Ferry owner identified a month after death
Print Edition
THE body of South Korea’s most wanted man, linked to the sinking of a ferry in April that killed 300 people, was identified more than a month after being found in an orchard, police said yesterday, with his book and empty bottles of alcohol nearby.
The police chief in charge of the case in a small city in the south of the country was sacked for not recognizing the book, or putting two and two together, and for not identifying the corpse earlier.
Police said that DNA and fingerprint evidence from the heavily decomposed body found on June 12 showed it to be that of Yoo Byung-un, 73, the target of South Korea’s largest manhunt for more than two months. Beside the body was a book written by Yoo, along with an empty bottle of a shark-liver-oil health tonic, made by a Yoo family company, and three empty bottles of alcohol, police said.
Yoo was a wealthy businessman who headed the family that owned the operator of a ferry that capsized in the country’s worst maritime disaster in 20 years.
Police said they had not determined a cause of death but said it did not appear to have been foul play. Toxicology tests were under way.
The Sewol ferry, travelling too fast on a turn, sank on April 16 on a routine trip from the mainland to the holiday island of Jeju. Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers from the same school on the outskirts of Seoul. Only 172 people were rescued and the rest are all presumed drowned.
Failure of authorities to find Yoo had become a political headache for President Park Geun-hye. The Sewol’s 15 surviving crew members, including the captain, are on trial on charges ranging from homicide to negligence.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
