The Asian Madness PodcastA Couple VanishesAugust 31, 202624mEpisode 142Play EpisodeShow NotesEpisode one forty two will take us to South Korea, where we look into a bizarre case of a newly wed couple vanishing into thin air (not literally). Was this a very well thought out murder? Or was it their own doing?Regardless of whose idea it was, what happened to Choi Seong-hee and Jeon Ming-geun? And where could they be?To support this podcast, please visit:One-time donation: Pay Lei Yuan using PayPal.MeFacebook/Instagram: asianmadnesspodE-mail: asianmadnesspod@gmail.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyShare:X / TwitterFacebookCopy LinkShareCreditsJess — HostProduced by Myths & MaliceTranscript214 segments0:00[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.0:46[SPEAKER_00]: Hi everyone!0:48[SPEAKER_00]: Like I mentioned in my last episode, I am now refreshing my prior Patreon catalog and publishing them.0:54[SPEAKER_00]: It has been years since my Patreon was last active and I just don't really have the time to put out regular episodes and behind a paywall episodes.1:05[SPEAKER_00]: With that said, I hope you're all doing well and being nice to yourself and to others.1:11[SPEAKER_00]: So I vaguely remember researching today's episode years ago.1:15[SPEAKER_00]: I was on this path to finding strange disappearances around Asia and some more definitely very strange.1:23[SPEAKER_00]: While fascinating in a sense to those looking in from the outside, it definitely is not1:32[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fine line, consuming true crime content, and also feeling terrible for those involved.1:39[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, today's case takes us to South Korea, and it'll involve a couple.1:46[SPEAKER_00]: It's not uncommon for people who fall in love to feel like this is the ideal life, and that their life is all rainbows, butterflies, and sunshine.1:57[SPEAKER_00]: But truth is, a lot can go wrong with couples, sometimes at the hands of each other, or by a third party targeting them.2:05[SPEAKER_00]: And also, can you really say, you know everything about your spouse?2:11[SPEAKER_00]: Do they keep any secrets from you?2:14[SPEAKER_00]: This is definitely one of the strangest disappearances that feature a newly-wild couple.2:20[SPEAKER_00]: And their names are Chaisonghi and Jo Minggun.2:23[SPEAKER_00]: Let's begin.2:26[SPEAKER_00]: Chip was a theater actress, quite well known in the area in Busan City, the second largest city in South Korea, located on the southeastern side of the peninsula.2:37[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband, John, was a restaurant owner and a two-scene, happy together.2:44[SPEAKER_00]: The couple got married sometime in November of 2015, and supposedly they would still be in a good place as in the honeymoon phase.2:53[SPEAKER_00]: Well, despite things going seemingly well, something weird happened anyway.2:59[SPEAKER_00]: On May 31, 2016, John's father hurriedly entered the local police station asking for help, while kind of assistance did he need?3:09[SPEAKER_00]: He explained to the police officers that his son had not been in contact for approximately four days, despite constant calls and texts.3:19[SPEAKER_00]: He found that extremely odd, as his son not only ran his own restaurant business, he was also quick to respond, so it was not like him to not respond at all.3:31[SPEAKER_00]: The police initially were kind of dismissive.3:33[SPEAKER_00]: We see this in so many missing person's cases, so it's hardly surprising.3:39[SPEAKER_00]: His son, John, was a 37-year-old man.3:42[SPEAKER_00]: He was an adult.3:44[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore he could leave, he could skip work, and he could definitely not answer his phone if he didn't want to.3:52[SPEAKER_00]: It also wasn't exactly uncommon for children and parents to get annoyed at each other and take breaks from each other.4:00[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what the police thought.4:02[SPEAKER_00]: But no, John's father insisted that it was not that simple, that something felt wrong.4:08[SPEAKER_00]: He explained that when he was unable to reach a son, he went over to his son's restaurant to look for him, only to find out that his son hadn't been into work for the past four days.4:19[SPEAKER_00]: His son's business partners said that he received a text from John stating that he needed to handle something and will be away for one or two months.4:30[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, his daughter-in-law, Chi, also was not responding to calls and messages.4:36[SPEAKER_00]: He further explained that he even went to his daughter-in-law's theater school to look for her, and her co-workers also stated that they hadn't4:49[SPEAKER_00]: Jones' father found it weird.4:51[SPEAKER_00]: His co-workers found it weird.4:53[SPEAKER_00]: And Chev's theatermates also found it strange, stating that Chev was not the type that just not show up without a reason, especially since she had an upcoming performance.5:06[SPEAKER_00]: After giving his side to the story, the police decided that, yeah, okay, this was