Police investigate 780 cases of ‘ghost children’ nationwide

On Friday, the police announced that they had received 867 reports of “ghost children” nationwide and were actively investigating 780 of these cases. The number of cases being investigated by the police had risen by 158 since the previous day, where it stood at 622. Additionally, the confirmed death toll of infants had increased by 4, reaching 27.

According to the National Police Agency on Friday, the number of cases initiating investigations in Seoul exceeded 100 that day, totaling 132 cases. A police official explained that the local government's comprehensive investigation had concluded on Friday and added, “As it takes time for the investigation results to be relayed to the police, we anticipate a continued increase in the number of investigation requests for the foreseeable future.”

On Thursday, the Gwangju Police Agency urgently arrested an individual, A, who is in her 30s. A is accused of abandoning the lifeless body of her 6-day-old daughter at home in April 2018. According to the investigation, she allegedly left her daughter unattended for three hours while she went out, resulting in the infant's death. The woman further placed the deceased baby in a disposable garbage bag and abandoned her. “When I returned home, I found the baby's face covered with a blanket, and she was not breathing,” she said during police questioning. On Friday, the police filed an application for an arrest warrant.

On that afternoon, a warrant review took place at the Incheon District Court for Jeong, a woman in her 40s who was accused of burying a one-week-old infant in a garden located in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province in August 2016. During her appearance in court, when asked by a reporter, Jeong responded affirmatively, saying, “Yes, it was an unwanted pregnancy.”

A single mother in her 20s, who was previously reported to have left her son, born in Daejeon in April 2018, to die at home, has altered her statement. She now claims that in June of the same year (2018), the child was killed and abandoned near the riverside near her residence. As a result, the police have modified the charges against her from child abuse and death to murder and have submitted the case to the prosecution on Friday.


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