#316: Elite Korean Matchmaking Service For Ultra Wealthy Ends With Marriage, Incest, and Murder

27:20No. But at the same time, I don't know if she wants them to divorce, right? Yeah. It's just really bizarre. Yeah. She just wants someone to experience what she experienced is a big idea that people have. Because it's not maternal. Whatever she's doing is not in protection of her daughter. Maybe her daughter didn't believe her that her husband is cheating. But it's just odd. So the PIs, they would roll their eyes and continue working And they said, in hindsight, this was a really bad joke to make But they would say things like, look, this lady is so crazy Someone's gotta die for her to finally give up They had no idea that that would come true Ji-Hee and her family knew that something was wrong long before she disappeared Ji-Hee came home one day and told her parents I feel like there's this creepy man watching me Like stalking me She said that she kept looking over her shoulder Walking back home from the library And he was constantly there So she did something very smart.

28:18She tried taking four left turns just to see if he was still there. Because what is four left turns? It's a circle. And he was still there walking in a circle with her. So she said she walked straight up to the guy and asked, Are you following me? He looked taken aback. He didn't respond. He just kind of and then scurried off. It's so strange. Ever since that incident, being the methodical person that Chi-He is, she's trying to be an attorney. she starts jotting down notes of every single creepy person that even glances her way because she doesn't know who this could be why they would watch her and then the phone call started it was almost always the same chia's parents would pick up and someone on the other line would ask is chia studying at home who's this why are you looking for my daughter are you the one following her the line would go dead the creepy thing about this was they said at first the voice sounded like a man's voice.

29:09But the longer that they listened, the more it sounded like a woman pretending to sound like a man to hide their identity. Even Chia's friends started getting these bizarre phone calls. It was usually around midnight. Hi, I was just wondering if you have Chia's new phone number. Who is this? I'm a close family friend of Chia's. It's just weird. They never explained how they even got the friend's number and not Chia's number and why they were calling so late. And if you're a family friend, call a family member of Chie. Why are you calling me? When the friends weren't cooperative because of how creepy it was, the person would get frustrated and hang up.

29:45For the longest time, the family would practically jump out of their skin every time their phone rang. But this time it was their nephew, Hyun. So Chie's cousin, the son-in-law, the judge. Hey, did you recently go on a trip to Japan with Chie? Yeah. How did you know? We were just there for a short, like a few days. So we forgot to tell people about it. I don't remember telling you or your parents. Yeah, look, I just wanted to say that you should be careful. I think my mother-in-law is watching you. I think she put a tail on you. I think she suspects there's something going on with me and Jiha for whatever reason.

30:21So the speculation is that no one in the family knew that Jiha and her mom had gone to Japan. The mother-in-law probably assumed everybody knew and let it slip. the son-in-law was starting to suspect his mother-in-law and was like huh let me just confirm and once he confirmed it he's like okay something weird is happening chia's family they couldn't even begin to comprehend what the hell this means like what do you mean you think your mother-in-law thinks there's something going on between you and your cousin like what a bizarre out of this world unhinged assumption to make yeah it's so unhinged chia's dad got involved and he told his nephew you, look, this is your mother-in-law.

31:01We have no idea why she would even think this way, but you are the only one that can fix it. Just tell her straight up, you're not sleeping with your cousin and that is absurd. And honestly, you shouldn't even need to be telling her something like this. Hyun refuses. And this becomes a huge point of contention. Why would he refuse to deny an alleged affair with his own cousin? Because he was the second to be sold by his parents. That's how people see it. Hyun's older brother was a doctor. And Ui's Ha, so another's Ha. When he got married, the bride's family gifted them a big lump sum of cash. And now it was Hyun's turn.

31:37Honestly, this marriage was more of a business transaction than anything. There were negotiations with potential bride families about how much the bridal money would be. And it seemed like the moons had the best offer. $500 ,000 for his hand in marriage by a soon-to-be judge. Even Chia's dad didn't agree with what Hyun's parents were doing. But he's an adult and they can't fight his battles for him, right? Hyun was really good at studying, but it seemed like he had no opinion, no direction, no control over his own life. One of his ex-girlfriends probably knew better than anybody else, but they fell in love in college.

