On a rainy day, women in their 40s met a man and disappeared...What do we have in common? A dump truck?

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: November 15, 2024 (Fri)
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Attorney Lim So-hee

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

◆ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter referred to as Lee Won-hwa): In 2007, a series of cases that could be called a series of disappearances occurred in Busan and Gyeongnam. A total of five women in their 40s were suddenly missing one day, and if you look closely at these cases, there were little differences in the area and situation, but there was something in common that was so creepy. The beginning was the case of insurance planner Kim, who was reported missing in 2006. The police investigating the case pointed to the dump truck driver Hong as a prime suspect, and in the process of solving the case, they found four more similar disappearances. The investigation took off quickly, and I thought that all that was left was to arrest Hong, a leading suspect who disappeared. However, the police also agreed with the possibility that the prime suspect in this case was Hong and that it could be a serial murder, not just a disappearance. But we couldn't put him on trial on that charge. What on earth was it for? Let's talk about this in detail in today's case X file. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, lawyer Lee Won-hwa's case X-file. Today, we are also with lawyer Lim So-hee of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◇ Lawyer Lim So-hee (hereinafter referred to as Lim So-hee): Hello, I'm lawyer Lim So-hee of LOEL Law Firm.

◆ Dualization: There are a lot of cases where it's difficult to go to psychosis, but there are no physical evidence. I think this case was the same. What happened?

◇ Lim So-hee: On June 10, 2006, insurance planner Kim disappeared. The family waited for Kim to return home, but when Kim did not return after three days, they reported him missing to the police.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: It seems that she contacted her wife's acquaintances a lot, not her husband.

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. Kim's husband is worried about his wife's lost contact without even returning home, so he asks for his wife's acquaintances and hears from his wife's friend about the dump truck rental business. Kim told his friend that he could get about 2.5 million won a month if he rented a dump truck, and asked him to lend him 5 million won because he was a little short of money. However, it was Hong, a dump truck driver who had known Kim for more than 10 years as an insurance customer, who suggested the dump truck rental business to Kim, and on the day of the incident, Kim went to meet Hong with 40 million won prepared as business funds.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Then you must have contacted the driver.

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes. Hong was also close to Kim's husband, so Kim's husband contacted Hong and asked if he had seen his wife, but Hong replied that he had not seen her recently. The police also called Hong as a reference and conducted an investigation, but Hong stated that he had not actually met Kim because he could not reach Kim and released Hong.

◆ Dualization: Did the dump truck driver meet his wife before she went missing?

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. On June 14, 2006, the fourth day of Kim's disappearance, the police found Kim's vehicle on a farm road in Songji-ri, Samrangjin-eup, Miryang-si, Gyeongsangnam-do. At that time, both front and rear license plates of the vehicle were removed, and there were signs that someone damaged the inside of the car. In particular, blood stains came out of the passenger seat of the car. When Kim's vehicle was found, the police decided that Kim's disappearance was not just a disappearance, so they launched a full-fledged investigation. The police analyzed CCTV installed on the Samrangjin Railway Bridge to find out Kim's movement. According to CCTV analysis, there was a passenger in Kim's car. It was Hong. It wasn't just this. It was confirmed that Hong was also in Kim's car when Kim withdrew money from the bank.

◆ [Dualization] But why did he say he hadn't seen it? It's very suspicious.

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes, so the police also identified Hong as a prime suspect and arrested him. However, Hong disappeared, and he could not confirm his whereabouts anywhere.

◆ I wonder if I need to go into hiding if I haven't done anything wrong, so what happened? Did you find this guy?

◇ Lim So-hee: The police turn the case into an open investigation, chasing Hong's whereabouts, while seizing and searching Hong's residence to find bloodstained clothes. And the National Forensic Service's inspection revealed that it was Kim's blood, although it was not clear whether it was Kim's.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: You haven't found Hong in a while?

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes. In December 2006, about six months after the incident, a report was received that he saw Hong in Ulju, Ulsan, and the police finally found Hong. However, Mr. Hong was operating a cart bar disguised as wearing a hat and glasses, and disguised himself by using a pseudonym and using a fake phone.

◆ [Dualization] It's more suspicious to say that he's been living so meticulously hiding himself. What did you say?

◇ Lim So-hee: Hong met Kim that day, but she didn't come back no matter how long she waited after Kim suddenly disappeared somewhere with her car key in. He claimed that if something happened to Kim, he took off his license plate, damaged the vehicle, and abandoned the vehicle because he was afraid he would be suspected.

