Ever-growing number of 'ghost baby' cases unearthed

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Ever-growing number of 'ghost baby' cases unearthed

Published: 07 Jul. 2023, 16:55 Updated: 08 Jul. 2023, 12:42

A woman accused of killing her newborn and abandoning the body near a stream in Daejeon leaves Suwon Nambu Police Precinct on Friday to be handed over to the prosecution. [YONHAP]

More cases of unregistered babies, or “ghost babies,” have surfaced in the country as police continued their investigations on Friday.

Police nabbed a woman on suspicion of neglecting her newborn to death and dumping the body in a trash bin five years ago.

The 30-something-year-old mother is accused of leaving her six-day-old baby alone at her home in Gwangju in April 2018, ultimately leading to the baby’s death, the police said Friday.

The mother told the police she put the baby’s body in a plastic trash bag and dumped it in a public trash collection box.

The woman turned herself into the police a day earlier after she received a phone call from the Gwangju District Office asking about the whereabouts of the missing baby.

The single mother, who was in her 20s and unemployed at the time of the baby’s birth, said she left home for several hours as she was psychologically overwhelmed after giving birth to the baby all by herself.

Police are investigating the woman after putting her under emergency arrest, with an arrest warrant to be sought after further questioning.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency on Friday referred a couple accused of murdering and dumping their five-day-old baby in a stream in Geoje, South Chungcheong, to the prosecution.

The 20-something-year-old mother and 30-something-year-old father are suspected of killing their baby boy at their home in September last year and disposing of the body in a nearby stream.

The couple initially testified that they found their baby dead when they woke up one day but admitted to killing him in a police investigation.

Police have searched in vain for the dead baby’s body in a stream in Geoje since last week.

Although the body was not found, the police said they had enough evidence to prove accusations against the suspects as the couple admitted to their crimes with specific and overlapping testimonies.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police on Friday also referred a mother in her 20s on suspicions of murdering her newborn son near a stream in Daejeon and dumping the baby’s body in 2019 to the prosecution.

The woman was initially suspected to have neglected her baby boy for days, leading to the baby’s death.

Police could not locate the baby’s body until they handed the case over to the prosecution on Friday.

Police on Thursday search for a baby's body on a hillside in Yongin, Gyeonggi. The baby's father and grandmother are have been taken into custody a day earlier suspected of murdering the baby and hiding the dead body in 2015. [GYEONGGI NAMBU PROVINCIAL POLICE]

The Yongin police on the same day sought arrest warrants for a father and a grandmother suspected of murdering a baby boy and dumping the body on a hill in 2015.

They are accused of taking the newborn to their home a day after the baby was born and neglecting him to death.

The mother was reportedly unaware of the crime as her husband told her their baby died because “he was born unhealthy.”

Police suspect the father in his 40s and the grandmother in her 60s premeditated the crime before the baby was born as they knew the baby would be born with Down’s syndrome via a DNA test.

The suspects confessed to their crimes, police said.

Police are currently searching for the baby’s body, according to the suspects’ testimonies.

Surging cases of ghost babies in Korea have been cropping up as the government conducted a complete inspection of over 2,000 unregistered babies born between 2015 and 2022 through Friday.

The National Police Agency announced on Friday it is investigating 780 ghost baby cases as of 2 p.m. Thursday, up 182 from the previous day’s figure.

The police received a total of 867 reports, and 27 of the babies in the reports have been confirmed as dead.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]