Uncovering the Story Behind a Death Without a Corpse [Yuseongho's Wise Forensic Life]

The primary duty of a forensic pathologist is usually to perform autopsies on actual corpses to determine the cause and manner of death. However, even when it is clear that a crime has occurred but no body is present, forensic pathologists may need to estimate the likely cause of death. This is important because the prosecution’s charges?whether murder or injury resulting in death?are crucial for sentencing.

Although there are no published statistics from Korea, according to U.S. crime data (Vanezis P. Suspicious Death Scene Investigation), in 74% of cases, the body of the deceased is found at the scene of the incident. In 20% of cases, the body is found elsewhere, meaning the corpse was abandoned. In the remaining 6%, bloodstains or other evidence at the crime scene indicate a death must have occurred, but no body is found. In such cases, it is not uncommon to estimate the cause of death based on limited evidence or testimony.

She was deeply involved in a cult and had severe conflicts with her husband. One cold winter, she ran away with her three-year-old son and ten-year-old daughter to divorce her husband. The place they went to was a cult facility. Five months after leaving home, on a summer day, her three-year-old son, who was less than one meter tall, was struck all over his body with a wooden spatula by another male cult member in front of her. The absurd reason was that her son usually could not control his urination properly and whined daily, which they believed was caused by an evil spirit, and to expel it, he had to be beaten.

While the three-year-old’s head and entire body were hit dozens of times, the biological mother did not stop the man wielding the wooden spatula but just watched. The child was trembling all over and collapsed in a helpless state, but the beating continued. After about two hours of being hit, the child suddenly went limp and collapsed. He was bleeding from his lips and had bruises on his face, neck, and thighs. Any ordinary mother would have taken the child to a hospital, but she only gave him water and massaged his body. When the child called for his mother and spoke a few words, she tried to feed him rice gruel. However, when the child, who said “Mom, it hurts,” was given the gruel, he vomited, went limp, and his lips turned blue.

She should have called 119 (emergency services), but she did not, and the child died as a result. The male cult member who directly assaulted the child said they could not take the bruised child to a hospital and suggested burying him in a mountain to send him to heaven. She drove with the man for three hours to a rural mountain, carrying the child’s body in the trunk. They buried the child’s body in a corner of the mountain where livestock were buried and leveled the ground. Three days later, when wild boars appeared in the mountain and local residents reported it to the police, the male cult member told her to cremate the child. They bought kerosene at a highway gas station on the way to the mountain, dug up the body, and burned it on the spot. The child’s small body quickly turned to ashes, and the collected remains were scattered in a nearby river.

One month after the brutal crime, she reported to the police that her son was missing. The police conducted only a brief investigation asking where he was lost and left, expressing sympathy. Their crime was almost a perfect crime. However, in early 2015, child abuse and disappearance of preschool children became a social issue, and in 2016, the police conducted a full survey of preschool children. The prosecution showed special interest in her, who lived in the cult facility. Using integrated psychological analysis and forensic science techniques from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, they investigated her and cult members and obtained full confessions. However, since the body was not found, to prosecute the death case, they requested the Department of Forensic Medicine at Seoul National University to determine the actual cause of death. They reviewed all confessions confirmed through investigation without a body. The child’s condition was described as having bruises all over the body, vomiting, and then going limp. Two possible causes of death could be estimated in this case.

First, traumatic shock. If there were bruises all over the body from beating, it means blood vessels and tissues were ruptured by the blows to the extent visible on the skin. The death from beating in the well-known Private Yoon case was caused by traumatic shock. For a three-year-old child, the bruises all over the body would reduce blood volume, making traumatic shock a highly likely cause of death. The tragedy of a child being beaten to death with a wooden spatula in front of the biological mother, who should have protected and loved him, is heartbreaking. Such merciless blows to a young child cause not only blood vessel rupture but also tissue damage, so even if only bruises are visible externally, a significant amount of blood may have leaked internally, leading to death.

Second, traumatic brain injury can be estimated. The investigation record that the child vomited after being beaten all over suggests possible head injury. A child’s skull differs from an adult’s and is more susceptible to fractures or brain hemorrhage from blows. Such brain injury can cause brain swelling, increasing intracranial pressure, which commonly results in symptoms like vomiting. Considering the record that the child vomited after being hit and died about two hours later, traumatic brain injury is also a strong possibility. The child may have suffered both traumatic shock and traumatic brain injury.

In the trial, the man who beat the child to death was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the first trial, and she, who watched the child being beaten without intervening and helped bury the body in the mountain after death, was sentenced to 10 years. Another cult member involved in disposing of the body also received a prison sentence. The same sentences were upheld in the second trial. The court likely felt the need to realize justice for the suffering and cruel abuse of the vulnerable young child. The ultimate goal forensic medicine can present to investigative agencies is the reconstruction of the incident.

Such inferences can be reached based on scientific evidence left on the corpse, but in the two cases mentioned above, no body was present, so only estimation was possible. However, to realize justice in criminal acts, forensic pathologists are sometimes required to infer the cause of death based on confessions or indirect evidence alone. Although this is burdensome and requires imagination to infer from small remaining fragments, imagination alone cannot be reliable; scientific evidence must be presented. It is certainly a demanding profession in many ways.