My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 495

“One possibility is a revenge crime group.”

Someone kidnapped Song Won-nam’s child to inflict pain on his family as revenge, then abandoned the child somewhere.

“That’s possible.”

Being a sociologist is a socially respected profession, but that doesn’t mean they have no enemies. In fact, they are bound to have many enemies because they are people who speak frankly.

People who speak frankly are bound to be thorns in the side of those in power or corrupt individuals.

“The other possibility is that you’re predicting a kidnapping by a third party completely unrelated to the victim.”

“Exactly.”

Seeing that, Park Do-joon frowned. A more precise analysis should have been done afterward, but it wasn’t.

“Well, I can understand why.”

Even if he provided analysis, the police wouldn’t listen, so there would be no reason for the profiler to continue the analysis.

“Could it be a revenge crime? Surely, if you have the desire to take revenge on someone, you might do something like this, right?”

Park Do-joon shook his head at Lee Ji-soo’s words. Of course, that possibility isn’t nonexistent. In fact, there are quite a few such cases.

“I don’t think so. You can have feelings of revenge, but looking at the psychology of an enemy who antagonizes Song Won-nam, the possibility isn’t high.”

“Yes?”

“When analyzing a criminal, you can’t just look at one thing. You have to see why they’re doing it and what impact it will have.”

As Park Do-joon said that, he took out the data related to Song Won-nam and began to examine it. It wasn’t recent data, but data from 16 years ago.

“Looking at the data from that time, Song Won-nam was clearly a socially prominent sociologist. He was good at saying the right things, so he appeared on TV a lot.”

“He did.”

“But who was harmed by that?”

“Yes?”

“They might see him as a thorn in their side. They might have a desire for revenge. But when is it possible to have that level of revenge? How much animosity do you have to have to think about kidnapping your granddaughter and abandoning her?”

“Hmm…….”

“Having a simple feeling of revenge isn’t difficult, but if you don’t know how much animosity is required, what’s the point of being a profiler?”

“I guess so. Song Won-nam didn’t have much social power back then either.”

Song Won-nam probably knows that hostile feelings are directed at him, but even so, he spoke confidently. Because he had courage? Well, maybe.

“But conversely, it’s also because he thought the other party had no reason to harm him.”

Regardless of being a socially prominent sociologist with high recognition, his words wouldn’t have been able to socially damage the other party.

“Social problem analysis is originally like that. It’s annoying, but it can never be fatal.”

If he had seized on personal weaknesses and harassed them, or talked about personal crimes, it would have been more fatal.

But Song Won-nam is a sociologist. Even if he criticized someone, he wouldn’t talk about specific actions, but only about public areas where they weren’t moving in a socially correct way.

“That has no possibility of being fatal to an individual at all.”

“I guess that’s true. I hadn’t thought about that.”

Of course, it’s annoying, but there’s no possibility that he ruined someone’s future.

He might have been able to exert some influence in the election by speaking out, but that wouldn’t be the only reason they lost the election, so there’s no reason to take revenge by kidnapping a child.

“In particular, revenge is mostly carried out directly against the perpetrator.”

They isolate them socially or insult them personally, but they don’t go so far as to harm the child.

“In the past, even treason was said to exterminate the nine generations, but children are an exception.”

Even in Joseon [historical Korean kingdom], adults were given poison for treason, saying they would exterminate the three generations, but they didn’t kill the children. Of course, they couldn’t just leave them alone, so they were usually demoted to government slaves and sent to the provinces.

“Song Won-nam isn’t a dangerous person enough to be subjected to that level of retaliation, and those who Song Won-nam criticized aren’t such terrible criminals either.”

Of course, the level of revenge varies depending on the level of the perpetrator. Gangs are willing to kill for as little as $100, but politicians don’t kill for just $100.

“The people Song Won-nam is dealing with are socially prominent leaders.”

“Then the means and intensity of revenge will be significantly lower.”

“Yes, and even then, they’ll be cautious.”

Socially criticizing or saying something – that’s the best revenge the powerful people Song Won-nam is dealing with can do.

“It doesn’t make sense to kidnap a child for revenge.”

“Right, then what’s left is an accidental crime by a third party…….”

But why?

Why would a third party kidnap and take the child away?

“Senior, do you have any hunches?”

“If you analyze not the time of the incident but after, there are some hunches.”

“After?”

“Yes, we received the case very late.”

There’s bound to be more information than at the time when the case itself was received, but Lee Ji-soo didn’t understand that and tilted her head.

“But Senior, the team leader said there was no additional data?”

“There probably aren’t any police investigation records.”

