In Brave Detective, persistent investigations by detectives who tracked the brutal crimes to the end were unfolded.
On March 6, the TV Chosun E Channel program Brave Detective 4 (directed by Lee Ji-sun) episode 74 featured Detective Team Leader Lee Seung-nam of the Gangjin Police Station Criminal Investigation Division and former police superintendent Yoon Oe-chul and Detective Kim Jin Soo of the scientific investigation unit (KCSI), who revealed their investigation logs. Entertainer Eom Ji-yoon and actor Lee Sang-yeob also appeared as guests.
The first case introduced that day began with a report that said, "My uncle lives alone and I haven't been able to contact him for over two weeks." The victim was an unmarried man in his 60s who had run a motel in the past and, after its closure, had been living alone in that building. Forcibly opening the motel door revealed a strong stench. Right in front of the main entrance lay a severely decomposed body, with facial bones exposed to the extent that visual identification was difficult. Fingerprint analysis confirmed the victim was the reporter's uncle.
The left zygomatic bone of the corpse was broken, and blood spatters were found nearby, suggesting death from an attack. A fire extinguisher smeared with blood had been thrown in a cardboard box beside the body, and the knob of the back door leading to the parking lot was dented, indicating signs of forced entry. Call records estimated the time of death to be at least 18 days to at most 25 days earlier. Although the motel's CCTV had all been turned off, investigators captured footage from nearby CCTV showing a man with an umbrella leaving about 11 hours after the victim had entered the motel.
Tracing the route, the man stopped by a nearby bar before leaving. Although he folded his umbrella, he wore a hat covering his face and carried a blue plastic bag. Detective Lee Seung-nam recognized the man immediately because of his habit of wearing his baseball cap askew; he had been the subject of an investigation three weeks earlier for stealing a cellphone on a bus. The suspect was a man surnamed Choi in his 60s (alias), and the identification process revealed a past murder conviction. He had killed a neighbor with a kitchen knife after a dispute, disposed of the body, and served a 10-year sentence.
Police arrested Choi at his workplace. He confessed that he had pried open the motel's back door with a crowbar to steal items, entered, struck the victim with a fire extinguisher after hearing the doorbell, and then attacked the face with the crowbar. Choi said, while looking at the victim, "Since you saw my face you'll report it. Once you go in you can never come out, so just die," a statement that shocked investigators. After the crime, he stole decorative items and an umbrella from the motel, and said he took green onions and onions in a blue plastic bag to make soup the next day, which sparked public outrage. Choi was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The second case introduced next was one in which the perpetrator was caught in the investigative net the detectives had set despite circumstances that made proving the crime difficult, revealing the truth. The case began with a younger sister's report that said, "I haven't been able to contact my older sister for three days." The older sister was a housewife in her 40s living with her husband and an elementary school–aged child. The house, where no one seemed to be, was clean but smelled like rotten fish. It was also revealed that security company personnel had recently been dispatched. The child had been flustered because they could not open the door, and when the household head husband was contacted he said, "I'm at the office." This timing matched when contact with the older sister had been lost.
Detectives checking the apartment CCTV found suspicious circumstances. They captured the wife returning home and getting off the elevator, but footage did not show her leaving the house afterward. It also emerged that the husband had been inside the house when the security company was dispatched. Later, the husband was seen boarding the elevator with five large and small trash bags pressed close to him and then loading them into a car trunk. Before the report, the younger sister said her brother-in-law had said, "My sister ran away." The couple had a 20-year age difference, and it was revealed the husband was so obsessive that when his wife went out and returned he would strip her clothes and smell them.
The investigation team had the husband placed on a travel ban and obtained a search warrant. Luminol tests showed reactions at various spots in the entrance and bathroom, and blood was found on the sliding door between the bathroom and the toilet. Marks where the marble floor had been depressed were also confirmed, but the husband offered an implausible explanation that his wife usually cleaned fish in the bathtub. During the search, detectives also found the wife's notebook that contained records of threats and assaults she had suffered from her husband. The husband turned off his phone and attempted to leave the country to avoid the detectives' scrutiny but was apprehended at the airport.
When he denied the crime, the investigation team gathered circumstantial evidence to prove the murder. Residents testified that a fishy smell was present that day and that they heard continuous water running. It was confirmed that 5 tons of water had been used in the house that night. A second search, which involved removing the bathtub entirely, found tissue suspected to be flesh and parts of a finger bone in the plumbing. Investigators also found that the husband had purchased a butcher's bone-cleaving knife and a grinder from a tool market shortly before the incident. DNA tests detected the wife's DNA on the discovered bones. Despite this, the husband continued to deny the crime. Ahn Jung-hwan said, "How can someone do that," and Kim Sunyoung also expressed anger, saying, "He's not human." Investigation concluded that the husband committed the crime after the wife served him with divorce papers the day before. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Brave Detective 4 ends its season with this week's broadcast. After a two-week break, season 5 is scheduled to be released on March 27 at 9:50 p.m. The Brave Detective series is also available on major OTT platforms such as Netflix, TVING, and Wavve, and viewers can find program news and videos on E Channel's official YouTube and Instagram. Meanwhile, the E Channel original web entertainment series Hyungsuda, which expands the Brave Detective universe, deals with detectives' behind-the-scenes stories of investigations, violent case behind-the-scenes, and true stories of Korean death row inmates whose executions were carried out, and is released every Friday at 7 p.m. on the YouTube channel Detective Talk.
[Photo] broadcast capture
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