Why did Mr. Cho not rescue Mr. Seo?
The SBS 'I want to know' broadcast on the 14th shed light on the case of Seo Jeong-yoon, who died in 2019 with the subtitle 'The truth of a four-hour night alone - couldn't you have saved her'.
In August 2019, Seo Jeong-yoon did not return home from work and lost contact with her family. And the next morning, my husband managed to connect with Seo Jeong-yoon on the phone. However, it was not his wife who answered the phone, but an emergency room doctor, and he reported the death of Seo Jeong-yoon.
Seo Jeong-yoon, who was brought to the hospital by a co-worker, had already died when she arrived at the hospital. But there was something odd. Strangely, he came to the hospital with no underwear and only a coat on, and a nurse who thought this was strange reported it to the police.
An autopsy began, and the National Forensic Service thoroughly analyzed the underwear and clothes found in Seo's handbag, but could not find any traces of the crime. There were many wounds throughout the body, but it was not related to the cause of death, and experts said the cause of his death was a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a sudden increase in blood pressure.
However, her husband, Kim, was a wife who was healthy enough to run a marathon, so she could not hide her shock at his death. In particular, he became suspicious of the fact that he died alone in the back seat, not in the driver's seat of his own vehicle.
His boss, Jo, was the first to find Seo, who had collapsed, and take him to the hospital. He said he found Mr. Seo early on Saturday morning and seemed to have been shocked by his death. However, while the police were investigating the case, they were puzzled by Mr. Cho's statement. And as a result of the investigation, it was revealed that Cho did not find Seo by chance, but that he had been with him for 11 hours from the day before the discovery. In addition, the suspicion deepened when it was revealed that Cho attempted suicide by jumping in a motel in the province the day after Seo's death was confirmed. In response, Cho felt moral responsibility for Seo's death and tried to take his own life.
And Jo told Seo's husband to eat together the day before the discovery, and then came home with something to bring to his house. Seo went to the bathroom and vomited. Go made a noise and explained that he thought he was just sleeping.
However, in December of last year, the police, who investigated Seo's death for a year, indicted Cho for "murder by negligence." This can be evaluated as a murder-like act by failing to rescue and failing to rescue him, knowing that he could die in danger, and the police judged that Mr. .
And this judgment was the CCTV footage of Mr. Cho's apartment. On August 16, 19, at 10:02 p.m., Seo got into the elevator in the basement of Cho's apartment and was caught being dragged away by Mr. .
Jo took Seo, who was unconscious, barefoot, into the elevator, and after a while he got into Seo's car parked in an underground parking lot, put it close to the doorway, grabbed Seo's arms and headed for the car. Then he moves Seo to the legroom, a space where the legs of the rear seat of the vehicle are placed, and sets off somewhere. The place he headed for was the parking lot of the company's vacant lot where he said he had found Mr.
However, after six months of hearing, the first trial judge found that Cho's failure to take Seo to the hospital was not the cause of Seo's death, and acquitted him.
In the course of the investigation, it was confirmed that Cho placed only Seo's upper body on the car, then adjusted the position of the car and pushed her in as if tossing her. Prosecutors demanded 20 years in prison, saying that Cho did not rescue Seo even though he knew that Seo's condition was serious, and that his actions aggravated Seo's cerebral hemorrhage and led to his death.
The court also concluded that Mr. Cho must have already known that Mr. Seo was in serious condition. However, based on various medical findings, it was judged that the possibility of resuscitation was low even if he took him to the hospital right away because Seo was already dead at the time he took Seo out of the house, or it appears to be in the near-death stage.
The reconstruction of that night, which had to be dealt with in the trial, had to be conjectured based solely on Mr. Cho's statement, and Seo's cell phone was the only basis for guessing what had happened between the two. It was because Mr. Cho lost his cell phone right after the incident. And Seo's cell phone was partially restored due to technical limitations, so it was difficult to guess everything between the two.
Accordingly, the production team once again forensiced Seo's mobile phone with new technology. And through this, it was confirmed that the cell phone log records were stored at the time of Seo's cerebral hemorrhage, according to Cho's claim. In addition, experts analyzed that the estimated time of occurrence of brain hemorrhage is highly likely after 11:28 pm, not 11 pm, through the analysis of mobile phone use patterns. Then, around midnight, Mr. Cho called his wife and told him that he would not be able to come home. The expert said, "There is a possibility that something has happened and he was aware that it may be difficult to fix it right away."
And the movement of the cell phone was recorded from 12:33 to 1:48 a.m. on the 17th. Who had Seo's cell phone during this time? It was highly likely that Mr. Cho had it. However, at this time, Mr. Cho ignored the dozens of calls from Seo's family. What was the reason? The production team wanted to meet and talk with Mr. Cho in person, but he could not hear Mr. Cho's story.
And the production team analyzed Jo's behavior with profiling experts. Professor Lee Su-jeong said that based on Cho's behavior of adjusting the position of the vehicle with only the upper body resting on the vehicle, it contradicted the statement that he moved Seo to make it easier to breathe.
In addition, Professor Kwon Il-yong, as to the reason for not stopping suspicious behavior even though it could be captured on CCTV, said, "It is highly likely that he did not judge it as important. If it is confirmed that he died of a chronic disease, he thinks there is no reason for his behavior to be traced, so it is a clear goal. It seems that he acted with a purpose.” And I paid attention to the bag that Mr. Cho was carrying.
He explained, "It is interpreted as an act that came out to move the victim by carrying out a lot of planning and preparation inside and putting the things that follow the goal in a bag," he explained. In fact, it turned out that Cho went back and forth between the parking lot and the building on the other side 10 times and took his bag each time. Professor Kwon Il-yong analyzed, "When you return home, your bag is partially empty, so it is imperative that you investigate what evidence and how it was damaged." He also raised the possibility that important evidence related to the incident was thrown away in the bathroom.
Prosecutors identified the relationship between Mr. Cho and Mr. Seo as an internal relationship. Usually, when Seo went to Jo's apartment, he deliberately went down to another floor and was conscious of the surroundings going to his house.Accordingly, the prosecution judged that Mr. Cho, who was worried that such a relationship would be revealed and lost his social status, had deliberately neglected Mr. Seo's life, knowing that it was in danger.
Before taking Seo to the hospital, Cho returned to his apartment and changed clothes at home.
And it turned out that the Republic of Korea does not have any crimes of non-compliance with the rescue, so it cannot be punished simply because the rescue was not carried out. In response, the production team asked several lawyers whether Korea should also regulate it by law. Then, most of the lawyers opposed the crime of non-compliance because there are restrictions on individual actions when forcing people to help those in danger, and the scope of punishment is wide, so there can be unfair victims. And, although a small minority of those who supported the crime of default, supported the introduction of a related law to more effectively protect life and physical stability.
Lastly, the broadcaster raised his voice that it was time to think deeply about how to fill in the gaps if there were lives that could not be saved, which could be saved because the most basic thing the law has to protect is life.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)