Initial Investigations into the Murders of the Wealthy
In 2003, South Korea witnessed several murder cases that clearly targeted the homes of the wealthy. The similarity of these crimes led the police to suspect they were facing a serial killer. Strangely, a short time later, a different type of crime began to emerge in the city. These crimes were also similar to each other but differed from the previous crimes against the wealthy. The police at the time did not know that there was a big secret behind this matter.
A Warning and the Beginning of Events
Before delving into the details of the story, we would like to note that this video will not contain any violent scenes or real footage that might be disturbing, but it does describe violent events and some aspects may not be suitable for children. Our story begins in the city of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on October 9, 2003. The police received a report of a crime in one of the houses in the wealthiest areas of the city, called "Ugi-dong." The person who reported the crime was the victim's husband and the homeowner.
The Horrific Crime Scene
The husband returned from work to find several family members murdered, so he immediately contacted the police. Upon entering the house, the criminal police felt a sense of darkness and evil, despite their familiarity with crimes. They found the grandmother's body, the homeowner's mother, lying face down and drenched in blood at the bathroom entrance. As they delved deeper into the house, they encountered the kitchen, and in front of a fish tank, they found the homeowner's wife lying face down and drenched in blood, her head violently struck and deeply indented. Then they found the son's body on the stairs leading to the second floor, the stairs covered in blood, and his head split open. The crime scene was terrifying even for the criminal police.
The Mystery of the Motive and the Weapon
The investigators were also surprised by the absence of signs of struggle or disorder at the scene, which led them to question the strength of the killer who managed to kill three people without any resistance. The investigators began to consider the possibility that the killer was someone close to the family, perhaps even the husband himself, so they began investigating him. This was shocking for the husband, who had just lost his mother, wife, and son, but it was a normal police procedure to first suspect the closest people. The man, whose name was Jeong Won-koo, was a successful businessman with considerable wealth, and those close to him testified to his humility, diligence, and kindness. The police investigated everything related to him, including his movements, work, and daily activities, not only because they suspected him, but also to see if anyone held a grudge against him or his family, as the violence of the crime suggested it was personal.
Continued Search for Evidence
Jeong Won-koo kept asking the police with anguish why they were doing this to him when he was the one who had lost his family, but the police replied that it was part of the investigation process. Some close to him mentioned that he cried all the time, and sometimes they even felt he was starting to lose his mind, as he would sit in front of the fish tank and yell at the fish, asking who did it and why they died. After the investigations, the police found no evidence against the husband or anyone else, and they found no one who might hold a grudge that would drive them to commit such a crime. The police were baffled, as the crime was very heinous and without a clear motive, and nothing had been stolen from the house. The only thing the police found was a shoe print, which they assumed belonged to the killer because no shoe matched it among the homeowners' shoes.
The Emergence of Similar Crimes
The strange thing the investigators also noticed was the arrival of strangers at the crime scene. They were police officers from another department in a distant area called "Gangnam." This area is considered the strongest economic zone in South Korea, and most of its residents are wealthy. A similar crime had occurred two weeks before this one, specifically on September 24, 2003, where an elderly couple was killed inside their home. The husband was a retired university professor and wealthy. The couple was found murdered due to violent blows to the head, and their skulls were crushed and broken in a similar manner to the first crime. The strangest thing about this case was the presence of a box full of money, jewelry, and valuable items estimated at tens of thousands, in the wardrobe, and this box was untouched. The police immediately ruled out robbery as a motive and assumed it was most likely a hate crime, believing the killer was someone close to the victims, and they expected to apprehend him within a week, but after the investigation, they found nothing.
Confirmation of a Serial Killer
Two weeks after that crime, the second crime, which we discussed at the beginning of the story, occurred. Although the crime was in a different area and under the jurisdiction of a different police department, news of the similarity between the two crimes quickly reached them, especially in the method of killing and the weapon used to shatter skulls. After hearing about the new crime, investigators went to the crime scene and tried to determine if there was a real link between the two crimes. Indeed, the similarity existed, but what was stranger was that neither crime had any clear motive or reason, despite all the violence used. Investigators were increasingly puzzled about the murder weapon. They considered tools that could cause similar injuries, such as pliers, axes, and hammers, and conducted experiments and simulations of the blows, but to no avail. Even a hammer did not leave the same impact and depth.
