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Bodies found in missing family's car in Wando

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A barge raises a submerged car from ocean waters near Wando, an island in South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. The Gwangju Police and Wando Coast Guard found three bodies inside the car, presumed to be those of a family from Gwangju that had been reported missing. Joint Press Corps.
A barge raises a submerged car from ocean waters near Wando, an island in South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. The Gwangju Police and Wando Coast Guard found three bodies inside the car, presumed to be those of a family from Gwangju that had been reported missing. Joint Press Corps.

By Ko Dong-hwan

The police and coast guard have found three bodies inside a car pulled out of ocean waters near Wando on Wednesday morning. The bodies are believed to be those of the missing family, the disappearance of which has shocked the country in recent days.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency and Wando Coast Guard managed to salvage an Audi sedan from 10 meters under water near a net cage less than 100 meters from Songgok Port, located on the southwestern island around noon. The authorities agreed that the bodies appeared to be those of Cho Yoo-na, 10, and her parents from Gwangju.

The authorities said they plan to identify the bodies using their fingerprints and belongings found inside the car. The bodies, severely decomposed, will be moved to a funeral home in Gwangju, they said.

The authorities located the car late Tuesday afternoon after finding the front grill of an Audi A6 ― the model used by the missing family ― underwater two hours earlier, in the sea near where the car was found. They couldn't initially discern upon discovery whether there were bodies inside the vehicle due to the heavily tinted windows. The car doors were not opened to prevent the loss of evidence if they were to be opened. They decided to wait until Wednesday morning to bring a barge to hoist the car out of the water.

The authorities had launched a large-scale search around the island off the coast of South Jeolla Province for the family members, who have been missing for nearly a month, after they were last seen at around 11 p.m. on May 30 leaving a guesthouse they had rented on Wando.

On May 17, Cho's parents reported to her school that they were going on a one-month trip to Jeju Island from May 19 to June 15.

A barge raises a submerged car found in the sea near Wando, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps.
A barge raises a submerged car found in the sea near Wando, Wednesday. Joint Press Corps.

But Cho was still absent from school after the reported period, and her family was not reachable by phone, which prompted school officials to visit their home. Seeing that the mailbox was filled with unopened mail and no one was home, they filed a missing persons report with the police on June 22.

The law enforcement authorities soon found that Cho's family had not arrived on Jeju. Instead, they left for Wando in their Audi sedan on May 23, and stayed at the guesthouse which they had reserved for six days from May 24 to 31. During their stay, the family mostly remained in the room, the guesthouse owner told police.

The family was last seen leaving the guesthouse around 11 p.m., May 30, a day before they were scheduled to check out. Surveillance camera footage showed Cho's mother carrying the child on her back, while her father followed behind holding a plastic bag in his left hand. The three were then seen leaving in their car.

The police said the cellphones of Cho and her mother were switched off near the guesthouse at around 12:40 a.m. and 1:09 a.m., respectively. Her father's phone was turned off at around 4:15 a.m. near Songgok Port, some four kilometers from the guesthouse.

Cho's parents possibly suffered a financial loss by purchasing Luna cryptocurrency, Gwangju Southern Police Station discovered on Wednesday after studying the search histories of websites the parents had recently visited. The authorities found that the parents searched for Luna multiple times on internet portals up until the day they went missing on May 30. They also searched online about sleeping pills and how to commit suicide as well, the police said.

Those who knew Cho's family previously said, following the news of the family's disappearance, that Cho's father had reportedly been suffering hardships after closing down his computer-related business in July 2021. The family's credit card debt was over 100 million won ($80,000), according to police.


Ko Dong-hwan aoshima11@koreatimes.co.kr


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