“Dongdaemun-gu parents voice anxiety” ... Suspect in the ‘Gangjin elementary school disappearance’ case arrested after being found with a weapon while dressed as a woman

[Financial News] A man in his 40s, identified as a leading suspect in the serial disappearances of elementary school students in Gangjin, was arrested for possessing a weapon just over a month after his release from prison.
According to legal sources on the 19th, the Ministry of Justice’s Seoul Probation Office took Mr. Ma (47) into custody on the 16th on suspicion of violating the Act on the Attachment of Electronic Devices, Etc.
Mr. Ma was identified as a suspect in the cases of two elementary school students who went missing one after another in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province, in 2000 and 2001. However, as no direct evidence was found, the cases remain unsolved to this day.
In 2002, Mr. Ma was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing his brother-in-law with a weapon during divorce proceedings; his brother-in-law had opposed their reconciliation. He later served eight years for raping a woman in her 40s with a Grade 3 intellectual disability in 2018.
Notably, he appeared dressed as a woman in an episode of SBS’s Unanswered Questions, broadcast on the 17th, titled “The King of Chanran-guk and the Missing Children – The Gangjin Elementary School Serial Disappearance Case.”
According to the program, while being questioned by prosecutors in 2010 in connection with a separate child sex crime case, Mr. Ma confessed to killing the two missing children and disposing of their bodies. A reenactment at the scene was later conducted, but he was not formally booked as a suspect.
This was because no clear evidence was found during the reenactment at the time and Mr. Ma recanted his confession.
His ex-wife even stated that she had seen a videotape containing footage of the sexual exploitation of a child believed to be one of the missing children. But the tape was never actually found, and Mr. Ma was no longer under suspicion in the serial disappearance case.
Mr. Ma later showed the Unanswered Questions production team his electronic ankle monitor first, saying he had expected the TV station to come looking for him, and spoke about the murder of his brother-in-law.
He also became agitated, calling the videotape story absurd and saying he would agree to an interview, but then changed his stance, saying he had nothing to gain by protesting his innocence.
Regarding the children who went missing, he said, “I’ve never seen them or known them.” He also consistently claimed to know nothing about the assertion by the older sister of one of the missing children that she had once visited his home to play.
Mr. Ma, who had driven a car with stolen license plates at the time of the serial disappearances, also appeared reluctant to answer, saying, “Everything you’re asking now is pointless and just suspicion.”
Jeong Jaewon, a producer on Unanswered Questions, explained that Mr. Ma “takes pleasure in doing whatever he wants with those he can easily dominate and control, such as children and people with intellectual disabilities.”
He added that Mr. Ma “speaks very skillfully,” but also “has a tendency to get angry when faced with unfavorable points.”
In particular, after Unanswered Questions aired, parents in the area around Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, where Mr. Ma was reportedly living, voiced their anxiety on online parenting forums and social media.
Meanwhile, the probation office recently received information that Mr. A had a weapon and searched the temporary residence in Dongdaemun-gu where he was staying. Concluding that the allegations were substantiated, it applied to the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office for an arrest warrant.
[email protected] An Gaeul Reporter