Latest / Lost: True Crime and Mystery. / Where Went The Newlyweds? : The Disappearance of the Busan couple.

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Where Went The Newlyweds? : The Disappearance of the Busan couple. · Lost: True Crime and Mystery.

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine this. You walk into your apartment after a long
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: day at work. You drop your groceries on the kitchen counter,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: leave the laundry sitting in the basket, and make sure
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: your pet dog is safe inside. You lock the door
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: behind you. Outside your building, 21 separate security cameras sweep
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: every single angle of the entrance, the exits, the hallways,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and the underground parking garage. You are completely enclosed within
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a modern fortress of steel and digital surveillance. Now, vanish.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Without leaving a trace of blood. Without touching your car.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Without stepping past a single camera lens. And without ever
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: being seen alive again. Welcome to Lost. I'm your host, Alex.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And today, for Episode 6, we are diving deep into
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: one of South Korea's most terrifying and perplexing unsolved mysteries.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The 2016 disappearance of the Busan newlyweds. It's a case
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that feels like a real-world locked-room mystery, a story that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: combines modern surveillance, digital footprints, deep-seated obsession, and a shadow
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: suspect living thousands of miles away. Let's go back to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: May 27, 2016. 35-year-old Choi Sung-hee was a vibrant, talented
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: stage actress. Her husband, 35-year-old Jeon Min-gon, was a gentleman
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: running a small restaurant in the coastal city of Busan.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: They had been married for just six months. They were newlyweds,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: settling into a sleek apartment complex near Busan's iconic Gwangalli Beach.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And Choi Sung-hee was carrying a secret, a happy one.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: She was seven to eight weeks pregnant with their first child.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: On the night of Friday, May 27th, CCTV footage records
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Sung-hee inside a local supermarket at around 10 p.m. She
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: buys groceries. The footage shows her heading up the elevator
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to their apartment. holding plastic shopping bags. She arrives safely inside.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Five hours later, at roughly 3.10 a.m. on Saturday, May 28th,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: CCTV captures her husband, Min Gun, returning home from work.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: He takes the elevator, walks down the hallway, and enters
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: apartment 1502. That single timestamp, 3.10 a.m. on May 28th, 2016,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is the absolute last time either Cho Sung-hee or Jeong
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Min-gyun was ever seen by human eyes or digital lenses.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: By May 31st, four days had passed. Sung Hee hadn't
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: shown up for theater rehearsals. Ming Yoon hadn't come into
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: his restaurant. Worried out of his mind, Sung Hee's father
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: called the Busan police and begged them to conduct a
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: welfare check. When officers arrived at the apartment, no one
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: answered the door. The police breached the lock and stepped inside.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: If you walk into a crime scene, you expect chaos.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: broken glass, overturned furniture, signs of a violent struggle. But
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: apartment 1502 was disturbing, specifically because it was so utterly normal.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: The groceries Sung Hee had purchased four nights earlier were
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: still sitting on the kitchen table, unpacked. A load of
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: laundry sat unwashed. Their beloved dog, which was recovering from
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: surgery and required constant care, was roaming the apartment, terrified, hungry,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: surrounded by its own waste. Anyone who knew Sung Hee
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: knew she adored that dog. She would never have abandoned
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it to starve. Their passports were gone. Their cell phones
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: were missing. But their car was still parked neatly in
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the basement garage. The police naturally pulled the CCTV footage
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: from the building's complex. They reviewed 21 individual security cameras
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: covering every exit, entry point, stairwell corner, and elevator. They
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: checked frames over days and weeks. They saw the couple
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: walk in. They never saw them walk out. How do
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: two grown adults vanish from a high-security high-rise without a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: single frame of footage capturing their exit? When investigators realized
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the couple wasn't inside the building, they turned to their
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: digital footprints. And this is where things turned from baffling
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: to sinister. In the days immediately following May 28th, odd
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: text messages were sent from both of their phones. On
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: May 29th, an employee at Min Geun's restaurant received a
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: text from Min Geun's number saying he couldn't come to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: work because of an emergency and telling the employee to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: close up. The employee later said the wording felt off.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Min Geun had never done anything like that before. Then,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: text messages were sent from Sung Hee's phone to her
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: theater troupe, stating she wouldn't be able to participate in
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: upcoming performances due to an illness. But her close friends
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: immediately spotted something wrong. In Korean, speech levels and sentence
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: endings carry distinct personal habits. Sang-hee habitually ended her sentences
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: with the polite honorific suffix, yo. The text messages sent
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: from her phone lacked that entirely. Someone else was typing
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: those messages. And then came the cell tower locations. On
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: June 2nd, five days after they vanished, the final signals
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of their phones were registered. Min-geun's phone pinged off a
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: cell tower in Gijang County, just north of Busan, at 8.30am.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Four hours later, at 12.30 p.m., Songhee's phone pinged off
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a tower near Gangdong District in Seoul, over 200 miles away.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Shortly after those final pings, both phones were permanently turned off.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: They have never connected to a network since. As the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: investigation stalled, police began digging into the couple's personal histories.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Was it financial debt? A joint secret? A planned escape?