32:09She gets introduced to Hyun's parents and they immediately reject the relationship. They told him straight up, we don't like her, break up with her. And like a robot, he broke up with her. He just did whatever his parents wanted him to do. So when they wanted him to marry Mrs. Moon's daughter, he just did as he was told. He was going to marry her, but he also wouldn't be a present or loyal husband. He would just be there on paper. It seems like he just didn't really care if his mother-in-law thought he was cheating or not, even if it was with his cousin. He's like, whatever. There is a popular theory that Hyun was having an affair, but not with his cousin, because it's said that he was caught on the phone with someone and at his in-law's house, remember?

32:50But it wasn't Jiha he was talking to. So now in order to conceal his potential affair, he's just not even talking about Chia to his mother-in-law. But if he is actually having the fear, wouldn't they found out already by all these private investigators? See, that's also another thing that people are saying. Like, why would he not say anything? How would they not find out? But it's just, I think people are trying to understand why he wouldn't say anything. Yes, but I think there's a level of what you're saying, but he probably don't care. Like it doesn't impact him as much as it impacts the cousin.

33:26And I think it's such a weird conversation to be had. That's what I was about to say. I wonder if maybe the mother-in-law was accusing him of having an affair with another woman. Maybe he would have addressed it. But if there is an ajumma out there accusing you of sleeping with your cousin, you almost like don't even want to address it. Perhaps. Maybe she didn't even accuse him. She's just doing all that in the back end. And he just found out. She's not showing it. And it's a lot of discomfort to bring it out into the open, even though everyone knows what's going on. Right. Some people thought it was weird, though, that he did not confess to it.

33:59So regardless, Hyun did nothing, and Jihae and her parents were frustrated. But I do think that they were honestly a bit relieved. Maybe they felt a bit more at ease knowing that it was just a crazy mother-in-law situation instead of, I don't know, human traffickers, organ traffickers, right? Even just knowing who had set up the PIs to watch her, it seemed to bring the family a tiny inkling of, okay, this is still very scary, very odd, but at least we know kind of what we're dealing with. They were still very vigilant though. They got a restraining order against Mrs. Moon, their cousin's mother-in-law.

34:35And side note, Mrs. Moon tried to tell the judge that it was against her right to happiness and her right to equality if the court approved this restraining order. They did not listen. They approved it. It's such an audacious thing to argue, but worse than that, Chia's dad remembers while they were all in front of the judge Mrs. Moon turned to look at Chia and she just had this evil pure evil smile it was the kind of smile that he said was insinuating you really think that this is going to stop me? think again Chia's parents tried to get Chia to change up her schedule you know don't fall into a routine don't be so predictable but she liked her routine she spent years crafting this routine to make sure that she could maximize every single waking second of her day and to be the most productive human being alive.

35:18At 6 a.m., she would quietly as possible close the front door behind her while it's still dark outside and she never brings her phone or her wallet. She just runs to the local swimming pool. Indoor swimming pool. Swimming was kind of a necessary evil that she fell in love with. Prior to her daily morning swims, she would wake up, sit at her desk, study all day, lay down, go to sleep, repeat the next day. And after a few years, her back pain had gotten so bad she couldn't even focus on studying. They said the best therapy and treatment for back and waist pain from sitting is swimming. So that's why she chose swimming out of all sports, so that she could strengthen her back so that she could study harder.

35:56And as for why she left the house even before the sun came up, I mean, it was just the most optimal time in her schedule. It was what she did every single morning, like clockwork, until she vanished. The hunt for missing Jihe started a few hours after she had vanished. Her parents wasted no time. They rushed to the pool. They started asking employees, have you seen our daughter Chi-he? And they said, no, she didn't come in today, which we thought was odd because she comes in every day like clockwork. But actually, now that you bring it up, there was something odd a few days ago. Someone called us asking specifically for Chi-he, which we thought was weird.

