Searching for The Frog Boys: South Korea’s Most Infamous Unsolved Mystery [Documentary]

so in 1991 five boys from daegu south korea  mysteriously vanished without a trace   over a decade later their bodies were found  in an area that had already been surged   a missing person's case turned into  an unsolved murder investigation   with over 500 false leads in a span of over 10  years even with modern advances in forensics the   truth about what happened to those boys  that day has never been figured out so   what do we know for sure today we look  at the unsolved mystery of the frog boys march 26 1991 was a public holiday in south  korea that tuesday was an election day the   first democratic election in 30 years everyone  was preoccupied with how the election would go   other news was pushed to the side it was on  this spring day that five boys went out to play   taking advantage of the warming  weather and the day off from school   while it wasn't certain where the five of  them were going they were off for an adventure   one that would unfortunately had turned  out to be their last ruchiel won joho yon and kim yong-sek were all described as closer  than brothers by wu jong-u julwan's father   the five of their families lived in  a village just outside daegu city   the boys were all neighbors and their  houses were arranged in a circle   they lived so close to each other that they could  just walk out of their front doors and immediately   hang out something which they often did according  to wu jong-u they were like the five musketeers   zhonggu only realized that his child was missing  when he received a phone call from his son's   taekwondo academy wu chilwan hadn't shown up that  day after the phone call chong walked around the   neighborhood asking the other parents if their  boys hadn't shown up to the academy as well   it was soon obvious that his  son was not the only one missing   during his search a friend of the boys told  jonghyun that the five children were on their way   to collect salamander eggs other news reports said  that the boys were on their way to catch frogs   as such the missing friends  became known as the frog boys   if the boys were indeed on their way to catch  frogs then there was only one place they could be   mount warion a mountain range behind song  high school all of the parents went to mount   marion to search for their children and  remain there well into the evening hours   even so they found no trace of their sons the  parents quickly filed a report with the police   the police however regarded the  boys as nothing more than runaways   the parents were simply told to wait it out  and see if their children would come home   maybe they were out playing and lost track  of time hanging out later than expected   at this point there was no case to investigate  at least not in the minds of the authorities   two days later word had begun to spread  around daegu the boys still hadn't come home   after a week the case had become nationwide news   were the frogboys simply missing were they still  alive those were the questions on everyone's lips three days after the initial disappearance the kim  family received a phone call from an unknown man   this mystery caller claimed  to have the boys saying   i have the children they are  all suffering two are very ill   mr kim went to an area near daegu station  along with the other parents and the police   the anonymous caller had asked for a ransom in  return for the children and told them all to   meet him there the group waited for an hour but  no one showed up not the perp not the missing   frog boys no one only the distraught parents  and their hopelessness remained on that street   the phone call later turned out to be a prank   the police continued to regard the frog  boys as an open and shot runaway case   najubong the chairman of the national organization  of missing children said that the police didn't   really actively investigate the case this  holds true as we'll see but at the very   least the police did take more of an interest  in the case after the media became involved   the boy's parents all took part in a television  program called the square of public opinions   they made their frustration with the police's  involvement or lack of involvement known   park gancio park chan ins father made  it clear that he believed the police   were trying to close the case as quickly as  possible and avoiding a proper investigation   on the tv show he held up a flyer and pointed  out that the wording had been changed when it   was going to be released by the police the boys  have been missing from the start said gancio   but somehow the pamphlets printed by the  authorities say run away this indicates that the   police are trying to wrap up the case as quickly  as possible by treating it as a simple runaway   we want to change this during the  program a phone call came in live on air   hudo-san young six mother confirmed that it was  her son's voice on the other end of the line   jung sik was alive the excitement of the parents  and the public was short-lived however this call   turned out to be another sick prank the show of  frustration on live tv had the desired effect of   driving the police to become more active in the  case after the square of public opinions aired   roh taiwu the president of south korea at