Tragedy at Songdo Recycling Center, investigative difficulties left by ‘part of a leg’ and meaning of presumption of adulthood > News

The core of the case is that the National Forensic Service’s analysis results identified the victim as an ‘adult.’ The foot size of the initially discovered leg was only 210 mm and the length below the knee was short at about 41 cm, so the police took urgent action, including considering the possibility that the victim was a minor and even considering an on-site investigation at the school. However, after completing the skeletal analysis, the National Forensic Service made an official opinion that this body part appears to be that of an adult and that the height is estimated to be between 161 and 165 cm. These results led to a complete revision of the initial direction of the investigation, erasing the fear that it was a missing child case, and resetting the scope of the investigation to adult crime victims. Currently, the National Forensic Service is focusing on securing more specific clues that can identify the victim through additional detailed identification, such as age, chronic disease, and drug use.

To solve this case, the police have formed a large investigation headquarters with about 64 people and are conducting an all-out pursuit. The most important part to look into is the route through which the body entered the Southern Metropolitan Living Resources Recovery Center where the body was found. On the day of the incident, a total of 34 recycling vehicles were found to have entered and left the facility between 4 a.m. and 1:50 p.m. The police are retracing the movements of these vehicles one by one and closely comparing the black box images attached to the vehicles with CCTV data. In addition, we are concentrating our investigative power on the residential and commercial areas visited by the vehicles in order to identify the collection area, but it is expected to take a considerable amount of time and effort to clearly determine when and where the damaged bodies came from.

The biggest obstacle faced in the investigation field is the indiscriminate spread of unconfirmed information. From the beginning of the incident, unfounded rumors about the victim's identity or type of crime spread rapidly through social media and various online communities. The police strongly warned that these speculative posts could not only cause serious disruption to the investigation, but also cause secondary damage, such as defamation of innocent officials. In fact, the police clearly stated that spreading false information could be subject to legal punishment and took a hard-line response policy, such as requesting relevant platforms to delete posts. The reason investigative agencies put their lives at risk in controlling information and conveying accurate facts is because distorted public opinion in the early stages of a criminal investigation becomes a fatal poison that hinders the arrest of the actual criminal.

A scientific approach to identification is also being carried out in parallel. The police are continuing to compare the missing people's DNA information with the database, and are thoroughly analyzing CCTV in the surrounding area to reconstruct the process by which the bodies were wrapped in bandages and placed in bags and abandoned. However, to date, no conclusive clues to identify the victim have been secured. This suggests that the culprit may have erased traces very meticulously in the process of damaging and abandoning the body. The answers to who the victims were and why they had to be discovered in such a horrific way are still shrouded in fog. The investigation headquarters is devoting all its investigative capabilities to ensure that no suspicion remains, through additional analysis of the remaining body parts and extensive video analysis.