A 30-year-old mystery… Daegu frog boy investigation still’in progress’

26 March 1991. Five children from Seongseo Elementary School in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, disappeared at once. After leaving the house early in the morning saying that they were going to catch salamander eggs in the back mountain of the town, Waryongsan, the news was cut off. They were children who lived in the same neighborhood from grade 6 to grade 3 and lived like their own siblings, but none of them came back alive. The remains of the children were found in September 2002, 11 years after their disappearance, near Waryongsan Mountain, not far from the neighborhood where they lived.

It has been 30 years since the disappearance of a frog boy in Daegu this year. This incident, which is considered the most representative long-term unprecedented incident in Korea, remains a mystery until now except for the discovery of the remains of children.

The day the children disappeared was a temporary holiday when local elections were held to elect basic lawmakers. When they didn’t go to school, they were gathering in the neighborhood early in the morning and looking for something to play as usual. At that time, Cheol-won Woo (13), Ho-yeon Jo (12), Young-gyu Kim (11), Chan-in Park (10), and Jong-sik Kim (9) went up to Waryongsan Mountain, saying, “Let’s go pick up salamander eggs.” .

When five children disappeared at once, this case became a concern of the whole people. In order to find the missing children, a campaign to report the disappearance took place at schools and government offices across the country, and they also posted photos of them on cigarette packs and foodstuffs, asking for active reporting. At the time, the police even raised a report reward amounting to 42 million won in money. Since then, the Daegu Regional Police Agency, where the investigative headquarters was established, has poured out various reports from all over the country, but most of them were false reports and there were no reports that could provide a decisive clue. At the time, the police invested 350,000 people, including the police and soldiers, to search Mt. Waryong like this, but in the end, they could not find any traces of the children. That way, the police investigation didn’t get any results, and the years went by.

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Suspects, disappearances, everything is a mystery

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September 26, 2002. A hiker climbs a mountain to get an acorn and calls the police. It was reported that there were human remains in the mountain. Genetic analysis revealed that the remains were frog boys who disappeared 11 years ago. The place of discovery was only 3.5 km from the neighborhood where they lived. Waryongsan is only a small mountain with an altitude of only 299m, and their lives and deaths were finally confirmed after 10 years after mobilizing so many personnel at the time of disappearance. They were all estimated to have been killed after evidence of skull damage. When the remains of five children were found at once, the case fell into a labyrinth again.

It was speculated that there would not be one suspect in that all elementary school students who were active enough to climb the mountain themselves died at once. When the news that the remains of children were found, more than 1,500 reports of suspects were filed by the police again across the country. However, there were no definitive clues and tips to solve the case, and the investigation ended in vain. This case still remains untouched, with no one step closer to the reality of the case, such as the reason for the disappearance, the purpose of the crime, and the relationship between the crime.

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Bereaved “Expiration of the statute of prosecution, please make a declaration of conscience”

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That doesn’t mean the police gave up the investigation. From the time of disappearance to April 2009, the police established an investigation headquarters with the deputy head of the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency as the head of the headquarters, and since then, in consideration of the possibility of extending the statute of prosecution, such as the evacuation of the suspect, the Seongseo Police Station has operated an investigation team at the Seongseo Police Station. Since April of last year, the records of major incidents have been handed over to the unsanctioned case investigation team of the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency to continue receiving reports and internal investigations. In 2019, the then police chief Min Gap-ryong also revealed his willingness to visit Waryongsan Mountain, the first police commissioner, to “re-investigate the case from the origin”.

Civic groups and bereaved families have also been struggling to resolve the case. Every year, the bereaved family and the’Citizens’ Association for Finding Missing Families of Lost Children’ are holding a memorial service at the site where the remains were found on March 26, the date of the children’s disappearance. In the 30th year of this incident, the U.S. founder decided to request the government and the National Assembly to establish a fact-finding committee. An official from this group said, “You need to know what wrong and why the children had to die so that parents can close their eyes.” Frog boys’ parents are now known to be dying or living in nursing hospitals. In the 30th year of the incident, Daegu City set up a memorial to pray for the safety of the children and held an unveiling ceremony at the Saiwon Park near Waryongsan Mountain where they disappeared on the 26th. The memorial monument was made of granite, measuring 3.5m in width, 1.3m in length, and 2m in height, and was installed by actively reflecting the opinions of the bereaved. An official from the Daegu Police Agency said, “The frog boy case is still being re-invested.”

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