Police reopen 'cyanide makgeolli' case after husband, daughter acquitted in retrial
Published: 27 Nov. 2025, 15:19
Updated: 27 Nov. 2025, 16:19
![The father, second from right, and daughter, right, accused in the "cyanide makgeolli" case speak at the Gwangju High Court in Gwangju on Oct. 28 after being acquitted in a retrial 16 years. [NEWS1]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/27/ac5b922d-7ad4-4505-b602-e2db0d65f026.jpg)
The father, second from right, and daughter, right, accused in the "cyanide makgeolli" case speak at the Gwangju High Court in Gwangju on Oct. 28 after being acquitted in a retrial 16 years. [NEWS1]
Police in South Jeolla have reopened a 2009 murder case known as the “cyanide makgeolli incident” after a husband and his daughter, previously convicted of poisoning the man's wife and three others with laced Korean rice wine, were acquitted in a retrial in October.
Authorities from the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency said on Thursday that they reclassified the case as unsolved and assigned it to a dedicated task force for reinvestigation.
Officers are reviewing all records from the initial investigation. Police have collected 19 volumes of material compiled by investigators at the time, along with additional documents submitted by prosecutors. Police said the volume of material will require a lengthy review but hope to identify overlooked evidence or investigative errors and pursue new leads.
The case concerns events on July 6, 2009, when four residents of a town in Suncheon, South Jeolla, drank makgeolli containing cyanide. Two died, and two others suffered serious injury.
Initial police investigations focused on the possibility that someone within the town committed the crime. Prosecutors later identified the husband and daughter of one of the victims as suspects and took over the case.
Prosecutors alleged the two had maintained an incestuous relationship and conspired to kill the man's wife. A lower court found them not guilty, but in a 2011 appeal, a higher court convicted them of murder. The father received a life sentence and the daughter was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Allegations of coerced confessions and police misconduct later led to a retrial. The court on Oct. 28 found the two not guilty, accepting their argument that the confessions had been fabricated under pressure.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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