Final Supreme Court Verdict Expected Today in 'Gumi 3-Year-Old Girl Death' Case

The biological mother, Ms. Seok (49), of the 3-year-old girl who died in Gumi, Gyeongbuk, leaving the Daegu District Court Gimcheon Branch after being sentenced to 8 years in prison on August 17 last year in the first trial.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The Supreme Court's final verdict on the '3-year-old girl death' case that occurred in a villa in Gumi, Gyeongbuk Province, will be announced on the 16th.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) will hold the appellate trial sentencing hearing at 10:15 a.m. on the same day for Seok (49), who was arrested and indicted on charges of abducting a minor and attempted concealment of a corpse, and was sentenced to eight years in prison in both the first and second trials.

Seok had pretended to be the deceased child's maternal grandmother until the time of the incident but was revealed to be the biological mother during the investigation, causing shock.

Seok is accused of swapping the baby born to her biological daughter Kim (23, currently serving a sentence) at a maternity clinic in Gumi between the afternoon of March 31, 2018, and the next morning, and secretly taking her daughter's baby somewhere, while the baby she gave birth to was the deceased 3-year-old girl.

Additionally, Seok is suspected of attempting to move the corpse in a box to bury it in the villa where her daughter lived on February 9 of last year, one day before reporting the death of the 3-year-old girl to the police, but stopped midway.

Seok consistently denied giving birth throughout the investigation and trial.

However, after her daughter Kim was arrested, the Gumi Police Station requested the National Forensic Service to conduct a genetic test using saliva last February, which confirmed that "there is no parent-child relationship between Kim and the deceased girl, but they share the same maternal lineage."

Following this, the Gumi Police requested the Busan Forensic Science Institute to conduct another test including Seok's saliva, and the 'STR genotype analysis' showed a 99.9999% probability of a parent-child relationship between Seok and the deceased girl.

Despite these results, Seok continued to deny giving birth, so in March last year, the police requested the Daegu Forensic Science Institute to conduct another test using Seok's fingernails, hair, and oral epithelial cells, which yielded the same result.

Another test was conducted during the trial. The Daegu District Court Gimcheon Branch requested the Supreme Prosecutors' Office DNA and Chemical Analysis Division to conduct a test, which showed a 99.9999998% probability that Seok was the biological mother of the deceased girl, while confirming no parent-child relationship between Kim and the girl.

Based on these four rounds of test results, the first trial court concluded that Seok must be the biological mother of the deceased girl. The court recognized indirect facts such as Seok's consistent purchase of sanitary pads through an e-commerce site until July 1, 2017, but no purchases until July 2018; her purchase of breast reduction bras or shaping underwear in July 2017; and her discontinuation of visits to public baths after August 6, 2017, as evidence suggesting she was pregnant between July 2017 and March 2018.

Seok's defense argued that even if Seok had given birth, the prosecution failed to prove the motive and method of abducting the girl.

However, the court pointed out, "In a case where the defendant completely denies the charges, the whereabouts of the missing victim are unknown, and there is no objective or direct evidence such as witness testimony or CCTV footage of the crime, demanding proof of every link before and after the crime known only to the defendant or concealed by the defendant would result in an unjust outcome that disregards the legitimate exercise of criminal punishment through discovery of substantive truth. Therefore, it is difficult to require proof of every detail of the crime's circumstances or methods."

It further stated, "As long as the baby swap is recognized to have occurred, it can be sufficiently acknowledged that it was carried out by the defendant."

Regarding the motive, the court said, "It is difficult to believe the defendant had no motive for this crime," judging that she committed the crime to keep the baby she gave birth to close and to hide her affair from her husband.

The court explained, "The defendant wanted to have the baby she gave birth to raised by her daughter, keeping the baby closer than her daughter's own child, and thus swapped the babies. In fact, after discharge, Kim stayed at the defendant's house with the deceased girl at the defendant's suggestion, and later moved upstairs in the same house."

It added, "The defendant had not had sexual relations with her husband for over ten years until late January 2019, and fearing that a sudden pregnancy would reveal her affair to her husband and worrying she could not properly raise the baby, she swapped the babies so that her daughter would raise the baby she gave birth to."

Ultimately, the first trial court sentenced Seok to eight years in prison.

Regarding sentencing, the court took into account favorable factors such as Seok's admission of guilt regarding the attempted concealment of the corpse, her concern that if the girl's death became known, her daughter Kim would be punished and her eldest daughter, who was about to get married, would be affected, and the fact that she was a first-time offender with no prior criminal record.

On the other hand, the court mentioned aggravating factors including that the baby was only one day old and needed maternal care, yet Seok broke into the maternity clinic and secretly swapped the babies despite the baby being her biological daughter's; that after the baby was found dead, Seok actively tried to bury the corpse to cover up the swap; that the caregivers who raised the deceased girl as Kim's child likely felt great disappointment and betrayal; and that the victim's whereabouts remain unknown. The court stated, "The nature of the crime is extremely serious and the blameworthiness is very high."

The court also noted, "Nevertheless, the defendant, fearing harsher punishment depending on the victim's whereabouts if she confessed, has persistently denied all charges including giving birth despite irrefutable scientific evidence. This irresponsible attitude without remorse raises doubts about whether the missing victim's whereabouts can ever be found, and has caused unnecessary social confusion due to rampant suspicions surrounding the victim."

It continued, "Moreover, the fact that the defendant is the biological mother of the deceased girl would never have been accepted as truth without scientific evidence such as genetic testing. The public revelation of this crime shocked and angered many citizens, and the extensive investigation to find the missing girl incurred significant social costs."

Finally, the court stated, "The defendant committed an unprecedented and irrational act of swapping her biological daughter and granddaughter and impersonating the maternal grandmother, driven by motives incomprehensible to ordinary people with sound common sense and values. Such a crime warrants a stern and resolute judgment by the law."

The second trial court also found no issues with the first trial's ruling and dismissed Seok's appeal.

Meanwhile, Kim, Seok's daughter who raised the baby?actually her younger sibling?as her own and neglected her leading to death, was sentenced to 20 years in prison up to the second trial and gave up her appeal, finalizing the sentence.