Analyzing the Killer's Character and Motives
Young Gu-gon, the most prominent criminal profiler in the Korean police force, whose objective is to analyze the criminal's personality and characteristics, was brought in to profile the killer after observing the similarity between the two crimes. After reviewing the details, the profiler agreed that there was a link between the two crimes. The profiler also noticed that both crimes targeted wealthy individuals or families without stealing any of their money or belongings. The profiler began to suspect that the killer held a grudge against the wealthy, and that these crimes might indeed be hate crimes committed randomly. He became concerned that this killer would turn into a serial killer with twisted motives, such as seeing himself as a hero delivering justice and retaliating against the wealthy who had corrupted society, and perhaps he came from a poor class or a family that had been wronged by the rich.
Stoppage of Crimes and Photo Release
These fears were confirmed a short time later with the third crime occurring on October 16, 2003, a week after the second crime, in the same Gangnam area but in a different neighborhood. The crime occurred in a house, and investigators felt the same sense of darkness and evil upon entering. After analyzing the crime scene, it was revealed that the killer entered the house and dragged the victim, an elderly woman, into the bathroom, where he killed her with the same weapon and method: violent and deep blows to the head. The victim was also from the wealthy class, and the police began to notice a recurring pattern: many of the victims were elderly. The police continued to search every part of the house for any trace or evidence, examining the garden and the outer yard, and they discovered something important on top of one of the outdoor air conditioning units: a shoe print. It seemed the killer had climbed onto the air conditioners to enter the house. Investigators immediately compared this shoe print with the one found earlier in the second crime, and the two prints matched perfectly. They were then undoubtedly certain that the killer in both crimes was the same person, which meant their worst fears had come true: the criminal was a serial killer.
The Emergence of Another Serial Killer
After the third crime, news reports and media coverage about the case began to spread on television. Although the police did not announce anything and did not link the cases, the news somehow leaked to the media, and the media began to link the crimes and announce to the public that a serial killer was committing crimes in Seoul. This was not what police leadership wanted, as it would spread panic among the public, so they tried to cover up the matter, and when journalists questioned them, they kept saying that there was no conclusive evidence linking the crimes. In South Korea, serial killers were rare at that time, as they only began appearing in the 1990s, and the first documented serial killer in Korea was in 1994.
New Crimes, Different Pattern
The investigation continued without results, and the police were waiting for a new crime to happen at any moment. But this time, more than a month passed and things were quiet, and some investigators even thought that the killer might have stopped his crimes after the news spread. But on November 18, 2003, a new incident occurred. Emergency forces responded to a fire report in a two-story house in a neighborhood called "Hyo-dong," which was also one of the wealthy neighborhoods in Seoul. After extinguishing the fire, the civil defense found two bodies inside the house, the first was the homeowner, an old man aged 87, and the second was the housemaid, aged 50. There was also a one-year-old child in the house, but he miraculously survived. At first, the police did not think that this incident was related to the previous crimes or to the serial killer, due to the difference in the case and the presence of a fire.
Confirmation of the Single Serial Killer
But after a careful examination of the partially burned bodies, they noticed violent blows to the victims' heads, and these blows were most likely the cause of their deaths before the fire. The blows were similar to the previous crimes, and the victim here was also a wealthy and elderly person. Here they began to link this case to the previous one, and their suspicion was definitively confirmed when they found a shoe print in the burned house. And as they expected, the shoe print matched the print they had previously found in the second and third crimes. This confirmed to them that this was the same killer, and that this was a continuation of his crimes. After this crime, no one had any doubt that this was a serial killer, and this term became used in all press and media outlets, and it became impossible to cover up the matter.
Intensive Efforts to Apprehend the Killer
Following this confirmation, a joint central investigation headquarters was established, involving several police departments. This investigation was one of the largest in the history of the Korean police. And because they had no clear evidence or lead to follow, they had no choice but to rely on a large number of police officers. They set up a large number of checkpoints, especially in the areas where the crimes occurred, and they stopped a large number of cars for inspection, especially at night. They tried to use different investigative methods, such as trying to obtain all phone numbers that were near the crime scenes during the time the crimes were committed, and although it was a semi-desperate attempt due to the enormous number of numbers, they allocated a large number of police officers to track all individuals whose phones were near the crime scenes.
Camera Footage and Fear of Exposure
They even tried to predict where the next crime might occur, and they began to analyze the names of the areas and neighborhoods where the crimes had taken place, arriving at a theory that the criminal committed his crimes in neighborhoods whose names had a certain alphabetical structure or certain letters. All of these attempts were somewhat desperate. But fortunately, one of the officers discovered that there were surveillance cameras on a building overlooking the street leading to the house where the fourth crime occurred, the burnt house crime. The footage showed a man walking on the same street shortly after the crime. He was the only person who appeared on camera during that period, and the footage was not clear, only from behind, without showing his face.