36:29And now you're saying that she's missing because that's very odd. Who calls an establishment to ask about a patron, not even an owner or an employee, a random guest. They rushed back to the apartment complex and asked the security guard there if they had seen Chi-he since she left for the pool. And they said, no, I haven't. But a few days ago, something strange did happen. And we didn't mention it because we didn't think it was a big deal. But someone came asking, a monk, a monk came asking about Jihae. Specifically asking to see what time she went to school and came back. Even asking if she was home right now.

36:59Do you remember what else they look like? No, just a monk. Jihae's parents rushed to the police. They told them everything. The stalking, the mother-in-law, the accusations of incest, the monk. They said, please, you have to believe me. My daughter is not the type of person to run away. You have to listen to me. The police did not. They told them, she's an adult. She probably got burnt out from school. You're probably putting way too much pressure on her to be an attorney. So maybe, I mean, we've seen cases like this all the time. You know, the work pressure in South Korea, the studying pressure.

37:29It's too cutthroat. Kids snap. Students break. Nothing new here. Just wait a few days. Most of the time they come back. Ji-ha's dad did not have the patience to wait. He started passing out flyers in the neighborhood, getting everyone in town involved. He has the building manager of the apartment to give him the CCTV footage from that day. This was the first big break in the case. He saw Ji-hae walk out of the apartment, out of view for her morning swim session. And behind her, you can make out the shadows of two men following her. This should be enough to show the police that she's being stalked, right?

38:02They didn't initially believe him with the CCTV footage. He said he had to convince the police officers to do their jobs. He said, do you know what it feels like to go buy chicken and beer for police officers that don't want to do their jobs? And you have to put a smile on your face and give them food and try to encourage them to work and care about your daughter. Chi-ha's dad did most of the work for them. He asked around if anyone had seen Chi-ha or the figures in the footage. And the milkman, the milk delivery man, he's standing there staring at the poster. And he's like, whoa, this is weird.

38:37The dad's like, do you remember seeing her? no not her but you know there was this suspicious looking van that was parked in front of your side of the building for a few days before she went missing and then you're telling me that she went missing like that day i haven't seen that van since this can't be a coincidence right chia's parents brought the milkman into the police station as proof and you know look we're not going crazy clearly weird things are happening suspicious things and the police said can you tell us about anyone that was in the van or the license plate? No. So their way of investigating the case further was to hypnotize the milkman.

39:12They didn't really get much helpful information out of this. The milkman just told them that he saw two men. One was skinny and one had pimples. That was it. A little over a week after Chia's disappearance, her family got a call. Her body had been found in the mountains, about 13 miles away from where she lived. Her body had been placed in a large garbage bag her hands and feet were tied with string and her face had been taped up with duct tape one of her arms was broken in three places and she had been shot in the head six times four from the front of her face two to the back all close range so within about four to eight inches execution style this was all over the news in south korea it's incredibly rare to have homicide victims that die of gunshot wounds because in korea per 100 people 0.2 people own guns that's almost zero.

40:02That's almost nobody. Regular uniformed police officers don't even have guns. You have to be a detective or high up on the police ladder. In America, to give you perspective, per 100 people, 120 own guns. So I'm assuming that's stating that the people who do own guns own multiple guns. Immediately, this case gets everyone's attention for that reason because of how rare gunshot wounds are. But it's quickly explained that she had passed from an airsoft gun instead of a traditional firearm. So airsoft guns. These are guns that use air pressure only to shoot out pellets. So instead of like gunpowder, it's air pressure.

40:39They're way less dangerous than a regular gun. So think somewhere in the line of BB guns, pellet guns, airsoft guns. They're less dangerous, but that close, they can still be very fatal. Wow. It's suggested that Chie was shot up close, so they wanted to make sure that the gun worked and actually killed her. now this was going to be pretty easy for the police to find out who did it there it's hard to get airsoft guns even on the black market in South Korea if you have an airsoft gun you have a license it's for hunting purposes only it's like a library in Korea you go to the police station and you have to check in your own gun and they keep it and then you come in during hunting season and you can take it out for the day but you have to bring it back in when you're done and they check it back in

41:35so when chia's parents went to id her at the morgue they said we're gonna get this person we're gonna track down this gun and we're gonna track down who did this to their daughter and they said that one of her eyes had fluttered open when she was in the morgue they felt it it was a sign that she was telling them, I can't rest until you get me justice. Chia's dad remembers leaning in and closing both of her eyes and whispering, close your eyes and rest. Leave the rest up to me and I will make sure that you receive justice till my very last breath. It was a very hard promise to make. The perpetrators fled to Vietnam and then to China.

