"You have to be suspicious. Your parents were healthy, but it all of a sudden happened. You need to be suspicious and re-investigate."


A restaurant in Sindang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 8th.

Restaurant owner A, who met the reporter, clicked his tongue as he said this.

Claims that a re-investigation of the older brother who was being investigated by the police for the murder of his intellectually disabled brother is necessary.

'How many times is this?'

Several voices who made similar claims ran through the head of the reporter standing in front of Mr. A, who continued to speak.



20 people.

Brother's relative, brother's acquaintance and brother's friend...

.

More than half of those who sat face to face with the reporter or talked for a long time during the 10-day coverage process surrounding a man who was caught after murdering his brother and reporting a false disappearance

expressed similar suspicions.

It was also suspicious of the sudden death of my parents, which happened every day four years ago.



Unfounded suspicions that 44-year-old Lee, who was found to have murdered his younger brother, 'what did he do to his parents for a miscarriage?'

I was contemplating whether I should just bury the inner story that was not included in the report, and I decided to leave a trace of the interview like this.















False disappearance reports and murders revealed

"My younger brother with a second degree of intellectual disability did not come into the house. He said he was watching a movie and went out around 3pm, but he hasn't answered the phone since 7pm."


At around 2:50 am on the 28th of last month, Mr. Lee reported to the police in an anxious voice. He also explained in detail his brother's style of impression and slurred speech to the police who were dispatched.



The police, who received the case as a missing person report, however, confirmed that the statements of one and two brothers were false, and the next day, on the afternoon of the 29th, urgently arrested the older brother. It was confirmed that Mr. Lee, who had his brother in the car at the time that contact was lost, moved to some place in Yongsan, Seoul, and changed cars with a rental car there. The CCTV footage also showed him driving a new car and heading to a riverside in Guri-si, Gyeonggi-do.



His brother's body was found at 2:30 pm on the 29th, an hour before the police arrested his brother, at the northern end of Gangdong Bridge in Seoul. A passerby reported, "It looks like a man is floating in the water dead." It was about 1km from the riverside where my brother's car stopped.



As a result of the autopsy, sleeping pills were found in the brother's body. As a result of digital forensics by confiscating his brother's cell phone and PC, it was also revealed that he searched for 'anesthesia' on a portal site. It was also revealed that the older brother had obtained a large amount of sleeping pills from an acquaintance a few days before the crime.



The older brother consistently denied the crime during the continuing police investigation. The police finally decided the charge as murder based on various evidence and sent him to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.



The motive for the crime that the police paid attention to was a legacy of about 4 billion won left by her parents four years ago.

In order to get rid of the younger brother who had to share the inheritance, he killed his younger brother by pretending to be missing.

This is a summary of reports that SBS has delivered one after another in <8 News>.















4 years ago, the unexpected death of a parent

"It's literally a collection of portraits because two people who were normal suddenly become like that. It's the first time I've seen a couple photographed together.


Mr. B, who is an old friend of Brother Lee's father, was in vain over the phone call.

It is said that several words were exchanged after the sudden death between acquaintances such as Mr. B and among the residents of Sindang-dong, who knew the couple who were healthy four years ago.



'Please also report on the death of your parents.'

On the 2nd of this month, after paying attention to the false disappearance report and reporting the case for the first time, several reports were received through the SBS reporting window.

Among them, there was a relative of a brother who said, 'I know very well about the death of my parents and I want to help.'

He said, "After my parents' sudden death and inheritance, there are members who raise suspicions, so the family relationship has also become estranged."



The brother's father was 69 years old at the time of his death in June 2017.

My mother was 65 years old.

Both of them said they had no other medical conditions.

Here is a summary of the circumstances surrounding the death of the couple, as remembered by multiple people, including relatives:


My brother and my parents were having dinner at home.

My father drank soju.

My father said, "The taste of alcohol is bitter today," and the younger brother who died this time told the people around him.

Also, the younger brother (to Mr. A in this article) said, "At dinner, my brother and my father quarreled over money."

Then my father fell.

He was taken to Seoul National University Hospital and moved to the intensive care unit in an unconscious state.