The Killer's Identity and the Halt of Crimes
The police took this footage and showed it to the victim's relatives and family, asking them if they knew this person. The family's answer was negative, but they confirmed without a doubt that the jacket worn by the man belonged to the victim. Here, the police knew that this man stole the victim's jacket and that he was the killer they were looking for. But in any case, this footage would not help them identify him. There was an internal dispute among the investigators about whether to release this footage to the public and issue an alert for the killer, or to keep it secret. Logically, it was better to keep it secret because it was almost impossible to identify the killer from his back, and it was better for the footage to remain secret so that the killer would not take precautions in the future. However, if they released it, he would certainly try to pay more attention to surveillance cameras and might even wear a mask or cover his face.
News Spreads and a New Type of Crime Emerges
But the team advocating for the release of the footage said that this was necessary for the killer to be afraid and feel threatened. This is a serial killer who will continue to kill if he feels immune and untouchable, but if the footage is released, he might be afraid of being caught and stop his crimes, even if for a period of time. In the end, the second opinion prevailed; public safety was the priority. If releasing the footage could even slightly make the killer afraid and stop his crimes, then it was a worthy sacrifice. Indeed, the footage was released to the media, and the police asked anyone with information about the man in the footage to contact them, and they announced a reward of 50 million Korean won, which is equivalent to approximately 35,000 dollars. Unexpectedly, the murders stopped. The police were not sure whether the footage was the reason or something else, but the important thing was that the crimes stopped, and this was their initial goal.
New Victims: Women in Prostitution
The police remained on alert, but the killer seemed to have stopped and remained dormant for a period. However, with the arrival of 2004, a completely new type of crime began to emerge in the city. This time, the victims were different, and the method of the crime was different. A high school girl was at a party at her grandmother's house, and after the party, she left her grandmother's house to return home. As she was walking alone in the street at night, a person suddenly attacked her with a knife, stabbed her several times, and killed her. Days later, another girl, this time a university student, after finishing university, went out with her friends and stayed out late. As she was returning home, a person also attacked her and stabbed her to death. In the third crime, a wife was walking alone in the street at night, and a person also attacked her and stabbed her several times, but this time, fortunately, she miraculously survived and did not die, but she would suffer from permanent paralysis and disability.
Police Baffled by Consecutive Serial Killings
These crimes continued, and this time they were all in the southwestern part of Seoul. Every week or two there was a new crime, and all the crimes had a clear pattern: victims were women or girls walking alone in the street at night, attacked from behind with a knife by surprise and brutally stabbed to death. The police immediately noticed the recurring pattern, and there was no doubt that the perpetrator of these crimes was one person, a serial killer. Here the police began to feel immense pressure. Could it be that there were two serial killers in the city? Usually, they didn't encounter a serial killer more than once every five or ten years, so could it be that two serial killers appeared at the same time now? And did the second one get inspired by the first one? The investigators were in tremendous confusion.
The Disappearance of Prostitutes and the Unveiling of Corruption
Some investigators thought that this might be the same killer but that he had changed his method and targets, but at the same time, there was literally no link between the previous crimes and these new crimes. The type of victims was different, the weapon was different, the area where the crimes occurred was different, and the method of execution was different; instead of breaking into houses, he killed victims on the street. There was no logical link between the previous crimes and the new crimes except that they were serial killer crimes, so they could not confirm whether this was the same killer or a new one, which was unimaginable that there were two serial killers at the same time in the same city.
The Killer's Mistake That Led to His Downfall
By early March 2004, the murders of women in the street had also stopped. But then, a new type of crime began to emerge in the city, different from the first and different from the second, a completely new third type. But this type of crime is usually unnoticed, and rarely investigated by the police, and the reason is the type of victims. This time, the victims were women working in prostitution, or what are called "night girls." These girls and women are among the best victims for serial killers because it is rare for anyone to care or notice their disappearance. First, prostitution is legally forbidden in Korea, but it was widespread at that time, and the main reason that allowed its spread was police corruption. Many police officers at that time accepted bribes from brothel owners to turn a blind eye to them, and some police officers even protected these establishments and their owners from the intervention of security agencies.