42:09It took Interpol, Chia's dad, cooperation with international police officers, even local Korean communities in these countries to track down the perpetrators. Chie's dad kept getting calls every day telling him how someone had just spotted the killers eating breakfast at a restaurant. Another caller said, you know, these suspicious Korean men that resembled the missing persons posters that you're showing us, because like I said, it was very easy for the police to track down who owned the airsoft gun that killed Chie. So they have the identity of these two men, but they're nowhere to be found. They're going to all these different countries asking around, and it was just frustrating to constantly hear that they were just out of reach by the time that authorities or Chie's dad himself would show up they were gone so they're all over the place like different countries running yeah so even though there were 25 pis working on it only two of them would be persons of interest and suspects because they were the two that actually killed her the other ones they weren't necessarily guilty all they did was i did this well they're not private investigators They're just like shady people.

43:12Got it. They're hired hitmen, basically. It took a full year for the perpetrators to get arrested. A full year. Once those two hitmen of sorts were arrested, they quickly gave up Mrs. Moon. They're like, hey, we have no interest in killing this random college student. We clearly did it because we were getting paid by this woman. Mrs. Moon hired one of the best attorneys in town. And Mrs. Moon was very cocky. She looked the detectives in the eye and basically said, So what? I hired some PIs to stalk her. Is that illegal? I didn't think so. If you think it is, fine. Arrest me for that. But nothing else.

43:45I didn't kill her. You have no proof. And I'll have you know that my husband is a very influential person. Once I get out, we will remember this forever. To who? To the detectives. Oh, shit. Now, this is where it gets really strange. Mrs. Moon's legal strategy was unhinged. At first, when people found out who she hired, Chi-Hai's dad, along with the community, was very concerned that they would never get the justice that they wanted. These were top tier rankings at matchmaking companies. This is the level of professionals we're talking about. Top tier, big law firm attorneys in the whole nation.

44:18They had power. They had connections. They were willing to play dirty. They had resources. Chia's dad was so convinced that the attorneys, because in Korea, there is saying that money buys freedom. I'm sure it exists in the US and everywhere in this world. the more money you have the easier it might be to evade the justice system evade consequences so chia's dad he said that he started practicing he wanted to prepare himself for the sentence to be read out as non-guilty and that she would get no time so he would stand on the furthest side of his living room grab pens and chopsticks fling them at the wall 12 feet away and he was trying to fling it so hard it would penetrate deeply enough into the wall that if it were a human brain, it would kill the person.

45:00He thought the attorneys are going to get her that not guilty verdict. So I'm going to kill her on the spot with a ballpoint pen through the eye. He didn't care if he had to go to jail for the rest of his life to do it. This is what he had to do. But every day in court, he started rethinking his strategy. It was just odd. Mrs. Moon was putting on a scene. She was yelling at her attorneys in front of everyone. She was yelling at the judge presiding over the case. She was provoking the prosecutors, pissing them off, hurling insults at them, which she That is in lawyer world, you don't do that. Even if you think the prosecutors are dumb, you are the defense, you do not make it known that you think they're dumb.

45:39That's not gonna help you get a plea deal. That's not gonna help you get less time. She's just that cocky? Yes, she would speak out of turn in the courtroom, which is a big no-no. She would smirk and say things like, Your Honor, that guy over there, he's writing novels, fiction, stories, it's lies. She was sitting there smirking the whole time. It felt like watching a bad movie of like a supervillain trope. Lawyers who were fascinated by the case commented that they had no idea what was going on in that courtroom. It was puzzling. Like top attorneys would drop the ball this hard. You had to wonder if there was an ulterior motive.

