E134 - A Bitter End: Kim Sunja

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back everyone to another episode from the Asian Madness podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I hope everyone's doing great, living their best life, and staying healthy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I would like to thank you all because my little podcast turned eight years old not too long ago.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Without you, I would not be here, so sincerely.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.

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[SPEAKER_01]: With that said, let's move on to today's episode.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember how I came across today's case, probably during one of my manic, Google searches.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, serial killers, you've definitely heard me mention a few here and there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Charles Subrage was one for sure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: and he showed signs.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We also have the guy from episode 85, Yijunji, who murdered multiple women.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Also the Twitter killer from Japan, Shiraishi Takahito, who was executed in June of 2025.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Many of these people showed signs of being mentally and well, of having a troubled life.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But what about those that kind of don't really fit the bill?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Those that seem to be so normal, you wouldn't even bat an eye.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Those that seem completely harmless.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Who would come to mind if he had to think of an unlikely serial killer?

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[SPEAKER_01]: In this episode, it's a middle-aged woman.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was just another housewife, quiet, living an ordinary life in South Korea.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But secretly, Kinsunja was unraveling, drowning in debt.

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[SPEAKER_01]: and what happened next would horrify the country, not just because she's a killer, but because she's a woman and completely harmless, at least on the surface.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Driven by desperation and the lure of quick wealth, Kim Sun-Job began to kill, and sadly, her victims were all people she knew, people who trusted her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By the time it was over, she wasn't just another woman trying to survive the system.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was one of South Korea's most notorious serial killers.

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[SPEAKER_01]: History isn't just about murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's about a society that misdesigns and states stubborn with its values until it was a little too late.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's begin.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I came across some conflicting sources on her origin story, but it is presumed that she was born in December of 1939,

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[SPEAKER_01]: So during the time, World War II was raging on and when Japan was invading Asia, Korea included.

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[SPEAKER_01]: While she was born in Korea, it was technically an administrative region under Japanese rule at the time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Not much is really known about her life prior to marriage and her murders, partly because she was an ordinary citizen, and also, record-keeping wasn't exactly detailed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Not like how it is today.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But she was married, she had three kids, and her life looked stable.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her husband worked as a painter, nothing crazy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He was providing just enough for the family to get by.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Life wasn't luxurious, but it was safe.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was consistent.

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[SPEAKER_01]: No surprises.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality was that Kim Sun-Jah had developed the dangerous addiction, gambling.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Addictions of any kind can be very expensive and even dangerous to your health.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Drugs and alcohol most people are aware of, but sometimes there are those that are not so obvious.

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[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Mayo Clinic, gambling can stimulate the brain's reward system, much like drugs or alcohol can, leading to addiction.

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[SPEAKER_01]: For this desperate housewife, local cabraes and bedding parlors became her second home.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Any free time she had was spent there, and before long, that's mounted.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, gambling can technically make someone rich, but the odd of someone stopping after a win is not very high.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The constant losses thus pushed her further into financial ruin and deeper into desperation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Despite her financial irresponsibility, Kim wasn't totally reckless.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In another way, she was also very calculated.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Psychologists later would describe her as having a cold, detached personality, capable of manipulation and long-term planning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She could lie without blinking, smile while deceiving, hide her darkness behind a house-wise mask.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What made her so dangerous wasn't just what she did, it was how easily she blended in.

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[SPEAKER_01]: According to criminal psychologists, most serial killers, especially women, don't follow this kind of profile.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Many men kill for power, for revenge, or are driven by sexual violence.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But Kim's motive was financial gain.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We've heard of black widows who take their husband's life in insurance policies, and in my prior episode on Afghanistan, we met a woman named Sheering Goul who served people

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[SPEAKER_01]: Financial gain actually seems to be the most common reason women kill.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim's descent into violence was an instant.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't random either.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She started with smaller acts, such as lying, manipulating and committing fraud.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When it became unmanageable and when she became more desperate, she resorted to murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And she used poison, a method often preferred by killers who want to avoid mess or suspicion, which also happens to be the most preferred method for women killers.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Interestingly, Kim kind of fell into the woman killer cliché, but this was back in the 80s, and it's hard to say how much people actually knew about women who killed back then.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But you don't really just go to the supermarket and ask for a leader of cyanide.

