Background
Between September 1986 and April 1991, ten women and girls died in Gyeonggi Province in South Korea, mostly around Hwaseong. For years the perpetrator was not found, and the case became one of the country's largest criminal investigations. Police spent roughly 2 million man-days, examined more than 21,000 suspects and took fingerprints from tens of thousands of people.
Police took fingerprints from 40,116 people and analysed 570 DNA and 180 hair samples, but the technology of the time was not enough to reach the real perpetrator.
What happened
The killings continued over several years in the same region, with new cases added and public fear growing. Forensic and DNA capabilities at the time were limited, and important evidence could not be fully exploited. The victims' identities and details are deliberately omitted here.
Investigation and trial
A man who was 22 at the time was convicted over the eighth killing on the basis of a statement obtained under police pressure, and served about 19.5 years in prison before being paroled in 2009. Prosecutors later confirmed police mistreatment and a flawed forensic report.
In September 2019, DNA from a victim's clothing matched a man already serving a life sentence for another murder; he confessed in October 2019. In July 2020 police confirmed 14 killings in total attributed to him. However, the 15-year statute of limitations then in force had expired for the final cases on 2 April 2006, and later legal changes were not applied retroactively, so he could not be tried for them.
The wrongly convicted man's retrial was granted in January 2020, and he was acquitted on 17 December 2020. Eight of the original investigators were also charged.
After the 2019 identification, police described the man as already serving a life sentence for a 1994 murder. Prosecutors said the statute of limitations barred trial for the earlier killings, so the case, though solved in a factual sense, ended without a trial and sparked a new public debate about justice.
Legacy
The case inspired Bong Joon-ho's 2003 film Memories of Murder. It became a symbol in South Korea of debates over investigative failures, statutes of limitations and the value of genetic evidence. In 2015 the limitation period for crimes resulting in death was abolished.