My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 367

‘That makes sense.’

Even if they are investigating, anyone who could remain unaffected after seeing something like that would be considered insane.

“Alright, alright, calm down. I didn’t gather you here to state the obvious.”

“Ugh!”

“Let’s listen first and then act.”

Kim Si-deok also calmed his subordinate officers.

Park Do-joon calmly shared his analysis with them.

“Have the victims been identified?”

“No, not yet. Their faces appeared on the screen, but we can’t identify them.”

Identifying victims through facial recognition is impossible. Registering the faces of ordinary people, who aren’t criminals, for criminal investigations is a clear violation of human rights.

“We’re searching through missing persons lists, but there’s nothing concrete.”

“Instead of missing persons, check criminal records.”

“Criminal records?”

“Yes, listening to the victims’ screams, there’s a common phrase: ‘I was wrong,’ or ‘I won’t do it again.’”

Everyone nodded in agreement. How could they forget those screams?

In fact, though they don’t talk about it, several officers are receiving psychiatric counseling.

Having seen countless cases, watching people die with your own eyes, especially on video, eats away at a person’s soul.

“Why is that important?”

“If they were innocent victims, they would have said, ‘Save me. I’ll do whatever you want,’ not ‘I was wrong. I won’t do it again.’”

“They did ask to be saved, though?”

“That’s human instinct. The important thing is what they said while asking to be saved. Saying, ‘I was wrong. I won’t do it again,’ is what someone says when they recognize their crime and believe they are being punished for it.”

“Hmm…….”

Everyone mulled over Park Do-joon’s words, as they hadn’t seriously considered that aspect.

Listening to this, Lee Ji-soo felt strangely uneasy. There was something about it that bothered her.

“But then something doesn’t make sense, does it? That they were dragged away for something they did wrong somewhere?”

“That’s what it suggests.”

“But that makes even less sense, doesn’t it?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head, understandably so.

“If they recognized their disappearance and someone reported it, shouldn’t the missing person report specify a location? And there are four victims already? It seems odd that all four would have wronged the same person.”

The severity of the wrongdoing doesn’t matter. People kill for as little as 10,000 won [approximately $8 USD].

“Not a person, but ‘people,’ perhaps.”

“People?”

“The perpetrator is likely… not alone. The guy in the video is just one of them; there must be others.”

“What do you mean?”

“South Korea doesn’t have much information about snuff films, but generally, snuff films are produced by groups, not individuals.”

Everyone’s face turned pale at that statement.

A group? That was like a bolt from the blue.

Groups don’t have the same psychological cooling-off period as individuals.

“What are you saying? A group?”

“I say this because the production of snuff films is not just a crime of murder or torture, but a crime motivated by capital.”

“What? What do you mean? You saw the video, right? They’re doing it for money?”

“Of course, the perpetrators are likely addicted to the pleasure of it. But if the only goal was pleasure, they wouldn’t sell it.”

“Sell… it?”

“Yes, you said you found this on the dark web, right? They wouldn’t distribute it for free, would they?”

“Ugh, that’s true.”

Kim Si-deok nodded. Snuff films are expensive.

Very expensive. Millions to tens of millions of won, sometimes even hundreds of millions.

“How much did it cost to get four?”

“Five million won each.”

That’s 20 million won [approximately $16,000 USD].

Not an easy sum for the police to spend.

Yet, they paid it for a simple reason: it was a snuff film targeting Koreans. If they didn’t buy it because they thought it was a waste of money, even the police chief’s deepest apology wouldn’t solve the problem.

“That’s right, it’s capitalism. Moreover, looking at the video quality, it was filmed with a film camera, not a digital camera.”

“I guess so.”

Digital videos contain a surprising amount of internal information that can be analyzed. They are recorded as signals, not as light itself.

So, if you dig into it, you can pinpoint the filming location and time.

The IT team knew this, of course.

But they couldn’t find it.

“That’s because it was filmed with a film camera and then converted to digital.”

In that case, there’s no digital signal in the video itself, making it impossible to pinpoint the location.

“An individual would likely use digital equipment without thinking. Does anyone even make cameras that use film these days? Or in this case, judging by the quality, it looked like VHS [Video Home System]. Is that even still around?”

That thing called a videotape.

It’s hard to find those devices now.

“To be exact, we’re thinking it’s 8mm.”

“8mm?”

“Yes, VHS is for video, and I’m talking about the small ones used in camcorders.”

“Ah, yes!”

They certainly used that a lot for filming. Because 8mm was lighter and easier to carry, and the quality was a bit better than VHS.

