My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 496

“Then it must be a different culprit.”

The possibility that the crime occurred solely to fulfill the perpetrator’s purpose.

“Some incidents happen with absolutely no connection to the victim. Surprisingly, the police and profilers often forget that.”

“That’s true.”

The crimes that profilers mainly analyze are mostly extremely serious. And most of those crimes occur due to extreme emotional conflict or conflicts of interest between the victim and the perpetrator.

Moreover, a profiler’s job is fundamentally about examining cases to find the cause of the crime. As a result, they may unknowingly judge with a preconceived notion that the victim somehow had an influence.

Just like Lee Ji-soo thought.

“But as seen in abnormal motive killings, there are cases where people get caught up in crimes without any connection or cause.”

Abnormal motive killings. So-called random killings have no discernible cause. The victims just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Furthermore, kidnappings for the purpose of raising a child are much rarer than abnormal motive killings, and not many cases have been properly analyzed.”

As a result, most profilers don’t even consider it.

“How did you think of that, Senior?”

“Think of what? Kidnapping for the purpose of raising a child?”

“Yes, you can’t just suspect it just because such a case exists.”

Park Do-joon nodded. It was true that he had suspected it from the beginning, but it was still too ambiguous to call it more than a hunch.

“First of all, there were no demands after the kidnapping. That means the perpetrator’s goal has been achieved.”

“The police said something might have gone wrong, right?”

“Yes, but if that were the case, the perpetrator would have made it possible for the police to find the child.”

That way, the pursuit of them would weaken. In a situation where things went wrong, what is the safest way for them? It is none other than returning the child.

The method is not difficult. Just leaving the child in a place without CCTV would lead someone to report it. But the perpetrator did not return the child until the end.

Since a newborn cannot report the person who kidnapped them, the pursuit would inevitably become more relaxed just by the child returning. The perpetrator would know that, but they ultimately did not return the child.

“So the police thought they killed the child. But I don’t think there was any intention to do so.”

In crime, purpose is very important. If it’s not a crime, you might do it just out of boredom or without thinking.

But crime is not like that. Especially when your life is at stake, you don’t commit a crime without a purpose.

“Even abnormal motive killings ultimately have a clear purpose.”

They are angry at the world, so they will kill anyone. This is what is called a random killing.

“The cause was not clear, but the purpose is certain.”

But what about this case? The purpose is not visible. There is no cause either. There is no purpose or cause to commit murder.

“But the opposite is possible.”

If the purpose is to raise the child, then taking the child is not impossible.

“And the situation at the scene also suggests that.”

The child was kidnapped while the door was open and they were away for a while. It is almost impossible for parents, especially mothers caring for newborns, to leave their seats. If it wasn’t for returning the borrowed item, the mother probably wouldn’t have left the house even for a moment.

“But they can get psychologically exhausted.”

Mothers are bound to get stressed by the fact that they have to be with their child 24 hours a day and that there is no way to relieve that stress.

“But in that situation, communicating with someone can be very helpful in relieving stress.”

“Then is the person who lent the item the culprit?”

“There’s no way.”

In the first place, they didn’t borrow it first, but Song Won-nam’s house borrowed it first and just returned it.

“Besides, the time they were away was about 10 minutes. There isn’t enough time for someone to watch from the outside and run over.”

Someone cannot watch from across the street or elsewhere, run over, and kidnap the child. There isn’t enough time.

“In the end, the kidnapper must have been someone who was on the same floor before the crime.”

“But it says they already checked the other houses?”

After the child went missing, the police thoroughly searched everyone’s house. Everyone in the apartment opened their doors without saying anything when they heard that the child had disappeared, so there was no house that was not searched.

“If they didn’t let them in because the child wasn’t there, that person would have been considered a suspect without question.”

But there was no such person. Children are precious to those around them.

“So the culprit is not someone from that apartment.”

“Is there a possibility of smuggling the child elsewhere in that short amount of time?”

“To do that, they must have been prepared in advance.”

But is such preparation possible?

When will the child and mother be separated?

“Perhaps someone was passing by, found the door open, and acted impulsively.”

Park Do-joon handed over several case files and said.

“There are commonalities in cases where children disappear in such a short amount of time.”

Infant abduction cases occur frequently in the United States and Korea.

At hospitals, at marts, even in front of houses.

