23 November 2023
By Jin Lee
On the 14th, a 40-year-old woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the trial held at the Incheon District Court for murdering her daughter by burying her alive.
Her crime came to light in the complete enumeration as an aftermath of the "Suwon Infant Body Refrigerator Abandonment Case", prompting the government to conduct a comprehensive investigation into 2,236 children who were not registered at birth.
The defendant gave birth to her daughter at an Incheon maternity hospital seven years ago on August 7, 2016. In the middle of the same month, she buried her newborn daughter in a garden in Kimpo, Gyeonggi Province, with her 11-year-old son witnessing the gruesome act. She even attempted to destroy evidence by burning the clothes her daughter had worn.
She claimed that her lack of financial means was the crime motive behind her actions. However, the prosecution rejected her testimony, deeming it an inadequate motive and criticizing the brutality of the crime.
The revelations from the investigation into the 2023 Ghost Child Incident go beyond this case. On June 22, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the discovery of 2,236 children born between 2015 and 2022, with only hospital birth records and no birth registrations, existing only under temporary newborn identification numbers.
As of July 18, out of the 2,123 cases, 1,025 children are alive, 249 are confirmed deceased, and 814 are under investigation.