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: None of it made sense. Their bank accounts were untouched.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and neither had motives to go off the grid. Until
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: investigators uncovered a trail of harassment and obsession pointing toward
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a single individual. In true crime forums, on Reddit threads,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and throughout South Korean media, she is referred to as
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Miss Jang. Years before Min Geun met Sung Hee, he
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: was deeply in love with Miss Jang. They had dated
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: in high school and wanted to marry, but both of
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: their families strongly opposed the relationship, forcing them to break up.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Miss Jang eventually married another man but her marriage ended
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: in a bitter divorce, a failure she reportedly blamed entirely
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: on Mingun for not holding on to her. She remarried
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: again and moved to Norway with her new husband. But
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: distance did not cure her obsession. According to friends and family, Ms.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Jang continued to stalk and torment Mingun for years. Whenever
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Mingun tried to date someone new, Ms. Jang would call,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: send threatening messages, and ruin the relationship. When Mingun finally
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: married Song He in November 2015, Ms. Jang's hostility reached
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a boiling point. She reportedly threatened Song He directly, telling
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: her that her marriage wouldn't last and making chilling statements
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that they would never be allowed to live peacefully together.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: When police heard this, they checked flight logs for Ms. Jang.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: What they found sent chills down their spines. Ms. Jang
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was living in Norway, but on May 8, 2016, Less
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: than three weeks before the newlyweds disappeared, Ms. Jang quietly
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: flew into South Korea. Her current husband joined her a
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: week later. During her month-long stay in South Korea, Ms.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Jang lived entirely like a phantom. She didn't stay with family.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: She didn't book hotels under her own name using credit cards. Instead,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: she moved between public saunas and cheap motels, paying for
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: everything strictly in cash. She left zero digital paper trail.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: And when did she leave the country? On June 7th,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the exact day South Korean police formally opened their official
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: missing persons investigation into the couple, Ms. Jang and her
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: husband boarded a flight back to Norway. When Korean authorities
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: realized the connection, they designated Ms. Jang as the primary
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: prime suspect. In 2017, South Korean police, working with Interpol,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: issued a red notice and requested her extradition from Norway.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Norwegian police actually arrested Ms. Jang in late 2017. The
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: families thought they were finally going to get answers. But
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the legal system hit a brick wall. Because there were
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: no physical bodies found, no blood at the apartment, and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: no direct forensic evidence tying Ms. Jang to a crime scene,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the Norwegian courts ruled that there was insufficient evidence to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: extradite her to South Korea. She was released. To this day, Ms.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Jang lives as a free woman in Norway. completely refusing
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: to answer questions or cooperate with Korean investigators. So what
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: actually happened inside and outside apartment number 1502? Online communities
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: like Reddit's r slash unsolved mysteries and Korean investigative programs
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: like unanswered questions have analyzed three primary theories. Theory one,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the blind spot escape, abduction or murder. How do you
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: leave a building monitored by 21 cameras without being seen?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Criminologists who inspected the apartment complex discovered something critical. There
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: were emergency stairwells and maintenance exits that had blind spots,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: areas not directly covered by camera angles, or where cameras
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: had small gaps in their field of view. If someone
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: knew the building layout intimately or scouted it beforehand, it
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was possible to walk out via the emergency stairs into
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: an unmonitored alleyway or secondary exit? Did Miss Jang, or
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: an hired accomplice, lure or force the couple out at
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: gunpoint or knife point in the early morning hours of
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: May 28? If they were forced down the stairwell into
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: an awaiting vehicle, it explains why there was no blood
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: in the apartment. Theory 2. Voluntary hiding. Living off the grid.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: The second theory suggests the couple wasn't murdered, but fled.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Supporters of this theory point to the missing passports. Could
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the psychological harassment for Ms. Jang have reached such a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: terrifying peak that John Min-gyun and Choi Sung-hee decided their
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: only option to protect their unborn child was to abandon
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: their lives, assume fake identities, and vanish off the grid entirely?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Critics of this theory hit back hard. Sunghee was a
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: passionate actress. Her career was taking off. She loved her dog.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: More importantly, it is virtually impossible to live completely off
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: the grid in modern South Korea, a country driven by
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: national ID numbers, digital banking, and facial recognition, for years
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: without leaving a single trace of medical care, banking, or travel.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Theory three, the double betrayal. A darker, far more disturbing
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: theory circulating on crime forums suggests a split narrative. Did
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Mingun meet with Miss Zhang willingly late that night? Did
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a confrontation go horribly wrong? Some speculate whether Mingun was
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: compromised or coerced into helping dispose of Song He before
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: he himself met a tragic end. When police interviewed Mingun's father,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Reporters overheard him make a chilling comment regarding Miss Jiang.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: She won't be forgiven this time. His words seemed to
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: confirm that those closest to the family knew the sheer
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: depth of danger Miss Jiang represented. It has been years
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: since Choi Sung-hee walked into that elevator with her groceries,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and since John Mingoon walked down the hallway to their
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: front door. Their apartment was eventually emptied, the groceries were
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: thrown away, the dog was taken in by relatives, but
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the questions remain as loud as ever. A young couple
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: in love. A baby that was never born. Two cell
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: phones pinging in opposite directions before turning forever silent. And
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: a mystery keyholder living thousands of miles away in Norway,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: wrapped in legal immunity. Did they walk out into the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: dark on their own terms? Or were they led into
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the shadows by an old ghost who refused to let go?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Until a body is found or a confession is made,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the story of the Busan newlyweds remains frozen in time.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Two people who walked into their own home closed the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: door and slipped into the thin air of history. Thank
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you for tuning in to Episode 6 of Lost. If
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: you have any information regarding the 2016 disappearance of John
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Min-goon and Choi Sung-hee, please contact the Busan Nambu Police Precinct.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to hit follow, rate the podcast, and stream
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: every week on Spotify. Until next week, keep looking for
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the truth in the dark.