Seven Letters That Terrified a Mountain Village, Is The Murderer The Case? "The Crucial Cue"

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: December 30, 2024 (Mon)
■ 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.


◇ Lawyer Jeong Tae-geun (hereinafter referred to as Jeong Tae-geun): This is a very terrible murder that happened in a village in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do. One day, a woman in her 70s was found dead in her house, and she was beaten by her head and face, which was very disastrous even for veteran detectives. A case in which there was no physical or mental evidence to estimate the crime. The police had no choice but to have a hard time. But maybe it's been about 10 days since he was killed? A mysterious letter began to be delivered to this woman's house one by one. The letter, which was generally a condemnation of a woman in her 70s who died, continued steadily, although rare. A total of seven letters arrived in five years. But there was one more person who appeared in common in these seven letters. It was the son of a dead woman. What was the truth of this case? Let's take a closer look at this in today's Incident X file. Hello, I'm Jung Tae-geun of Case X file. Today, we are with lawyer Noh Bum-rae of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◆ Lawyer Noh Bum-rae (hereinafter referred to as Noh Bum-rae): Hello. I'm Roh Bum-rae, a lawyer at Loel Law Firm.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: Lawyer, do you know it's a lucky letter?

◆ Roh Bum-rae: Yes, I know. You're talking about the letter that went around a lot when you were young, right? I think I've received it before. At that time, I was scared for no reason, so I remember thinking that I had to deliver it to someone else.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: When I was young, it was called a lucky letter, so this letter was the first in the United Kingdom, and if you open it up, the title is a lucky letter, but something bad could actually happen. So there was a ghost story that I had to send this to a few people I knew. However, unlike this, the case we're going to look at today is a case where we were able to solve a case that could have been left unsolved thanks to the letter.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: That's right. In a case that almost fell out of the question, unusually, the letter became a strong clue and was solved. This incident happened in a small mountain village in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do. In October 2007, a grandmother in her 70s was found horribly dead in her home with severe head and face trauma. What's unfortunate is that on the day of the incident, the children, who were worried about not being able to contact the victim's grandmother, asked the neighbors about how they were doing, and the neighbors said, "Don't worry because the lights are on," but the death was later revealed.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: Who on earth did that?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: The police also had quite a rough time in the beginning. There were no tools or other evidence at the scene of the incident. Considering the amount of trauma hit on the victim's head or face several times, it was judged that there was a high possibility of murder by resentment, not robbery, but it was almost impossible to identify the suspect because the village was so remote and there was no CCTV or anything like that.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: The degree of cruelty is difficult to see as a simple intensity. I guess you didn't steal anything, did you?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: Yes, nothing was stolen, and the victim had a good relationship with the villagers. So the focus of the investigation was narrowed down to victims, their families, and outsiders with past ties.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: Since you said it was a rural village, I'm also worried about whether there's a CCTV or something.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: That's right. The site was so remote that there were no residents who visited the area or witnessed anyone passing by on the day of the incident, let alone CCTV. One of the reasons why it was difficult for the police to find clues was that the village itself was remote and the military unit was located right next to it.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: So you're saying you haven't found a single person who can be seen as a prime suspect?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: Yes, the alibi of the villagers was proven, and it was not particularly what my grandmother wanted to live for, so five years have passed.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: It became an unprecedented case.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: Yes, that's right. Then the police catch a new clue regarding this case.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: Is there anything that came out?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: There was a mysterious letter sent to the house not long after the victim's grandmother died. And not just once, but seven suspicious letters sent over the years.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: What was it about? Who sent it? Did you send her knowing she was dead?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: The letter contained the fact that the sender called himself Lee Man-sung of Hwacheon and that he was once in a relationship with the victim, but the victim betrayed him and sexually insulted the victim.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: It was a relationship with a dead woman. Then, is it murder by corruption?

◆ Roh Bum-rae: But it wasn't. There is a common name in these seven letters, and unusually, the name of the victim's son comes out, not the name of the victim's grandmother. In other words, it is disguised as if it was sent by the grandmother's lover, but in fact, it is highly likely that it is an acquaintance of the son. The letter also said that the sender told his son, "Let's meet and talk to him, you disgusting fellow." In other words, it was highly likely that the person who had a grudge against his son was the perpetrator.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: But from a common sense point of view, I don't think the police would have sent a letter to the killer to reveal his identity and ask him to catch me in a situation like this without a clue.