Luring and Apprehending the Killer
Only when some honest police officers emerged who wanted to reform or stand against prostitution, the corrupt ones among them began to threaten and pressure them because this was a source of profit for them. On the other hand, some owners of these prostitution establishments became informants who cooperated with the police in other cases that the police considered more important, such as drug and crime cases and others. Therefore, many police officers, even those who were not taking money and bribes, became part of this system, turning a blind eye to prostitution establishments in exchange for their owners cooperating with them in more sensitive cases. But all of this field remains illegal and unlawful, so the girls or women who work in it are considered outside the scope of the law. When one of them disappears, it is rare for anyone to ask about her, as these girls usually have left their families and families and have no one around them who cares about them. All their communication is with the manager who arranges their work. And this manager, even if he notices their disappearance, the first thing he will think of is that the girl ran away by herself or decided to leave the field, and even if he thought something had happened to her, he could not go to the police and file a formal report because he would expose himself to legal accountability and might expose his entire business.
Interrogating the Killer and His Mother's Collapse
In early March 2004, some of these "night girls" began to suddenly disappear. The only ones who noticed this were the owners and managers of the prostitution businesses. They observed that some of the girls working for them started to vanish. Over time, the rate of disappearances increased. At first, one girl would disappear per month, then it became one girl every two weeks, then one girl every week. One of these prostitution business managers was a former police officer, and he noticed that a number of the girls working for him had disappeared. Initially, he thought they had run away or quit their jobs, but as the disappearances increased, he felt that something suspicious was happening.
Detailed Confessions of the Killer
Even now, neither he nor any other prostitution business managers had reported any girl's disappearance because their work was illegal. Thus, these disappearances continued without anyone investigating them, and the police were unaware of them. Things continued in this manner for months, but one day, specifically on July 15, 2004, this manager, who was a former police officer, received a call. When he saw the number on the phone screen, he knew that this number belonged to one of the girls who used to work for him, and this girl had disappeared some months ago. He was surprised when he saw the number, and he immediately answered, expecting the disappeared girl to be speaking to him, but he was surprised to hear a man on the other end. This man said he was a client and asked for a girl. This was a terrible mistake by the criminal, to use a phone belonging to one of his victims. But this is what happens when a killer starts to get too comfortable and confident; that's when he begins to lose his guard and make stupid mistakes like this.
The Murder Weapon and Disposal Method
The manager, or former police officer, told the man: "Okay, we will fulfill your request, and I will be in touch with you when the girl is ready." The manager was now almost certain that this man was responsible for the girls' disappearances, otherwise why would he have the disappeared girl's phone? So the manager decided to become an informant and contacted one of his old colleagues from his days working in the police, who was now an investigator. He contacted him and told him the story, saying that girls had been disappearing for some time, and now a strange man had called him from the phone of one of the disappeared girls. The investigator, whose name was Yang Bul-jo, immediately took the matter seriously and moved directly to his old friend, the brothel manager, and together they quickly planned to lure the man who had called.
Escaped Killer and His Recapture
In order to apprehend him, they had to use one of the girls as bait. So they brought a girl and instructed her to meet the man, and they would observe from a distance. They did not tell her anything about the matter. Afterwards, the manager called the man and told him the girl was ready, and asked him where he would like to meet her. The manager was not supposed to be present and was only supposed to send the girl to meet the client at the location he specified. The man specified a location in one of the parks, and asked for the girl to be sent there. The manager gave the girl her instructions to go to that location, and he and the investigator followed her from a distance. Indeed, the girl went to the specified location, but a short time later, she returned to the manager and investigator, who were surprised and asked her what had happened. She told them that the man or client, when he saw her from a distance, called her and rejected her, saying she was too tall and unsuitable for him. He did not even meet her, but just saw her from a distance. The investigator and manager were surprised and feared that the man had noticed them or suspected something and decided to escape.
Revealing the Crime Details and the Killer's Narcissism
But only minutes passed, and once again the same man called the manager and asked for a second girl, but this time he told him: "Send me a shorter girl." The manager said: "Yes, we will fulfill your request." And indeed, the manager contacted a second girl and brought her to the same location. This time, the man accepted the girl, and the investigator and manager were able to see him clearly. And after they confirmed that this was the wanted man, they immediately moved to arrest him. And before they moved to arrest him, the investigator even requested support from the police patrols that were in the vicinity. And indeed, the investigator surprised the man and arrested him with the help of the manager who, of course, knows these matters as a former police officer. But the man began to resist violently, trying to free himself from them with all his might. Of course, it is impossible for someone who has done nothing to resist with such violence. But support quickly arrived, and a number of police officers gathered around him and were able to subdue him. And even though there were five or six police officers on top of him, he continued to resist violently as he tried to free himself from them, and they barely managed to restrain him and put handcuffs on his hands.
