Seongbuk-gu Hillside 'Abandoned Infant Case' Stagnates for Over 7 Months

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The case of an infant's body found on a mountain in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul has been at a standstill for over seven months.

According to the police on the 21st, the Seongbuk Police Station in Seoul began investigating the case in June of last year, analyzing CCTV footage near the abandonment site and completing an autopsy of the infant's body, but have yet to find any leads. The infant, a boy, was found dead on June 4 of last year at the entrance of a hiking trail on a mountain near Kookmin University in Jeongneung-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. A hiker passing by discovered the body and reported it to the police. At the time, the infant was found buried underground wrapped in plastic, with wounds on his head.

The police collected and analyzed CCTV footage near the hiking trail but were unable to identify the suspect. There are multiple paths leading to the location, and there is no CCTV directly covering the crime scene. The police also investigated local and neighboring areas' obstetrics and gynecology clinics and facilities for unmarried mothers but found no clear clues.

A police official stated, "It is still impossible to determine the exact age or cause of death of the infant," adding, "We plan to use all possible methods to do our best to apprehend the suspect."

Infant abandonment cases are considered among the most difficult crimes to investigate. If the child is too young to have fingerprints registered, identifying them is challenging, and depending on the degree of decomposition at the time of discovery, the cause of death may not be clear. In October of last year, a biological mother who abandoned an infant's body at Jamsil Hangang Park was arrested after eight months of identification and capture efforts.

Infant murder and abandonment cases continue to persist. On the 16th, a woman in her 20s was arrested in Ilsan Seo-gu, Gyeonggi Province, for throwing her newborn child out of a fourth-floor window immediately after birth, resulting in the child's death. In August of last year, a biological mother in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, was caught after killing her one-month-old daughter and leaving the body in a boiler room for over three years.

According to police statistics, infant abandonment crimes have steadily increased from 41 cases in 2015 to 109 in 2016, 168 in 2017, and 183 in 2018. The number slightly decreased to 135 cases in 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.