Despite Witness Waking Son Jeongmin's Friend Appearing... Whereabouts Still Remain a Mystery

On the 11th, police forces were conducting a search of the late Son Jung-min's friend's mobile phone near the water taxi dock at Banpo Hangang Park, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A witness has come forward claiming to have woken up friend A, who was last with university student Son Jeong-min (22), found dead after going missing at Seoul’s Hangang Park, but the whereabouts of the two remain unclear. The police are making every effort to trace their movements.

On the 13th, a Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency official stated, "Around 4:20 a.m. on the day of the disappearance, a witness saw A carrying a bag and lying down on the grassy slope at the edge and woke him up." This confirms part of A’s whereabouts. The official added, "There were consistent testimonies that Jeong-min and A were lying down or sitting near a mat from 2:00 a.m. to 3:38 a.m." However, the witness who woke A at around 4:20 a.m. could not confirm where Jeong-min was at that time.

Until now, the whereabouts of Jeong-min and A between 3:40 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. on the day of the disappearance, April 25, have been unknown. Jeong-min and A had been drinking at Hangang Park since around 11:00 p.m. on April 24, during which Jeong-min intermittently messaged his mother via KakaoTalk and posted videos on social media (SNS).

Later, at around 3:37 a.m., A reportedly called his parents on his phone and said, "Jeong-min has fallen asleep, but he is too drunk to wake up." Some witnesses also commonly testified that around 3:40 a.m., "A was trying to wake Son." About 50 minutes later, at 4:30 a.m., A went home and arrived about 20 minutes after that.

This announcement confirmed part of A’s whereabouts, but Jeong-min’s location after 3:38 a.m. remains unknown. Apart from the witness testimony at 4:20 a.m. about A, no additional information on A’s movements has emerged.

A police official said, "After 3:38 a.m., the whereabouts of both individuals have not been commonly confirmed, and at 4:20 a.m., only A was found sleeping." He added, "We will keep all possibilities open and do our best to reconstruct the scene through investigations of additional witnesses and analysis of secured closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage."