The news of that day has passed, but its meaning remains with us today. "That Day in the News" reads the present through the records of the past.
"I buried the child while it was still alive."
On this day three years ago, July 12, 2023, an arrest warrant was requested for a woman in her 30s who had buried her three-day-old son in a mountain in Gwangyang, causing his death. It was the moment murder charges were applied, six years after she had buried the child alive.
◇Statement Reversed... "I Buried Him Alive" = According to police, A gave birth to a son at a hospital in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, around October 27, 2017, and was accused of burying him in a mountain near her family home in Gwangyang three days later, causing his death.
A was found to have committed the crime on the same day she was discharged from the hospital. A initially claimed, "I fed the baby milk and burped him, but when I came back from the bathroom he was not breathing," and, "Since I had not registered the child's birth, I thought it would be alright to bury him, so I buried him on the hill behind the house."
However, during additional police questioning, she reversed her statement, saying, "I buried the child while it was still alive."
Police, noting circumstances indicating that A—who had worked as a daycare teacher—knew how to care for children yet did not report to emergency services (119), conducted a reinforced investigation. They determined the act of burial itself to be the means of killing and changed the charge to murder.
On July 13, the day after the arrest warrant was requested, A appeared for the warrant review hearing and remained silent in response to reporters' questions, leaving only a brief answer—"I did wrong"—on her way out after the hearing.
After the warrant was issued, police conducted an excavation investigation for three days in the mountain area A had pointed out, but concluded the site investigation without finding any particular traces. Given that a newborn whose bones had not yet hardened had been buried for nearly six years, the possibility that the body had turned to soil was given weight.
Police deployed a profiler to enhance the credibility of the statement and also checked for accomplices, but it was determined that there was no assistant.
◇Three Years and Six Months in Prison at Both First and Second Trials = In the end, police forwarded A to prosecutors on July 19, 2023, without having recovered the body.
A, who was subsequently put on trial on murder charges, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison at the first trial, and the same sentence was maintained at the appeals trial held at the Gwangju High Court in March 2024.
The court criticized, "The defendant, as the biological mother, was in a position to protect the victim, yet did not actively seek other methods such as adoption, and killed the victim who was only three days old."
It further ruled, "Even considering that she is repenting for her wrongdoing, that she committed the crime in a situation where she could not properly raise the child due to an unwanted pregnancy and childbirth, that she is currently raising two young children, and that she committed the crime impulsively in an unstable psychological state, punishment commensurate with her responsibility is necessary."
This case came to light during a comprehensive investigation of so-called "ghost infants"—children who were born at medical institutions but whose births were not registered.
A claimed to the local government conducting the investigation that "another family is raising the child," but when the child's whereabouts could not be confirmed, the local government requested a police investigation, and the crime was uncovered.
◇Two Years Since the Birth Notification System, Yet Cases Still Recur = As similar cases repeated, the "birth notification system" has been in effect since July 19, 2024.
The system requires medical institutions to directly notify local governments of birth information via the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, allowing birth records to be created by government authority even if parents do not report. According to the National Court Administration and the Ministry of Health and Welfare early this year, 345,992 pieces of birth information were reported to local governments after the system took effect up to the end of last November.
However, even after the system took hold, children have not completely escaped danger. This is because the birth notification system itself does not apply in cases where a woman gives birth alone without going through a hospital. Last April, there was even a case in which a mother in her 20s gave birth in a workplace restroom and attempted to abandon the child in a trash bin, but was stopped when she was discovered by a colleague.
Since the birth notification system took effect, the blind spots in birth records have clearly been reduced. But the cases that still recur prompt reflection on whether our society is properly providing an environment in which children can be born and grow up normally.
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