6-Year-Old Disabled Nephew Abandoned at Market... Filed Missing Person Report 18 Years Later, Why?

A 6-year-old with an intellectual disability was found to have been abandoned at a market by her aunt, a fact that came to light 18 years later due to the aunt's false missing person report.

The biological father of Cho Yong-jun, who lived in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, struggled to care for Yong-jun, who has a Level 2 intellectual disability, following a divorce and left him with his older sister, A. In May 2008, A abandoned 6-year-old Yong-jun in front of the Catholic Seongnam-dong Cathedral in Jungwon-gu, Seongnam, targeting a crowded market day.

According to police, Yong-jun was barely able to state his own name properly at the time of his disappearance.

Later in July, during a, comprehensive inspection of "disabled children with no medical records within the past 5 years" conducted by the Board of Audit and Inspection, A was caught failing to care for Yong-jun. Upon receiving a warning to the effect that "we will have no choice but to file a complaint if you do not report him missing," A belatedly visited the police.

She reported Yong-jun missing to the police 18 years after the abandonment.

However, during the reference witness investigation, A made a false report, stating, "I entrusted Yong-jun's upbringing to an acquaintance, and since he attended the same kindergarten as the acquaintance's children, they should remember."

As a result of an investigation by the Gyeonggi Seongnam Bundang Police Station, it was revealed that A's report was false, as the acquaintance to whom A claimed to have entrusted Yong-jun had already passed away, and the acquaintance's children, who supposedly attended the same kindergarten, stated that "they had never lived together."

Ultimately, A confessed to abandoning Yong-jun only after the police applied for an arrest warrant.

The police considered A's crime to fall under the Child Welfare Act, but the statute of limitations had already expired.

Instead, the police charged A with obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means regarding her false report and forwarded the case to the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office on the 8th.

Yong-jun's whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Eui-seon | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.