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[SPEAKER_01]: How did she get her hands on cyanide?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, she told her nephew she needed cyanide for

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[SPEAKER_01]: The first recorded victim came on October 31, 1986.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That day, she approached a 49-year-old neighbor, Kim Gehwan, a woman-she knew well from the neighborhood.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The two ladies were supposedly hanging out at a bathhouse, which is a very common place to visit in Korea.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She asked her friend to accompany her to the bathroom, claiming she needed help.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Once alone, Kim handed Kayhwan a drink, lace with cyanide.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She allegedly told her friend that this was a drink to boost her health.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If a friend gave you something, would you drink it?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Probably, assuming you're not allergic to the ingredients.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Moments later, Kayhwan collapsed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She fell down the stairs, gasping for breath, body twisting from violent cramps.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Paramedics rushed her to a nearby hospital, but she died soon after.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her jewelry, a necklace and a ring, had vanished.

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[SPEAKER_01]: No witnesses, and nothing pointing to murder, and of course, no director obvious link to Kim.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You might be wondering, hello, autopsy's?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yes, but here's where the cultural aspect kind of kicks in.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There can be a taboo subject in many cultures, such as Korean culture in this case.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Up until around that time, autopsies were viewed as a taboo thing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This might be linked to Korea's confusion, society, and ideals, where doing anything to the human body, or in this case, cutting open the body as seen as disrespectful and degrading.

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[SPEAKER_01]: While that view has obviously changed, death and autopsies were still kind of taboo in the 1980s, and only performed if absolutely necessary.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is my understanding at least.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By the spring of 1987, Kim Sun-Jah had already learned how to kill quietly, no screaming, no struggle, no blood, just a smile, and a shared drink, then bam, death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her next target was another woman she actually knew well, and they had very similar names.

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[SPEAKER_01]: 50-year-old Johnson-Jah, a neighbor and creditor from the same Seen-Dun-Dung neighborhood.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On April 4, 1987, Kim approached her with a plan.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She said she needed to collect some money in Young Dong-pul, and asked if John would write the bus with her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim then asked her friend if she could lend her $7 million Korean one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Might sound like a crazy amount, but in US dollars, that's a little over $5,000.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Which if I think about it, I guess it's still quite a bit of money, especially back

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[SPEAKER_01]: her friend did not think twice, simply agreed and happily gave her the money.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim, of course, promised her in her sincere ways that she will 100% pay her back as soon as they arrive at their destination.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The two then went on their way and boarded a bus.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On the bus, the two sat next to each other, and Kim used her old trick and offered her

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[SPEAKER_01]: If John was willing to lend her that much money, she definitely had no calls with taking a drink from her friend.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So she did.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Then she began to cough.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She said her drink tastes strange.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her breathing changed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She slumped forward in her seat.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Fellow passengers rushed her to the hospital, but of course, it was too late.

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[SPEAKER_01]: John died shortly after arriving.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Same story as our first victim, no autopsy, no discovery, no murder and tension, no arrest.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim Sun-Jah got away with it again.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Moving on to the third victim, it was February 10, 1988.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This time, the victim was a 46-year-old Kim Sun-Jah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Confusing, I know, they pretty much have the same exact name.

