Yonhap News
By devotion, how much pain would you tolerate?
Vigilance for sensitive person, a photo of the body is present in this article.
One morning on the first of May 2011, a beekeeper named JOO crosses paths with two colleagues who are looking for a suitable place to plant hives in the high-altitude town of Mungyeong, in North Gyeongsan province. After a few minutes of walking, JOO insists on continuing up the hill where he met the other two men, confident that they will find what they were looking for for their bee farms. But it is the shock that strikes the three beekeepers when, behind the trees and tall grass, they finally ended up in a clearing where sat in its center, a crucified man.
KIM, a 57-year-old taxi driver, found nailed to a cross in the heart of Dundeok mountain. Dressed only in white underwear, he had a crown of thorns on his head, a wound in his abdomen that strangely resembles that of Christ, and a whole set-up surrounding his body. Father of two, police quickly learned that one of his sons had to undergo a liver transplant, which failed. His son dying at 22, could it be that the father committed suicide?
Losing his child, KIM reportedly separated from his wife, sold his taxi, apartment, and with a new car went to Mungyeong several hours away, and rented out an old-fashioned home for a few weeks. On 13 April, he buys wood from a sawmill and the next day, goes to a bank to cancel all his automatic transfers before transferring his savings of nine million won (about six thousand euros) to his brother. Then, without warning his family, he cut off his phone line. Disappeared in the eyes of his family, KIM pitched a tent in the mountain, close to where his body was found by beekeepers.
Three theories emerge: he committed suicide alone, he was helped, he was killed. Where is the truth?
Police rush to the scene of the crime in order to gather as much evidence as possible. First, near the body, there is a tent with some of KIM’s personal belongings, including a tablet and sketches. The internet history showed that shortly before his death he had done research on the crucifixion of Jesus and the materials used, as well as the sketches represent plans to make the cross, with measurements for the nails. Everything seems to point towards suicide. The death of his son remains the main reason that pushed him to do this gesture according to the forces of law and order. As for the autopsy report, the coroner believes that KIM would have used either a drill or a screwdriver for the stigmata he has at all four extrimities.
To make self-crucifixion possible, KIM would have had to first drive the nails into the cross before piercing his hands. He then laid them on the nails, letting himself hang on them. This modus operandi is so peculiar that the TV has taken over the case. Indeed, the SBS program “UNANSWERED QUESTION” aired a special episode on the crucifixion of Mungyeong, having shot a physical reconstitution and one in 3D. Near the corpse, two small crosses were also present, one with a mirror reflecting KIM, the crosses having probably represented the other two persons executed alongside Jesus. There were also ties found on the ground, but also on the body at the level of the neck and forearms of KIM, which could have allowed both to hold his arms so that they did not fall from the cross, but also to suffocate him, leading inexorably to death. Another was wrapped around his abdomen, to prevent him from falling forward.
The mirror, on the other hand, would have been used to help KIM aim so that he could stab himself in the abdomen, to make the reconstitution of the death of Christ perfect. But some shady details, but of crucial importance, emerge.
First, although a drill was found at the crime scene, it was far too far from the body. It would have been impossible for KIM to inflict the stigmata next to the tent before walking several meters, bleeding, in order to be planted on the cross. Second thing, a screwdriver was next to the cross, but it would have been necessary to have a particularly high threshold of pain for someone to inflict this type of wound, digging between flesh and bones. Also, the stigmata caused damage to the nerves, how could he have tied the ties around the abdomen, arms, and neck? How could he even have pierced his second hand?
In addition, the loss of blood from the extremities and the abdomen after stabbing would have caused him to faint with pain before going to the end of his project. Although the police consider it to be suicide in view of KIM’s most curious behaviour before his death, and the tablet and sketches, they do not deny the involvement of a second person who could have helped him die, the murder being definitively ruled out. Although the nails were planted between the tarses so that it was less painful, the angle suggests that KIM inflicted these stigmas on himself, but for the hands, nothing is certain.
The first question that law enforcement forces and the public are asking is: why did KIM go to Mungyeong, about 200km from his residence in Changwon, to commit suicide on some mountain? This is an attitude that his former colleagues taxi drivers have difficulty understanding, especially the religious aspect seemed foreign to KIM. Mungyeong had no particular religious attachment, which would motivate even less such an act. But then, KIM knew JOO, the beekeeper who had “discovered” her body!
Two years ago, it was on a religious website that KIM met JOO, a former pastor who dedicated his retreat to this site, while starting an activity as a beekeeper. It seems all the more suspicious that JOO insisted on other beekeepers to continue to climb up the mountain, falling “by chance” on KIM as he photographed him from various angles. He had claimed to find it strange and virtuous to crucify himself, also taking pictures of the sketches. Could he have a connection to this story?
JOO then becomes suspect almost unwillingly of Mungyeong’s crucifixion, because after police are done some tests and have reacted the whole scene, it would seem unlikely that KIM could have done to himself so many injuries without falling into shock from the pain, particularly without having been anesthetized, or without pain medication in the body. In believing that KIM would have been alone, he should have started with the lower stigmata, then tied the neck, the abdomen, stabbed himself, made the upper stigmas, before settling on the nails. After the death of his son, such devotion for his soul to reach heaven could have been possible?
KIM reportedly asked JOO on the internet for more information about Christ’s death, the afterlife, and the path of souls after death. Once the latter found the taxi driver’s body, the other two beekeepers would have come down from the mountain to seek help from the police as quickly as possible, while JOO would have remained with KIM before disappearing. It was the SBS channel, during the shooting of the special episode, that managed to find JOO, as well as his website which would have highlighted the obvious link between him and KIM. But once trapped, JOO closed the site before the police could get their hands on it. For lack of evidence, testimony and other suspects, the case was dismissed.
Even today, KIM’s death remains a cold case, an unsolved case. Considered above all as a suicide, the love of this father for his son who left too early forced the sorrow and admiration of many Koreans, but also the misunderstanding in face of such an extreme act. He only wished, perhaps, to preserve him from a death in pain, and from that beyond which he was afraid.
And you, would you have been capable of such devotion? What is your hypothesis, did he self-crucify, or did JOO help him? A cold case that will probably never be clarified.
Journalist: Pillet Anaïs
Translator: Pillet Anaïs
Photos: under pic
Source: KSTATION TV
