"Unsolved Cases, Will Be Resolved"…National Investigation Headquarters Builds 'Investigation Records Database'

1.48 Million Pages of Unsolved Murder Case Records
58 Cold Cases Solved Over 10 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The police have completed the construction of a database (DB) organizing investigation records of unsolved murder cases. The vast amount of data, totaling 1.48 million pages, will be utilized to solve cold cases going forward.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency announced on the 5th that it plans to use the 'Unsolved Murder Case Investigation Records Database System,' which was established last month, for investigations.

Following the abolition of the statute of limitations for murder and rape-murder cases due to the 2012 Sexual Violence Punishment Act and the 2015 Criminal Procedure Act amendments, the police have been promoting digitization to prevent damage to investigation records of unsolved murder cases and to improve investigative efficiency.

This system contains extensive data, including 1.48 million pages of investigation records from 267 unsolved murder cases currently under investigation by the 'Special Investigation Teams for Important Unsolved Cases' at police agencies nationwide, 17,000 images, 700GB of video, and 7GB of audio. Additionally, it includes a 'text extraction program (OCR)' that extracts text from scanned images for easier case searches, as well as features for sharing case information necessary for investigations among provincial police agencies.

Since the establishment of the Special Investigation Teams for Important Unsolved Cases in each provincial police agency in December 2011, they have solved 58 violent cases, including 29 murders and robbery-murders, and apprehended 85 suspects over the past 10 years. Notably, the serial murders by Lee Chun-jae, one of the worst unsolved murder cases in Korea, were confirmed in 2019. Furthermore, in August this year, a suspect was apprehended in the so-called 'Jeju Lawyer Murder Case' that occurred on the streets of Jeju in 1999, 22 years ago, and it was confirmed that the statute of limitations remained, leading to the suspect's detention.

A representative from the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency stated, "We expect investigative capabilities for unsolved cases to improve further with the establishment of this system," and emphasized, "Centered on the Special Investigation Teams for Important Unsolved Cases at provincial police agencies, we are determined to solve cold cases with the resolve that 'there is no perfect crime and the perpetrator will definitely be caught.'"

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