The Greater Mystery: Two Serial Killers
The police knew from that moment that this person was behind a catastrophe, otherwise he would not have resisted to this extent. Of course, the police and investigators did not know the details of the disappearance of the prostitutes, but when they learned about the matter, they began to suspect that this man was linked to the cases that occurred at the beginning of 2004, in which a number of women walking alone in the streets at night were killed. The case we discussed, which the police believed were cases linked to a serial killer, and some even believed they were connected to the previous crimes, the murders of the wealthy that occurred at the end of 2003, which we discussed at the beginning.
Confession in Exchange for a Service
Now, to summarize, we have three cases: The first case is the murders of the wealthy, followed by the second case, which was the murders of women or girls walking alone in the streets at night, and the third case is the disappearance of "night girls." Each of these cases was very different from the others, but perhaps the last two cases share a similarity in that all the victims were women, and also the area where the disappearances of the "night girls" occurred was close to the southern areas where the murders of women in the street took place. The investigators thought that there might be a connection between the two cases, and that this man was the key to solving all these cases. In any case, the investigators took the matter with the utmost seriousness and began to interrogate him. The man's name was Yoo Young-chul, and he was 34 years old.
The Killer's Detailed Confessions
They had no clear evidence against him, but they knew he was behind a disaster, especially since he had violently resisted arrest. So they started to pressure him during the interrogation to get a confession out of him, and they began to ask him about the missing girl's phone and why he had it. Yoo Young-chul remained silent at first and even resorted to mumbling. But I want to tell you something about the Korean police, especially at that time: their methods were very harsh. It was normal for them to treat suspects violently to extract confessions. So one of the investigators hit him on the back of his head. It wasn't a strong blow, but it was like a disciplinary slap, as if he were a small child. At first, Yoo Young-chul did not react strongly and tried to remain calm, but the investigator spoke to him again, and when he did not respond, he gave him a second blow in the same place, but a little harder. Here, Yoo Young-chul lost his temper and began to scream and say to the investigators: "You bastards, do you think you can get me? I know you will all get promoted if I say I killed people. Is that what you want, huh?"
Narcissism and Confession to Everything
After this outburst of anger, the investigators knew they could provoke him further. One of those present at that moment was the head of this police unit, who had come to witness the interrogation. This head, whose name was Kang Dae-won, has a strange personality; even when he speaks, you feel as if he is a gang leader or a police chief. He says that when Yoo Young-chul started yelling at them, he got angry and slapped him in the face, saying, "I'm the boss here." After this slap and these words, Yoo Young-chul lost his mind and became agitated, screaming, "I am the wrath of the gods! I have brought punishment upon the immoral women and upon the wealthy who corrupted society! You all cannot defeat me! I am the punishment sent from heaven!" He confessed to everything. He confessed that he was the one who killed the prostitutes, and he also confessed that he was the one who killed the wealthy before that. Of course, this is one of the traits always associated with serial killers: narcissism. They see themselves as beings superior to humans. So when the investigators hit him, he felt belittled, and he had to do something to make them know that he was above them and they were below him. And the only thing he came up with was to confess to what he had done and boast about it.
The Killer's Sudden Escape and Unexpected Return
Here, the investigators naturally knew they had won, but they needed more details. Yoo Young-chul began to calm down and told them, "I want my mother. I want to confess to my mother." The investigators were surprised but told him, "Okay." They managed to contact his mother and sent a patrol to bring her. His mother and sister arrived at the police station. When the investigators spoke to his mother, they told her that her son was in custody and that he had asked for her to be brought so he could confess to her. The mother replied with a tone full of frustration, saying, "What has he done this time?" It was clear from her reaction that she was tired of his problems, that she had reached her limit, and that she had given up on him. The police chief told her that he wanted to confess, but refused to confess to them and wanted to confess to her. The mother said, "Okay, let's see, God willing." And she entered the interrogation room where her son was.
Field Trip to the Burial Sites
But even the mother did not expect what she was about to hear. Yoo Young-chul confessed to his mother that he was a killer, and that he had killed dozens of people. The mother, as soon as she heard his words, immediately fainted and had to be taken to the hospital. After that, the investigators continued the interrogation with him, and Yoo Young-chul began to give them detailed confessions. First, he confessed that he had been monitoring wealthy homes and hunting for weeks to study his target, and he usually chose elderly victims because they were weaker and easier to kill, and then he would plan the home invasion and carry it out. As for his victims among the prostitutes, he would request them as a client, then take them to his apartment, and there he would commit debauchery with them, and then he would follow them to the bathroom and ambush them.
