Why did an 80 billion won asset holder die from cyanide poisoning?

The July 18 broadcast of the SBS program "Unanswered Questions" tracked the secrets surrounding the death of an 80 billion won asset holder.

On March 28, 2020, a car accident occurred near the Seojinju IC on the Tongyeong-Daejeon Expressway. The vehicle collided with a roadside barrier, drove diagonally, hit the median strip, and came to a stop against the roadside barrier again.

The driver had no visible external injuries but was found unconscious and was rushed to the emergency room. However, the driver passed away about an hour after the accident.

The driver was 63-year-old Kim Young-sook, a successful entrepreneur with assets worth 80 billion won. While it initially appeared that Kim died in a tragic car 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 on her way from her home to a vacation villa in the countryside, die from cyanide?

A witness to the accident stated that they felt a sudden thirst and took a sip from a water bottle in the passenger seat. They testified that they immediately spat it out because it tasted like industrial wastewater, a taste they had never experienced before. Based on this, the police suspected murder, speculating that the water in the bottle had been diluted with cyanide.

The witness handed the suspicious liquid to a paramedic, who then passed it to the hospital. The hospital staff delivered it to the family of Park, the victim's prospective daughter-in-law, who was at the hospital at the time. Park's mother later claimed to have discarded it.

The police analyzed CCTV footage from when Kim left her home and suspected that Park had placed the water bottle in Kim's vehicle. A search of Kim's home led to the discovery of cyanide in a tea container, a Japanese digestive medicine container, and Kim's handbag. Furthermore, Park's DNA and partial fingerprints were found on the tea and medicine containers, leading the police to identify Park as the primary suspect.

Before it was revealed that Kim had died of cyanide poisoning, Park had told Kim's son that she possessed cyanide, which she claimed to have obtained from a jewelry store. She had asked the son to keep this 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 making such a statement during police questioning. She even suggested that, given the circumstances and motive, Kim's son was more likely to be the real culprit.

Nevertheless, the police forwarded the case to the prosecution, charging Park with murder based on circumstantial evidence. In the first trial held last November, Park was acquitted.

The court did not accept the testimony of Kim's son and judged that the motive for the crime was insufficient. Additionally, the court determined that the DNA and fingerprints found on the cyanide containers in the residence could have been transferred during the police search, as officers did not have gloves and instead used plastic gloves found in the home, potentially causing cross-contamination.