My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 629

This was the third crime, but there were twenty-four victims in total.

“We’re tracking it as closely as possible, but there’s no way to stop it,” someone said.

“You must have made the information public, right?”

“I did. But I don’t know how this criminal is providing the poisoned food to the victims.”

“Providing?”

“Yes, providing.”

Despite broadcasts, media coverage, and emergency alerts warning people never to eat found food, the deaths continued.

“That’s why I’m going crazy.”

They needed to be able to track the source, but they couldn’t.

“The problem is that we can’t trace the supply line.”

“That’s serious.”

They could trace the line that initially supplied the food, but there was no way to track where it went afterward.

“You mean it’s completely untraceable? I don’t understand.”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head, puzzled.

“I don’t know everything, but doesn’t Korea have very strict tracking for food that’s made improperly?”

“That’s true.”

“For example, even with coffee mixes, which people consume very commonly, every piece of equipment has a designated number, and that number is assigned to the products that are shipped. So, if a problem occurs, the line can be shut down immediately.”

“Even if it’s food, it’s untraceable in this case?”

“That’s the problem. The final points of sale aren’t just one or two.”

“Yes?”

“We can track the sales distribution network, but we can’t know where the food went after it left the stores.”

“For example, let’s say something comes from line 1 of Company A and goes to a B Mart. That can definitely be tracked. But the problem is what happens after that.”

They could go to B Mart, but they wouldn’t know who bought the item after that.

“Still, can’t you track the person who bought it with CCTV? You can see who bought what with a credit card, right?”

“It doesn’t work.”

It wasn’t like they hadn’t tried that method. In fact, when things first started, that seemed like an easy solution.

“But you see, it’s all mixed up.”

“Yes?”

“The sales are mixed everywhere.”

The deceased died in Pohang, but the point of sale was in Suwon. Or they died in Gwangju, but they bought the item in Yeongwol.

“Even records of sales in other regions were found at once.”

At the third location where the poisoned food was discovered, items sold to Busan and Gyeongju were mixed together.

“It’s impossible to track?”

“Yes. There’s absolutely no answer.”

“Hmm….”

Park Do-joon frowned.

“Hasn’t a special investigation unit been created?”

With a case of this magnitude, a special investigation unit had to be created. Moreover, they couldn’t afford to be insensitive. Food safety was a seriously important issue for companies, and even more so for the public. No one buys food knowing they will die from eating it, and naturally, companies would collapse if people feared their products.

If a giant corporation collapses, it’s natural for the country to suffer economically.

“Of course, it was created. But it’s a situation where there’s no answer in sight. They told me to send you over as soon as you arrived.”

“There’s no time to rest.”

“There’s no time to rest, but what can we do? I know you suffered in the Philippines, but you’ll have to work a little harder.”

Park Do-joon could only let out a long sigh.

Park Do-joon went to work at the special investigation headquarters the very next day. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last, but the special investigation headquarters was still chaotic.

“The culprit is clearly trying to threaten the companies involved.”

“That’s not it. It’s dissatisfaction with society as a whole.”

Profilers other than Park Do-joon were also trying to identify the culprit, each asserting their own opinion. But since this type of crime was unprecedented, everyone was coming up with plausible theories, but none seemed to be the right answer.

“It’s an indiscriminate murder carried out due to resistance and dissatisfaction with society.”

“Do you think it’s a random killing? But isn’t this different from previous random killings? This is a crime targeting companies, even if indirectly.”

“There was no direct threat to any company, and they didn’t target a specific company, did they? How is this a threat to a company? To threaten a company, they would have chosen a specific product or brand.”

In reality, it was ambiguous to see it as a direct threat against a company. This was because the items used were all different brands.

“Then, at least try to track where the poisoned food was sold.”

“We’re doing our best, but how can we track something that was bought all over the country?”

“Isn’t that what the product code assignment system is for?”

“It’s not easy.”

Watching the bickering people, Lee Ji-soo asked Park Do-joon.

“What do you think, Senior?”

“I have to check it out first.”

“But where should we start tracking? We can’t even track where the food was bought in the first place.”

Park Do-joon shook his head.

“No matter how urgent you are, the basics come first. Don’t forget that.”

“Yes?”

“Follow me.”

Park Do-joon took Lee Ji-soo to his office. Being in a noisy conference room where everyone was arguing would only be distracting, and since he had just arrived, it would be difficult to get a proper explanation anyway.

And if he couldn’t get a proper explanation, it was more comfortable to analyze the case directly.

“There are twenty-four victims. The first incident involved nine people. The second involved eight people. The third involved seven people.”

