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A 'bizarre rabbit' sows chaos in Sinjeong-dong serial killing investigation

Published: 08 Dec. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 17 Feb. 2026, 13:23

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

A body inside two rice burlap sacks is seen next to a garbage cart in an outdoor parking space in Sinjeong-dong in western Seoul in June 2005. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

[KOREAN CRIME FILES #10]

Behind the glitz and glamour seen in pop culture, Korea’s grimmest and most harrowing crime stories, some more well-known than others, continue to haunt society today. The Korea JoongAng Daily takes a deep dive into some of these stories, sharing a glimpse into the darker side of society as well as the most up-to-date known facts. — Ed.

In a narrow alleyway in Sinjeong-dong, western Seoul, in June 2005, a street sweeper saw a pale female hand protruding from a pair of burlap sacks sewn together. He initially thought it belonged to a mannequin.

But the weight of the bags betrayed what they really contained.

The body of the woman inside displayed signs of brutal abuse. Bite marks were on her upper chest, and bruises indicated that her wrists had been tied. Her underwear was half pulled down. The forensic team ruled that she died of strangulation.

Five months later, another corpse of a woman appeared in the same neighborhood, just 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) away from where the first corpse was found in June. This time, it was wrapped in a picnic mat and tied together with twine. Also, like the first victim, the woman had been strangled.

Few clues about the killer's identity emerged. Police knocked on doors across the neighborhood and plastered posters on streets in search of evidence and witnesses.

Some 20 years later, on Nov. 21 this year, the killer was finally discovered. However, he had gone to a place where he would remain uncaught eternally.

A serial killing in Sinjeong-dong

Police control the site where a body was found in Sinjeong-dong in western Seoul in 2005. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

The first body was discovered at around 9 a.m. on June 7, one day after the Memorial Day holiday, on the cold, hard cement of an outdoor parking space just outside a residential complex in Sinjeong-dong.

The killer had placed the corpse in two rice sacks, tying them together with twine to cover the two halves of the woman’s body.

Inside the rice sacks, the woman’s face had been covered with a black plastic bag. Only her pale, cold hand protruded from her burlap shroud.

Investigators found two sanitary pads and a napkin inside her body. They also found signs of abdominal bleeding and strangulation.

What they failed to find, however, were traces of semen that could identify the killer.

A body wrapped in a picnic mat and tied with strings was found in a parking lot in a residential area in Sinjeong-dong, western Seoul, in November 2005. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

About five months later, on Nov. 20, a local eatery owner found a large bundle wrapped in a picnic mat tied with twine.

After touching the bundle, he realized it contained a human body.

As police officers unrolled the bundle, the body of another woman appeared. It was a woman in her 40s who was last seen in surveillance footage at Sinjeong Station the previous day.

Her husband had assumed she had gone to see her parents and waited overnight for a message. The update, which came a day later, was unexpected — she’d been found dead.

Her body was found next to a pile of garbage in a parking lot of a residential complex in Sinjeong-dong. At night, the place is a perfect blind spot — passersby cannot see between the residential building and the parked cars.

The 40-something-year-old victim had the same signs of sexual assault and injuries as the younger victim in June. She had also been strangled.

From left: two rice burlap sacks used to cover the victim in her 20s; black plastic bags used to cover the victims' heads; strings that were found on the victims' bodies [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

A black plastic bag covered the victim’s head. The knots of the twine were more meticulously and tightly tied than in June.

However, an additional clue emerged from the second victim's clothing. It carried mold from where she was assumed to have been assaulted and killed. The specific mold thrives in underground facilities.

Given the similarities in the killings, including the causes of the death and the manner in which the bodies were bundled, the authorities and experts believed the same killer was responsible.

A rabbit sows confusion

An image of ″Yeopgi Tokki″ [JOONGANG ILBO]

Before the terror caused by the serial murders had subsided, another abduction occurred in the same neighborhood.

In May 2006, a woman barely escaped from a two-story residential building in Sinjeong-dong after being kidnapped. She couldn't remember the details, but she recalled a sticker of the so-called "Yeopgi Tokki" character on a shoe closet where she hid during her escape.

The Korean name of the chubby bunny character, also known as Mashimaro, translates into "bizarre rabbit" in English.

The media and the public believed the kidnapper and the murderer could be one and the same. Soon after, the two cases were labeled the “bizarre-rabbit murders.”

Police chased for evidence to identify the mysterious murderer. However, the police halted the investigation in 2013 because the cases had gone cold.

DNA breakthrough

Jang's biological specimens obtained by police [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

What ended the 20 years of mystery were advancements in DNA-tracing technology.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency reopened the files and requested the National Forensic Service to reexamine the evidence in 2016 and 2020.

The 2020 assessment found that the underwear of the two victims and the strings tied to their bodies contained DNA evidence from the same man.

The investigators reset the search range and drafted a new list with some 230,000 potential suspects.

The list included those with records of similar crimes, construction workers who could obtain the string and were knowledgeable about tying intricate knots, and residents who moved in and out of the district at the time.

They further narrowed it down by filtering out suspects based on occupations and specific crime methodologies.

Even a joint investigation with China took place to determine whether the killer was an ethnic Korean with Chinese nationality.

As such efforts turned fruitless, police came up with a new scenario: the murderer was already dead.

The police prepared another list of 56 deceased individuals.

Among them, a late janitor at a local building named Jang — who had been convicted of rape in 2006 — seemed to be the most likely suspect.

Jang had died of cancer in 2015.

Ten inmates who spent time with Jang in prison told the investigators that he was "skilled at tying knots," and he once confessed to his experience of killing people.

In the basement storage space where Jang had raped his victim in 2006, investigators found the same types of twine and mold found on the victims’ bodies.

However, police still needed the smoking gun. Police could not extract DNA from Jang, whose bones were already cremated, and his belongings were contaminated.

The investigators reviewed Jang's medical records and found a hospital that had stored a well-preserved biological sample of his.

The results of laboratory tests showed that DNA from the victims’ undergarments and from Jang’s specimen matched.

The crime was finally solved 20 years after it was committed.

However, it also proved that another individual committed the “Yeopgi Tokki” kidnapping; Jang was in prison when that crime was committed.

The kidnapping remains unresolved.

Shin Jae-moon, a team leader of the investigation unit from the Seoul police agency, delivered his deepest condolences to "the families who have waited a long time while trusting the police" on Nov. 21.

“With the resolve to track killers even to the afterlife, we will get to the bottom of long-unsolved cases as well,” Shin said.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]