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[SPEAKER_01]: To make it a bit easier to differentiate the two, I'm going to refer them as Killer Kim and Victim Kim.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Similarly to the prior victim, Killer Kim owed this friend money, about 1.2 million one, to be exact.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Killer Kim suggested a two go to this coffee shop together.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She claimed someone who owed her money was meeting her there to repay a loan, and then

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[SPEAKER_01]: they waited for hours, but no one came.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So they decided to leave.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On the way home inside a taxi, Killer Kim offered victim Kim a sip of Yudmucha, which is a grain-based Korean drink.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her stomach turned and soon she'd be at the vomit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Killer Kim then calmly told her she would feel better if she had more of the drink, but added that they should get out of the

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[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly she wanted to cover her tracks, because there's no way the cab driver did not hear their conversation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: For some reason though, victim Kim became suspicious of Killer Kim, and she refused to leave.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Seeing this, Killer Kim had to make some last changes to her plans.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So to win her trust, Killer Kim managed to keep her friend alive, actually paid her back

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[SPEAKER_01]: and even visited victim Kim to check in on her health.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But this was all just part of the act to come off innocent.

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[SPEAKER_01]: See, not everyone in her presence ends up dead.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Barely a month later, on March 27th, 1988, Kim crossed another line.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She killed her own father.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was traveling with 73-year-old Kim Jong-chun returning from a family visit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They boarded an intercity bus together, and as per her M.O.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim offered him a drink, and sure enough, he collapsed right after.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Doctors that a nearby hospital tried to revive him, but the cyanide had already done its job.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Since it was her family member, Kim demanded that the hospital release her father's body immediately, probably claiming religious or cultural reasons, and had him cremated as soon as possible.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Possibly she stood to gain some inheritance, which she could then use to gamble some more.

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[SPEAKER_01]: probably feeling of a braver and more confident at this point, Kim started targeting more members of her family, because then her sister came next.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On April 29, Kim met her younger sister near the Huayang Dong bus stop, not far from Children's Grand Park.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was pretty much from the same exact playbook.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim had borrowed 10 million won from her sister, with promises of returning it as soon as possible.

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[SPEAKER_01]: While waiting for the bus, Kim handed her a poison drink.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Inside the bus, her sister suddenly fell to the floor, gasping.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A nearby passenger proceeded to carry Kim's sister off the bus to try to get her to the hospital.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim though slipped away quietly, but not before stealing her sister's handbag and jewelry.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Very appalling and very cold-hearted.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It also turned out that she was not remorseful at all.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Finally, let's discuss her final known victim, who came just a few months later on August

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim met her 46-year-old cousin, Sonsi I, at a cafe in Songing-dong.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This time, she spun a different but similar enough story, something about needing money for a house deposit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to assume she was pretty close with this cousin of hers, because this cousin ended up loaning her about 484 million Korean I, which would be a little less than 350,000

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[SPEAKER_01]: That's a crazy amount to borrow from anyone, even today.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let alone back in 1988.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Was her cousin Rich?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps, maybe she knew the financial background of all her victims, which helped her decide how much money she wanted to borrow from them.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But that wasn't enough.

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[SPEAKER_01]: After receiving the money, she handed C1 one of her infamous poison grinks, just like she had done so many times before that, as the cousin wrote the bus back home, she collapsed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Another hospital visit, another violent, meaningless death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And as usual, Kim vanished again.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She obviously had a pattern.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Pick someone close who trusted her and that she owed money to, then offer them a drink, get some distance between them, then let the poison do its work.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim then walks away, not owing anybody money.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Not anybody alive at least.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's the perfect crime or almost as we will find out later.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By the end of 1988, Kim Sun-Jae had left the trail of bodies across Seoul, each one tied to barred cash, stolen jewelry, or unpaid debts.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, for a long time, no one connected the dots.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was still just a little old housewife to the most everybody.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Quiet, polite, completely invisible to the law.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like no one was suspicious that people around her, people that she met up with, kept dying, and not to mention under very similar circumstances.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What was she, the grim reaper?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Or did they turn a blind eye to this?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Or were they just completely unaware?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps they had their suspicions, but just simply expected killers to look a certain type, as in male?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh my god, a woman killing?

