"Please Find Song Hyehee" Father Searching for Missing Daughter Seen by the Nation Dies in Traffic Accident

Song Hye-hee's Father Song Gil-yong Passes Away on 26th
Spent 25 Years Searching for Missing Daughter
Traveled Nationwide Selling Hotteok

Father of missing Song Hyehee, Song Gilyong. Photo by Yonhap News

A father who had been searching for his missing daughter for 25 years passed away without ever reuniting with her.

According to Yonhap News on the 28th, Song Gil-yong (71), the father of high school student Song Hye-hee (then 17 years old) who went missing 25 years ago, died in a traffic accident on the 26th. The funeral was reportedly held at Pyeongtaek Songtan Jeil Funeral Hall.

Song’s daughter Hye-hee, whom he desperately searched for during his lifetime, was a third-year student at Songtan Girls' High School (now Raon High School) when she disappeared. She went missing after getting off at a bus stop located in Doil-dong, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi Province, around 10 p.m. on February 13, 1999, and has not been heard from since. The last memory Song has of his daughter is her back as she left home that morning to go to school. From immediately after her disappearance, he put up banners nationwide that read "Please find the missing Song Hye-hee" and visited various child protection facilities in an effort to find his daughter.

The flyers containing his daughter’s personal information that Song distributed during his lifetime are said to number 2 million, and the banners reached 4,000 in quantity. It can be said that practically most of the nation knew her face. He hung banners in various places such as near highway interchanges and major roads to ensure more people could see them. One day, while replacing a banner with a new one, he fell from a ladder and seriously injured his back, but he never gave up, spending 400,000 won out of the 600,000 won basic living subsidy on making banners and flyers.

He used a phone number starting with 016 for a long time, fearing that his daughter might call but he would miss the call. He poured all the money he earned selling hotteok into searching for his daughter, and traveled around the country with a truck plastered with his daughter’s photo. Song’s desperate search for his daughter was featured on broadcasts multiple times. His wife reportedly suffered from depression and alcohol dependence after their daughter’s disappearance and passed away before him.

Meanwhile, in response to the increase in missing children, the police introduced the "Pre-registration System for Fingerprints, etc." in 2012, targeting children, disabled persons, and elderly people with dementia. The "Pre-registration System for Fingerprints, etc." is a system where fingerprints, photos, and guardian contact information are pre-registered in the police system in case a missing child gets lost. If registered in advance, this information can be used as reference material when a missing person report is filed, enabling a quicker search for the missing individual.