The Frog Boys was a group of five boys who disappeared in Daegu, South Korea on March 26, 1991. Woo Cheol-won, Jo Ho-yeon, Kim Young-gyu, Park Chan-in and Kim Jong-sik, aged between 9 and 13 years old, disappeared after searching for salamander eggs in the western outskirts of Daegu on a public holiday. Their disappearance received widespread attention and caused a national media frenzy, and President Roh Tae-woo ordered a massive manhunt by the police and military to find them. On September 26, 2002, the remains of the boys were discovered near where they went egg searching, with some showing signs of blunt-force trauma. The investigation has been inconclusive and theories abound about their deaths. The statute of limitations expired in March 2006 and the case remains unsolved.
Victims
The five boys were between 9 and 13 years old:
Woo Cheol-won
Jo Ho-yeon
Kim Young-gyu
Park Chan-in
Kim Jong-sik
All five boys were from the Dalseo District of Daegu and attended the same elementary school. A sixth child, 10-year-old Kim Tae-ryong, left the group to go home and eat, having missed breakfast that morning.
Circumstances and disappearance
March 26, 1991, was a public holiday in South Korea for local elections, and the boys decided to spend the day searching for salamander eggs in the streams of Mount Waryong in Dalseo on the western outskirts of Daegu. The boys never went home, and after they were reported missing, their story made national headlines. President Roh Tae-woo sent 300,000 police and military troops to search for the boys, with the searches shown on live TV. Several of the boys' parents quit their jobs to look for their children around the country. Mount Waryong was searched over 500 times.
Discovery of bodies
On September 26, 2002, a man searching for acorns discovered their bodies on Mount Waryong in an area that had been searched. He first reported the remains via an anonymous phone call. Initially, the police said they thought the boys had died of hypothermia. But their parents rejected that conclusion and demanded a full investigation. The families questioned the conclusion that the boys had simply died after getting lost due to the oddities of their clothes being found tied in knots and the discovery of their bodies a short distance from the village in an area the boys knew well. Forensic experts found the skulls of three of the children showed blunt-force trauma, possibly from metal tools. Police said the children could have been killed by someone who "may have flown into a rage."
Aftermath
In 2006, the statute of limitations expired on the case. But police said they will continue their investigation to get answers.
