Signal (시그널)

Lee Hae-young. Disappeared September 2009.

She was 27 years old at that time.

Seo Yeong-jin. Disappeared May 2001. She was 35 at that time.

Park Ah-young. Disappeared March 2004. She was 25.

Noh Hyun-mi. Disappeared October 2005. She was 43.

Park Se-jung. Estimated time of disappearance is April 2006.

She was 28.

Kim Yun-min. Disappeared January 2008. She was 39.

Namgung Sun. Disappeared April 2010. She was 31.

Lee Mi-jung. Disappeared June 2011. She was 23.

And there's one more victim whose identity we don't know yet.

That's nine corpses in total that we've found buried in Mt. Dong-eui.

Each corpse was wrapped with a mat, a paper box or a plastic bag,

and its head was covered with a black plastic bag before they were buried.

Are you saying they were killed by one person?

Yes. That's what we're assuming right now.

And there's more.

These are the victims of the Hongwon-dong case in 1997.

The MO and the way the bodies were wrapped...

were the same as the bodies we found recently.

What are you talking about?

Are you saying nine more people died because we couldn't catch the killer?

What were you all doing?

If the press finds out about this, it will be a disaster.

How are we going to stop that?

We can't stop it.

And we shouldn’t stop it.

What?

This is a serial murder case with nine dead victims.

We won't be able to control the press.

Are you saying we should admit that we were useless back then?

Why not let the Cold Case Squad take over?

They solved big cases like the South Gyeonggi case.

People have a lot of trust in them.

The case wasn't solved because of the police in the past

but the team will take over and solve it.

This will be enough to keep the media quiet.

What do you guys think?

I think it would be for the best.

Okay.

The Wide-Area Squad Commander is here, right?

Yes, sir.

Give the Cold Case Squad full support

and report back to me with everything that happens with the investigation.

Yes, sir.

Did you do that on purpose?

You want them to fail...

so that you can blame them and shut down the squad, right?

Why?

Are you worried about them?

Is that why...

you didn't report when Park Hae-young was digging up Kim Sung-bum?

They won't be the only ones...

who get disadvantages if they fail.

Tell us.

What happened when you got taken?

Why couldn't they catch the killer?

Will you be okay?

Shouldn't you go to the hospital?

Tell me.

I... don't know.

I couldn't see anything.

Cha Soo-hyun, you're no ordinary victim.

You're a detective.

The guy who took you killed two people already.

We need your memory to catch him.

You don't even know for sure.

The Captain told us to investigate it as a kidnapping case.

Tell me.

You must've heard something.

A sound…

Water…

I heard the sound of water dripping.

It's hard to live, right?

Be quiet.

It was a voice...

of a young man.

And his hand...

was thin and cold.

And then...

he went out after telling me

to wait for him.

The door opened.

Cold wind came in.

I felt that I'd die if I didn't leave then.

So...

I got up...

and looked for the door.

But…

I can't do it.

Keep going.

-Let her rest. - Cha Soo-hyun! Look at me!

Look at me!

It's okay now.

So talk.

I found...

the door.

There was a dead body there?

I'm not sure.

But that hand...

was so cold.

How did you escape?

And after that?

I kept running.

And then,

I ran into something.

I think I passed out.

When I opened my eyes...

you were there.

Which direction did you run?

I just...

ran forward.

I just ran forward.

But I couldn't see anything.

How long?

How long did you run for? How many minutes?

I don't know.

Think hard!

10 minutes…

I think I ran for 15 minutes.

Anything else?

The smell.

What kind of smell?

When I got out of that house...

I could smell a sewer.

There's a stream in Hongwon-dong.

The sound of running water?

I don't… I don't know.

Think harder.

I think I heard it.

I heard the sound of running water.

This will do.

Somewhere near the stream.

A house with a bathroom.

A man who lives alone. That's enough for us to find him.

You should go home and get some rest.

Or go to the hospital.

Somebody take her to the hospital.

Okay.

Did you have to do that to someone who just went through that?

Where are you going?

To the armory.

I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.

It's 10 to 15 minutes distance from where you found her.

If you draw straight lines,

there are three areas where she may have been locked up.

Look for a one-story place with a bathroom or a sink.

A man in his 20s who lives alone.

This is a record of people who moved into the area.

You'll be able to see who lives alone.

Okay.

Let's do this.

VICTORIA BAR

Shit.

Hey, wait for me!

Have you heard anyone screaming around here?

Did you hear a woman screaming?

No.

Did you get anything?

Get in.

-Let's go this way. -This way.

There's no man living alone over there.

Get in quickly.

I thought we could find him quickly.

But we couldn't find anything.

Time passed by

and the Captain, Kim Bum-joo at that time,

told us to close the case.

Close the case?

Two people died and a detective nearly did, too.

If they had caught him,

nine people wouldn't have died.

The executives don't like serial murder cases, now or back then.

There's no motive. They kill anyone for no reason.

That's why there aren't enough leads.

The serial killers that have been caught were

caught by informants or coincidences.

Gosh, you work so hard and get no leads

and get criticized for being incompetent.

And every time that happens, someone takes the blame and gets fired.

This time, too.

If we don’t catch him, we could take all the blame.

It's like we are holding a ticking bomb.

HONGWON-DONG CASE REPORT

We spoke to the families of the victims except for the one who's unidentified.

We found out some important facts.

Three of the victims lived in Hongwon-dong

and the other five had to come to Hongwon-dong often

for work, relocation, marriage and so on.

All the victims including the ones in 1997

had some sort of connection to Hongwon-dong.

And as the southwest side of Mt. Dong-eui

is near the north of Hongwon-dong,

it's likely the killer has lived or worked in Hongwon-dong

since 1997 to present day.

Any other leads?

A serial murder...

especially one that happened before

needs a precise profiling.

Now, we will present to you our profile on the killer.