There’s been a lot of speculation in the K-drama world right now about who the real killer is in the ongoing series The Scarecrow, starring Park Hae Soo and Lee Hee Jun. Because of that, I tried researching the Hwaseong case, which is believed to be the real-life inspiration for the drama’s Kangseong case.
In the Hwaseong case, it took investigators 33 years (three decades) to identify the real killer. The police initially accused several suspects and eventually imprisoned the wrong person, someone who has disability. The wrongly accused man’s last name was Yoon, but his full name was withheld to protect his privacy. The real killer, Lee Chun Jae, later confessed while serving a life sentence after raping and murdering his sister-in-law. One major mistake in the investigation was the belief that the killer had blood type B, when in fact, he had blood type O, one of the key reasons the case remained unsolved for so long.