46:12Mrs. Moon's attorneys would put her up on the stand and ask her questions about the crime and her, quote, not involvement. But they would ask her questions that would get her riled up. It's like they were poking the bear. She would have these big emotional outbursts in court, which just made her look unhinged, unhinged enough to kill her family member. I have a question. Yes. At the beginning of the story, you mentioned that the husband tried to save 22K. Yes. And this is how this whole case evolved. Yes. So basically, Madam Do had planted all the seeds with the anonymous phone calls with Mrs.

46:49Moon saying that Hyun was cheating. and that's planted the seed planted the seed and then walked away now had would this murder have happened without madame du planting the seed we don't know how do we know that she planted the we know that she sent anonymous phone calls to break them up so madame du did not get paid 22 000 by the groom's site and she thought that mrs moon was heavily involved i'm sure she could pick up the signs this is an overly emotional overly involved mother she's the one that facilitated this marriage so she had someone call with no caller id to mrs moon and say hey your son-in-law is cheating your son-in-law is cheating and i think the intention on madam du's side was just to get them to break up or just even cause some discomfort in the family because she felt like she was wronged so why should they all live happily ever after she started the phone calls eventually stopped calling because they moved on but mrs moon was like a dog barking up a tree I don't know if she would have gotten to this same conclusion without those anonymous phone calls I don't know if it only accelerated or egged her on or if things would have played out differently We have no idea But in court, Mrs.

48:02Moon had no respect for the court She just had this smug confidence that you just honestly wanted to smack off her face, no offense And there's a speculation of why the attorneys failed Mrs. Moon's legal defense so badly Can you guess? Why what? Why the attorneys would drop the ball so badly to the point where not even top dog attorneys are looking at this like, why are they doing that? The attorneys are almost poking the bear. They're almost making her look worse. Right. So that's a strategy, right? Make her seem a little crazy. Or is it because they're getting paid not by Mrs. Moon, but by Mr.

48:39Moon? He was the one footing the bill. Technically, they're his lawyers. And it's likely that he wanted to get rid of his crazy murderous wife who would probably come for his alleged mistress next. Wait, this is a theory, right? A theory, alleged. But is the lawyer paid by the husband or the wife? It seems like paid by the husband. So even though technically they're married and it's hard to argue which bank account if they're even separate, he's the one with the power and influence. He's the one that they'll probably continue to do business with. That's crazy. That's a very popular theory. I mean, I think it's like the main theory because people just could not understand why these top dog attorneys are doing this.

49:15It was that bizarre of behavior. that not even a single attorney watching it could be like, oh, maybe they're doing some advanced strategy here. It was just odd. During the trial, the hitman's testimonies were used against Mrs. Moon. One of them was her nephew. Yeah, one of them was her nephew that was employed as her chauffeur. I guess she's fond of the idea of keeping everything in the family, even murder. And the other man was a loan shark that her nephew introduced her to. They said that Mrs. Moon just kept pressuring them, ordering them, Following her is not enough, okay? Just get rid of her now.

49:49They tried to calm her down because they were scared. They said, you know, we can't just go around killing a college student. How suspicious would that be? She has no enemies. The whole town would freak out. The whole nation would freak out. She's a law student at a prestigious college. Can you imagine the fear, the outrage if she just vanishes and dies? They tried to suggest a different idea. What if we do something that will get her out of the picture without directly targeting her? What would make her cut off the affair with her cousin? Maybe something traumatic needs to happen. Maybe her dad needs to die.

50:17Chie's dad remembers a new potential business partner entering into his life around that time. He introduced himself as an investor who had businesses worth$4 million and that he was looking into partnering with new people. He said that anything that you're interested in, we can check it out. Chie's dad said it didn't feel like a scam or anything, but it just, it was weird. There was something odd about him. Every business opportunity required a ton of travel. It was always, hey, there's a new clothing warehouse in Incheon that's hours and hours away. Like, do you want to come and check it out with me?

