Why did an owner of 80 billion won in assets die from cyanide poisoning?
On the July 18 broadcast of SBS's "Unanswered Questions," the show tracked the secrets surrounding the death of a wealthy individual with 80 billion won in assets.
On March 28, 2020, a traffic accident occurred near the Seo-Jinju Interchange on the Tongyeong-Daejeon Expressway. The vehicle collided with a guardrail on the shoulder, drove diagonally across the road, hit the median strip, and stopped after hitting the guardrail on the shoulder again.
The driver had no visible external injuries, but was unconscious and was rushed to the emergency room. However, the driver passed away about an hour after the accident.
The victim was 63-year-old Kim Young-sook, a successful entrepreneur with 80 billion won in assets. While it initially appeared to be a tragic traffic accident, an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be cyanide poisoning.
With more than three times the lethal dose of cyanide detected in her system, the question remained: why did Kim, who was driving from her home to a villa in the countryside, die from cyanide poisoning?
A witness to the accident stated that they had felt a sudden thirst and drank from a water bottle in the passenger seat of the vehicle. The witness testified that they immediately spat it out because it tasted like industrial wastewater—a taste they had never experienced before. Consequently, the police suspected foul play, theorizing that the water in the bottle had been diluted with cyanide.
The witness handed the suspicious liquid to paramedics, who then passed it on to the hospital. The hospital staff delivered it to the family of Park, Kim's prospective daughter-in-law, who was present at the hospital at the time. Park's mother later claimed to have discarded it.
Analyzing CCTV footage from the time Kim left her home, police suspected that Park had placed the water bottle in Kim's vehicle. They conducted a search and seizure of Kim's home, discovering cyanide in a green tea container, a Japanese digestive medicine container, and Kim's handbag. Furthermore, police identified Park as the prime suspect after finding her DNA and partial fingerprints on the green tea and medicine containers.
Before it was revealed that Kim had died of cyanide poisoning, Park had told Kim's son that she had obtained cyanide from a jewelry store and possessed it, asking him to keep it a secret.
However, after the cause of Kim's death was determined, the son recalled this conversation and reported it to the police. Contrary to what she had told Kim's son, Park denied ever saying such things during police questioning. She even suggested that, given the circumstances and potential motives, Kim's son was more likely to be the real culprit.
Despite this, the police referred the case to the prosecution, charging Park with murder based on circumstantial evidence. In November of last year, Park was acquitted in her first trial.
The court did not accept the testimony of Kim's son and deemed the motive for the crime insufficient. Furthermore, the court ruled that the DNA and fingerprints of Park found on the containers of cyanide could have been transferred during the search and seizure, as police did not use proper gloves but instead used plastic gloves found at the residence, which may have led to cross-contamination.
(Editor Kim Hyo-jung)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.