the  time ordered an official search of mount warrior   over 300 000 policemen and volunteers  took to scouring the mountain   officials created a special unit  dedicated to finding the frog voice   a reward of 42 million won around thirty five  thousand dollars u.s was offered for the boy's   safe return donated by various schools and civic  groups who had taken an interest in the case   mount warrior was now a scene of loss fear  and anxiety rather than the place of peaceful   natural beauty it had been once before droves  of volunteers climbed in lines up the mountain   beating down the tall grass as they went  their search efforts lasted for over a year   all the while they held onto hope  that the five boys would be found   sadly for the devastated parents these searches  yielded no clues as to what happened to their sons   the novelty of the search wore off after a  few years life went back to normal for the   rest of the nation but the frog boys  families were left with no answers   rather than giving up the fathers of the missing  boys made searching for their sons their full-time   duty they quit their jobs to look for their boys  passed out pamphlets to the public and even rented   a truck which they drove around the entire  country the sides of the truck were covered in   pictures of the frog boys with the words please  help find our missing lads printed underneath   they hoped that this might inspire someone  to come forward with some type of evidence   rain snow wall shine the fathers persisted their  search was aided by the aforementioned najubong   na had decided not to abandon the search  after seeing the physical and mental toll   that the case was taking on the families  in an article by cna insider na noted that   yonggu's father looked pale and his face  was turning blue he was hooked on sleeping   tablets we realized that even this strong  man was losing his health after a while   seeing the fathers become weaker like  that i couldn't turn my back on them   during a few media events to keep attention  drawn to the case na noticed some strange men   present in the audience well-dressed suspicious  looking men who always stood or sat at the back   one day he spoke to one of them this mysterious  individual gave nah his business card the card   had no information on it other than a name and  phone number no place of work no business address   no clues nah later discovered that the man that  he had spoken with was from an intelligence agency   the desperate fathers were being followed  around the nation by people who claimed to   be protecting them but nah believed otherwise  instead of being treated with respect   and privacy the families were being counted by  intelligence agents who followed their every move   they knew the schedules of every individual family  member in each of the five households agents were   even sent to the family's homes they were being  far too hands-on something wasn't right about this   as public interest in the case faded  even more the search efforts slowed   eventually newspapers refused to publish  anything related to the frog boys the story   had become old news of little interest to anyone  anyone besides the boy's families of course   kim hyeondo yonggu's father recalled how  they were all thrown out of newspaper   offices in seoul while attempting to have  the papers publish pieces about the boys   three years after taking on the search the  fathers knew they needed to go back to work   there were other duties at home other  family members who needed to be cared for   debts to be paid life needed to go on  with heavy hearts they ceased their surge two years passed a psychologist from  the united states named kim garwan had   caught wind of the frogboy's case and came  forward claiming to have studied it in depth   this turned out to be more of a  red herring than anything else   the psychologist claimed that the boy's bodies  were buried in kimchil gyu's home the father   of young sick what was his reasoning for that  assertion apparently kim was unable to give a   decent alibi for where he was for the first three  hours his son was missing the other parents were   skeptical still kim's home was dug up while the  media filmed leading to more suffering stress and   humiliation and nothing to show for the suspicion  the psychologist's assertion was complete bull on september 26 2002 hikers were out  searching for acorns on mount wariong   but choi huan thai found much more than  acorns on the mountainside that day   in amongst the foliage he discovered shoes  and clothing shoes and clothing that were   suspiciously childlike soon he found  bones the authorities were called this   led to the eventual discovery of five sets of  remains presumed to be those of the frog boys   because the remains were so deteriorated when they  were found it was difficult for forensic experts   to determine the cause of death or even to confirm  that the bodies belong to the frog boys at all   despite that family members confirmed  that the bodies were their missing sons   clothing five pairs of shoes and braces that  belong to joe ho young helped them determine   that strangely one of the boy's clothes were  discovered with the sleaze of his sweater   knotted together in a way that would have  been impossible for him to do by himself   his trousers and shoes were