50:46The tuna business is going really well. We should fly to Japan to check it out. I have a new idea, but the manufacturers are in China. Do you want to go and check it out? Chie's dad never went with him, and thus they never had the opportunity to kill him. That's when they decided, let's just kill Chie to get it over with because they said it felt like Mrs. Moon would stop at nothing. Chie's dad would later say that he feels very guilty. He even cried to the judge and said, your honor if only i could i would gladly give up my life just to make sure that these monsters lose theirs now he said that chia was the reason their family was so close anytime family members would get frustrated or upset with each other or start fighting chia would sit them down and try to get each other to see everybody's side and by the end of that conversation it was very hard for them to still be upset she was the person that reminded everyone even when emotions were high that they're all on the same side we're all on the same team we just all want the best for the family Chie would take breaks from studying to knock on her parents' door and she would sit on the edge of the bed and massage her mom's feet and tell her about what she's been reading then she would hop up and finish her nightly routine where she would grab these probiotic drinks for everyone in the family she would go room by room handing them out and her dad says, he remembers, his very last words to her were thanks honey, leave it on the table for me he said if he had known that that would be the last time he saw his daughter he would have looked at her longer memorized every little detail on her face but now she's gone and Mrs.

52:15Moon is sitting in front of the judge screaming about how unjust this whole situation is he had to listen to her and the perpetrators go in depth about how they stalked Chia that morning how it was so inconvenient that there was an old lady selling yogurt on the street they had to wait for her to pass they described in great detail how Chia told them that her parents could pay a ransom of$700 ,000 but they didn't care even though technically this is more money than what Mrs. Moon was offering them they felt like Chia would probably either A get them arrested or B even if they took the money Mrs.

52:44Moon is so powerful she'd probably have them killed. They took her out to the mountains pointed a gun to her head forced her to kneel down tied her up taped up her head and then they oddly started hauling her up the mountain or at least they attempted to but they kept dropping her. It's suspected that this is where she broke her arm in three places. They kept dropping her really hard. Eventually, they gave up, dropped her on the ground, and shot her in the head six times. They rushed to a local payphone, dialed Mrs. Moon, and stated, quote, the product has been sold. That was their code for she has been killed.

53:17They went and grabbed breakfast. Yeah, because I guess they can stomach food right now. And then headed straight to the Incheon airport to flee to Vietnam. In the end, Mrs. Moon and the two hit men that carried out the murder received life imprisonment. Mrs. Moon would be locked away so that she could never hurt another soul again until two years later she's basically free what? Mrs. Moon was released under a suspended sentence because of health reasons she wasn't technically free but she was hospitalized instead of being in a jail and for whatever reason the hospital that was treating her they treated her like any other patient she would be in and out as she pleased sometimes not even coming back to the hospital to sleep at night this all despite the fact that she only got this suspended sentence status because she and her doctors claimed that being in prison would be forfeiting her life because of how bad her health was.

54:04So if it's that bad, she should just be bedbound, needing round-the-clock care, no? Yeah. Chia's dad did some investigating. First, Mrs. Moon is living it up in an expensive VIP suite at the hospital. Even non-murderers, non-criminals, they never get to see rooms like this in hospitals. This is for the upper elites only. Chia's dad somehow tracked down her medical records, and it stated a whole list of health complications and reasons. She had breast cancer in her left breast, Parkinson's syndrome, severe diabetes, asthma, depression, insomnia, cataracts, which fine, it does sound serious. But she, his dad, took this full medical report, gave it to a panel of independent doctors who have nothing to do with him, nothing to do with Mrs.

54:45Moon, nothing to do with the case, and asked them if any of this makes sense. They said something's odd. First of all, Mrs. Moon was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer years ago. She had undergone chemo and took the appropriate medical steps to eliminate the cancer. And according to the charts, she's technically cancer-free now. Just because you've had cancer once in your life does not mean that you can never be in prison or else you'll die. With Parkinson's, if you guys knew anybody who had Parkinson's, my grandfather had it. It's an incurable disease that, I mean, it just makes existing very difficult.

