"Death of Song Gilyong, Heartbreaking and Devastating... Families of Missing Persons Living in Agony"

Song Gilyong, Who Searched for His Daughter for 25 Years, Dies in Accident
Missing Persons Group Leader: "Heartbreaking and Devastating"
Over 1,000 Long-Term Missing Persons for More Than 20 Years Hold Faint Hope

Song Gil-yong, who searched for his daughter for 25 years by putting up banners nationwide that read "Please find the missing Song Hye-hee," is speaking at the "Long-term Missing Children and Find Song Hye-hee Campaign" held at Cheongnyangni Station Square in June 2016. [Image source=Yonhap News]

As the father of high school student Song Hye-hee (then 17 years old), Song Gil-yong (71), who went missing 25 years ago, passed away in a traffic accident on the 26th, the entire nation mourns, and the sorrow of families of missing persons is also growing.

On the 31st, Naju-bong, chairman of the National Association of Citizens Searching for Missing Children and Families, appeared on 'YTN24' and said, "(Mr. Song) recently developed a heart condition and underwent a procedure for acute myocardial infarction before being discharged." He added, "On the 26th, he went out to run errands with his truck and tragically lost his life in a traffic accident. It is truly heartbreaking and tragic." According to Chairman Na, after Hye-hee went missing in 1999, the couple gave up their livelihoods and traveled across the country searching.

Hye-hee's mother passed away earlier, and the father, left alone, collected scrap paper and recyclables to raise funds for banners and flyers to find his missing daughter. It is said that he was making banners to find his daughter until the day before his death. At the time of her disappearance, Hye-hee was a third-year student at Songtan Girls' High School (now Raon High School). 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. It is known that the flyers with her personal information distributed by her father during his lifetime totaled 2 million copies, and the banners numbered 4,000.

Chairman Na said, "As seen in the case of Song Hye-hee's father, families of missing persons nationwide are all painfully living each day, clutching their hearts like charcoal embers burning black inside," adding, "They endure great hardship, hoping that a miracle might happen to them." According to him, most missing children reported in the past five years have been found by the police and returned to their families. However, 1,336 children have not been found for over a year, and notably, 1,044 have been missing for more than 20 years, classified as long-term missing persons.

According to Chairman Na, although the police are making multifaceted efforts to find missing persons, the cases are old, clues are insufficient, and there are no informants, making the search difficult. Families, on the other hand, hope that their children might have been adopted or raised by someone and may return someday. Chairman Na conveyed, "There is also hope that AI (artificial intelligence) or DNA analysis can be used to find them."