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A 13-month-old baby in a foster home has died.
A foster home is a place that takes care of a child until he or she is adopted.
However, after finding burns and bruises on the baby's body, the police launched an investigation.
Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon reported.
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An apartment complex in Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do.
An ambulance and a police car enter one after another.
Today (2nd) around 2 am, a report was received by 119 that a 13-month-old boy living here was not breathing.
When paramedics arrived, the baby was already in cardiac arrest and was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Paramedics and medical staff confirmed second-degree burns on the baby's face and bruises on the thigh, and reported suspected child abuse to the police.
[Namyangju Pyeongnae 119 Safety Center: When the blisters come off due to burns on the face, not anywhere else, normal parents treat them, but when I asked if they didn't go to the hospital, they said they didn't...
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This family was a place where children were taken care of by a child adoption agency and looked after until adoption.
A couple in their 40s who have been raising the baby since last November said the burns on their faces were caused by taking a hot bath the day before.
The adoption agency, the Korean Social Welfare Society, monitors the baby's condition once a month, but when the foster caretaker brought the baby in for inspection last month, there were no suspicions of abuse.
[Korea Social Welfare Association: According to the consignment (mother) statement, I slept with milk at night, but the child woke up once in the morning and vomited, then calmed down again and put her to sleep. …
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In addition, the couple temporarily took care of 6-7 children for over 5 years, and the Welfare Society explained that there were no problems.
The police plan to conduct a full-scale investigation into the couple after determining the cause of death through an autopsy scheduled for tomorrow.
(Video coverage: Hyung Yoon, Video editing: Il Nam, VJ: Junyoung Lee)