The Apartment and the Hammer Discovered
Incidentally, the weapon he was using was a demolition hammer, one of those used to break down walls; it was not an ordinary hammer. He had cut the handle of the hammer short so he could use it more easily as a murder weapon. He would go into the bathroom behind the girl, carrying his hammer, and strike her on the head until she died. Afterwards, he would begin the second stage, which was disposing of the body. Of course, he lived in an apartment in a multi-story building, so it was impossible to take the body out in one piece. So the solution was simply that he would bring a saw and start dismembering the body. He would cut the body into pieces and clean it in the bathroom. From the amount of water he used, the building's water meter rose significantly. The police would later discover this when they questioned the building owner, because all the residents of this building paid the water bill as a single unit, meaning each apartment did not have a separate water bill. The building owner noticed that the amount of water consumed by the entire building had increased significantly over the past months, and the reason behind all this was Yoo Young-chul, who used large quantities of water to wash the bodies of his victims.
The Art of Dismemberment and the Secret of the Bodies' Odor
This sick man also says that the dismemberment process was one of the things he enjoyed most during the killing process. He even studied human anatomy, which doctors study, to learn dismemberment faster and more accurately. And of course, dismemberment is easier the smaller the body, which is why he rejected the tall girl, if you recall, because he wanted his victim to be smaller. After dismemberment, he would put the body parts in garbage bags, and then, imagine, he would hail a taxi from the street, put these bags in the taxi, get in, and ask the driver to take him to the place where he would bury the body. Imagine the audacity, using taxis to transport bodies! And when the taxi drivers would smell the odor and ask, "What's in these bags?" he would tell them, "It's kimchi."
The Second Killer and Police Corruption
Kimchi has a bad smell, so this criminal would put kimchi inside the bags to cover up the smell of the body. Of course, the bodies had not decomposed yet, but they still smelled bad, so he used kimchi to cover it up as an excuse to the taxi drivers. And after the taxi reached the desired location, he would continue on foot, carrying the bags. The place where he buried the bodies was a high hill located in a somewhat secluded area amidst the trees. In this place, he would dig a hole and bury the bags, and he would mark the place he dug by putting a small lid on top of the hole. Why? Because he intended to continue and would return again to bury a different body in this same area, so he did not want to dig the same spot twice, so he would put this lid as a mark to know where he had dug before. And of course, he continued these killings for a period of several months, until he was caught. So this area was filled with bodies.
The End of the Story and Its Impact
The investigators were shocked by these details; they had not expected the person in front of them to be such a devil. They were then planning to ask him about the second case, which was the case of women or girls who were stabbed with a knife while walking alone in the street at night. He had now confessed to the first case, which was the case of elderly wealthy individuals, and he had also confessed to the third case, which concerned prostitutes, but he had not mentioned the case in the middle, the case of stabbing women in the street. But before the investigators could ask about this case, something surprising happened. Yoo Young-chul went into an epileptic seizure, and even began foaming at the mouth and collapsed in front of them. The investigators quickly provided first aid, and after he began to regain consciousness, he was clearly tired, of course, and asked them to remove his restraints so he could rest. The investigators removed his restraints.
A Shocking Secret and a Touching Conclusion
Afterward, most of those present in the interrogation room left to take a break, leaving only two investigators with him in the room. One investigator was sitting at the table opposite him, and the other was sitting to the side, with his laptop open. In a strange moment, the investigator who was sitting opposite the criminal got up from his seat and left the room, assuming that the other investigator, who was at his laptop, would keep an eye on the criminal. However, the second investigator, focused entirely on his laptop, was not paying attention to either the criminal or the investigator who had just left. Suddenly, the criminal Yoo Young-chul also got up from his seat, unnoticed by anyone, took his laptop, and left the interrogation room. When Yoo Young-chul, the criminal, found himself alone in the room with no one else present, he got up and went out into the corridor, beginning to walk barefoot. It was late at night, so the department was empty, and no one noticed him. And imagine, he managed to reach the stairs, went down them, and simply walked out of the building.
