The worst arson murder case that took the lives of numerous people has been revealed.

On the 28th episode of E Channel‘s ‘Brave Detectives 4’, which aired on the 28th, former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency International Crime Investigation Unit Superintendent Lee In-yeol, Gangnam Police Station Samseong 2-dong Police Substation Superintendent Lee Hyeon-yong, and Korea Scientific Investigation Unit (KCSI) Superintendent Yoon Oe-chul and Superintendent Kim Jin-soo appeared and revealed the investigation logs they solved themselves.

The first case introduced that day began with a report of a large fire at a motel in an alleyway crowded with adult entertainment establishments. As a result of the accident, three people died at the scene and two were hospitalized with serious injuries. The possibility of arson was high because the fire broke out in two guest rooms on the second floor. It was difficult to find the cause of the fire because the guest rooms were completely burned down, and the one CCTV that was present was also broken. According to the motel staff, a complaint came in from the second floor room that morning. The man said he didn’t have a razor, so they gave him one, but he got angry and said someone else had given him a used razor because his face was cut. The man who came with the woman in the early morning was drunk and it was confirmed that he paid in cash.

The detectives often targeted drunk people and expanded the scope of the investigation to the entertainment establishments around the motel where the problem occurred. Since the bar would send customers and helpers to the motel to cover up any problems with the cost of alcohol, they investigated whether anyone had gone to the motel on the day of the fire. They found out that the guest who had complained, Mr. Park, had been the one who had sent him to the motel from the bar because he had caused a commotion over the cost of alcohol. The detectives went straight to Mr. Park‘s house. They asked him, who had been pretending not to know, “Have you seen the news?” and when his expression hardened, they immediately started acting. They tried to get him to confess by saying that the news was wrong and that the hospitalized person would be discharged right away, and they even cornered him with a photo of his driver’s license. At that time, Mr. Park muttered to himself, “I did that in the heat of the moment,” and the detectives, who did not miss this, made him write a statement on the spot.


In the meantime, one more person died. Mr. Park, who committed the worst arson murder, said at the police station that he committed the crime because of the razor. During the subsequent investigation, he said that the bar and motel owners seemed to have conspired to trick him, and that he was angry because he was cut by the razor, which was even more shocking. Mr. Park was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The incident that KCSI introduced next started with a report of a fire in a house on the first floor of a villa. Fire and smoke billowed out through the broken windows, and the firefighters tried to put it out, but all four family members, the mother, grandmother, and two daughters, died. Inflammable materials were confirmed at the scene. It was arson that was intentionally set by someone. It seemed that the butane gas exploded in a situation where the kitchen was used as the front door, causing a chain explosion, and the exit was blocked by the flames.

The first person to be investigated was the husband and father. The father, who lived away from his family, regretted not having come to the police station earlier. He said that his wife had been very anxious because of her youngest daughter‘s boyfriend, with whom he had broken up two months ago. They broke up because of his obsession, but he kept coming to the house to meet again. It turned out that he had also been sending threatening text messages to his youngest daughter. The results of the base station check showed that he lived only about 3 minutes away from the victim by car. He was a substitute driver who drove around for valet drivers, and he said that he had taken two valet drivers home from work early on the day of the fire.

However, when the trunk of the car he was driving was searched, an 18L can of thinner was found. The place where he dropped off the valet drivers was also near the victim’s house. When calculating the time, there was a 30-minute gap between the valet drivers getting off and the fire. Above all, according to the surrogates, he had been talking about revenge for the past two months and even talked about his plans to commit the crime. The investigation results showed that the thinner from the car was the same as the one found at the victim’s house. It was also confirmed that he had purchased the thinner at a paint store. However, when he tried to avoid the crime, the investigation team showed him a photo of his ex-girlfriend who had died with her eyes open. He stared at the photo for a while and then confessed. At trial, he claimed to have been mentally unstable, saying that he had drunk two and a half bottles of soju before the crime, but his claim was not accepted because it was confirmed that he had driven and accessed a game site after the crime, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Hong Se-young, Donga.com Reporter projecthong@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.