Frog boys ( cor. Кор 소년 Kaguri Sonon ) is a newspaper nickname for a group of five South Korean boys killed, who disappeared on March 26, 1991 on the outskirts of Daegu while hunting for frogs. The remains of their bodies were found only 11 years later. The murder was not disclosed and on March 25, 2006, was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Content
Victims
- Kim Jong-Sik - 9 years old, student of the 3rd grade, born in 1983, parents: Kim Chol-Kyu and Ho To-Son
- Kim Yong-Kyu - 11 years old, 4th grade student, born in 1981, parents: Kim Hyun-Do and Chyo Kyung-Khy
- Cho Ho-Yong - 12 years old, 5th grade student, born in 1980, parents: Cho Namh-Wan and Kim Sunn-Yo
- Pak Chan-Ying - 10 years old, student of the 3rd class, born in 1982, parents: Pak Geon-Seo and Kim Im-Cha
- U Chol-Won - 13 years old, 6th grade student, b. in 1979, parents: U Chon-U and Chiang Myung-Ch
Kim Jong-Sik and Kim Yong-Kyu were cousins. There was also a sixth boy who was close friends with this company, Kim Tae-Lion (10 years old, a 3rd grade student, born in 1982), but for a number of reasons he stayed at home that day.
Crime
On March 26, 1991, elections for local councils of lower-level territorial-administrative units were held in South Korea. The government announced this and the previous day off. On this day, five boys went to the nearby forest on Mount Waren, which was near the school where these children studied [1] .
The children did not return home. They were last seen at about two o'clock in the afternoon before they entered the mountain. The loss of 5 children in South Korea, where crime and disappearances were rare, caused a great resonance throughout the country. Soon the “frog boys” were searched by a multitude of police, military and local residents [1] . The mountain was searched 500 times [2] .
The search was controlled personally by the then President of South Korea, Ro Dae Woo . Several million leaflets with photographs of missing children were released. Volunteers walked the streets with portraits of missing children, search sheets were glued to cars, shop windows, candy wrappers, and cake boxes. “Frog boys” were constantly shown on TV. A fund was organized to accept donations for searches. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the boys was promised a large monetary reward [1] . Finally, on September 23, 1993, the parents of all five boys announced that they would stop searching.
Detection
September 26, 2002 one of the residents of Daegu went to the mountain to collect chestnuts. At that time, heavy rains had already been raining for a week in South Korea, due to which landslides began to happen on Mount Waren. For this reason, this resident managed to find the remains of all five boys in one of the ravines that day.
Due to the fact that they had decomposed to a skeletal formation by that time, it was impossible to establish the cause of death, as it was not possible to establish whether the boys were killed in the same place where they were found. The three boys were present at the turtles with deep injuries of artificial origin, but the experts could not determine whether they were the cause of death and whether the boys received them at the time of the murder, or whether they arose much later, how it was not possible to establish exactly what they were. caused by. The only thing that they were able to accurately determine is that the bodies were buried before they completely decomposed (none of the bones had disappeared), and that the death most likely occurred precisely in the year of their disappearance. All the boys had their pants down and were knotted at their feet with an ingenious knot. Upper clothes were, on the contrary, strung on their heads. One of the boys had no pants, the other had boots with socks. Also, one of the boys had a crack in the radius of the arm. The burial site itself was organized in a hurry, but very skillfully - the bodies lay in a narrow hollow and were thrown from above with leaves, branches and stones for a natural look (the thickness of the soil at the Waren mountain takes 30 centimeters thick, so to dig any deep grave seemed possible). At a distance of about 20 meters from the bodies found, about 80 pieces of sleeves with a diameter of 6-7 mm and one sleeve with a diameter of 7-8 mm were found. And the liner lay in two heaps, and not in the scatter, as if they had been poured in advance.
The investigation ultimately led to nothing. The police initially announced that the children had died from the accident - they got lost and froze. This provoked criticism from parents who pointed out the illogicality of this version - at dusk, the boys would see the lights of the night city and be able to descend, relying on them. Were considered versions of the serial killer, poachers or saboteurs from North Korea , but none of them was 100% confirmed [1] . In 2006, the statute of limitations for this case expired. This means that the authorities cannot persecute anyone for murder. However, the police said they would continue the investigation. [3]
In culture
- X / f. “Frog boys! Come back !! ”( February 17, 1992 ) - the film was shot“ hot on the heels ”and released a year and a half after the boys disappeared. The film was conditionally divided into two parts: the first part told about the boys themselves until the day of their disappearance, the second was concentrated on their parents and their unsuccessful search attempts. A kind of film was shot as an agitation, addressed to the boys themselves, so all five of the film bear their real names.
- X / f. “ ” ( February 17, 2011 ) - this film presents a fictional theory that a stunned butcher from a slaughterhouse could be killed by boys who could not be arrested due to lack of evidence. In South Korea, the film caused an extremely mixed reaction.
- The story of "frog boys" is also devoted to several songs [4] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Galaganov .
- Disco After Discovery of Taegu Remains, Cause of Death Still Uncertain . Korea Times (September 28, 2011). The appeal date is July 15, 2011.
- ↑ Statute Runs Out for Unsolved 'Frog Boys' Murder (inaccessible link) . Chosun Daily (March 24, 2006). The appeal date is July 15, 2011. Archived September 10, 2012.
- ↑ Missing persons ignored . JoongAng Daily (September 28, 2002). The appeal date is July 15, 2011.
Links
- Vlada Galaganova. Frog boys . Pulp Fiction.