also found flipped  over his shoulders equally estranged an empty   bullet casing along with three unused  bullets were found in yongqui's clothing   upon the discovery of the remains  police called them forensic specialists   chai zheng min a forensic specialist on  the scene recalled that for about two   to three hours the police were making  many mistakes and handling the bodies   for example they didn't block off  the area where the boys were found   the amount of evidence the forensic team were  able to use shrank as the police group bones   together in a nonsensical way and placed them  on newspapers to shield them from the ground   in the end the only evidence the forensic team  were able to use was their own given the state   of the evidence the police had handled this  also made finding the cause of death difficult   initially police suggested that the lads  had simply died from a combination of   exhaustion and hypothermia the night of their  disappearance had been called them wet after all   it could only make sense that they became  lost and huddled together for warmth right   forensic specialists and family members both  disputed this notion mount wariong is only about   two kilometers away from daegu making it unlikely  that the boys would be stuck in harsh weather   the korea alpine federation experts in working  in mountainous terrain and dense forests   also came in to help on the case choi wan  seok the director of this rescue team noted   that he was certain this was a murder case  even if the police were convinced otherwise   he said that area isn't high up at all  it isn't even 100 metres from the streets   if it was cold and raining it would have taken  only five minutes for the boys to run home   the frog boys were close enough to civilization  that they could have seen and heard the city   they were familiar enough with the area that they  could have been home quickly if they needed to be   kimchi q kim young's six uncle stated the boys  used to visit and play around this mountain   and knew the direction very well it doesn't  make sense that they got lost there boy's   remains were found huddled together and after  examination forensics found evidence of trauma   one of the boys was found with holes in both  sides of his skull there were marks on the skulls   of three of the other boys which quote unquote  appear to be created by blows with metal objects   possibly a tool of some kind that's according  to a report by kyungpuk national university's   forensic medicine team later analysis of the  soil where the remains were found showed that   the five boys died in that location even so  the parents still believe that the boys were   murdered somewhere else and the bodies moved to  that spot where they were eventually discovered   at a later point why wouldn't the bodies have  been found during the past decade of searching   if they'd been there the whole time  mount warion had been scoured thoroughly   police also discovered a five centimeter  long shell and two one centimeter long empty   shells near where the boys were discovered but  claimed that there were no links between the two   they explained this finding a way by pointing  out that there was a military range in the area   about 300 meters away the base's  shooting range was operating at the time   but isn't in use today maybe the shells  were fired off during some military exercise   the boy's parents weren't convinced back when  the frog boys went missing a friend of chul1   mentioned that he had heard a gunshot followed  by a scream the day the voice disappeared when he   was asked by the parents if he'd been telling the  truth all those years ago he confirmed that he had   there was no further investigation into his claim the rumor mill's been  working overtime on this case   there's plenty of speculation even conspiracy  regarding what happened to the frog boys   one theory both the people involved in  the case and the south korean public   seem to be behind the most is that the military  might be behind the boy's deaths after all as the   police pointed out there was a military shooting  range on mount varian not far from where the boys   were discovered park gancio also suspects that the  military had something to do with his son's demise   he pointed out that while a regular soldier  would have had the day off due to the holiday   a commissioned officer would have been able to  go to the practice range alone if he'd wanted to   troy once york also mentioned that the day the  boys went missing there were reports that the   shooting range had been used by a soldier  to empty the remaining ammo from his gun   to this day no one knows that soldier's identity  narjubong speculated that the military were   involved in the boys disappearances and slayings  believing quote unquote they are hiding something   an accidental shooting military  or otherwise seems unlikely though   one boy was found with holes in both sides  of his skull but the hulls were missing the   telltale signs of a ballistic injury bone  fractures the others showed head injuries   that look like they've been hit by a large  object not a bullet that doesn't make sense   if this was an accidental shooting that doesn't  make sense if this was an accident of any kind   on top of that why were the boys  found with their clothes tied in knots   the