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Police inspector's efforts spotlight tragedy of Korea's 'solitary deaths'

Published: 24 Mar. 2025, 17:45

LEE SOO-JUNG
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Kwon Jong-ho, a senior police inspector, talks with an elderly man while patroling a public park in Busan on Feb. 20. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Kwon Jong-ho, 56, a senior police inspector at Busan Yeongdo Police Precinct, has spent the last two decades rushing to sites where people died alone, hoping to discover their final moments.

Dying alone could happen to anyone, he said.

“While we cannot escape death, dying alone — also known as solitary death — can be prevented,” Kwon said.

Kwon’s first encounter with solitary death was in the summer of 2005, when he found a man of national merit dead in a studio-sized room.

Countless maggots wriggled on the corpse in a room filled with stench and humidity so putrid that it fogged up his glasses, Kwon recalled. All he could think of was “hell.”

An inspection of the body revealed that the man had died of an illness. “All he had for his income was a state subsidy given to people of national merit,” Kwon said. “The subsidy was seemingly spent on alcohol.”

Surprisingly, the man — who died alone — had a son and a daughter who had cut ties with him after his son’s business failed while using the father’s house as collateral.

Kwon noted that the daughter later sobbed when police contacted her to notify her of her father’s death. “It was heartbreaking to see the daughter say, ‘Sorry, father,’” Kwon said. He added that it would have been better if they had reconnected when he was alive.

After seeing the man’s body covered in maggots, Kwon thought that "everyone deserves the right to die with dignity, or at least in a humane way."

Yet, Kwon said, solitary death is an ending that anyone can face — such as when a spouse dies first or when children leave their nest.

“It seems like I am not an exception to this scenario,” Kwon noted.

Since the day he saw the man of national merit who died all alone, Kwon has continued to visit sites of solitary deaths. He has paid for funerals of those who had no one to claim their bodies and has talked with city council members to legislate policies that can prevent such deaths.

“I want to become someone’s family — someone who remembers their life, even if there is no blood relation,” Kwon said.

Age does not matter

Medicine packages are discovered four months after at a home where a 61-year-old person died alone. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Kwon said that elderly individuals who die alone usually face forlorn endings after falling ill — regardless of their will to survive.

“However, the pattern of solitary death among younger generations is different,” Kwon said. According to him, suicide due to economic difficulties is the most frequent reason for death among young people.

“If our society had lent a hand to young people struggling financially, we might have saved them,” Kwon said. “I am deeply sorry for that.”

He described it as “excruciating” to see the deaths of people in their 20s and 30s. He said they are a generation that should live with hope and aspirations.

He recalled a 30-something who died alone in a 71.16-square-foot-sized flat while struggling day and night to pay his mother’s medical bills. The deceased had worked manual labor in the early morning and took a part-time job at a convenience store at night.

Occasionally, Kwon encounters sites where he can't hold back tears.

Kwon visited a site where an older man died after inhaling briquette smoke just a week after his wife’s passing. The man had left an envelope containing a handwritten letter and 100,000 won ($68). The letter read: “I am following my wife, who is waiting for me, and I am leaving some money as an apology to those who will clean my house.”

“It was the most tearful experience I have ever had,” Kwon said.

As nobody claimed the dead body of the old man, the man was officially registered as “a person without family or friends.”

“After cremation, ashes of unclaimed bodies are stored at Yeongnak Park in Busan without their names specified. Instead, they are given numbers. Their ashes will be scattered into the sea after a decade,” Kwon said. Despite the older man's desire to be with his wife, he was not buried next to her.

“That’s how people’s stories are forgotten,” Kwon said.

Clues to solitary death

An animated image shows a person walks alone toward a door where light comes in. [JOONGANG ILBO]

He noted that the odor released during decomposition is often key to discovering solitary deaths.

“It is rare to find intact bodies among those who died alone,” he said. “Most of them are either preyed on by maggots or severely decomposed.”

Since solitary deaths usually happen to those who live in isolation, their bodies are often found long after their passing.

The legal term “solitary death” was first introduced in 2021 in the Act on the Prevention and Management of Lonely Deaths. At the time, the definition required that the body be discovered after a substantial time had passed since death. The precondition was deleted in 2023.

The current legal definition describes solitary death — or lonely death — as death due to health issues or suicide among individuals in a state of social isolation disconnected from family, relatives and neighbors.

Under the current system, police only determine whether the death was a homicide. If it is deemed suicide, the case is closed. Consequently, the belongings of those who died alone are discarded as trash.

“In retrospect, handwritten notes or drawings left behind by the deceased are important clues that help investigators assess their isolation,” Kwon said.

However, he added that current procedures prevent investigators from collecting and analyzing such messages left by people who died alone.

“That’s why I have insisted that there should be a dedicated team responsible for storing belongings and keeping records from sites where solitary deaths happened,” Kwon said.

“Solitary deaths can be prevented when policies and interventions are based on on-site empirical evidence,” he noted.

Forgotten deaths

Kwon Jong-ho speaks with the JoongAng Ilbo at his police station in Busan on Feb. 20. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Kwon said many solitary deaths go uncounted.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is responsible for investigating solitary deaths. The scheme has made most local governments passive in counting solitary deaths, as they believe the task does not fall under their responsibilities, Kwon explained.

He pointed out that no public officials showed up at solitary death sites even when police requested their assistance in determining whether a case qualified as solitary death.

“As a result, many solitary deaths are simply recorded as ‘ordinary deaths.’”

Kwon said figures and Excel spreadsheets “will never tell” policymakers which approach would be effective in preventing people from dying alone.

He called for a systematic change that would require health officials to visit solitary death sites and assess the detailed background.

Kwon volunteered to visit sites where people died alone — even when he was off duty. He read between the lines of the memos they left behind, spoke with neighbors, and reached out to surviving family members.

His perseverance allowed him to discern whether a case was a solitary death. It also gave him insight into how policy should change to improve prevention efforts.

Kwon said that most surviving family members are indifferent to the death of their relatives. Some even asked Kwon to send valuable belongings by mail while telling him to handle everything else on his own.

“Even when police found cash at the site of a solitary death, some bereaved families asked us to transfer the money while also insisting they did not want to retrieve cash found at the scene of death,” Kwon said.

“Being treated and forgotten like that is incredibly sad,” Kwon said.

Fundamental solutions

Kwon Jong-ho, a senior police inspector, left, and his colleague patrol at a public park in Busan on Feb. 20. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Kwon suggested that building a residential community — a new type of family — could be a fundamental solution to preventing solitary deaths.

“Allowing three to four elderly individuals to live together could help alleviate economic burdens and provide companionship,” Kwon said.

He added that a similar approach could be applied to young people. Youth could avoid isolation if they were provided with free housing where they could live with their peers.

He also said writing a statement about one’s posthumous wishes for one's body and belongings is necessary. The statement could include instructions on caring for surviving pets and managing assets after death.

“People who once had some savings may not even be able to have a funeral if their surviving family refuses to claim the body,” Kwon said. “They are usually cremated without mortuary cleansing.”

While the government provides financial support of 800,000 to 1.5 million won for unclaimed bodies, Kwon said the amount is insufficient to cover proper mortuary cleansing and funeral expenses.

Although such a culture of writing posthumous wishes has not fully developed in Korea, Kwon said he has promoted measures to make it more prevalent.

Along with his activism to raise awareness regarding leaving statements of posthumous wishes, Kwon vowed to continuously visit the sites of solitary deaths.

“The answer to reducing solitary death lies at the site,” Kwon said, noting he would do his best to remember people who died alone as far as he could.

BY SUN HEE-YEON [[email protected]]