Post by hi224 on Dec 10, 2021 6:43:33 GMT
It was November 28, 2008, and excavators alongside other workers were mobilized to the Daehangno neighbourhood of Seoul The South Korean Capital. The reason for the excavators being sent was to work on the demolition of the main office of The Korea International Cooperation Agency in that neighbourhood. As they carried out their work one of the workers noticed a pile of human bones at the bottom of a dirt pit located in the basement of the building. All the workers soon halted their work and notified the police.
The police soon arrived and started a murder investigation suspecting that the bones belonged to a single dismembered body as the remains were cut up. However they soon changed this hypothesis after determining that the bones belonged to 10-15 different bodies, so the police instead just informed the prosecution that this was just a strange unnatural death and that the matter likely wasn't a criminal matter or if it was it would've been too old for any suspects to be arrested due to either already being dead or due to the statute of limitations.
The question however remained. Who were these people and why were they buried in a mass grave?
Various theories have been considered some more likely than others.
After the police determined it not to be a criminal investigation the first seriously considered hypothesis is that the remains belonged to Korean soldiers killed in the Korean War.
The site where The Korea International Cooperation Agency Office Building once lay was the site of a violent battle between North and South Korean forces with the North Korean military attempting to invade the city of Seoul while the South Korean forces tried to repel them. During the war and invasion the North Korean army would kill any wounded South Korean soldiers and anti-communist they came across. Once word of this discovery reached them the South Korean army known as the ROK sent a KIA Recovery and Identification team to the site to conduct an investigation and possibly identify the soldiers.
The KIA team stayed at the site for only 14 days before leaving. They determined that these were unlikely to be the remains of ROK soldiers killed in battle. They came to this conclusion because there were no artifacts at the scene to substantiate this claim. Nowhere on the remains or in the surrounding area did the KIA recover any firearms, bullets, combat uniforms or accessories. Furthermore, when the remains themselves were inspected there were no gunshot wounds or any other wounds that would indicate that these people died in combat. That's not to say that nothing was recovered at the scene though as during the excavation of the site a Japanese ink bottle and the sole of a boot were found. However, this sole did not belong to the boots worn by American or ROK troops. Furthermore, the remains did not match the body type or age that most ROK soldiers were with women and even a child being amongst the remains.
After this, the third suggested theory was that these belonged to civilians massacred by North Korean Troops or prisoners and political dissidents that the ROK and police killed soon after the Korean War ended.
After this was suggested The Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission was contacted to investigate the mass grave however they soon dismissed this theory as well for much the same reason that the KIA dismissed their theory. There was no evidence or nothing left behind such as bullets that would align with this being a civilian massacre as well as there being no gunshot wounds on any of the bodies. Truth and Reconciliation Commission soon closed their investigation determining that these were not civilians will by the ROK back when South Korea was a dictatorship.
The KIA and The Truth and Reconciliation Commission both believed that these remains belonged to medical cadavers likely from The Seoul National University that had been disposed of (And thus not a matter that warranted their involvement) so the police decided to launch an investigation however they found out that the university cremated all their cadavers and had surviving records to prove this meaning that yet again this theory had to be ruled out.
It was then suggested that these were the remains of Koreans that the Imperial Japanese Empire/Army committed biological experiments on during wartime and occupation. Or that they were medical cadavers used by the Kyungsung Imperial University
This was the last suggested theory to explain the mass grave however yet again it seemed it was not to be. There seemed to be no surviving records that the Japanese buried the remains of their experimentation subjects at this site and furthermore, when the bodies were examined further they showed no traces of being infected by any sort of pathogens or disease.
And as for the now-defunct Kyungsung Imperial University, their records seemed to survive and there was no evidence that a child was amongst the cadavers they tested on. Furthermore, after the liberation of Korea from Japan, their cadavers were recovered and all were cremated and given a funeral.
Eventually, the police who had been doing most of the investigation handed all the remains over to The National Forensic Service and on March 26, 2009, they finally came to a conclusion.
Based on the fact that a medical saw was used to dismember some of the bodies The National Forensic Service disagreed with the police's assessment and figured that the bodies were in fact cadavers from the Kyungsung Imperial University. They also determined that the site they were found in was not the site of their deaths and that the police's initial count of 10 - 15 remains was inaccurate and that there were 28 bodies at the site instead. They came to this conclusion because after reassembling all of the skeletons they realized that there were some bones not belonging to a complete body and that the DNA test returned 28 characteristics. The conclusions also shed more light on the remains.16 of the remains belonged to adults.
1 belonged to a young adult male.
11 belonged to children (including infants) with 4 of the children being male, 5 female and 2 unidentified.
The estimated time of their deaths was 50 - 100 years ago.
Some animal bones were mixed with the human remains.
As mentioned a saw is believed to be the instrument used to dismember the bodies.
None of the bodies seemed to be related to one another and there were no signs of murder on any of them.
Officially the case is considered closed with the remains being determined to belong to cadavers from The Kyungsung Imperial University however this case is still labelled by many others to be unsolved or at least not fully resolved such as the Kyungsung Imperial University bodies being cremated, no records of a mass grave at this site by the Japanese and the remains showing no signs of illness or infection by pathogens. And regardless of what theory is correct all of these bodies remain unidentified.
Eventually, it seems that this theory presented by The National Forensic Service was also dismissed as the case was handed to the district office who closed their investigation without ever giving a clear conclusion and in May 2021 this case was talked about on TV by the SBS Current Affairs Program which yet again treated this incident as unsolved.
