Ilsan Elementary School Student Kidnapping Attempt

Ilsan Elementary School Student Kidnapping Attempt (一山初等學生拉致未遂事件) was an incident on 26 March 2008 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in which Lee Myung-cheol (41 at the time, male) assaulted and tried to abduct a child surnamed Kang (name withheld, 9 years old at the time, female) in an apartment elevator, but the attempt failed.

Course of events

At about 15:44 on 26 March 2008, in an apartment in Daehwa-dong, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, the child Kang got into an elevator, and a man who appeared to be in his 50s followed the child inside. The man tried to forcibly pull the child out of the elevator, and when the child resisted, he threatened her with a weapon and assaulted her. When the elevator door opened, the man grabbed the child by her hair and dragged her out. The child screamed "Help me!", and a female college student living nearby heard the screams and ran up to the third floor. Sensing someone's presence, the man left the child on the third floor, climbed to the fourth floor by the stairs, took the elevator down to the first floor, and fled.¹²

Allegations of a downplayed investigation

A neighboring resident who had rescued the child saw the perpetrator getting off the elevator and running away, and reported it to the police. However, the local police officers who arrived at the scene only questioned the child's family and did not question the witness. Even after viewing CCTV footage that clearly showed the perpetrator's face, they classified the case as a simple assault with no witnesses and reported it to the police station. The following day, the detective in charge who arrived at the scene did not secure the CCTV footage and did not investigate fingerprints. Angered by this, the child's parents made wanted posters themselves and distributed them across the surrounding apartment area.¹

SBS report and its impact

SBS, which obtained the footage, exclusively reported the story on its broadcast on 30 March. , the , explained, "A 9-year-old elementary school girl was nearly abducted in an apartment elevator and barely escaped," and said, "After serious deliberation, we are releasing the footage of the assault and the perpetrator's face."