A request to find a man in his 40s who went back to his hometown to help a friend's work ran into an unexpected situation and fell into a mystery. On top of that, the bizarre story of a husband whose affair was discovered and a wife who sexually abused that husband was revealed, shocking viewers.
On the 29th episode of Channel A Detectives' Trade Secrets in the "Detective 24 Hours" segment, the story of a female client who said "my brother, who has been like family for 14 years, suddenly stopped contacting me" was introduced. The client and the brother met at work in 2011 and were close enough to change jobs together. After the client started a business, the brother would take time out of his busy schedule to come help, showing their deep bond. He was also an "uncle like a friend" who played freely with the client's i-dle. Then, in December 2023, the brother said he was going back to his hometown to "help at a guesthouse run by a friend." His parents had already passed away, and his siblings were all living elsewhere, so he had no family in his hometown.
But from June of this year the brother stopped reading the messenger messages the client sent, and his regular social media uploads stopped as he vanished. When even the phone number he used disappeared, people around him even speculated, "did he possibly go to Cambodia?" In response, the Owl Detective Team went directly to the brother's hometown village to ask around. But no one in the village knew the brother, and even the owner of the guesthouse he said he went to work at answered, "I don't know him at all," which shocked the team. With no clues to the disappearance and the mystery deepening, whether the detectives can find his whereabouts will be revealed next week on Detectives' Trade Secrets.
In the following "case notebook" segment, a younger sister who said "my biological older brother of 10 years into marriage seems to be having an affair" appeared. The client worried, "my brother leaves our nephew at our parents' house every weekend and comes home late at night. I've also seen him making lewd video calls with someone." The detectives' investigation found that the client's brother was stopping by and helping at a restaurant run by his in-laws every weekend. Although his relationship with his sister-in-law, who seemed unusually close, aroused suspicion, the truth was somewhere entirely different. One day, the client's brother was captured going into the women's restroom during an overnight shift and coming out wearing women's underwear. He was also seen stealing the client's bra, putting it on, and taking selfies in a series of shocking actions. His body showed bruises and even the words "I am a slave" written on it.
The entity that controlled and dominated the client's brother's bizarre behavior turned out to be none other than his wife. One day the client's sister-in-law learned of her husband's affair, and the sense of betrayal and desire for revenge soon led to abuse and violence. Eventually the couple sank into a master-servant relationship, calling each other "puppy" and "master." Unable to endure it, when the client's brother confided this to his sister-in-law, she used the excuse of understaffing at the shop to call her brother-in-law away and briefly free him from his wife's surveillance. Ultimately the couple decided to undergo psychological therapy to save their family. Defconn, unable to continue, said, "there are couples like this..." and then closed by calling it "a very shocking and bizarre case." Jeon Min-gi, who joined as a daily detective, answered the question "do you ever feel dominated by your wife?" with "my life itself is being dominated," drawing laughter.
The reality-based detective drama Channel A Detectives' Trade Secrets will air every Monday at 10 p.m. starting Jan. 5, 2026.
[Photo] Detectives' Trade Secrets
[OSEN]