worth a look.5:13[SPEAKER_00]: The least it could do was do a welfare check.5:16[SPEAKER_00]: So a few police officers immediately were dispatched to the apartment residence of Joan and Chie.5:22[SPEAKER_00]: And after no one responded, they had no choice but to enter the apartment and take a look.5:28[SPEAKER_00]: No one was home.5:30[SPEAKER_00]: All their belongings seemed to be in place, no sign of forced entry, no sign of robbery.5:37[SPEAKER_00]: There were groceries still sitting on the kitchen counter, untouched, not yet put away.5:43[SPEAKER_00]: While that was slightly strange, nothing really screamed foul play, and the only items they couldn't locate in the apartment were their wallets, their passports, and their laptops.5:56[SPEAKER_00]: Could they have just got off on a trip without telling anybody?6:05[SPEAKER_00]: Their dog had apparently had surgery not too long ago, so the dog required extra care at the time.6:11[SPEAKER_00]: It was clear that the dog had not been taken care of or had any food for the past few days, and since no one was home, it couldn't go out for walks, so there was dog crap in various places around the house.6:26[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who knew the couple knew that they loved their dog, especially Chi, and it didn't seem right that they would leave the dog alone for so many days like this.6:36[SPEAKER_00]: Their car was also parked in the garage, and they usually took their car if they had to go anywhere outside.6:43[SPEAKER_00]: So clearly, something wasn't right.6:47[SPEAKER_00]: After going through the couple's apartment, the police then proceeded to contact both6:57[SPEAKER_00]: Once that was done, a full-on search began for the missing couple.7:02[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing the police had to do was to retrace a couple steps.7:06[SPEAKER_00]: According to witnesses, co-workers, and the apartment building CCTV footage, both Che and John were last seen on May 27.7:15[SPEAKER_00]: Che had class earlier that evening, and afterwards she went shopping at the nearby convenience store.7:22[SPEAKER_00]: And the elevator footage camera did indeed show her returning home between 10 and 11pm that night.7:30[SPEAKER_00]: As for her husband, he had stayed out late that night drinking and eating with his friends.7:35[SPEAKER_00]: This account was confirmed by both his friends and the elevator camera footage, where he was seen writing the elevator at around 3 a.m. May 28th.7:45[SPEAKER_00]: After both Che and Joan were shown writing the elevator back home, they were never seen again.7:52[SPEAKER_00]: How is that possible?7:54[SPEAKER_00]: The police checked the water tanks to roll out any elicilant possibilities and every corner of the apartment building.8:02[SPEAKER_00]: But there were nowhere to be found.8:04[SPEAKER_00]: The building had around 22 cameras positioned in various locations.8:09[SPEAKER_00]: But strangely enough, none of them captured the couple leaving the apartment.8:14[SPEAKER_00]: Of course there were a couple blind spots, but how much work would they have had to8:23[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you managed to evade one part, how can you get past all of the others?8:29[SPEAKER_00]: The emergency stairwell did not have cameras though, and a couple lived on the 15th floor.8:35[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, it was doable.8:37[SPEAKER_00]: They would just have to take the stairs.8:40[SPEAKER_00]: There was another blind spot in one of the exits in the outdoor parking lot.8:45[SPEAKER_00]: If they really did their research, it was technically possible to find a camera lost path.8:51[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose.8:52[SPEAKER_00]: But why?8:54[SPEAKER_00]: The couple did not seem to be having any difficulties, no money issues.8:59[SPEAKER_00]: It was even rumored that chair was newly pregnant.9:03[SPEAKER_00]: What would make them leave their life behind so suddenly, leaving their dog behind as well?9:09[SPEAKER_00]: And if that wasn't the case, who was behind their disappearance, and how did they pull this off?9:17[SPEAKER_00]: During the police investigation, some of John's restaurant employees and chairs theater co-workers came forward with more information.9:25[SPEAKER_00]: According to the restaurant employees, they had received text messages from John between the days he was last seen, and when his father reported the missing.9:35[SPEAKER_00]: John's message stated that something urgent had come up.9:40[SPEAKER_00]: that he would not be at work.9:42[SPEAKER_00]: He also mentioned that he may not be able to come into the restaurant for a while, and simply left it at that.9:49[SPEAKER_00]: The coworkers found it quite odd, but never really questioned him further.9:53[SPEAKER_00]: He was the boss after all.9:56[SPEAKER_00]: The business partner tried to ask for more information, but was met with silence.10:01[SPEAKER_00]: The employee is also received a phone call from John's phone, except the man on the other end that not sound like him, but he was claiming to be John.10:12[SPEAKER_00]: Chess theater co-workers also received text messages