After performing CPR, he briefly lost consciousness, then collapsed again and was diagnosed with brain death.

A few days after hospitalization, the older brother told his relatives, "I will remove the respirator from my father."

Some objected, "Do you mean how many days instead of months?"

Then, the mother, who was guarding the hospital, went home late at night to get extra clothes and after hearing a relative's advice, "Go and close your eyes."

The next morning my brother went home and found his mother dead in the bathroom.

It is said that a suicide note written on a computer was also found at the scene.

A day later, my father also died in the hospital.

Unexplained fire...

Attempted fire power

My acquaintances said that my older brother Lee, who had already been hesitant to spend, said that he 'spent more money' after inheriting the inheritance. An acquaintance said, "After I got financial power (through inheritance), I wore expensive luxury brands from head to toe." Another friend said, "I immediately moved to an apartment of more than 50 pyeong." They also said, "When things turn out like this, it is doubtful that the restaurant caught fire and received compensation."



The older brother, Lee, who had never had a job other than working as a contract worker for several months at the Jung-gu Office in Seoul, ran a two-story restaurant near Yaksu Station on Seoul Subway Line 3 before his parents passed away. It is said that the restaurant was set up by the brother's parents in the name of Mr. Lee. The name was given to his brother, but Mr. Lee's mother took charge of the operation, such as shopping and serving dishes.

One day, there was a big fire of unknown cause

in the store

. Mr. C, an acquaintance of Mr. Lee, said, "I remember that he said that he received 60 million won as compensation for the fire."

Another acquaintance, D, said, "I know it's not the first time I've been on fire at the restaurant I was running, and I got insurance money."



In this investigation, the police said that they paid attention to the fact that Lee, his older brother, was sentenced to prison for arson attempts in the past.

In 1995, when Lee was 18, he tried to set a house on fire, but was arrested by the police on charges of attempting to set fire to a building in Hyeonju.

The older brother of Lee's friend, who was dating the woman Lee liked, lived in the house that was going to be set on fire.

In a phone call with a reporter, this friend said, "The fire almost broke out, but it was caught quickly, so the actual damage was not great."

In this case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee, who was a juvenile offender, to a long three-year prison sentence and a short two years and six months.

Lee appealed, and at the second trial in January of the following year, the sentence was commuted to a long term of 2 years and a short term of 1 year and 6 months for committing the crime while drinking alcohol.

What did the police pay attention to,

wasn't it

that he

didn't

choose any means and methods to achieve his

older brother Lee's

purpose

, which has been revealed in his history since he was a teenager

?















Re-investigation will not be easy...

"nevertheless"

SBS informed the Central Police Station in Seoul, which investigated this case, of a point that it found out during the coverage process that seemed to need several confirmations. Most of the things the police also recognized during the investigation process. A person in charge of the police station replied, "It is difficult to prove (even if there was something) in a situation where there is no evidence after many years."

Before being sent to the prosecution, the investigation asked about the death of his parents, but Mr. Lee said he denied the possibility of committing the crime.



It seems that re-investigation is not easy. An autopsy was not performed on the father, who died at the hospital four years ago, and the mother, who would have ended by suicide. The only way to look back at the situation at that time is the testimony of those around you. Like Lee Chun-jae in 'The Lee Chun-jae Murder Case', if you do not confess with your own mouth, it is difficult to prove.



However, if

the

remaining suspicions have to be revealed,

only the investigation agency can play that role.

It is the exclusive authority of the investigative agency to visit and meet Mr. Lee, who is imprisoned in the detention center, and to gather evidence by mobilizing a forced investigation.



The Central Police Station in Seoul sent Mr. Lee to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's unsolved case investigation team without questioning the remaining suspicions after handed over to the prosecution. An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said, "We have not yet started an official investigation or internal investigation." The idea is that we are in the stage of reviewing the documents to see if there are any suspicious parts.



So, it can be said that this case is not over yet. It is possible to find answers to questions raised by people who do not know each other with one voice. It may turn out not to be a sin, or vice versa. I hope the doubt will be cleared up.