Broadcast on November 12, SBS' "Tails of Tales" tracked a horrific incident that unfolded within a closed world under the subtitle "Closed World - The Spirit Cafe Murder Case."
In 2012, a male university student was murdered in a park in Sinchon. Shockingly, the suspects who killed him were revealed to be an ordinary high school couple.
In particular, they committed a horrific overkill-style murder against the victim, leading to speculation that they harbored a deep grudge against him.
The three had met through an online music band community. The perpetrators admitted to their crime readily without grasping the gravity of the incident. Rumors also circulated that their crime was driven by passion.
However, a tip arrived for a reporter covering the case: a tip claiming that this murder was not about passion, but connected to a spirit cafe. The tip stated that "saryeong," which refers to the spirits of the dead, and a spirit cafe where people who believe in these spirits gathered, were linked to the murder case.
In fact, the suspects were members of a spirit cafe. Involved in this incident were not only the high school couple who were suspects, but also a fixer and a witch.
A dispute had broken out during music band activities between the victim, Young-hoon, and the suspect, Chang-sik. Afterward, inside the group chat room of the spirit cafe to which Chang-sik and his girlfriend Jae-hee belonged, a plan to murder Young-hoon was set in motion. And the witch referred to the victim Young-hoon as an "offering."
On the day he was murdered, Young-hoon sent a message to his friends: a message saying he was going to rescue his ex-girlfriend, So-young.
In fact, on the day he was murdered, Young-hoon met his ex-girlfriend So-young along with the suspect couple. And So-young was the witch who had first proposed killing Young-hoon.
The spirit cafe had the feel of a pseudo-religious cult. At the time, So-young was deeply immersed in spirits and the spirit cafe, and clashed with Young-hoon, who refused to believe in and rejected the spirits that were so absolute to her. As a result, the two ended up breaking up.
Afterward, Young-hoon sent messages containing insults directed at the spirit cafe for about three weeks. Thus, while it began as a conflict with So-young, the suspects Chang-sik and Jae-hee became entangled as well.
However, some time later, Young-hoon apologized to them, saying he was in the wrong. Yet at the same time, So-young, stating she wished he were dead, planned the murder together with the suspect couple.
Young-hoon, who met the three, wanted to turn back time somehow. But So-young quickly left the scene, and in her place, the fixer appeared. The fixer was another member of the spirit cafe from whom Jae-hee had requested help.
Young-hoon, who wanted to mend his relationship not only with So-young but also with Chang-sik, even bought a graphics card for him and went to the meeting spot. However, despite his pleading, "I was wrong, please spare my life," Chang-sik, together with the fixer, brutally murdered Young-hoon. In addition, So-young, who was not at the scene, shocked people by sending them a message saying, "Handle the job well, and let's split it fifty-fifty if a wallet turns up."
In 2013, a similar incident occurred in Hiroshima, Japan. A verbal argument broke out in a group chat room, and an enraged woman gathered people from the group chat room to kill the person who had argued with her.
There were seven accomplices in total, all of whom were people in the group chat room. Regarding this, an expert analyzed, "In a closed world like social media, peer pressure builds up and an audience is created. As a result, no one can escape. If you don't play the role demanded by the group, you get excluded from it, so you become immersed in the role you have taken on."
In fact, in the Sinchon case, it was Jae-hee who called the fixer, acting as the hidden architect of the incident. And the fixer, Yoon, participated in the crime for Jae-hee, the object of his attachment, and even lied by claiming that he had led the entire crime. Yoon took part in the crime out of a desire not to be abandoned by the group. Moreover, the fixer was a character he had created himself in order to become someone who was needed.
Furthermore, Jae-hee's boyfriend Chang-sik, far from showing remorse after the murder, reminisced about the killing. Regarding this, an expert analyzed, "There is a possibility that Chang-sik felt a sense of rivalry toward Yoon," adding, "For him, how skillfully he could kill a person likely became an important issue." The program then drew attention to the group that fueled each other's anger.
The perpetrators were minors under the Juvenile Act at the time. Accordingly, Chang-sik and Yoon were sentenced to 20 years in prison, Jae-hee received an indeterminate sentence of 7 to 12 years, and So-young was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
An acquaintance of Young-hoon who had tipped off the truth of the case shared that he was unable to say what he really wanted to say to So-young at the time, expressing sorrow by stating that he wanted to ask: "Was it really you guys who did it? Did you really have to go this far? Why do you think you have the right to take a life?"
In a post Young-hoon left on social media a few days before the incident, he was making a sincere apology to the three—at the very same time the three were planning his murder.
The broadcast also pointed out the bystanders who watched the situation unfold in a closed world. A closed world where going with the flow is easy, but going against it is not. With this, it provoked much thought by asking what you would do when words of condemnation are being poured onto a single person.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.