from Chess phone on May 30th, where she explained that she was suffering from depression and needed time off, seeing as she was10:27[SPEAKER_00]: She went on to apologize about the inconvenience and also informed them that she won't be in contact for a while.10:34[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't really an outrageous claim either, as Che had suffered from depression in the past, but had been doing quite well for the past few years.10:46[SPEAKER_00]: Despite that making sense, two things stood out to her co-workers.10:51[SPEAKER_00]: One, this was not just attitude towards her work.10:55[SPEAKER_00]: She was known to be extremely passionate and responsible for her theater work, and nothing like this had ever happened.11:01[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so with depression, it can debilitate you suddenly, so this is not really that difficult to imagine.11:09[SPEAKER_00]: As for the second thing that stood out was the way the message was phrased.11:14[SPEAKER_00]: Upon first glance, it may have seemed normal, but for people who knew her, it just didn't sound like her.11:21[SPEAKER_00]: As you may know, the Korean language can be very different depending on who you're talking to.11:27[SPEAKER_00]: There's a big difference when talking to someone younger, someone older, someone your own age, or someone higher ranking.11:35[SPEAKER_00]: The messages also seem to contain weird mistakes, and upon comparing them to our older messages, he just didn't match up, as if someone else had typed the message.11:47[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after, a theater coworker received a call from Chau's phone, except there was a man on the other end claiming to be her husband.11:56[SPEAKER_00]: He stated that his wife was still suffering from depression and is currently hospitalized.12:01[SPEAKER_00]: On question about which hospital she was at, he refused to give any information and hung up.12:09[SPEAKER_00]: So upon hearing these witness statements,12:12[SPEAKER_00]: The police attempted to locate the couple's cell phones, but their leads were not making any sense.12:19[SPEAKER_00]: The phones were untraceable for the most part, but at one point on June 2nd.12:24[SPEAKER_00]: John's phone was traced to Busan, and his wife's phone was supposedly traced to Seoul.12:31[SPEAKER_00]: These two cities are not really close to each other, nearly 400 kilometers apart, but12:40[SPEAKER_00]: and if that's the case, why were they being so secretive about their whereabouts, and why would they turn off their phones?12:48[SPEAKER_00]: The police tried to look for Che, contacting various hospitals, but no one had any record of her being admitted.12:56[SPEAKER_00]: The police also reached out to customs and immigration, wondering if the couple had left South Korea since their passport's remissing.13:05[SPEAKER_00]: But there was no record of the couple leaving the country.13:09[SPEAKER_00]: The police wanted to use the media to help find the missing couple, but for some strange reason, John's father said no.13:17[SPEAKER_00]: It seemed like he had lost interest in finding his son all of a sudden, and was not eager as he was at first to get any answers.13:26[SPEAKER_00]: His response to his son's disappearance went from, oh my god, please help me right now to, he'll show up when he wants to show up, it's fine.13:37[SPEAKER_00]: in an interview with an investigative news team.13:40[SPEAKER_00]: John Stepmother even stated, quote, I imagine they're living well somewhere, wherever that may be, unquote.13:48[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to say why the sudden change took place.13:51[SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible he was maybe embarrassed about this information going nationwide?13:56[SPEAKER_00]: Or did he find out something else that he didn't want to share with the police?14:01[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, it was odd as he was the one who reported them missing, and he was the one who was adamant something was wrong.14:09[SPEAKER_00]: That's where Chia's parents, they were both very frantic and complied with the police's request to ask the media for help.14:16[SPEAKER_00]: Chia's mother did not know that her son-in-law's father had already filed a missing person's report, and only found out after she was starting to worry.14:25[SPEAKER_00]: Many things from this case just didn't feel right, ranging from the couple disappearing out of the blue, no history of debt or troubles, to the weird messages and phone calls that came off, fake.14:37[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, the plot is thick, and it is about to get even thicker.14:43[SPEAKER_00]: A few months later, police found some information that led them to a suspect.14:49[SPEAKER_00]: It was a woman only known as Miss Yoon.14:52[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Yoon was John's ex-girlfriend and the two dated for a long time.14:57[SPEAKER_00]: So this part might get a little confusing.15:00[SPEAKER_00]: So years before John and Che got married, John and Miss Yoon were in a relationship.15:07[SPEAKER_00]: They were high