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The Yeongdo District John Doe, occasionally referred to as the Busan John Doe, was a man whose remains were found inside of a manhole at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University in the Yeongdo district of Busan, South Korea.
Case[]
On 22 August, 2006, workers arrived at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University to clean a manhole in a parking lot next to the school dormitory after a foul odor was reported by students. Upon opening the cover, the workers found a blue jade mat lying at the bottom. It was first thought of as just a trash bag, but when the workers retrieved it the rotting smell grew stronger. Curious as to what was making the stench, the workers opened the bag to find the severely decomposed body of a man whose arms were tied and left in a kneeling position.
Upon police arrival and investigation, the decedent was found to have a plastic bag wrapped around his head and tied around his neck reading "Aram Mart", a discount business in Busan at the time. It was estimated that he had been murdered and had died at least six months to a year before. During the autopsy, it was discovered that the man's cause of death was blunt force trauma to his neck, along with him being estimated to have been a man in his mid-40s. He had only been wearing a panty-type of underwear for clothing. Though there was reported wear on his teeth, it was stated that the man likely had never sought dental care in his life.
Authorities began their investigation by attempting to track down Aram Mart and the location where the panties were purchased but only discovered that the closest Aram Mart to where the decedent was discovered had opened in 1998 and closed in March 2005. DNA was able to be obtained from his teeth but turned up no matches in South Korea's DNA database. He was then theorized to be a missing student from the university, though no matches were found. Instead, authorities now theorized that he was a construction worker.
10 years after his discovery, authorities exhumed the man's remains to make several 3D reconstructions to aid in the identification of the decedent, but have received no further leads. There is currently no indication as to who killed the man or why he was killed and left in the manhole in the university's dormitory parking lot.
Clothing and accessories[]
- A blue jade mat.
- Panties in size 105XL with a waist circumference of 34 - 36.
Sources[]
- Kukje Newspaper (Korean) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- Jung Rak-in's Case Tracking (Korean) POSTMORTEM WARNING