◆ Noh Bum-rae: I also have questions about it, but considering that this is a murder caused by a grudge relationship, I think I can understand a little bit. The perpetrator continued to have resentment after the murder, and there was something he wanted to say to his son. Anyway, as you said, the police have not been able to get their direction right, and a decisive clue comes out of this letter.

◇ [Jung Tae-geun] DNA came out of the letter.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: That's right. I think it's been a long time since I've posted a stamp myself while sending letters. You can glue it when you put a stamp on it, but the adhesive is already applied on the back of the stamp, so it sticks when you put water on it. If you're lazy to put water on, you can put some saliva on it and stick it on. The culprit also put saliva on the stamp and put it on the stamp, and DNA was extracted from it. I think scientific investigation technology is very great these days. However, the presence of DNA did not mean that the culprit could be identified immediately. This is because it is not easy to find the perpetrator right away unless the person is registered in the DNA database in the existing criminal record.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: That's right. If you had already committed a crime and were registered, you wouldn't know, but if you didn't, it's actually hard to find it.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: That's right. So the police paid attention to the contents of the letter. If you look at the expressions in this letter. Terms used in military units often appear, and as I said earlier, stories about the victim's son have been constantly mentioned. But the victim's son was a former army officer. So the scope of people who can come to mind has narrowed down. So the police go to the victim's son and explain this situation and ask if there was anything that could have caused resentment during his military career.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: I don't think it would have been an easy task. What happened? Who did you come up with?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: After looking at the letter, his son recalls Cho, who took personnel measures when he was serving as a regimental commander in the military in the past. Cho, who was working as a non-commissioned officer at the time, was the one who submitted his resignation after receiving personnel measures from the victim's son.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: So did the police go to him?

◆ Roh Bum-rae: Yes. The police identified Cho as a prime suspect and visited him, but they could not arrest him because Cho refused to collect DNA. The police then continuously track Cho and acquire the beverage cans that Cho drank and threw away to secure DNA.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: What's the DNA result? Was it consistent?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: As a result of the analysis, the DNA from the soda can and the DNA from the stamp needle of the letter matched exactly. It was the moment when the incident, which almost got buried in a permanent unsolved case, was solved.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: So the person who sent this letter was the culprit, but as he said in his letter, he wasn't Lee Man-sung.

◆ Roh Bum-rae: That's right. Cho wrote a letter under the pseudonym Lee Man-sung, but it turned out that it was just a pseudonym.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: Why on earth did you do that?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: As I mentioned earlier, the perpetrator Cho was a non-commissioned officer in the unit where his grandmother's son was a commander and was discharged from the military after being reprimanded for personnel affairs. That was in 1993, but according to his opinion, he left the military because he was resentful of receiving a little unreasonable disciplinary action, and his life did not go well, such as receiving psychiatric treatment because he could not bear the anger and stress. In the end, the mother of the person who disciplined her after holding a grudge even after well over 10 years. That's why I went to the victim's grandmother. So in the process of telling the grandmother about the reprimand her son had done to her, the grandmother got angry with Cho, and Cho killed the grandmother in anger at him.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: So why did he send the letter? You were sure you didn't want to get caught, and you couldn't identify yourself in a letter?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: If I hadn't sent the letter at all, I wouldn't have identified it, but the reason why I sent it was because, as I said, there were some lumps left that I couldn't solve 20 years ago, so I think I was trying to send a letter and tell my son what I wanted to say.

◇ Jung Tae-geun: What kind of punishment did you get?

◆ Noh Bum-rae: Cho was sentenced to 10 years in prison and treatment and supervision in the first trial, and the sentence was reduced to 7 years in prison at the appeal trial because the crime was an accidental crime that was not planned in advance and Cho's mental and physical weakness was recognized. It seems to be a bittersweet and a bit tragic event where anger and resentment towards someone destroyed both themselves and the lives of others.

◇ Jeong Tae-geun: The heartache of being ignored by someone. Whether it's true or not, on the other hand, I feel very sorry for the fact that I've been carrying it in my heart for nearly 20 years, but that doesn't mean that everyone is going to hurt anyone. Even this perpetrator killed an innocent woman, not the person he was vindictive about. It was just because he seemed to ignore himself. I think it was a terrible tragedy that completely destroyed the lives of other innocent people, let alone their own lives. That's all we've prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.