Internet Members Commit Suicide Together

The Suwon Nambu Police is investigating the exact backdrop behind five men and women who poisoned themselves to death. These men and women were in their twenties and stayed in a motel located in Kwonsun-dong in Suwon, Gyonggi province. The police found on Tuesday that they contacted each other through the internet.

The police found that the five dead all joined an internet portal site and that Lee (Male, 29, unemployed, Seoul Nowongu) and Song (Female, 20, beautician, Seoul) joined an alumni site, while Park (Male, 25, unemployed, Gyeongnam) and Min (Female, 20, unemployed) joined an internet site.

The police traced Lee’s calls through the motel telephone and found that they had called two or three times between 4:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. on March 20.

Moreover, with a memo reading “I am the one who contacted you through e-mail. Gupabal, Jongro 3 ga, Suwon Station,” in the pocket of another deceased, Moon (Female, 20, Sophomore in University, Gyonggi), police have assumed that they had gotten in touch with each other through e-mail or internet cafes. With this information, police have issued a search warrant for the internet site and are trying to find the exchanged dialogue in detail.

Police are assuming that the two men among the three deceased are said to have first checked in at the motel room 310 at 5:10 p.m. on Saturday, while Song came the next day at noon to room 407 but transferred to room 310 at around 5:00 p.m. However, police still have no clues as to where the other man and woman stayed.

The police also found that Lee did not finish his military service but was discharged from the military for anthrophobia, while Moon left home after making inquiries about poison on internet sites in September of last year.

The police revealed that Lee left a note saying that he wanted to buy poison through an internet site, but got his 3 million won swindled. They assume that this site connected him to the suicide pact and are making further investigations. The police have summoned the families of Lee, Song, and Moon this day to interrogate them on the motivations for suicide, but have found that there were not specific motivations except that they had a few minor hypochondria treatments.

While investigating the families and friends of the deceased to gather more information as to the motivation behind their suicides, the police will send the corpses for autopsy on March 24.

Kyung-Hyun Nam bibulus@donga.com