A man in his 30s and his four children were found dead in a low-rise apartment in Ulju County, Ulsan, and it was found that they had been suffering severe financial hardship.
According to Ulju County in Ulsan and the Ulju Police Station on the 19th, at around 4:48 p.m. on the 18th, a father, A, 34, and his four minor children were found dead in a room of a low-rise apartment in Onsan-eup, Ulju County.
Among the deceased children, the eldest daughter, B, entered elementary school this year. The first person to find them was B's homeroom teacher. Police said they received a report from the homeroom teacher at around 2:20 p.m. that day that "B has not come to school for three days," and discovered the deceased family in the master bedroom while checking the home. They are presumed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
At the scene, a note was found in which A lamented financial hardship and the difficulties of raising four children. The note also included the phrases "I'm sorry to my wife, I love you."
A was said to have had no particular job recently. The wife, who had worked at an insurance company until last year, was imprisoned in a correctional facility at the end of last year for involvement in a crime, and since then A was said to have raised the four children alone without any significant source of income, facing financial difficulties.
A, who had been suffering from financial hardship, was found to have received welfare support from Ulju County since last year. The Onsan-eup Community Service Center in Ulju County said it provided a total of 8.05 million won to the family for three months from February last year as emergency livelihood support and housing costs. Various daily necessities such as rice, toilet paper and instant noodles were also delivered eight times through the 26th of last month. Home appliances, including a rice cooker, were also on the support list. Parenting-related benefits of about 1.4 million won per month, such as parental pay and child allowance, were also paid.
An Ulju County official said, "We informed A that additional welfare support was available, such as basic livelihood benefits or single-parent household assistance, which provide cash support, but an application was not filed."
It was found that the children had also not been attending school and daycare normally since this month.
B was absent from school from the first day of the new term on the 3rd through the 6th. At that time, after the homeroom teacher reported that "child neglect is suspected," police and Ulju County's dedicated abuse-response team visited A's home.
No signs of child abuse were found at the scene when police responded. The overall caregiving environment, including the facial expressions and clothing condition of the children, including B, was assessed as adequate. B then attended school normally from the 9th to the 13th, but was said to have been unable to go to school again starting on the 16th.
The second child, 4, and the third, 2, also withdrew from the daycare they had been attending early this month. It was determined that since then A had been caring at home for all three children, including the youngest, who is 5 months old.
A police official explained, "Given the lack of signs of forced entry and the discovery of a note, we believe A made an extreme choice out of despair," adding, "We will conduct an autopsy and continue questioning people around them to determine the exact cause of death."
If you have depression or concerns that are hard to talk about, or if a family member or acquaintance around you is experiencing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour counseling from professionals through the suicide prevention hotline at ☎109 or via the SNS counseling service Madlan (www.129.go.kr/etc/madlan).