When the investigators returned to the room and didn't find him, they were furious and began asking, "Who was with him? How did he get out?" The situation suddenly turned to chaos. Immediately, a general alert was issued for all available police forces, and even those who were asleep in their homes were immediately called in. Police officers spread out everywhere, searching for him. The situation was catastrophic; how could a dangerous serial killer, who was in their hands, suddenly be free? This was a disaster. Now he had nothing to lose; he could kill anyone he met on the street without a shred of concern. The police searched every street and alley around the precinct, but to no avail. The criminal disappeared without a trace. They continued searching throughout that night, and as time passed, the search area expanded, and the chances of finding him diminished.
Investigator Kim Sang-jung had an idea, so he took a few police officers with him and headed to the Yeongdeungpo area, also known as the "Red Light District." This is the area where prostitution businesses are concentrated, and all the "night girl" victims were from this area. The investigator thought that if Yoo Young-chul tried to kill again, he would likely go to this area because he knew it well and because the type of victims he preferred were found there. So this investigator, along with his team of police officers, began searching this area. They continued searching all night until morning broke, and people began to go to their jobs. And suddenly, without warning, one of the police officers saw Yoo Young-chul walking on the street among the people, and he immediately yelled at all the officers around him, pointing at him and saying, "That's him! That's him!" And quickly, the police surrounded him, and he immediately tried to escape, but they encircled him and caught him. He continued to resist violently like the first time, and tried to slip away from them, but they managed to subdue him in the end. Afterwards, they took him and brought him back to the police station.
All the investigators felt an indescribable sense of relief when they learned he had been apprehended again. It would have been a disaster if he had managed to kill before they caught him. Most likely, all of them would have lost their jobs, and perhaps this entire police unit would have been disbanded. And remarkably, how this situation happened by chance, he managed to escape, and by chance he was caught again. After returning to the interrogation room, Yoo Young-chul began to applaud them and told them himself, "Good job for catching me quickly, because I was planning to kill at least 100 more people." Indeed, it was truly a blessing from above.
Afterwards, the investigators continued the interrogation, and he was cooperative and kept giving them all the details they wanted, boasting. He knew that everything had been exposed, so the best thing for his narcissistic personality was to keep confessing and boasting, saying, "I killed and I did this and I went here and I came there." Of course, as we said before he escaped, they wanted to ask him about the second case, which was the case of women and girls who were stabbed while walking alone in the street at night. So Yoo Young-chul told them, "Yes, I killed them." They asked him, "Why did you change your method and your murder weapon? Why did you use a knife instead of a hammer?" He said, "I just wanted to try it."
He told them that at first, he would break into the homes of elderly wealthy people and kill them. Then, when he felt pressure, especially after his picture was circulated in the media, he decided to stop for a while. After that, he began to try attacking random women and girls walking alone in the street at night, and this time he decided to use a knife because it was a faster weapon. Later, when he felt that the police were lurking for him in the streets at night, he decided to take a different, safer route, and that's when the idea of targeting prostitutes occurred to him. He could lure them to his apartment and kill them at his leisure, and at the same time, no one would care to look for them. He also added that they deserved to be punished because they were working in that profession.
The police then asked him to show them the place where he had buried the bodies, and he led them to the location. A number of investigators went with him to that spot, and as soon as they dug, they found the body of one of the victims. The next morning, they decided to conduct official excavation work at the site to unearth all the bodies. The matter reached the media and spread among the people, and for the first time, the serial killer who had terrorized the city appeared before the media. They had him wearing a jacket, a cap, and a surgical mask to cover his face. Incidentally, this is always done in Korea; they do not reveal the faces of criminals. Even the pictures we have of him are old pictures or ones the media obtained by some means, but the police do not reveal the faces of criminals. The reason is to avoid glorifying them and motivating others to become criminals for fame. I honestly don't know if this is effective, but this is their practice. Anyway, the police began excavation work at the victim burial site, and there was a large gathering of journalists and the general public around the place. The excavation work continued until all the bodies were unearthed. The scene was shocking because the number of bodies was large, and each time a body was unearthed, the criminal would tell them the details. He would tell them where he found this girl and what he did to her, and he would remember every victim and recount the details with pride and enjoyment.
During this media event, he was given an opportunity to speak in front of the cameras. I'm honestly not sure why they did that, but listen to what he said. This criminal's narcissism was beyond imagination. Whenever he spoke, he would say that he was the wrath of the gods and that he was sent to punish bad people who corrupted society. He took every opportunity to boast about his crimes, claiming he had a noble goal.
