6-Month-Old Found with Maggots on Body: Parents' Shocking Search History

New details of abuse have emerged in court regarding a couple in their 20s indicted for systematically neglecting their 6-month-old son to death.

The Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 13 held a defendant examination for the parents, who are charged with child abuse resulting in death.

According to prosecutors, the couple left their young son home alone some 140 times, beginning from about ten days after his birth until right before he died.

In April, when the baby was 4 months old, they left home for more than 27 hours—abandoning not only the infant but also their pet dog—to visit an internet PC cafe and go on a trip.

The physical condition of the baby on the day of his death was horrific.

Weighing 3.62kg at birth, the baby barely grew over the span of six months, weighing a mere 3.68kg at the time of his death.

This is less than half the average weight of 8.3kg for peers of the same age.

The shocking fact that maggots were found in the baby's genitals at the time of death was also revealed in court.

When a prosecutor asked the father during the examination, "Did you know about this?", the father replied, "I found out later."

The mother defended herself by saying, "It seems to have happened because I couldn't change his diapers properly," while adding, "I changed them every time I fed him formula."

Even on the day before his death, the baby was in a critical condition—passing bloody stools and losing focus in his eyes—but the parents went out for five hours without taking him to the hospital.

Circumstances following the baby's death were also uncovered.

The father searched AI with queries such as "What is the punishment if a child dies?", while records showed the mother had searched portal sites months prior for terms like "newborn death insurance payout", "I want to kill my child", and the meaning of "death by starvation".

The court plans to hold one more trial hearing next month before proceeding with the sentencing hearing.

(Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong, Video by Lee Da-in, Design by Lee Jeong-ju, Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.