In modern times, they’re about the same, but back then, there was a significant difference.

“I guess it’s almost impossible for an individual to buy that now, right?”

“That’s right. And the younger generation probably doesn’t even know it exists. From that perspective, one of the perpetrators is likely in their late 40s to late 50s. Quite intelligent, too. They must have a lot of knowledge about video.”

“Why?”

“The average person doesn’t know that digital cameras store location data.”

For the average person, the quality is all that matters, so they don’t care about storing that data.

“Someone who knows a lot about cameras?”

“Yes, and looking at the video, they’ve probably been in that industry for quite some time.”

“Why?”

“The video wasn’t degraded.”

“Degraded?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head, not knowing what that meant.

“Not ‘degraded,’ but ‘deteriorated.’ These analog video tapes used for recording have a very short lifespan. Especially if you overwrite existing footage with new footage, it shortens dramatically.”

Digital videos, if copied properly, are no different from the original, but videotapes aren’t like that. Especially if the tape used for copying is old or has been used a lot, deterioration is inevitable.

“And it’s been quite a while since those videotape types were discontinued.”

It’s almost impossible to get them now. In other words, they must have been storing several of those tapes, which is unlikely considering the current situation.

“Only a few private collectors or people in related industries would have them.”

“But couldn’t it be an old recording?”

“There was nothing in the video that could specify the time period, was there?”

The raincoat is a common item, and the equipment used for torture is also commonly used. Although the case is important, the possibility that the video itself was filmed before the medium disappeared cannot be ignored.

“The problem is the sound, not the video.”

“Sound?”

“Music played briefly while watching the recording.”

“Music?”

“Yes, it sounded like a ringtone. It was a familiar song. Joy-rim’s ‘Let’s Have a Coffee.’”

Everyone frowned at that. Joy-rim’s ‘Let’s Have a Coffee’ is a song that came out about three years ago. Obviously, if the video was filmed during the video era, which was discontinued over a decade ago, that song couldn’t be playing.

“How could you…?”

“It was buried in the screams.”

Everyone was focused on the screams from that horrible video; they didn’t have the mental capacity to pay attention to the background.

“And judging by that, the owner of the phone is likely over 40.”

“Couldn’t it be a young person?”

Someone tilted their head and asked. Park Do-joon shook his head.

“Well? Among those under 30 here, raise your hand if you’ve changed your phone’s ringtone.”

But everyone just looked at each other and didn’t raise their hands.

They don’t pay attention to other people’s ringtones.

“People don’t really change their ringtones these days.”

“Huh? Why? I feel like I used to change them often back in my day?”

“It’s a matter of individuality. Individuality was important in that era.”

There was definitely a generation that changed their ringtones and even decorated their phones to express themselves differently from others.

“But these days, it’s the era of performance. And emotion.”

They carry phones that cost over a million won [approximately $800 USD]. Phones have become smaller and more precise, making it impossible to take them apart and modify them personally.

And the type of phone you have is said to represent your emotions, so emotions are assigned to the phone itself.

“Ringtones aren’t that important in this era.”

“That’s true.”

Most people just use the default phone ringtone. They don’t think it represents their individuality.

“Looking at that, the owner of this phone probably likes to show off. You know those people? The ones who wear thick gold necklaces for no reason.”

“I know what you mean.”

People who like to show off and appeal, trying to make their presence known.

“On the other hand, those people often lack confidence in themselves.”

“That’s true.”

Lee Ji-soo nodded in agreement.

“Also, judging by their musical taste, the owner of this phone is also likely over 40.”

“Well, ‘Let’s Have a Coffee’ isn’t a young song.”

It’s not trot music [a genre of Korean pop music], but it’s still quite an old-fashioned song. A song that targets the tastes of those over 40, so-called pop music.

Or, to be precise, it could be seen as targeting those over 50.

Because even those in their early 40s are used to ballads or other music and don’t really like these slow songs.

“So, the members are quite old, even if we don’t know how many there are?”

“That’s right.”

Park Do-joon nodded at Kim Si-deok’s words.

“Of course, all of this could have been done by one person, though.”

“Ugh! Ah, by the way. I think we got sidetracked from what we were talking about earlier.”

Park Do-joon smiled bitterly at that. Well, he wasn’t wrong. The last profiling was honestly something Park Do-joon hoped he was wrong about.

“What do you think is the meaning of ‘I was wrong’ that people were saying earlier?”

“As I said, saying ‘I was wrong’ is what someone says when they believe the other person has the right to punish their wrongdoing… or when they think the other person is judging them for it.”