Afterwards, the police headed to his apartment and raided it to search it. The apartment was initially clean, and even when they entered the bathroom, it appeared superficially clean. But of course, the forensic team had chemical substances that reveal blood traces even after cleaning. There's a substance called "luminol" that makes blood traces glow in the dark. And imagine, after spraying this substance, the entire bathroom glowed from the amount of blood traces that stained the walls and ceiling due to the many crimes that occurred in the bathroom. One of the police officers made a statement: "The one who lived here, this must be a devil, not a human."
Among the items found was also a sketchbook, and his drawing skill was good; he could have even become a professional artist with a little training if he wanted to. Among the drawings found, he had drawn himself in two forms: one of a kind, smiling boy, and next to it, the second form, which was a devil. Of course, if this drawing indicates anything, it indicates the mental illnesses he had.
Afterwards, the police found the murder weapon, the hammer he used for killing. They did not find it in the apartment, but in a nearby location he pointed out. He had hidden it behind an outdoor air conditioning unit. Although the hammer was clean, and Yoo Young-chul certainly cleaned it after every crime, it had openings and small areas where some DNA traces of the victims could remain. So the police conducted precise tests on the hammer to extract any possible traces. And indeed, the results from the lab came back positive. They found several traces of victims' DNA on the hammer and were able to identify many of them. Some traces belonged to elderly wealthy victims, and some belonged to the prostitutes. This weapon undoubtedly confirmed his connection to these two cases, the wealthy victims' case and the prostitutes' case.
However, the case for which they still have no evidence is the second one, which is the case of women and girls who were stabbed while walking alone in the street at night. The only thing linking him to this case is his confessions. They did not find the knife he used to commit the crimes, and he said that he had disposed of the knife or thrown it away and did not know where it was. So they have no tangible evidence linking him to these crimes. But since he confessed, it became part of his crimes. The secret and shocking surprise that the police would not discover until two years later was that he was not the perpetrator of these crimes. The man behind these crimes was another serial killer. Yes, there was another serial killer operating at the same time in the same city. This is very rare. This second killer's name was Jeong Nam-gyu, and he would be apprehended in 2006, two years after Yoo Young-chul's arrest.
The question now is why did Yoo Young-chul confess to these crimes he did not commit? Was the motive narcissism, and he told himself, "It's all ruined anyway"? The answer is no, the motive was much stranger. Two of the investigators who were handling the case offered him a kind of bribe to confess to these crimes. Yoo Young-chul had a son, and of course, he was not living with him, most likely he was living with his mother. So these two investigators went to Yoo Young-chul and told him, "We will take care of your son and his financial expenses until he graduates from university, in exchange for you confessing to committing these crimes." They told him, "It's all ruined anyway, so confess to additional crimes, and your son will have a comfortable life."
Why did these investigators do that? Because at that time, the promotion system in the Korean police depended on your success rate and how many cases you could close. So instead of leaving these cases unresolved, they decided to pin them on him and gain glory and promotions. The Korean police had many problems, and Yoo Young-chul's case was one of the cases that led to major internal reforms in the police force, and after that, reforms and new laws were implemented.
In any case, Yoo Young-chul was not the perpetrator of these crimes that occurred between the murders of elderly wealthy people and the killings of prostitutes. In fact, these crimes were very different: randomly stabbing people with a knife in the middle of the street did not fit his personality as "God's messenger who came from heaven to punish sinners," God forbid. Yoo Young-chul's case turned into a media circus. The police moved him between the various crime scenes where he had committed his crimes, including the crimes they believed at the time he had committed. So they would take him from place to place to describe how he committed these crimes, and behind them, media cameras and crowds of people would gather around them. It was as if the police wanted to display their victory, otherwise they could have concealed these movements, but it was as if they wanted to tell people, "Look how we caught him, look at our achievements." It was very strange and created more chaos than necessary.
On one occasion, while they were parading him, one of the victims' relatives tried to attack him with a knife, but the police managed to restrain him and calm him down. Yoo Young-chul was initially tried for the murder of 27 or 28 people, but after he was acquitted of the crimes committed by the other serial killer, the number of his victims was confirmed, and he was tried for the murder of 20 people. This was the final number, at least of the victims they were able to prove. I personally believe he killed more, but I don't know. In the end, the final verdict against him was death. Although the case is more than 20 years old, he is still on death row and has not been executed. And although the death penalty law exists in Korea, they have not carried out any executions since 1997. So, Yoo Young-chul remains imprisoned to this day.
Some investigators and people close to the case say that the only good thing Yoo Young-chul did was that his case led to major internal reforms in the Korean police force, and this was at least a positive aspect.