Even if the police conducted additional investigations, the data wouldn’t remain. It’s all unofficial investigation.

“But it’s not difficult to analyze the situation that will occur afterward.”

“Not difficult?”

“The child hasn’t been found. Then the parents tend not to give up hope.”

In fact, the police say that the child was abandoned or murdered somewhere, but the parents pray that the child was abandoned rather than murdered.

“And almost 100% of the time, the parents start searching orphanages across the country.”

Song Won-nam’s family wouldn’t be any different. Song Won-nam changed his life path because he thought he had lost his granddaughter, and the missing child’s mother has been suffering from depression her whole life.

“Do you think those people can say, ‘It can’t be helped. Let’s forget about it’?”

“That’s impossible.”

It’s absolutely impossible for ordinary people. Even psychopaths feel the emotion of denial and maternal love, so there’s no way they can give up on that.

“There may be no additional data, but we should assume that the family is searching every nook and cranny of the neighborhood.”

Not just the neighborhood. They probably wandered around almost all the orphanages and nurseries in the country.

“The incident was 16 years ago. That’s a time when the internet was somewhat available.”

So it’s not difficult to check the phone number of the nursery on the internet. If they hear news that a girl has come in, they would go there just in case.

“Then…….”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo’s voice darkened. The police certainly don’t do that, but the family would, and the fact that they still haven’t found her means…… there’s a high possibility that the child is dead.

“Right, maybe that’s why the family gave up too.”

“No, but why are they entrusting us with this?”

Lee Ji-soo frowned at those words. There’s a high possibility that she’s dead, so it’s useless to look for her. And even the family thinks so and is giving up and living. But why do they keep entrusting us with this?

“Well, of course, there’s a possibility that she’s dead.”

Park Do-joon said that, but at the same time, he thought there was a considerable possibility that she wasn’t.

“There’s a very low possibility, but there’s still a possibility that she’s alive.”

“A very low possibility?”

“Didn’t I say? There’s a possibility that the child was kidnapped accidentally.”

“You did.”

The former profiler also mentioned that part.

“Then we have to think about what the purpose is.”

“Ah, come to think of it……!”

I was only thinking about revenge, so I was missing that part. It’s a very low possibility, but we can’t ignore that possibility altogether.

“The biggest problem is that.”

Probably other police officers or profilers analyzed the case records and thought she was dead.

So they probably didn’t investigate properly.

In fact, if you kill a child and bury her somewhere, it’s virtually impossible to find her.

“But no matter how I think about it, there’s no reason for anyone to kill the child unless the victim’s family lied to the police.”

But the police investigated thoroughly, and if the victim’s family were people who held such a great grudge, it couldn’t have been left out of the records.

“But they’re an educator’s family. There’s no reason for such a place to have any grudges left.”

“Hmm…….”

“Then there’s something else left: the victim.”

“The victim…….”

“A child is also an object in the end. They can be the victim of a crime.”

However, because they are young and can’t do anything, they are judged as subordinate to their parents.

“So, excluding the victim’s family, let’s look at the child as a victim. What kind of crime could they be the target of?”

“A crime targeting a child…….”

First of all, it wouldn’t be a property crime. It’s not a grudge crime either.

“No, I don’t know what kind of crime you would commit against a child…….”

Lee Ji-soo said as if she didn’t understand. She’s just a few-month-old baby, and it didn’t make sense to her that someone would commit a crime against such a child. But one possibility kept popping up in Park Do-joon’s mind.

‘It’s not a high probability…….’

Nevertheless, it’s an event that actually happens often, and it’s also happened several times in Korea.

However, it’s not a mainstream event, so most people are completely forgetting about the area.

“Kidnapping for the purpose of raising.”

“Yes?”

“I’m talking about kidnapping for the purpose of raising – literally, taking the child to raise them.”

“Taking the child and raising them? Why? No, why bother?”

“It’s not ‘why bother’; it’s an event that actually happens from time to time.”

Usually, people who raise children give birth to them or, if that’s not possible, adopt them. But kidnapping and raising them?

“It’s absurd. It’s absurd, but it’s actually a common occurrence.”

“Why?”

“They’re thinking the same thing as we were earlier.”

“The same thing?”

“A child is not an individual existence but an existence subordinate to their parents.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Lee Ji-soo got goosebumps for a moment. They also thought that way, so they were trying to find the cause of the crime only in the parents.

“But we couldn’t find the cause in the parents. Then there are only two things left. First, the victim provided the cause.”

But there’s no cause that the victim could have provided. At the time of the disappearance, the child was only 3 months old.

Profiler of the Profession