The news of that day has passed, but its meaning remains with us today. "That Day, Today" reads the present through the records of the past.
On this day eight years ago, Oct. 24, 2018, Jung, the prime suspect in the murder of an elderly woman in Gangneung, was acquitted on appeal after an earlier acquittal at trial. A partial fingerprint found at the crime scene was the decisive clue, but it alone was not enough evidence to prove guilt.
A 1-cm partial print on tape and an investigation that went nowhere
On May 13, 2005, the body of a 69-year-old woman surnamed Jang was found in a mountain village in Deokhyeon-ri, Gujeong-myeon, Gangneung, Gangwon State. A neighbor who first discovered the body reported it to police.
Yellow packing tape had been wrapped in several layers around Jang's face, and her hands and feet were bound with telephone cord and other materials. The neighbor said, "The front door and the main room door of Jang's house were open, and I could hear the television, but there was no sign of anyone, so I went in and found her dead."
An autopsy determined the cause of death to be airway obstruction and rib fractures. Police believed Jang, who had been beaten and bound by the assailant, died from retroperitoneal hemorrhage, a ruptured kidney and suffocation from obstruction of the nose and mouth.
Police focused on robbery-murder for financial gain, noting that a gold ring, a bracelet and other jewelry worth 780,000 won that Jang had been wearing were also missing. But the investigation stalled as no clear evidence was secured at the scene. There was no closed-circuit television footage and no witnesses, and even a detailed forensic examination turned up few traces of the perpetrator.
Then a partial fingerprint about 1 centimeter long was found on the paper core of the packing tape that had been wrapped around Jang's face. Investigators raised the possibility that the print was left while the perpetrator pulled at the inner layer in the process of tearing and cutting the tape, as the victim was being subdued. But with the technology available at the time, identifying a suspect from a partial print alone was difficult.
A confession reversed after threats, and a case that went cold
The investigation also veered in the wrong direction at one point. A village resident identified as A, then a 45-year-old woman, came under suspicion after confessing to the crime.
A had been close to Jang, so close that she was described as a foster daughter. She also owed Jang a debt of about 2 million won.
But after the case was referred to prosecutors, A abruptly retracted her statement, saying, "I did not kill the grandmother." A polygraph examination also produced no results supporting the allegations.
An inquiry found that coercion had been a factor in A's confession. Within days of Jang's death, a Buddhist nun had visited A's home and threatened her, saying, "If you don't say you committed the murder, something terrible will happen to your son."
More shocking still was that the nun was the older sister of the detective assigned to the case. A was ultimately removed from the list of suspects, and with no clear suspect identified afterward, the investigation effectively halted.
The owner of the partial print, found after 12 years
The case, which had become a long-term cold case after the failure of the initial investigation, took a new turn in September 2017, 12 years later. Police re-examined the partial print found at the scene through the National Police Agency's automated fingerprint identification system and succeeded in identifying its owner.
The person identified as a suspect was a man surnamed Jung, then 50, who lived in the nearby city of Donghae. Fifteen characteristic points of the fingerprint matched. At the time of the crime, Jung was in financial difficulty after a woman with whom he was in a common-law relationship was detained in a fraud case. He also had a record of serving a seven-year prison sentence on charges of assaulting and raping that woman and taking cash and a necklace from her.
Jung claimed he had been at a bar in Donghae run by an acquaintance during the hours of the crime. But an inquiry with people around him found that he had not been at the bar at the time. Three polygraph examinations all produced deceptive responses. On that basis, police detained Jung on a charge of robbery-murder.
Acquitted despite 15 matching points, and questions never resolved
Jung, who requested a jury trial, strongly denied the allegations, saying, "I never went to the crime scene at the time." His argument was that police had identified him as the perpetrator because of his prior criminal record. As for how his fingerprint came to be on the tape, he explained that the tape had been inside a motorcycle he used to ride, and that the motorcycle was later stolen.
At the first trial, prosecutors sought a life sentence, but eight of the nine jurors found him not guilty. The court acquitted him, saying, "The only evidence that the defendant committed this crime is the yellow box tape bearing his fingerprint, but it is difficult to entirely rule out the possibility that this tape came to be found at the crime scene by some unknown route."
Prosecutors appealed, but the appellate court did not overturn the first ruling. The appellate court said, "It is judged difficult to establish guilt on the basis of the defendant's partial fingerprint found at the crime scene alone," adding, "The lower court's judgment is lawful, and the prosecution's appeal is without merit and is dismissed."
Leaving the courtroom immediately after the acquittal, Jung said, "Isn't the not-guilty verdict because I'm innocent?" and added, "This is a case I know nothing about."
The victim's family said they found the outcome hard to accept. "Police did forensic science and it came out that the partial print was the suspect's, and now he's acquitted — we can't believe it," they said. "It is so unjust that we could not lay our parent's grievance to rest."
Prosecutors did not file an appeal to the Supreme Court, saying the likelihood of a reversal was slim. Jung's acquittal became final as it stood. The Gangneung murder of an elderly woman remained unsolved, its truth never established.
"Let me see that bastard's face" — two attempted murders, a knife attack while wearing an electronic monitoring device?
On Oct. 13, 2026, a man in his 50s went on an indiscriminate rampage at a large commercial complex in Incheon with weapons strapped to both hands, injuring nine people.
Key details of the case
• Victims: A woman in her 20s was taken to hospital in cardiac arrest and regained a pulse but remains unconscious
• Courage of bystanders: A restaurant owner and other members of the public confronted the attacker with chairs and subdued him
• Shocking record: The suspect had two prior convictions for attempted murder and was wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time of the attack
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