A firefighter who responded to the Itaewon disaster was found dead 10 days after going missing.
According to police on August 20, at around 12:30 p.m. that day, Officer A (30), affiliated with a local fire station, was found dead by a police officer under a bridge near the Geumi-dong area of Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, close to the Seoul Metropolitan Area First Ring Expressway. It was reported that A's body was in a state of decomposition. It is not yet known whether there are any signs of foul play. The police plan to recover A's body and investigate the exact circumstances of the death.
On August 10, A left a note expressing apologies to family and friends before going out of contact. At around 2:30 a.m. on August 10, A exited the Nam Incheon Tollgate, parked the car on the right shoulder, and then disappeared. The last signal from A's mobile phone was detected near an apartment complex in Seochang-dong, Namdong-gu. Since then, the fire authorities and police checked nearby closed-circuit (CC) TV footage and searched surrounding streams and mountains, but were unable to find A's whereabouts until the body was discovered 10 days after the disappearance.
It is known that A had been diagnosed with depression and was receiving treatment after being dispatched to the scene of the 2022 Itaewon disaster. In a media interview at the time, A said, "It was overwhelming to place the deceased in the black zone," and added, "My parents struggled just knowing I was at the scene, so I can only imagine how the victims' parents must have felt. I kept wishing, 'If only this wasn't real.'"
If you are struggling with depression or have concerns that are difficult to talk about, or if you have family or friends facing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling through the suicide prevention hotline at ☎109 or the suicide prevention SNS counseling service 'Madeleine.'
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