“The number of deaths will likely increase.”

“I guess so.”

There were fourteen deaths and ten injuries, but among them were critically ill patients and people in comas.

“The poison used is potassium cyanide.”

Potassium cyanide is a substance that can be obtained more easily than one might think, and even a very small amount can kill a person, so tracking it is almost impossible. This is because potassium cyanide is used so much in industry that its distribution is enormous.

“The method is to contaminate food and leave it for people to find.”

Park Do-joon checked the photos and reports one by one.

“The types of food targeted are diverse. So, we have to conclude that there is no specific target. Then we can’t assume that it’s for the purpose of blackmail.”

“Some people are judging it that way, though?”

“Of course, they will. The fact is that it seems highly unlikely. There was a similar incident recently.”

In fact, there was a crime targeting a specific company recently, and Park Do-joon solved it.

“Maybe they’ll think it’s a kind of copycat crime.”

A copycat crime refers to a crime that imitates an existing crime. Copycat criminals are quite troublesome for the police or profilers. This is because they try to hide their crimes and confuse the investigation by imitating the crime exactly.

In particular, in such cases, the main purpose is to try to pin their crimes on existing criminals, so the biggest reason why the police don’t release all the details of the methods used when reporting on incidents is that many of these copycat criminals follow them.

“But this case is very different from copycat crimes.”

At least the existing cases did not involve such indiscriminate killings. And they were also crimes committed to pressure a specific company.

“But this case isn’t.”

Various products, various items.

“And if it’s a copycat criminal, they’ll target a specific person.”

In fact, when such an incident occurs, many people use specific items to kill people they want to kill. For example, if a certain snack is being used, they use poison to kill them and throw away the snack.

Then, when the police investigate, they might believe that the victim died from eating the snack, so the copycat criminal can get rid of their suspicion.

“But in this case, there are many victims, right?”

“That’s right. Furthermore, the media didn’t report that potassium cyanide was used as a poison.”

This gives the copycat criminal an option to worry about which poison to use.

“Then it wouldn’t be a copycat criminal.”

“Yes. It won’t be a blackmailer even more.”

Blackmailer. In other words, someone who threatens to poison food and then extorts money.

One of the biggest reasons why all items started to be controlled in this way is because of this kind of blackmail. In fact, there are cases where companies succumbed to it and paid money.

“But it’s impossible in reality now.”

This is because now there are CCTVs everywhere and every item is numbered and tracked.

“Even right now, we’ve tracked which mart sold the snack.”

“But you couldn’t find the culprit in the end, right?”

“That’s the problem, but the important thing is whether the threat is carried out. There’s a saying: Weapons have value because they are not used.”

“Yes?”

“The moment a weapon is used, it no longer exists as a deterrent. For example, imagine trying to rob someone with a gun. But can you actually shoot it?”

“That’s… it would be impossible.”

The best way to rob someone is to fire a warning shot with a gun, have them throw the money-filled item this way, and then run away while holding it and keeping them at a distance.

In that case, the other person cannot resist, has no means to check, and, decisively, does not obtain information that can identify the criminal because of the distance.

But criminals with guns rarely shoot them.

“Even in movies, they show the appearance of pulling the bolt and loading it. But that itself is a psychological trick. However, movie makers don’t know the reason, so they misunderstand it as loading.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, in fact, they’re not loading it.”

Criminals already load their guns before committing the crime. But why do they show the loading scene in a cinematic way? Just for cinematic elements? No.

“They put it in plausibly because they don’t understand the purpose.”

If you pull the bolt, it will be loaded in the uncharged state, but in the already charged state, the bullet inside will pop out. And from the perspective of the robber holding the gun, the act of reloading is a means of proving that this gun is a real gun.

If you shoot the gun to prove that it is a gun, reports will pour in from all directions, and especially if you shoot the gun, the rifling marks will remain on the fired bullet, which becomes the basis for tracking you.

“But bullets don’t cost much.”

At most, about 200 won [Korean currency, roughly equivalent to $0.15 USD]. If they were careful about getting fingerprints on it when loading, in reality, they would show the cartridge case popping out through reloading, giving the other person the conviction that this is a real gun and scaring them so that they cannot resist.

“Movie makers don’t know that well.”

However, the fact that robbers do such things to their targets leads to the misunderstanding that they are loading and the inclusion of the loading scene.

“Oh, really? I’ve never thought about it.”

Lee Ji-soo said, surprised. Park Do-joon chuckled.

“It’s not strange that you haven’t thought about it. The important thing is that the moment a weapon is used, it’s not a threat, but the escape begins.”

“That’s right.”

The Job of a Profiler