55:17It's hard to sit up, get up, walk, even eat. It's incredibly noticeable, especially when it gets to the point of being bad. It's not something that you can easily hide from people, if that makes sense. but on Mrs. Moon's charts it literally reads the current evidence of Parkinson's disease is insufficient the patient is stating she has Parkinson's the patient is strongly hoping to maintain her current medication for it the reason that I bring up the fact that it's very obvious to see if someone has Parkinson's typically is the medical chart also notes that she eats and chews well so does she have Parkinson's does she not they're diagnosing her with Parkinson's but there's no evidence to back up that she has Parkinson's and then they wrote she can't be in prison because she has Parkinson's and needs full caregiving assistance.

55:59At another point, her medical records read that Mrs. Moon cannot eat without the help of an assistant, but then somewhere else in the medical record, they're like, she's eating well. Why is she being let out the hospital? Like what's going on? As for diabetes, she's fine. She does not need administration of insulin. Her asthma, the medical records even state it's more like coughing fits, not necessarily asthma. As for the cataracts portion, she did have surgery in one eye and is considered to have normal pressure and stable condition in both eyes now. And this is the wild part, but the medical records heavily emphasized her depression as if that's a reason to be out of jail.

56:33I'm sorry, but jail really isn't a fun, happy place. You know, you killed someone. I would imagine it's not gonna be like sunshine and rainbows in there. In her medical charts, there's a quote from Mrs. Moon to her psychiatrist, which by the way, just to preface, I'm not saying that prisons should not be reformed. I think that there's a lot that we can do for the mental health of prisoners so that we can rehabilitate them. you know she did not have severe depression she had like moderate depression and just listen to what she says to her psychiatrist she said and this is in the medical chart i ordered the girl to be followed i never ordered her to be killed and i still got a life sentence after this i have no hope in the system or people anymore i was so shocked i developed severe depression it's so unfair that i've been sentenced to life i just want to die i just want to be treated in a stable environment and recover my health and you know this is just this is wrong the psychiatrist wrote down at the age of 67 and an inherently weak constitution the stress of the life in prisoner ought to directly affect the shortening of a patient's life so i believe the patient cannot handle imprisonment all the other doctors who reviewed her patient charts anonymously they all unanimously stated it just doesn't make sense when reporters tried to track down the doctors who diagnose mrs moon with all these different ailments and conditions they were threatened these doctors just straight up said yeah i'm gonna sue you i'm gonna sue you for talking to me but if you follow the money you get a sense of why mrs moon wanted to be at this specific hospital because she requested this hospital the hospital was exposed for some really really shady stuff she can request hospital she can request this like she can do whatever it's actually a big conversation in korea so it's kind of the opposite here the conversation is usually prison conditions are so deplorable right in korea people are like wow the prison conditions most most of them live better like they're living better than most citizens they're getting nutritious free meals three times a day you know interesting yeah that's the conversation wow i mean there of course is prison reform conversations but this is a conversation that i see popping up more frequently amongst like general k netizens wow again not to say that there is no abuse or deplorable things happening in korean prisons but the viral picture of prison food that went crazy on the internet food was good in korea yeah they're like this is so unfair like we don't even get access to this type of nutritious meals i just think the fact that she can request hospital is yeah something of.

59:05Yeah, she requested, I think there were 28 other hospitals closer to the prison, but she requested this one specifically. Yeah, this hospital, they had a process of making money that didn't involve treating people. They would go out and start building rapport with the local unhoused population. They would buy them meals, cigarettes, and ask about their families. And then one day, casually, as if this was just a new idea that popped into the nurses' heads, hey, you know you could get money from the government if you're a patient at our hospital, right? They would lure them into the hospital, lead them to a windowless room called the stable room.

59:36They were thrown onto a bed and their arms and feet were tied up towards the ceiling. So they're able to lay on their back, but all their limbs are raised above their chest. They would keep them like this for a full week because this position, all the blood is pumping towards the chest and it puts a lot of strain on the heart. So after a week of this, what do you know they do some scans and the person's heart is weak it's not looking too good it looks like they have a heart condition they need to be kept in the hospital longer and because they're unhoused the government must pay for it straight into the hospital's pockets hundreds of people were hospitalized like this just based off this torture room tactic they were earning like seven figures a year the hospital from the government that is crazy people died from this and no this is not like a huge thing that people talk about?

