Overview
The Frog Boys disappearance case concerns five students of Seongseo National Elementary School (now Seongseo Elementary School) who lived in Dalseo-gu, Daegu Metropolitan City, and who left home on 26 March 1991, saying they were going to Mt. Wiryong behind their neighbourhood to collect salamander eggs, and never returned. At the time of their disappearance, the children were aged 9 to 13 and were in grades 3 to 6. The government and police mobilised police and military personnel totalling more than 300,000 people in cumulative terms to search for them, but found no clues. The children were discovered as skeletal remains on the middle slope of Mt. Wiryong on 26 September 2002, eleven years and six months after their disappearance. The forensic team entrusted with examining the remains concluded that they had been killed by another person, but the perpetrator was never identified, and the 15-year statute of limitations for murder expired on 25 March 2006. Together with the Hwaseong serial murders and the Lee Hyeong-ho kidnapping and murder case, the case has been called one of the so-called "three major unsolved cases." After the perpetrator of the Hwaseong case was identified in 2019, it has been regarded, along with the Lee Hyeong-ho case, as a representative unsolved case. It is also sometimes called the "Daegu Seongseo elementary school students' murder and burial case."
Background
The day of the disappearance, 26 March 1991, was a temporary public holiday, the day on which elections for basic local council members were held, marking the revival of local autonomy after 30 years, following its suspension after the 5·16 military coup. Children who did not go to school set off together for the mountain in the morning. The purpose the children gave their friends was to collect "salamander eggs," but in the course of early news reporting this was relayed as having "gone to catch frogs," and the name "Frog Boys" became established. Although this name derives from a misconception and is a nickname that does not reflect the facts, it has since become the common name for the case for more than 30 years.
Course of events
Disappearance and large-scale search
When the children did not return by evening, their families reported them missing, and within a week the case had become a nationwide concern. The Roh Tae-woo government at the time deployed large numbers of police and military personnel, and the number of searchers is recorded as approximately 320,000 or 350,000 people in cumulative terms, depending on the source. The area around Mt. Wiryong was searched hundreds of times, and the government offered a reward of tens of millions of won. Photographs and messages seeking the children were printed on public telephone cards, cigarette packs, snack wrappers, detergent boxes, and bank and card company statements, and it is said that more than 20 million leaflets were distributed. Broadcasters also repeatedly covered the case in current affairs programmes and public wanted-person programmes.
False tips and investigative confusion
The search was swayed by numerous tips and rumours. Tips from shamans and others alone numbered several hundred, and in the course of checking reports that the children were buried beneath a certain facility in another region, clashes occurred between residents and the press. In January 1996, a university professor claimed that the parent of one of the missing children was the perpetrator, and on the basis of this the police dug up the yard and toilet of that family's home, but nothing was found. The professor who made the claim was later reported to have received a fine for defamation. This incident is frequently cited as a case in which a weakly grounded hypothesis caused secondary harm to the victims' families. In autumn 1993, the parents stopped searching in person, saying they would return to their livelihoods.
Discovery of the remains
On 26 September 2002, on the middle slope of Mt. Wiryong (around Saebanggol, behind the construction site of the new Seongsan High School building), a citizen gathering acorns discovered the remains. The discovery site was about 3.5 km from the village where the children had lived, and since it was not far outside the earlier search area, renewed criticism arose that the earlier search had been inadequate. The remains were confirmed by DNA testing to be those of the five missing children. Shoes, clothing, bullet fragments and cartridge cases were also recovered from the site.
Dispute over the cause of death
At first, the police suggested that the children may have lost their way, been exposed to the cold, and died of hypothermia, citing the fact that the remains were clustered together and that traces of a pit were not clear. The bereaved families objected, citing circumstances such as clothing that appeared to have been tied. The forensic team of Kyungpook National University, which was entrusted with examining the remains, identified signs of external trauma to the skulls of at least three of the five children and concluded that they had been killed by another person. The police also later directed their investigation toward the homicide theory, but failed to identify the weapon or any suspect. Because of the bullet fragments found at the scene, a theory of an accidental shooting linked to a nearby shooting range was raised, but the military authorities denied the possibility, and this too remained an unconfirmed hypothesis. The excavation was also criticised for having been hurried without the participation of forensic scientists, which damaged the site.
Expiry of the statute of limitations
At that time, the statute of limitations for murder was 15 years. Without identifying the perpetrator, the statute of limitations was completed at midnight on 25 March 2006. Afterwards, even if the perpetrator were identified, criminal punishment would no longer be possible. The bereaved families filed a lawsuit against the state on the grounds of errors in the investigation, but it has been reported that no unlawfulness was recognised.
Re-investigation
In September 2019, when the perpetrator of the Hwaseong serial murders was identified through DNA, interest in long-unsolved cases rose again. On 20 September 2019, Police Commissioner General Min Gab-ryong became the first Police Commissioner General to visit the site where the remains were found on Mt. Wiryong, lay flowers there, and promised, in the presence of the bereaved families and civic group representatives, to re-investigate the case from the beginning. He expressed that he felt "heavy-hearted as a fellow police officer" about the failure to solve the case immediately after the disappearance, and said he would re-examine the remaining personal effects using advanced scientific techniques. The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency reinforced its unsolved case investigation team and began to review the past investigation records and forensic results again, and several new tips were received around this time. However, the way reports describe whether a formal apology was made differs, and the confirmed statement is the expression of regret described above.
In March 2021, on the 30th anniversary of the case, a memorial stone was erected at the foot of Mt. Wiryong, and the Daegu Police Agency announced that it would form a dedicated team to review the case again. In 2022, a claim spread through online posts that a particular tool was the instrument of the crime, but the police explained that this possibility had already been considered in past forensic examinations and that it did not match the pattern of injuries. As of October 2026, no suspect has been identified, and the differences of opinion between the police and the forensic community over the cause and circumstances of death have not been fully resolved.
Controversies
- Initial investigation and deficiencies in the search: Despite the mobilisation of large numbers of personnel, the remains on a mountain slope not far from the village were not found for 11 years, and criticism has repeatedly been raised that early tips, including testimony that the children's screams had been heard, were not properly verified.
- Harms of hypothesis-driven investigation: The 1996 incident, in which the homes of the victims' families were dug up on the basis of a weakly supported claim, is cited as an example of the dangers of investigative bodies following hypotheses without verification.
- Dispute over the cause of death: Confidence in the investigation declined as the police, who first raised the possibility of death from hypothermia, and the forensic team, which concluded that the children had been killed by another person, reached different judgments. Several hypotheses, including an accidental shooting and an outsider's crime, have been put forward, but none has been confirmed.
Impact and significance
This case was the occasion that raised the issue of missing children to a nationwide social problem. The large-scale "find the children" campaign using everyday consumer products became the prototype of later campaigns to find missing children, and it also influenced civic group activities such as family associations of missing children. Together with the Lee Hyeong-ho case, it also heightened concern that the statute of limitations for murder was too short, and it became part of the background to the 2007 amendment that extended the statute of limitations for murder to 25 years, and to the discussion of the Taewan's Law, which abolished the statute of limitations for murder in 2015. However, because the statute of limitations had already expired before these legal amendments, this case cannot be subject to retroactive application. The case has been treated in the films Return, Frog Boy (1992) and Children… (2011), in various current affairs programmes, and in books.
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