Father of high school girl who went missing 25 years ago dies in car accident without meeting her

A leaflet that Song Gil-yong, the father of Song Hye-hee, who went missing in 1999, handed out to people to find her for 25 years.

Song Gil-yong, who spent 25 years searching for his daughter by traveling around the country and putting up banners reading, “Please find Song Hye-hee who went missing,” has died without meeting his daughter. He was 71 years old.

On August 28, the Citizens' Group for the Search for Missing and Disappeared Families said that Song passed away in a car accident on the 26th.

Song's daughter, who was 17 years old at the time of her disappearance, went missing after getting off at a bus stop near her home in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on February 13, 1999, when she was a second grader at Songtan Girls' High School. According to police, there was a man who got off the bus with her at the time.

Song searched for her daughter throughout the night and reported her missing the next day, but after police searched the area, they were unable to find her.

Song gave up his job and spent the next 25 years traveling the country with flyers and banners looking for her daughter. He visited highway rest stops and train stations to post flyers and hang banners. He periodically made new banners to replace the ones that were defaced. He carried a bundle of flyers with an image of his daughter's current appearance and a photo of her at the time of her disappearance, and distributed 700 flyers a day.

Song's wife reportedly took her own life five years after her daughter's disappearance, suffering from depression over the loss of her daughter.

Over time, the police investigation was temporarily suspended. In February 2014, the statute of limitations expired and the case has remained unsolved since then.

However, Song did not give up. He even struggled to make ends meet and suffered from bad credit standing. As he got older and it became difficult to work at construction sites, he made money collecting waste paper and kept hanging banners to find his daughter.

As his story became known, some people sponsored the cost of making banners. Various media and broadcast programs also highlighted Song's disappearance, and reports of “seeing her” came in from all over the country. Song has since traveled around the country with a larger picture of his daughter on his truck.

In recent years, Song has reportedly been in and out of hospitals due to his deteriorating health. His home is decorated with photos of his daughter and his wife from the entrance. The banners he posted are still hung throughout the city center of Seoul and the metropolitan area.

“Mr. Song put his daughter's photo everywhere he could see and never forgot about her,” said Na Joo-bong, head of the Citizens' Group for the Search for Missing and Disappeared Families. ”I never thought he would die in vain like this, so I am very sad.”

His mortuary was set up at the Songtan Cheil Funeral Hall in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.