1:00:29Because it was a huge thing after it was exposed. People didn't know because they would target unhoused populations and they would specifically ask if they had family. And if they didn't, that's when they were brought in. So with no family around, they're vulnerable already. People didn't even notice that they were missing. Everything was just swept under the rug. But now the hospital was shut down and Mrs. Moon was thrown back into prison where she made several complaints. She stated she argued with her two cellmates too much. They didn't see eye to eye. She felt like it would be best for her if she didn't have to coexist with others.

1:01:00She said, I don't think we are the same level of humans, my cellmates and I, but I treat them with sympathy. Please stop putting people who worked in the sex industry in my room. She demanded a private room. She stated because of a herniated cervical disc, she would unfortunately not, you know, with a heavy heart, not be able to participate in the cleaning or laundry of her cell that was required by all inmates. Anytime she came down with a tiny little cough or flu, she demanded to have a full body scan done, quote, from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, all on tax paradigm. She kept rejecting food that was given to her because it, quote, had a weird smell.

1:01:37She stated she could not drink water from plastic cups since she was a cancer patient and plastic cups had endocrine-disrupting chemicals. She also requested only drinking vitamin-fused mineral water. She also wrote, Here, they don't have the bed that props you up like they do in the hospitals. There's no humidifier, so it's very hard for me. I think I need to go to the hospital for a month. Please report this to the head office. She acted like she was a guest at the Four Seasons and not in prison for murder. Ultimately, the case did result in a lot of divorces. Mr. Moon ended up divorcing his wife while she was in prison.

1:02:12The Moon daughter and the judge, Hyun, they got a divorce. And even Chia's parents broke up after Chia's murder. They were just coping differently. Chia's dad had thrown himself into the case trying to catch the perpetrators, trying to make them go down for the murder. But once it was all over, the stress hit him like a brick. He started developing PTSD. He couldn't be outside near strangers. He had this high-pitched buzzing in his ear that would give him a severe headache, like a radio frequency, but it would never go away. His doctors told him that it was a cause of severe stress. There was nothing they could do.

1:02:43He tried to bond with his wife, but at the same time, Chia's mom, she was so miserable. all she did was numb the pain by drinking all day and she would excitedly talk about Chie as if Chie was still alive. She only ever talked about her in the present tense and that was really hard for Chie's dad. Chie's room and things were kept exactly the same even 11 years after the murder. Chie's mom was hoarding anything and everything that once belonged to her, even tissues. For her, it was comforting. For Chie's dad, it was terrifying to open the door and see Chie's room exactly the way she left it when she went out for a swim.

1:03:18They had even moved after Chia's passing So Chia's mom was intentionally setting up the room like this To her, this is how she would remember her daughter Ultimately, she ended up passing away 13 years later In a letter, Chia's mom wrote I want to touch your pretty face, Chia I want to feed you tasty things I want to buy you pretty clothes But why is it that even in my dreams, you do not appear? I miss you so much Mom is having a hard time Chie's mom is said to have died of a broken heart and starving. She had completely lost her appetite after losing her daughter and survived mainly on alcohol.

1:03:55She was 83 pounds when she passed. Now Chie's dad has been diagnosed with cancer but he said it's a relief. He said I wasn't able to protect my wife nor my daughter so this is my punishment and in some way it feels relieving. Chie once wrote a poem for her mom and it read Mother, there is love at your fingertips I'm only part of you who got life from the spirit of those fingertips Mother, I miss your arms like this as a tree trunk that has grown thick in your arms for a long time The star in the sky shine exceptionally brightly looking at me as if they know your heart And it ends with Omoni, Omoni, which is mother, mother and that is the story of Ji-hae what are your thoughts on this case I mean it was just I genuinely I mean it's so terrifying I think cases like this it's stranger than fiction that's what a lot of people will say to I guess real life happenings that unfold in this kind of bizarre unhinged manner but I think it's terrifying to know that there are such unhinged unreasonable unpredictable people out there that are filled with so much evil they're not even filled with good so you just never know what they're thinking or trying to do to others so please stay safe and i will see you guys on sunday for the mini-sode bye