Father of University Student Who Died in Hangang River "When I Asked to See the Shoes of the Friend Who Was With Him, It Took Only 0.5 Seconds..." Laments

On the afternoon of the 30th last month, rescue workers recovered the body of university student Son Jeong-min, who was found dead six days after going missing, in the Han River near Banpo Hangang Park in Seoul. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Joo-hee] Son Hyun, the father of university student Son Jeong-min (22), who went missing after drinking at Seoul Hangang Park and was found dead six days later, expressed doubts regarding the case.

Previously, Jeong-min went missing after drinking with his friend A at Hangang Park from around 10:30 PM on the 24th of last month until early the next morning. A woke up alone at 4:30 AM on the 25th and returned home, but it is reported that he did not confirm whether Jeong-min was nearby. Jeong-min was later found near the place he went missing by private rescuer Cha Jong-wook on the 30th of last month.

Son, Jeong-min’s father, raised questions about A’s statement that he "threw away" the shoes he was wearing at the time of the incident. After the accident, A told Son that "there was a lot of dirt on his pants and clothes," and Son asked A’s father to show the shoes to understand the situation, but was told they had been "thrown away."

On the 3rd, Son said on CBS Radio’s 'Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show,' "(A) said that after filming a video at 2 AM, he heard our son get up, run around, and then groan as he fell. At that time, he (A) helped him up and said that his pants and clothes got very dirty. Our son would have been even dirtier, so shouldn’t that be taken into account when searching? But there is nowhere around there that would get that dirty. There’s no mud. It’s grass, sand, plants, and water, so what would get dirty? I need to see. The pants would have been washed, and when I asked A’s father to show the shoes, the answer came in half a second: 'thrown away,'" he said.

Son continued, "From that, two doubts arise. It’s strange that a normal father would know that his child’s shoes were thrown away and answer immediately when asked. Common sense would say 'I don’t know,' 'I’ll ask,' or 'They should be somewhere.' It’s strange that the father knows the shoes were thrown away and gives an immediate answer," he said.

He added, "Those shoes appear on closed-circuit television (CCTV). They should appear on the 4:30 AM CCTV. I haven’t seen it, but how dirty could they have been to be thrown away? Was it urgent? I can’t interrogate like a detective. It’s just frustrating," he said.

Meanwhile, the National Forensic Service (NFS) reportedly gave a preliminary oral opinion on the 1st after performing an autopsy on Jeong-min’s body, stating that "due to decomposition, the exact cause of death cannot be determined visually."

Son said in a phone interview with a media outlet, "According to the NFS visual examination, there are two finger-sized wounds behind the left ear, but they did not penetrate the skull," and added, "They don’t know what caused the wounds, but they say it’s not the direct cause of death."

The NFS plans to conduct a detailed examination of samples collected to determine the exact cause of death, with results expected after the 15th.

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