[Star Daily News = Reporter Kyu-jun Hwang] On the 16th, ‘I Want to Know’ tracks the murderer of a housewife that occurred in Cheonghak-dong, Yeongdo, Busan.
On the morning of May 23, 2005, a murder occurred in a house in Cheonghak-dong, Yeongdo-gu, Busan. Ms. Yoon Kyung-sook (alias), a housewife in her 40s, was found dead in her kitchen. After returning home from an outing around 10 am, she called a friend to bring over a flower pot. At 10:18 am, when the friend visited to pick up the pot, she found the body.
A crime that occurred in less than 18 minutes. The perpetrator stabbed the victim’s chest twice with a sharp weapon and slashed her face. Based on the fact that 500,000 won was taken from her wallet, it was suspected to be a robbery, but no fingerprints, DNA, or weapon of the culprit were found at the scene. Ultimately, with no witnesses or CCTV, the case went unsolved.
The stagnant case took a turn when an informant appeared two years later. The informant, Choi Dong-hyun (alias), says that around August 2005, he asked his friend Lee about a bandaged finger, who confessed, “I went with Mr. Kim and Mr. Park to rob an empty house in Cheonghak-dong and hurt my hand.”
“(Mr. Lee said) The lady suddenly appeared, and I got startled and got cut by the knife.
Mr. Kim took out a knife and stabbed the lady.”
– Informant Choi Dong-hyun (alias)
This unexpected confession by Mr. Lee occurred 3 months after the incident. The police considered the tip credible as the details weren’t publicly known and there were no other murders in Cheonghak-dong at that time. However, once this information was made public, Mr. Lee retracted his statement, saying it was all a joke. Mr. Kim and Mr. Park also denied the accusations, claiming Mr. Lee lied.
What clues lie within the truth game of this crime?
“Mr. Park was on lookout; Mr. Kim and I went in.
The homeowner came out. Mr. Kim took a kitchen knife and stabbed the lady.”
– Mr. Lee (2016 conversation recording)
In 2016, when the Cold Case Investigation Team of the Busan Police started a re-investigation, the informant reportedly met Mr. Lee again. Mr. Lee, who had not confessed during the police investigation, recounted the events of 2005 in front of friends. He even confessed that Mr. Kim threw the crime weapon into a nearby beach. Is his statement true? What are the relationships and identities of Mr. Lee, Mr. Kim, and Mr. Park? Are they really unrelated to the Cheonghak-dong housewife murder case?
This week’s SBS ‘I Want to Know’ will air on Saturday, November 16th at 11:15 PM.