police never brought the military  into question although rumors regarding   army involvement continued there was no  further investigation into the matter   korea's zhong ang daily wrote about one  theory saying the boys were kidnapped by   a mentally ill individual but there  isn't much to support that idea   xiang min presented his theory that a  psychopath was behind the boy's disappearances   this theory was circulating  around the public at the time   if this were a random psychopathic killing  however surely there would have been other   similar incidents in south korea both back then  and more recently to this day there haven't been   kanji won a lawyer who eventually filed a  lawsuit against the police overseeing the case   believes that there's quote unquote  a huge conspiracy around this mystery   kim hyudo thinks that one of the  frog boys was accidentally shot   and that the others were selane as a cover-up  with so many unanswered questions and no   official suspects the case of the frogboys  is both frustrating and heartbreaking after over a decade of supposedly assessing  and reassessing what little evidence they had   the police finally threw in the towel they  claimed that they could find nothing else   beyond the bones and what clothes and shoes  they were able to salvage on the mountain   the south korean military denied any  involvement in the boy's deaths at the time   the statute of limitations on the case  was also nearing its expiration date   meaning that if any suspects were  found and they couldn't be prosecuted the five boys were finally laid to rest on march  26 2004 their parents carried their ashes to the   nakdong river scattering them across the water  to flow into the pacific in a heart-rending   statement park gancio said they died together so  he wanted them to play together in the afterlife   as mentioned kanji won eventually filed three  lawsuits against the police who oversaw the case   feeling that the parents deserve to be  compensated by the government for their suffering   especially when the police tampered with evidence  that could have led to a conclusive cause of death   all three lawsuits failed and  the investigations were closed one light in the darkness of this case is that  south korea abandoned the law regarding the   statute of limitations in 2015. if new evidence  is found the frogboy's case could potentially   be reopened this also gives other families the  hope of having their cases reviewed again as well   kimchi young sex father died at age 40 of  liver cancer wujong-u speculates that he   was tired from the stress of losing his  child and all of the media interference   while the surviving parents lost the lawsuit  filed against the authorities and have not   received any compensation for their loss  no amount of money could heal their wounds   even today they still hold hope of finding  the truth about what happened to their sons   the mystery of the frog boys is incredibly tragic   between police mismanagement of the case the  political environment at the time the lack of   evidence and the lack of suspects there are few  if any answers regardless of the messy handling   of the evidence and politics at the end of the  day this case revolves around five children   whose lives are ended far too early and five  families whose lives have been altered forever   but what do you think were the frog boys simply  unable to find their way home in bad weather   was the military involved in the cover-up should  the government have done more to aid in the search   along with the police let me know  your thoughts in the comment section hey guys lazy here and thank  you very much for listening   just before the video ends i'd like to say  a huge thank you to rose corvin for making   the script for this video and also a big thank  you to robin mickelson for making the thumbnail   of course i can't forget to shout out my biggest  supporters here on youtube and over on patreon   and they are as follows alec love amanda hansen  dapper hamish k phantom knight alex greenswall   anime wimp azrael warakai charlie lackey connor  lothan crawford k macdonald expand on gina valera   grey white rabbit infamous sempappy leonardo  martinez lord 210 monica mendoza nadine   peter log juraj philip westra procupadine neta  sarah ramirez silas geist sloan crawford and   the only dorita thank you guys so much for your  continued support it really helps the channel out   that wraps things up for this one guys so until  the next time you all stay spooky and remember   the best things happen in the dark

Channel: Lazy Masquerade

Views: 665,223

Rating: 4.9501066 out of 5

Keywords: lazy masquerade unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries, scariest video ever, lazy maskarade, deeply disturbing, creepy, creepy pasta, scary, horror, audiobook, nexpo, mr nightmare, reignbot, blameitonjorge, new, best, reddit stories, true scary stories, true horror stories, yandere, Japanese, English, British accent, asmr, relaxing, top 10, skin walkers, unsolved mysteries, exploring, photos with backstories, true crime, mystery, real, south korea, the frog boys, frog boys, korean, missing, chills

Id: CKnct8vjYvo

Length: 22min 46sec (1366 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/suwann]

We often go there to visit family. I think about these boys a lot :(