(Source = SBS ‘I want to know that’ capture)
Why did the 4-year-old Autumn have to die like that?
On SBS’ ‘I Want to Know That’, which aired on the 10th, in December 2022, despite the age of 53 months, the story of Autumn, who died at a weight of 7 kg, was highlighted.
Gae-gae died in December of last year when he was 4 years old. At that time, the child weighed 7 kg, the same as the weight of a 4-month-old newborn. At the time, he had a fractured skull, and there were signs of being beaten for a long time, such as broken ribs and then attached.
Gaeul’s last appearance, which was then revealed, was a shock itself. The child was thin enough to resemble a mummy, and experts who saw it suffered, saying, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a skinny look.”
Regarding this, her mother, Lee, insisted that it happened by mistake, saying, “It happened because my head hit the edge of the bed while I was disciplining by stealing food.”
However, the child’s skinny body was a part that was not understood at all. And in the process of tracking it, an unexpected person named Choi Soo-bin (pseudonym) appeared.
Mr. Choi is a person whom Mr. Lee met in a group chat room where Mr. Lee shared a child’s diet, and he is also the person who called Mr. Lee and Ga-eul to Busan, where they have no connection. At the time, Lee, who was suffering from domestic violence and child abuse by her husband, started living with Choi, who willingly suggested that they live together.
However, Choi had a husband and two sons, and the house they lived in was too small for six people to live together. Nonetheless, Lee started working with Choi’s help, and she lived with them for about two years.
Mr. Lee, who was still working at the time of Autumn’s death, returned home at 4:00 am and scolded the child, and only visited the hospital at 7:00 pm the next day after the child’s death. At that time, I was living with Choi’s family, and Mr. Choi insisted, “I always told him to take care of Autumn.”
However, an unexpected claim came from a women’s rights group. It is that Mr. Lee engaged in prostitution by Mr. Choi and remitted all the proceeds to Mr. Choi. According to the prosecution’s indictment, Mr. Lee engaged in prostitution up to four times a day and made 1,574 prostitution over a year and a half, at least 130.75 million won.
After prostitution, Mr. Lee returned home, cleaned the house, took care of Mr. Choi’s children, and deposited the money he earned that day to Mr. Choi. It was revealed that he took care of Choi’s son’s house even on the day Gae-gae died.
The police also saw that Choi’s family had responsibility for joint childcare, considering that Lee’s family lived on the money Lee earned and that they had lived together. Ms. Choi, too, could not have known that her child would be so wrong. Accordingly, Choi and her husband, Kim, are currently on trial for aiding and abetting.
Experts had doubts about Lee’s meekness in this situation. It was a puzzle that could not be solved because Mr. Lee was not low in intelligence. And with the appearance of Park Kang-ho, Choi’s ex-boyfriend, all the puzzles were solved.
Park Kang-ho, who had a criminal record, lived with Lee and Choi’s family for about six months after being released from prison. In the process, he assaulted Mr. Lee, saying that he made Choi difficult, and started cracking down on prostitution. In particular, experts speculated that Mr. Lee, who had experienced domestic violence, would have easily adapted to this fear and fear.
However, Park Kang-ho insisted that Mr. Lee did not take good care of Ga-eul and assaulted him, and that Mr. Choi took good care of the child and was innocent.
In addition, the circumstances in which Mr. and Mrs. Choi threw away their belongings from the day after Kaeul died and Mr. Lee was arrested were also revealed through CCTV. Regarding this, the expert said, “It will be for her, not for her real mother.”
However, her husband, Mr. Kim, responded to all the claims that his mother Lee belatedly revealed, saying, “It is because I do not want to die alone. They are doing it to get her sentence further commuted.”
An expert said, “The core of this group is Mr. Choi. The main culprit here is most likely Mr. Choi. I think it would be appropriate to see child abuse and neglect as something that Ms. Lee actually tolerated,” he said. She must also see that she was also abusive. That part should be punished,” he said.