‘Brave Detectives 4’ revealed the true nature of the criminals who killed the victim and staged a sham.
In the 51st episode of T-Cast E Channel’s ‘Brave Detectives 4’ (directed by Lee Ji-sun), Detective Kim Jun-hang from the Jeju Western Police Station, Officer Lim Ik-soo from the Jeju Police Agency’s Security Information Division, and former Commissioner Yoon Wae-chul and Detective Kim Jin-soo from the Scientific Investigation Team (KCSI) appeared to unfold the investigation diary.
The first case introduced that day began with a report from a younger sister stating, “I haven’t heard from my sister for over ten days.” The missing person was a woman in her 40s who worked as a skin care specialist, and the report was made at the suggestion of her sister’s workplace colleague.
The sister’s boyfriend also lived in the house where the sisters resided, and the younger sister mentioned that her sister had been struggling due to her boyfriend’s obsession and was contemplating a breakup. However, the boyfriend appeared nonchalant, saying, “I was just worried because she was often out late.”
The investigation team tracked the missing person based on statements from colleagues who had been drinking with her just before her disappearance and CCTV footage. According to a colleague, when they called the next day, a man answered but hung up immediately.
Upon confirmation, it was found that the missing person had moved separately with two colleagues after the drinking session. Later, footage captured her walking arm in arm with a man wearing a beanie. He was her boyfriend, Mr. Park (pseudonym). It turned out that the two had been dating for ten years, but Mr. Park had a wife and children.
The investigation team found traces of Mr. Park’s truck roaming around a remote bridge and a cemetery on the morning of the disappearance. Bloodstains were found in the truck of the urgently arrested Mr. Park.
After intense questioning, he confessed to the crime, revealing that he had hidden the victim’s body under 20 bags of dirt beneath a bridge near his workplace. The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation due to blunt force trauma, with signs of tearing and bruising all over the face and body, as well as a ruptured spleen.
Mr. Park stated that he hit the victim, who said she wouldn’t go home, out of fear that it would be revealed to her family. He also expressed anger, saying he felt disrespected when she didn’t move after he told her to get up. Notably, after killing the victim, he sent a text saying, “At least call me,” putting on a facade. Mr. Park was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The next case introduced by KCSI involved a prosecutor seeking life imprisonment, but the victim’s family pleaded for leniency, making the verdict difficult. The case began when a body was discovered inside a travel bag abandoned in an irrigation ditch. An autopsy revealed that the victim had over 30 stab wounds. Fingerprints, painstakingly collected from the tips of the fingers, confirmed that the victim was a woman in her 30s living an hour and a half away from where her body was found.
The investigation team discovered that a missing person report filed under the victim’s name had been suddenly canceled 20 days before the body was found. This was because the victim had been texting her younger brother, instructing him to cancel the missing person report.
According to the younger brother, his sister had gone out saying she was visiting her boyfriend’s parents and then disappeared, only contacting him through messages. However, the investigation team placed him as a suspect based on his statements in the missing person report. In reality, the younger brother had interfered with the investigation into his sister’s disappearance, pretending to be her and sending manipulated texts to their parents to cancel the missing person report. Records showed that he had visited the location where the body was found twice, and phone forensics revealed evidence of the crime.
The younger brother confessed that he killed his sister during an argument over her nagging. He placed her body on the rooftop of their apartment and transferred money from her bank account to his own, even going on a trip on Christmas Eve and taking out a loan in her name to buy game items and gifts for his girlfriend. He disposed of the body in an irrigation ditch near a relative’s house where few people passed by, but as the weather warmed and the water temperature rose, the decaying body floated to the surface. The court sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
