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Suwon John Doe was a man whose mutilated and dismembered remains were found in the Sindae Reservoir (now the Gwanggyo Lake Park) in Suwon, South Korea. He is suspected to have been a victim of an unknown killer that had murdered a cafe owner a year before his discovery.
Case[]
On the afternoon of March 2nd, 2008, two fishermen at the Sindae Reservoir in the Yeongtong district of Suwon noticed a black plastic bag floating in the water. One of the fishermen became curious and caught the bag to open it, finding what he had first thought was pork inside of it. Though, upon closer inspection of the contents, he found the meat to not be pork but instead human flesh. Immediately, the local police were notified about the discovery and a search was ordered for the reservoir to find any potential remaining pieces of the corpse in the bag. Two additional bags of human limbs and flesh would be found in separate areas of the reservoir during the search.
Overall from the three bags they had discovered, the authorities had recovered the decedent's shoulders, pelvis, and thighs, with his genitals seemingly having been removed from his pelvis. The rest of his remains were never found, and his death was immediately ruled as a homicide. Due to the precision of the cuts on the victim's body, it was determined that his killer was skilled with knives and saws. Though, no further information about the decedent could be collected due to his head and hands being absent from his body. Another search of the reservoir was conducted to find these parts, including draining the reservoir to search its bed, much to no avail. In pursuit to determine the decedent's potential time of death, authorities contacted the manager of the reservoir to inquire about any incident that may allude to when the man was dumped in the water. According to the manager, the winter weather had frozen the reservoir with about 10 centimeters of ice until February 20th, weeks before the discovery. It was surmised that the decedent had to have been dumped into the water sometime after February 20th due to the state of decomposition his remains were in. With a lack of incoming leads, the case fell cold until two months later in May.
On May 6th, a man fishing in the reservoir would discover additional pieces of the decedent's body, including his head, hands, calves, and knees. Any attempt to use his fingerprints was fruitless due to the state of decomposition they were in. It is suspected that the killer had left these remains in the reservoir at a later time and had been planning to dump them over a certain period. Though, no further leads in the case would appear, even after several attempts to appeal for information on television programs. The investigation team would disband in 2009 despite the discovery that the decedent was possibly killed by the same perpetrator as a 2007 murder of a cafe owner and the case has remained inactive since 2019 after a final appeal for information on television.
Characteristics[]
- Type O blood.
- Thin, black tattoo of a heart with an arrow piercing it accompanied by the word "LOVE" below the heart on his right calf.
Media[]
- On May 19th, 2008, a Korean broadcast company's true crime program named "Real Police" would discuss the case.
- tvN's "I am a PD" would air an episode on November 26th, 2008, discussing the process of becoming a police detective alongside a discussion of the case.
- SBS' "Unanswered Questions" featured an appeal for information about the case at the end of an episode concerning a case about newlyweds that had gone missing in Busan in 2019.
Sources[]
- Incheon Ilbo (Korean)
- Jung Rak-in's Case Tracking (Korean) POSTMORTEM WARNING