◆ Binaryization: It's too much to simply act on something to be questioned. And there's an aspect that the words keep changing. Didn't you say that there was blood-stained clothes in your house? What did they say about this part?

◇ Lim So-hee: When the police asked about blood-stained clothes, Hong suddenly claimed to have been attacked by a gunman.

◆ Binaryization: Actually, only the level of human blood came out, so it's more common sense to make excuses like, "I don't know if it's normal or maybe it's my blood." But what kind of gunman attacked you?

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. Hong was meeting with Kim, and three gunmen attacked him, assaulted him, kidnapped him, and claimed that the blood he shed at that time was on his clothes. As a result, the police mobilized a lie detector, and each lie detector investigation room received a false response. But here comes a more surprising fact. What is it? Didn't you tell me a while ago that you switched to an open investigation? This is the place where I got a phone call saying that the disappearance of Kim and the disappearance of my daughter are too similar.

◆ [Dualization] What made you feel similar because of what happened?

◇ Lim So-hee: The daughter who went missing at the time of the call was Choi, and Choi had been missing around September 30, 2005. Choi also left the house with 30 million won in cash and disappeared, saying he was running a dump truck-related business. However, there were three more disappearances similar to these cases.

◆ Won-hwa: You've already told me about 2 missing cases, but there were 3 more similar cases?

◇ Lim So-hee: In addition to Kim and Choi, there were three more cases where women who lived in Gimhae, Busan, went missing after leaving their homes to run dump trucks with a large amount of money. Surprisingly, all the missing people in all these cases were acquaintances of Mr. Hong.

◆ Dualization: At this point, I think we should open up the possibility of serial murder, not disappearance.

◇ Lim So-hee: However, he couldn't even be indicted on the charges, and the prosecution charged Hong with concealing property and violating the Automobile Management Act only for damaging and abandoning Kim's license plate.

◆ Binaryization: Why? Why not?

◇ Lim So-hee: At that time, the police made all-out efforts to find the bodies, believing that the missing people had been killed, but they could not find a single body, and could not conclude that Hong had killed the missing people, so they could not charge them with murder.

◆ [Dualization] Because you've been looking at this case in detail. What do you think, lawyer? It's hard to prosecute. Do you agree? Or is there something you're disappointed about?

◇ Lim So-hee: Yes, it's true that there's something I'm a little disappointed about. In fact, one of the families of the missing people in this case asked the police for a reinvestigation. At that time, the family presented the basis for the reinvestigation as a basis for the 2010 murder without a body in Busan.

◆ [Dualization] It's a famous event.

◇ Lim So-hee: Like in this case, it was controversial that the victim's body was not cremated at the time of the incident. However, in the end, life imprisonment was sentenced, and the Supreme Court confirmed the original trial, which was sentenced to life imprisonment. The families of the missing claimed that Hong could be charged as a prime suspect in the case where the bodies of the missing people were not found based on the case of the murder without a body, but the investigation agency said that it was difficult to prosecute the victims because the circumstances were clear that they were killed, but the case was not confirmed whether the victims were missing or killed.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: That's right. In fact, the prosecutor needs to be able to specify the facts of the prosecution in order to file a prosecution, but it must have been frustrating because the method of the crime and what kind of crime was committed have not been identified at all. By the way, does that mean that Hong is living freely?

◇ Lim So-hee: Hong is known to have been sentenced to two years in prison around May 2007 for concealing property and violating the Automobile Management Act as mentioned earlier and released from prison around 2009.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: If Hong's crime is correct as the police estimate, how can we think about the charges of application or punishment?

◇ Lim So-hee: If the missing people in this case were killed by Hong rather than missing as the police estimated, Hong is expected to be punished for murder or robbery and concealment of the body.

◆ Dualization: Especially in the case of robbery and murder, the sentence is very high, so furthermore, there are many victims, so it is expected that a very, very heavy sentence will be given. Case X-Files Today, we looked at a series of disappearances of women in their 40s in a very similar situation. It has been almost 20 years since the incidents occurred, but the life reactions of missing women, such as financial transactions or using hospitals, have not appeared at all. That's why the weight is tilted more toward the victims being killed, not missing. The people who want answers more than anyone else are the victims' families. That's why we shouldn't let go of the string of hope even in a frustrating situation. That's all we've prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.