school sweethearts and had intentions to get married.15:18[SPEAKER_00]: After the two separated, which was almost a decade before John married Chie, Miss Yun found someone else and married that man.15:28[SPEAKER_00]: However, Miss Yun's marriage only lasted for about a month, because the husband found out that his wife was still secretly contacting her ex-boyfriend, referring to John.15:40[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot say how close a two remained after breaking up, but they were always in touch with each other.15:47[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, they broke up because of their families, so I wouldn't be surprised that they were still in love with each other at the time in some way.15:56[SPEAKER_00]: Years later in 2014, Miss Yoon met a Norwegian man.16:01[SPEAKER_00]: She moved to Norway, the two got married and even had a child together.16:05[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, John was in her relationship with Che, but again, the two ex-lovers16:14[SPEAKER_00]: It was even discovered later that John had a secret phone and which he used to talk to his ex-lover.16:20[SPEAKER_00]: This is pretty shady and if you feel like you need to do that, please don't get married.16:27[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after this though, Ms. Yoon's daughter tragically passed away around March of 2015.16:34[SPEAKER_00]: this obviously upset her very much and she was very angry.16:39[SPEAKER_00]: So she directed all of her anger at her ex-boyfriend, John.16:43[SPEAKER_00]: She allegedly texted and things like, it's all your fault.16:46[SPEAKER_00]: You killed my daughter.16:47[SPEAKER_00]: I am going to ruin your life.16:51[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm not happy, you can't be happy either.16:55[SPEAKER_00]: She also allegedly sent threatening texts to Che.16:59[SPEAKER_00]: So because of her history with John, Miss Yoon quickly became a suspect for the disappearance of a couple.17:06[SPEAKER_00]: Keep in mind that John's parents all knew about Miss Yoon's erratic behavior and at one point or another, John's father had even made comments indicating that he believed Miss Yoon was responsible for whatever happened.17:21[SPEAKER_00]: When the police began looking into her, they discovered that Miss Yoon had actually travelled back to South Korea right before the couple went missing.17:30[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, she did not tell any of her family members that she had returned.17:36[SPEAKER_00]: She also insisted on using cash only the whole time she was in South Korea, despite owning several credit cards, and she never stayed in one place for more than a few days.17:46[SPEAKER_00]: It was also believed that Miss Yoon had borrowed money from her family members, because she told them that she was taking a trip to Africa, but it does not seem as if she traveled there at all.17:58[SPEAKER_00]: She was in Korea.18:00[SPEAKER_00]: The police obviously found her actions and her timing, hell as suspicious.18:06[SPEAKER_00]: It's like she returned and was trying to stay under the radar by not telling anyone, only using cash and moving around from hotel to hotel.18:16[SPEAKER_00]: Ms. Un eventually returned to Norway, right after the disappearance of the couple, and it wasn't until after she left South Korea, did the police want to speak to her.18:27[SPEAKER_00]: The police contacted her, asking for her cooperation, the Ms. Un kept coming up with excuses,18:37[SPEAKER_00]: After a while, the police decided to ask Interpol and the Norway police to assist with their investigations.18:43[SPEAKER_00]: This unit was finally tracked down in Norway around August of 2017, but after some back and forth, Norway officials rejected South Korea's request, stating that there wasn't enough evidence to extradite her.18:58[SPEAKER_00]: She has shared her side of the story a couple times, stating that she returned to Korea in May of 2016 only to commemorate her daughter and that she had nothing to do with the couples' disappearance.19:12[SPEAKER_00]: The police had nowhere to turn to now, so unless Miss Yoon willingly returned to South Korea, there's basically no way for the police to question her.19:23[SPEAKER_00]: but what about other suspects?19:25[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of people wondered if John had actually killed his wife and staged their disappearance, making it seem like someone else was involved or that they had left together.19:36[SPEAKER_00]: If that's the case, it must have taken a lot of work to avoid the police and the 22 cameras in their apartment building.19:44[SPEAKER_00]: But again, not necessarily impossible.19:48[SPEAKER_00]: could also explain why his father suddenly lost interest in finding his son.19:53[SPEAKER_00]: Assuming his son did something and he wanted to protect his son, that is.19:57[SPEAKER_00]: Some others seem to think that the building's owner killed the couple.20:01[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really know how this theory even came up, but here's the general just.20:07[SPEAKER_00]: The owner could have lured a couple over to his