Jeonnam Police Launch Reinvesigation of Unresolved Case
Begin Reviewing Records in Cyanide Makgeolli Incident
After the conviction in the cyanide Makgeolli case from 16 years ago was overturned in a retrial, the police have begun to re-examine the case. They have launched a reinvestigation to find the real perpetrator on behalf of the mother and daughter who were acquitted.
On the afternoon of the 28th of last month, in front of the Gwangju High Court in Dong-gu, Gwangju, the defendant mother and daughter in the cyanide Makgeolli case held a press conference after being acquitted in a retrial 16 years after the incident occurred. Photo by Yonhap News
The Criminal Investigation Unit of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 27th that it has reclassified the "cyanide Makgeolli murder" case as an unresolved case and assigned it to a dedicated investigation team to begin a reinvestigation. The police have started by thoroughly reviewing the extensive records left by the police and prosecution at the time.
The police have secured not only the initial investigation records but also all materials that the prosecution used as grounds to identify the victim's husband and daughter as the perpetrators. There are as many as 19 volumes of documents prepared and submitted by the police alone, so it is expected to take considerable time to review all the records. Through this re-examination, the police plan to check for any omissions or distortions in the initial investigation and to look for new clues.
The "cyanide Makgeolli murder" case occurred on July 6, 2009, in Hwangjeon-myeon, Suncheon, Jeonnam Province. At that time, village residents shared Makgeolli mixed with cyanide, resulting in two deaths and two serious injuries. The police initially focused their investigation on people within the village and conducted inquiries for about seven weeks, but the case was handed over to the prosecution after the prosecutors identified and arrested suspects midway through the investigation.
The prosecution believed that the mother and daughter, who had maintained an inappropriate relationship, conspired to murder the wife and biological mother, and brought them to trial. In the first trial in February 2010, the court acquitted them, citing doubts about the credibility of the statements. However, on November 2, 2011, the appellate court found them guilty of murder, sentencing the mother to life imprisonment and the daughter to 20 years in prison, and the verdict was finalized.
However, a decade later, claims of illegal conduct during the prosecution's investigation were accepted, leading to a retrial. On the 28th of last month, the retrial court accepted the mother and daughter's claim that their confessions were coerced by the prosecution and acquitted them 16 years after the incident occurred.
The police are reviewing the scope and procedures of the reinvestigation based on the retrial verdict and plan to take all necessary steps to uncover the substantive truth of the case.
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