But the commonality among those who were caught trying to do so is that they took the child because they wanted to raise them.

“Some people plan it out and spend time in places like hospitals to choose a target, but some people commit crimes impulsively.”

“That……!”

“In fact, infant abduction is an incredibly common crime worldwide.”

However, Korea has good public safety and strong public attention to protecting children, so it doesn’t happen easily.

“In terms of the frequency of incidents, Korea is closer to being a special case.”

That’s why people in Korea don’t pay attention to infant abduction, but overseas it’s different.

A foreign athlete who came to Korea was so surprised to see a child walking alone on the street that he was horrified and followed them to school.

It’s not for some strange purpose, but in their country, leaving a child alone on the street is as dangerous as killing the child.

“But in Korea, there is a limit to kidnapping children for other crimes.”

They are not old enough to be trafficked or handed over to slave traders. Also, they cannot extract the child’s organs to sell them or use them for medicine, as rumored in China.

“Furthermore, it happened inside the house, not outside.”

That means it is more likely to be an impulsive crime.

“So, they went in impulsively and took the child out……”

Park Do-joon stroked his chin and pondered at those words.

“The perpetrator is a woman. She is likely suffering from depression. She was probably someone who had business on the same floor at that time. She is likely poor and recently lost a child or had a miscarriage. She probably isn’t married.”

“What if that’s wrong?”

“The possibility of being dead increases. My analysis is based on the assumption that they are alive, so someone kidnapped and raised them.”

Park Do-joon spoke while talking about the uncertainty.

“She is mentally unstable and probably has an enormous obsession. The child being raised probably isn’t in a good situation either.”

“But there must be more than one or two people like that, right? Furthermore, it’s been 16 years, right?”

If it was something that happened recently, it would be possible to ask the people living in that apartment if they had any visitors, but there are hardly any people who still live in that apartment without moving. Even the victim, Song Won-nam’s family, has already left that house and is living elsewhere.

“That’s the problem.”

And even if they somehow try to find them, how many people would remember someone who visited 16 years ago?

“It’s definitely not going to be easy.”

“I know.”

Park Do-joon stared intently at the data with a serious face.

# Results in the Wrong Direction

It was as expected. Almost no one remembered the incident from 16 years ago.

Only three people living in that building were living in the same building at the time of the incident, and the rest had already moved or were deceased.

Even then, there was not a single person living on that floor who was the same.

“That incident? I remember it too.”

The man who lived there at the time nodded and said.

“When I came home from work, the apartment complex was turned upside down.”

The man, who was a worker at the time but is now retired, recalled the memory of that day.

“They said a child disappeared from the house. The police were all mobilized and searched every house.”

“Did you see anything else that day?”

“Would I? When I arrived, the police were already searching the apartment.”

As expected, the people currently living there knew nothing.

“Were there any people blocking or controlling access at that time?”

“Security guard? Where would that be?”

16 years ago, there were no security doors or anything like that. Anyone could just open the door and enter, and the security guards didn’t really stop them.

“Were there any CCTVs at that time?”

“There weren’t.”

It was only after that incident that people were in an uproar to install CCTV out of anxiety, and that’s when they installed it.

“Were there many people walking around the building at that time?”

“Well, I don’t know because I was at work during the day.”

Park Do-joon talked to that person but ended up not getting anything and moved away from him. Then he approached Lee Ji-soo, who was talking to another middle-aged woman a little further away.

“Did you get anything?”

“Not at all. I went to the apartment management office, but the people there have all changed, so no one remembers the incident itself.”

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon stroked his chin at those words.

“Is there a possibility that the culprit lives in this apartment?”

“Well? The possibility is not very high.”

“They could have taken the child out and left them somewhere, right?”

“If they were an apartment resident, of course they would have. But as I said, there wasn’t enough time to do that. Even if we consider the possibility of smuggling the child out, that means there was an accomplice. But if someone suddenly brings a baby and suddenly says, ‘Oh, let’s smuggle them out,’ who would say, ‘Oh, let’s do that’?”

“Ah!”

Of course, if they had left the apartment with the child right away, it would have been different, but according to the investigation records at the time, there were people in almost every apartment.

“Besides, if that were the case, they would have moved out soon. But according to this record, there is no one who moved out of the building within a short period of time.”

In other words, considering various realistic problems, the possibility that someone inside the apartment kidnapped the child is low.