apartment somehow, killed them, stuffed them in suitcases or whatever, and left the building carrying them.20:16[SPEAKER_00]: No one would have suspected that, a man with a suitcase, presumably going on a trip.20:22[SPEAKER_00]: Except, there was never any footage showing the couple going anywhere else, and if they had left their apartment unit to somebody else's, wouldn't they have shown up at least in one camera angle?20:34[SPEAKER_00]: Since they weren't actively trying to avoid the cameras.20:39[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really know how to feel about this theory, but I still wanted to put it out there.20:52[SPEAKER_00]: She had continued to send messages to the couple, threatening them, so could they have just gotten so fed up and decided to leave everything behind?21:00[SPEAKER_00]: But why would they leave their dog behind?21:04[SPEAKER_00]: The one that most people probably lean towards is that Miss Yoon was involved, somehow.21:10[SPEAKER_00]: Sinaria 1, Miss Yoon teamed up with her lover, John, to kill his wife, Che, and somehow managed to leave the building together.21:18[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she dressed up as a delivery person.21:21[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she pretended to go to another unit.21:24[SPEAKER_00]: It's not impossible since the police were looking for John and Chit on the camera footage, not some other random woman.21:32[SPEAKER_00]: But if that were the case, wouldn't John have left Korea by now?21:36[SPEAKER_00]: If he did leave, customs and immigration would have flagged him for sure.21:41[SPEAKER_00]: Unless he managed to obtain another identity or left via some other way.21:46[SPEAKER_00]: or maybe never left Korea at all, hiding in plain sight.21:52[SPEAKER_00]: But what would be the point of killing his wife if he wasn't going to be with his lover?21:57[SPEAKER_00]: Or scenario number two, Miss Yoon, the scored X lover, find the way to enter the couple's apartment and kills them both, then takes care of the body somehow, and since the police were never looking from Miss Yoon on the camera footage, they could have easily missed a22:16[SPEAKER_00]: Is it also possible someone tampered with the security footage?22:21[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't miss you and have had hired help.22:24[SPEAKER_00]: There's just too many questions and so few answers.22:29[SPEAKER_00]: Chase parents have not given up on trying to find their daughters' whereabouts, but with the investigation stalled, there's not much for them to do.22:38[SPEAKER_00]: As mentioned, John's father and stepmother suddenly backed away from the police on the investigation, insisting that their son and daughter-in-law will appear when they appear.22:49[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the sentiment that John's biological mother shares.22:53[SPEAKER_00]: She apparently had attempted to get answers for herself by traveling to Norway with a documentary crew, hoping to get some answers from this misune.23:03[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, she did not get any answers, and was even reported for harassment.23:10[SPEAKER_00]: It's been more than a decade now, where could they be?23:14[SPEAKER_00]: If someone murdered the couple, how are they able to commit this somehow perfect crime?23:22[SPEAKER_00]: So there you have it, the strange disappearance of a seemingly normal newlywed couple.23:28[SPEAKER_00]: What are your thoughts?23:30[SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel like there was foul play?23:33[SPEAKER_00]: Or could they have simply up and left everything behind, including their dog?23:38[SPEAKER_00]: If you believe foul play took place, which version do you think makes the most sense?23:44[SPEAKER_00]: These unsolved cases can come off very frustrating because we don't know what happened and it's made even worse when there's a possible lead, but nothing can be done with that.23:56[SPEAKER_00]: It's not even a clean case of someone vanishing.23:59[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many weird bits and pieces that feel like it could lead somewhere, then bam, you hit a wall.24:07[SPEAKER_00]: I do think Ms. Yoon might be hiding something, or she knows more than she's saying, but before I know more, I don't want to point my finger at her and accuse her of anything.24:19[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, I do hope the couple turn up one day.24:23[SPEAKER_00]: It is awful for their family to have to live their lives not knowing their truth.24:28[SPEAKER_00]: Always worrying about this.24:30[SPEAKER_00]: If there are any updates to this case, I will definitely let you all know.24:36[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in and remember to stay safe and till next time.Show full transcript (214 segments)Listen to The Asian Madness PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifythe M&M DispatchGet new The Asian Madness Podcast episodes and case updates from across the network.WebsiteJoinEnjoying The Asian Madness Podcast?Leave a rating on Apple Podcasts. 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