Over 900 'ghost baby' cases under investigation: police

Police are investigating over 900 cases of unregistered babies, or “ghost babies, in Korea. The National Police Agency said Monday it has received a total of 1,069 ghost baby cases and 939 of them are under investigation as of 5 p.m. Friday.

A grandmother accused of murdering her grandson and abandoning the baby's body on a hill in Yongin, Gyeonggi, in 2015 leaves Yongin Dongbu Police Precinct on Saturday to attend an arrest warrant hearing. The baby suffered from Down syndrome. [YONHAP]

Police are investigating over 900 cases of unregistered babies, or “ghost babies," in Korea.

The National Police Agency said Monday it has received a total of 1,069 ghost baby cases and 939 of them are under investigation as of 5 p.m. Friday, an increase from the 780 cases under investigation as of 2 p.m. Thursday.

Police confirmed 34 deaths in the cases filed so far. Of these, 11 cases are being investigated by police agencies as murder is suspected.

Police are still tracking the whereabouts of 782 other newborns.

Over 2,000 cases of unregistered babies born between 2015 and 2022 were investigated by the government from June 28 through last Friday. The investigation came as the Board of Audit and Inspection announced a total of 2,236 newborns were unregistered at birth.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is investigating 205 cases and is handling the largest number of cases under investigation by police, followed by the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police's 183 cases and the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police's 85 cases.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Monday postponed its announcement of the final result of the inspection originally slated for Wednesday to early next week.

“Some local governments have not been able to complete their inspections,” the Welfare Ministry announced, adding that these authorities are conducting further investigations.

Police last Thursday search for a baby's body suspected of having been buried on a hillside in Yongin, Gyeonggi, in 2015. The police on Monday said they concluded the search as they were unable to find the body. [GYEONGGI NAMBU PROVINCIAL POLICE]

Police on Monday told the press they are also investigating the mother of a baby boy who is suspected of being murdered by his father and grandmother and was buried on a hillside in Yongin, Gyeonggi, in 2015.

The mother initially told the police that she was unaware of the alleged murder as her husband told her that the baby died at birth.

But police found evidence that the mother knew the newborn was alive at birth, as she signed a document confirming the baby is alive.

Police officially arrested the father, in his 40s, and the grandmother, in her 60s, on Saturday on suspicions of murder. The two are accused of neglecting the newborn to death and abandoning the baby’s body on a hillside.

The father reportedly told the police that he “committed the crime because he was incapable of raising a disabled child,” after the baby was born with Down syndrome.

Police suspect the two premeditated the crime as they were aware of the baby would suffer from Down syndrome via a DNA test.

A court on the same day issued an arrest warrant for a mother who neglected her six-day-old baby to death and dumped her body in a public trash collection box in Gwangju in 2018.

The mother in her 30s told the police she found the baby dead after she left home for several hours. She put the baby's body in a plastic trash bag and dumped it in a public trash collection box.

Economic hardship and suspects' tendencies to conceal their pregnancies and childbirth were some of the motives behind those who allegedly abandoned their babies.

A woman in her 40s was also arrested Saturday on suspicions of killing her one-day-old baby girl and dumping the body in her mother’s vegetable garden in Gimpo, Gyeonggi.

She testified that she “was incapable of raising the child for economic reasons.”

“The main motive of parents abandoning their newborns is to hide from the others that they have given birth,” said Kim Youn-shin, a forensic medicine professor at Chosun University, in his paper published in May.

The motives behind 12 of the 20 cases related to abandonment and deaths of infants studied were due to the parents being afraid that others would find out about the birth, followed by eight cases committed due to financial difficulties.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]