'Brave Detective 4' revealed the true nature of the despicable criminals.
On the 28th, episode 60 of Tcast E Channel's 'Brave Detective 4' (directed by Lee Ji-seon) featured Hwaseong Western Police Station's women and juvenile division Head of Team Inspector Lee Jae-hyo and former police superintendent Yoon Oe-chul of the scientific investigation unit (KCSI) and Inspector Kim Jin-su, who disclosed investigation logs.
The first case introduced on that broadcast began with a report from a worried neighbor saying a grandmother who lived alone had not been reachable for two days. The grandmother, a woman in her mid-70s who had been living while running an old inn and was a terminal cancer patient, was found dead in a room inside the inn.
There were no signs of a struggle, but faint bruises and fingernail marks were found on the grandmother's neck, leading investigators to suspect homicide. From the early morning of the suspected day of the crime, card payment notifications continued to arrive on the grandmother's cellphone, and it was revealed that about 2 million won was used in 29 transactions over nine hours. The charges were made across different areas at restaurants, motels and jewelry stores, making it unlikely the grandmother had used them herself.
An hour before the card was used, nearby CCTV captured a man entering the inn alone, coming out, talking with a woman across the street, and then the woman following him inside. Thirty minutes later, footage showed the two urgently leaving. The jewelry store CCTV where the card was used also captured the man and woman in front of the inn, and they were found to have purchased a men's watch and three stone rings. They later resold those items at a nearby jewelry store, and the man was identified as a 21-year-old surnamed Park, who had been prosecuted twice previously for assault and had been on trial for an assault case two months earlier.
The woman was Park's girlfriend, who was a year older, and it emerged that on the day of the crime she had stolen a friend's cellphone at an alumna's house and was questioned at a police station, adding to the shock. They carried inactive cellphones because they had no money or place to stay. Detectives lured Park through friends' social media and arrested him at the meeting place. When the inn was mentioned, he said they only stole items and denied murder.
Park claimed his girlfriend took all the cash, saying "I'm scared and tormented," and disappeared. The girlfriend, who had said she would turn herself in, was skeptical of Park's calls, and it was revealed she had made a call from Hadong's bus terminal. Police later arrested the girlfriend at an internet cafe while responding to the case; she had entered the cafe wearing spa clothes, asked in Seoul dialect to borrow a phone, and when she searched "inn murder," the cafe owner, suspicious, reported her to a friend who was a police officer.
The girlfriend insisted that Park strangled the grandmother and that she only stole the card and bankbook. They said they committed the crime because they had no money or place to stay, and Park claimed the girlfriend knew the inn where the grandmother was alone and suggested they go rob it. However, during the confrontation hearing Park recanted, saying everything the girlfriend had said was correct, and the two continued to show physical closeness, even intertwining their feet during the proceedings, shocking everyone.
It was particularly tragic that the grandmother, who was asleep, had tried to help when Park said there was a drunk friend who could not wake up and asked for help, only to be attacked. The two had repeatedly ate and ran while moving around, and it was revealed the girlfriend also stole a wallet from an acquaintance's house after the incident. This provoked anger from Ahn Jung-hwan, who said, "Are these people already doing such things?" Park was sentenced to 20 years in prison and the girlfriend to 10 years.
The KCSI-introduced case began with a report that two males, 23 and 17, who were high school senior and junior respectively, came to report a murder with terrified faces. The 23-year-old reported that a friend his age had killed a 19-year-old male and said he knew where the body was. Detectives accompanied the 23-year-old to the house where the body was said to be, and in an empty dwelling in a residential area they found a body bound with rope and tape, folded in half. The hands and feet were tied, a black plastic bag covered the face, dried blood was on the face, and there were stick-like wounds on the back.
Near the scene, a few drops of blood, footprints and a fingerprint on the binding tape were found. Although the 23-year-old reporter said he had never been to the place before, he found the house immediately, and when investigators checked the identity of the friend he pointed to as the perpetrator, it emerged the friend had an intellectual disability, raising suspicion. It also came out that the house where the body was found was right next to the 23-year-old reporter's younger sibling's house.
The 23-year-old then changed his story in a fluster, saying he had been present at the time. The two reporters, the perpetrator and the victim—four people—often played at that empty house, and they claimed the perpetrator beat the victim for 10 days until he died. When pressed for details, the reporter said the perpetrator told him to hit the victim so he did, and he also helped tie the victim, again changing his testimony. They also claimed the younger sibling's family had gone to the in-laws' house and were not at home, and that they went to the next-door house knowing that. However, signs indicated the younger sibling's house had been hurriedly vacated.
Although the person identified as the main perpetrator was found, he was hospitalized in an unconscious state. The night before the report, patrol officers in an orchard road spotted two men running away when they saw a patrol car and found a man bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose and sent him to the hospital. He was in critical condition from the assault, and CCTV showed that the people who ran away after seeing the patrol car were the reporters.
The man identified as the main perpetrator also had an intellectual disability, and the victim also had an intellectual disability. The reporters usually disliked the two and, when they fought, forced them to spar. When the victim lost the fight, he demanded an apology accusing the victim of saying strange things, and when the victim refused, the three allegedly assaulted him in the empty house. Kim Sun-young expressed outrage, saying, "What kind of people are these?"
CCTV from the scene where the sparring took place also confirmed a person believed to be the reporter's younger sibling, and it was revealed they had first assaulted the victim at the younger sibling's house, not the empty house, then moved to the empty house after blood splattered. The reporters claimed they hit the main perpetrator because he showed no remorse, but in fact after three days of assault the victim said he would report to the police, and the 23-year-old told his younger sibling and spouse he would take care of everything, then took the 17-year-old reporter out and struck with a hammer. The 23-year-old was sentenced to 22 years, the younger sibling to 10 years, the person once labeled the main perpetrator to 4 years, and the 17-year-old minor received four years for the short term and six years for the long term.
'Brave Detective 4' airs every Friday at 9:50 p.m., and is also available on major OTTs such as Netflix, TVING and WAVVE.<
[photo] E Channel
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