The remains were likely cremated in 2019
Sources
namu.wiki/w/%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%20%EB%8C%80%ED%95%99%EB%A1%9C%20%EB%B0%B1%EA%B3%A8%20%EC%82%AC%EA%B1%B4
news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1000566122&plink=SHARE&cooper=SBSNEWSMOBEND
mbiz.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20081224000219#cb
hsj8404.tistory.com/2495
The police soon arrived and started a murder investigation suspecting that the bones belonged to a single dismembered body as the remains were cut up. However they soon changed this hypothesis after determining that the bones belonged to 10-15 different bodies, so the police instead just informed the prosecution that this was just a strange unnatural death and that the matter likely wasn't a criminal matter or if it was it would've been too old for any suspects to be arrested due to either already being dead or due to the statute of limitations.
The question however remained. Who were these people and why were they buried in a mass grave?
Various theories have been considered some more likely than others.
After the police determined it not to be a criminal investigation the first seriously considered hypothesis is that the remains belonged to Korean soldiers killed in the Korean War.
The site where The Korea International Cooperation Agency Office Building once lay was the site of a violent battle between North and South Korean forces with the North Korean military attempting to invade the city of Seoul while the South Korean forces tried to repel them. During the war and invasion the North Korean army would kill any wounded South Korean soldiers and anti-communist they came across. Once word of this discovery reached them the South Korean army known as the ROK sent a KIA Recovery and Identification team to the site to conduct an investigation and possibly identify the soldiers.
The KIA team stayed at the site for only 14 days before leaving. They determined that these were unlikely to be the remains of ROK soldiers killed in battle. They came to this conclusion because there were no artifacts at the scene to substantiate this claim. Nowhere on the remains or in the surrounding area did the KIA recover any firearms, bullets, combat uniforms or accessories. Furthermore, when the remains themselves were inspected there were no gunshot wounds or any other wounds that would indicate that these people died in combat. That's not to say that nothing was recovered at the scene though as during the excavation of the site a Japanese ink bottle and the sole of a boot were found. However, this sole did not belong to the boots worn by American or ROK troops. Furthermore, the remains did not match the body type or age that most ROK soldiers were with women and even a child being amongst the remains.
After this, the third suggested theory was that these belonged to civilians massacred by North Korean Troops or prisoners and political dissidents that the ROK and police killed soon after the Korean War ended.
After this was suggested The Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission was contacted to investigate the mass grave however they soon dismissed this theory as well for much the same reason that the KIA dismissed their theory. There was no evidence or nothing left behind such as bullets that would align with this being a civilian massacre as well as there being no gunshot wounds on any of the bodies. Truth and Reconciliation Commission soon closed their investigation determining that these were not civilians will by the ROK back when South Korea was a dictatorship.
The KIA and The Truth and Reconciliation Commission both believed that these remains belonged to medical cadavers likely from The Seoul National University that had been disposed of (And thus not a matter that warranted their involvement) so the police decided to launch an investigation however they found out that the university cremated all their cadavers and had surviving records to prove this meaning that yet again this theory had to be ruled out.
It was then suggested that these were the remains of Koreans that the Imperial Japanese Empire/Army committed biological experiments on during wartime and occupation. Or that they were medical cadavers used by the Kyungsung Imperial University
This was the last suggested theory to explain the mass grave however yet again it seemed it was not to be. There seemed to be no surviving records that the Japanese buried the remains of their experimentation subjects at this site and furthermore, when the bodies were examined further they showed no traces of being infected by any sort of pathogens or disease.
And as for the now-defunct Kyungsung Imperial University, their records seemed to survive and there was no evidence that a child was amongst the cadavers they tested on. Furthermore, after the liberation of Korea from Japan, their cadavers were recovered and all were cremated and given a funeral.
Eventually, the police who had been doing most of the investigation handed all the remains over to The National Forensic Service and on March 26, 2009, they finally came to a conclusion.
Based on the fact that a medical saw was used to dismember some of the bodies The National Forensic Service disagreed with the police's assessment and figured that the bodies were in fact cadavers from the Kyungsung Imperial University. They also determined that the site they were found in was not the site of their deaths and that the police's initial count of 10 - 15 remains was inaccurate and that there were 28 bodies at the site instead. They came to this conclusion because after reassembling all of the skeletons they realized that there were some bones not belonging to a complete body and that the DNA test returned 28 characteristics. The conclusions also shed more light on the remains.16 of the remains belonged to adults.
1 belonged to a young adult male.
11 belonged to children (including infants) with 4 of the children being male, 5 female and 2 unidentified.
The estimated time of their deaths was 50 - 100 years ago.
Some animal bones were mixed with the human remains.
As mentioned a saw is believed to be the instrument used to dismember the bodies.
None of the bodies seemed to be related to one another and there were no signs of murder on any of them.
Officially the case is considered closed with the remains being determined to belong to cadavers from The Kyungsung Imperial University however this case is still labelled by many others to be unsolved or at least not fully resolved such as the Kyungsung Imperial University bodies being cremated, no records of a mass grave at this site by the Japanese and the remains showing no signs of illness or infection by pathogens. And regardless of what theory is correct all of these bodies remain unidentified.
Eventually, it seems that this theory presented by The National Forensic Service was also dismissed as the case was handed to the district office who closed their investigation without ever giving a clear conclusion and in May 2021 this case was talked about on TV by the SBS Current Affairs Program which yet again treated this incident as unsolved.
The remains were likely cremated in 2019
Sources
namu.wiki/w/%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%20%EB%8C%80%ED%95%99%EB%A1%9C%20%EB%B0%B1%EA%B3%A8%20%EC%82%AC%EA%B1%B4
news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1000566122&plink=SHARE&cooper=SBSNEWSMOBEND
mbiz.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20081224000219#cb
hsj8404.tistory.com/2495