be difficult to accept.

◇ [Dualization] And especially because there are not so many cases where mental and physical weakness is recognized in crimes that kill people, I think it would be a matter of practice to make that argument. The X-file of the case Today, we looked at the murder of the Geoje cohabitation girl who killed her girlfriend and then poured cement to bury her in secret. It's been 16 years since the crime occurred. It was not even a case where the police were investigating the case, but a clue to the solution came out accidentally due to the veranda leak construction. I think the word "causal retribution" came to mind, but I can't be relieved yet. The trial has not yet begun. I think we need to watch until the end to see if anything unpleasant will happen during the trial. That's all we've prepared. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.