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[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to be kidding.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Women are not capable of that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like misogyny, but reverse, I guess, which was in her favor.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So since her cousin was her last known victim, that means she was finally caught.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But how?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Before I tell you all about that, I want to talk a bit about the nature of her crimes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her selection of these locations actually shows a certain level of awareness.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim always chose high traffic locations.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Buses, coffee shops, and public spaces, so she could create a physical distance from the moment of death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Once someone starts showing signs, it creates chaos and panic, which would give Kim the perfect opportunity to make an exit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On top of that, we also have to keep in mind that taboo around autopsies in Korea at the time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody knew why these people were dropping dead in public spaces, but neither were they interested in looking into it, it seems, especially if the families were against autopsies.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Later on, when Forensic's psychologist studied this, they explained that Kim was actually getting better, more sophisticated and sneakier with her methods.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her calculated approach included maintaining social appearances through visits to surviving victims, effectively deflecting suspicion, as it was the case with her friend, victim Kim.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But let's get back to the case, and Kim's capture.

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[SPEAKER_01]: From most two years, people have been dying around Kim'sungja.

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[SPEAKER_01]: unexpectedly and one after the other.

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[SPEAKER_01]: All of them developed symptoms out of the blue with no wounds or signs of violence, then died shortly after.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What could have been the cause of this?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Heart attack?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Some type of underlying disease that everyone around Kim happened to have?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Regardless of what people assumed, Kim's luck began to run out.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When Kim's cousin Sonsiwong died, something changed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her family demanded

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[SPEAKER_01]: and Autopsy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Taboo be damned.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was getting too much, especially having already lost Kim's father and sister in such a short span of time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Something was not adding up.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Plus, if it was some kind of hereditary health issue, wouldn't they want to know?

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[SPEAKER_01]: So an Autopsy was performed, and once the results were out, there was no hiding it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A lethal substance was found, that being cyanide, in C1's organs.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This was no health issue, it was planned, and most likely murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And just like that, the case that one seen random became something far more nefarious, with suspicion mounting, please begin to look back on their files.

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[SPEAKER_01]: For previous deaths, all people close to Kim, all under strange but similar circumstances, were now flagged for re-examination.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Where families allowed it, autopsies were performed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: and in three of the bodies, the forensic team found chemical residues, including citric acid, and other markers consistent with cyanide and gestion.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The fourth, Kim's father, had been cremated, so they couldn't examine his body, though they guessed they would probably find the same thing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There was a pattern that was clear as day, and it pointed in one direction, or rather, one person.

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[SPEAKER_01]: On September 2, 1988, officers from the Yongsan District Police arrived at Kim's home.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was officially under arrest, suspected of poisoning her own relatives and creditors for money.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim, of course, denied everything, and she was scarily calm and steady about it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She kept up appearances, but the investigation was just beginning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her home, an old weathered house left over from the Japanese occupation, was searched from top to bottom.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Female officers conducted a full body search while detectives began combing their drawers, closets, bags, etc.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They found what they were looking for.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A diamond ring, a handbag, and large amounts of cash, all items belonging to her deceased victims.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Still, there was one thing missing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The poison itself.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That discovery came unexpectedly, and I came from the bathroom.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A sharp-eyed officer noted something odd, a small hole in one of the wooden bathroom pillars.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It looked pretty innocent at first, but tucked inside the pages was something deadly.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A solid chestnut-sized chunk of potassium cyanide.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She had been keeping it right inside her own bathroom, within reach, even after so many had died.

22:55.530 --> 23:02.719
[SPEAKER_01]: As investigators piece the case together, they learned that Kim didn't just happen to find some cyanide one-fine day.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She specifically asked her nephew, who worked at a chemical factory, to help her get some cyanide.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She told him it was for her pest control, it was for a fuzz and hunting or something like that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And once the dam broke, so much more evidence began tumbling out.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Bank records.

