A 32-year-old groom-to-be and lawyer vanished without a trace just two months before his wedding. The mystery of lawyer Lee Jong-woon's disappearance, whose whereabouts have been unknown for 22 years, resurfaces once again.
In episode 49 of E Channel's original web variety show Hyungsuda season 2 (hereafter Hyungsuda2), released on the YouTube channel 'Hyungsadeul-ui Suda' on the 17th, Ahn Jung-hwan, Kim Nam-il and profiler Kwon Il-yong visit the office of former judge-turned-lawyer Jeong Jae-min to track the truth behind lawyer Lee Jong-woon's disappearance.
The broadcast begins in lawyer Jeong Jae-min's office. When profiler Kwon Il-yong takes one of Jeong's books from the shelf, Jeong introduces it, saying, "A distinguished person wrote the recommendation." Ahn Jung-hwan, who received the book, discovered Kwon Il-yong's name in the recommendation and could not hold back his laughter, reportedly causing the room to burst into laughter. Unusual stories, including letters from inmates covering the office wall, are revealed, drawing attention.
The full-scale prelude to the case opens with Jeong's weighty confession. Jeong says, "I passed the bar exam in 2000, and a senior lawyer who had passed a year earlier suddenly disappeared one day," and brings up the story of Judicial Research and Training Institute class 31 member lawyer Lee Jong-woon.
In July 2004, while working at a Seoul law firm, Lee left work as usual and disappeared with all contact cut off from the next day. At the time, he was a groom-to-be only two months from his wedding.
On the day he disappeared, law firm employees testified that Lee took someone's phone call and then left work. His family believed he had gone to meet his fiancée, but the fiancée denied meeting him that day. She said Lee had told her he would take a leave after finishing a provincial trial the next day. However, according to the employees' testimony, that trial had already been assigned to another lawyer.
As the police investigation proceeded, inconsistencies in the fiancée's actions piled up. The fiancée claimed Lee demanded a large APT., a luxury imported car and a private office as conditions for marriage, borrowed 50 million won in cash from her and then disappeared.
But those who knew Lee remember him as exceptionally frugal. When suspicious police cross-checked financial records and receipts, reversal circumstances completely different from the fiancée's claims began to emerge one after another.
Even more mysterious events occurred after the disappearance. Unknown calls to his hometown, a fax notifying a breakup, an address change and the cancellation of his resident registration — actions that require the person's own application — and even changes to the insurance beneficiary all proceeded swiftly in Lee's name.
A shocking fact added to this: the fiancée had been secretly seeing another man, and it was revealed that she had been living with that man even while preparing to marry Lee.
Although not accepted as decisive evidence at the time, road CCTV captured the fiancée in the driver's seat and an unidentified man in the passenger seat. The man in the passenger seat was wearing the same outfit as Lee had on the day he went to work, deepening suspicions about his identity.
Even after 22 years, Lee's fate remains unknown. The Hyungsuda2 production team earnestly asks anyone who saw Lee at the time or who holds key clues to the case to come forward. Ahn Jung-hwan, who could not hide his frustration throughout the recording, sighed, "I hope something comes up. It's so unfair," and Kim Nam-il also expressed sympathy, saying, "The family must be going through a lot."
The unresolved truth of the lawyer's disappearance that shook the world is being pre-released today (the 17th) at 7 p.m. on the YouTube channel 'Hyungsadeul-ui Suda,' and can be seen on Netflix this Sunday at 10:40 p.m.
[photo] Hyungsuda2
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