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[SPEAKER_01]: For example, investigators discovered that just one day after son's death, Kim had the positive, a large check, into her account, at a CHB bank branch, is Sadandal.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By this point, even her calm, stoic exterior started to crack, but she continued to deny all charges.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In court, she insisted she was innocent, because she didn't kill anyone, she said.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But there was too much evidence proving otherwise, and sadly for her, nobody believed her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In 1989, the Supreme Court of South Korea sentenced Kim Sun-ja to death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: For nearly a decade after her arrest, Kim Sun Ja sat on death row, maintaining the same icy demeanor she carried in life.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She never confessed, not during the trial or even after the sentencing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Until her last day on earth she continued to stay silent.

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[SPEAKER_01]: To people in South Korea, this wasn't a show of strength.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was pure arrogance.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Former judge Huang Junmyeon, with later say that refusing to admit guilt, especially in a country where remorse is deeply valued, was a final insult to the victims.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Nine years later, on December 30th, 1997, she was executed via hanging at Dayjoon Prison.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't alone though, that same day, 22 other violent criminals were also executed in prisons across the country.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was actually the largest mass execution in modern South Korean history, and it was the last.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Just two months later, in February of 1998, newly elected President Kim Dae-jung himself

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[SPEAKER_01]: Just to be clear, then President Kim was sentenced to death due to political reasons, but that sentence, of course, was overturned eventually.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Though the death penalty remained legal, no executions have been carried out in South Korea since that day.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Today, the country still sentences individuals to death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: As of 2023, 59 people remain on death row,

25:51.485 --> 25:58.457
[SPEAKER_01]: and Kim Sung-Jah's execution stands as a historical turning point, both as a finale and as a warning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But the legacy of her case goes far beyond capital punishment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It changed to some degree, the way South Korean investigates crimes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Because before Kim, police relied heavily on confessions.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But after Kim, they turned to science.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her calculated killings, the public spaces, the poison, the lack of physical evidence, exposed just how vulnerable the system had been, and how easy it was to exploit it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: With families against autopsy's, detect his missing patterns, and people killing in public and in broad daylight, a sense of urgency crept up on the country.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So in the years that followed, South Korea overhauled its approach, new laws were introduced, forensic evidence became a priority, standardized protocols were enforced, prosecutors gained a recontrol over investigations, overseeing every stage from evidence collection to interrogation.

26:59.425 --> 27:07.054
[SPEAKER_01]: Legal scholars dutted the factory line model, a system where every step

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, some people were against it, stating that the country was sacrificing personal rights for their sake of efficiency.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But most people understood why this step forward was necessary.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Because as clinical as Kim's trial was, it raised a terrifying question.

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[SPEAKER_01]: How many people had been wrongly accused in the past due to pressure from the police?

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[SPEAKER_01]: How many have been put away without any supporting evidence and just a confession?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Kim's actions forced South Korea to look inward and re-examine how it treats investigations and evidence.

27:44.291 --> 27:55.023
[SPEAKER_01]: In a strange way, her actions actually allow South Korean police and detectives to improve, and hopefully they use those new skills to better their investigations.

27:56.224 --> 27:57.065
[SPEAKER_01]: So there you have it.

27:57.926 --> 28:02.691
[SPEAKER_01]: The case of the unsuspecting housewife who had zero issues killing those around her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone was fair game, as long as they had something she wanted from them.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Assuming she wasn't caught in time, how many more friends and family members would have died, and how long would it take someone to finally raise an eyebrow and connect the dots, even without the help of autopsy's and science.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If this case teaches us anything, it's really to be more careful of those around us.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we've been taught from a young age to be wary of strangers who ask you to come see puppies in their vans, those who offer you candy, and those who claim to be a friend of your mother.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's absolutely exhausting.

28:42.676 --> 28:49.308
[SPEAKER_01]: You go out, make friends, and now you have to make sure your friend doesn't try to kill you, or your cousin.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Life is hard, and now you've unlocked extreme mode.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm sure most people have some semblance of common sense, and it's utterly unreasonable to go around life not trusting anyone.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, trying to be careful won't hurt.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you all so much for tuning into this case.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Please remember as always to watch out for others, speak up when you can, and, you know, stay safe.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Till next time.