(Chapter 1: Mr. Ji's Nightmare)
It was in October, 2002. I first heard about the haunted house from the tenant of the building. He was a 51-year-old man whose surname was Ji.
In a building next to Eungam-dong Traditional Market, he was selling used clothes in the basement. He said he experienced something really odd. It wasn't even a semi-basement. It was a basement that you had to walk deep down with no windows.
About six months after he moved in, he started hearing strange sounds from the basement.
RUSTLE!! RUSTLE!!!
It sounded like a plastic bag. So at first, Mr. Ji thought that it was the sound coming from the plastic bags. There were many plastic bags filled with clothes, so he didn't mind much.
But the problem was that the sound got louder, and he started hearing it more frequently.
On top of that..... HUFF-HUFF-HUFFF-HUFF (Breathing in and out)
He heard a really bizarre sound as well. It made all his hairs stand on end. After a week later, Mr. Ji found out where the sound was coming from. He could hear the same sound again from the corner of the basement.
RUSTLE RUSTLE
So he slowly turned his head, to look in that direction. In the dark corner, he saw a pale figure. He got closer to it to take a look. It was trapped in a plastic bag. It was the head of a man.
HUFF-HUFF
(Breathing in and out)
That was the sound of the man being choked by the plastic bag. What was even more horrifying was that the side of his face was covered in blood as it was crushed. Some days, he'd see it wriggling among the plastic bags. On the other days, it'd jump out from behind the boxes.
It'd appear suddenly between clothes hung on a clothes stand.
(Chapter-2 : 6 people)
What's even more surprising is that there were more tenants who experienced strange things other than Mr. Ji. So, I looked into it. The first person to move into the basement was Ms. Jung who ran a cloth factory. In only one year after she moved in, she suddenly died. She hung herself to death.
The second tenant took over Ms. Jung's factory. It was Mr. Choi. He also suddenly died of cancer. It does sound like it can happen. However, I was so shocked to hear a story from Mr. Kim, the last tenant.
"Four workers from my factory all died."
"Four people died?"
"It was creepy how all ended up dead."
Mr. Kim manufactured sweaters with nine of his workers. A series of misfortunes took place one after another. His worker, Mr. Hong, died in a car accident. And his worker, Mr. Shin died of liver cancer. Mr. Lee died of lung cancer. Mr. Park died of diabetes.
A total of 14 tenants and employees worked or lived in the basement. And 6 out of these 14 people died. They died at a young age. Afterward, scary rumors began to spread in the neighborhood. Once the residents started to gossip, it was nicknamed the horror story of Eungam-dong. And it didn't stop there. The story was covered by the newspapers and TV shows.
(Chapter 3: The truth behind the plastic sheets.)
Brring brring … brring brring … brring brring …
"Hello! This is Violent Crimes Team Two."
"I found something weird here. Please hurry!"
On September 17, 2002, the detective got a call and went to the scene right away. When he went to the building, he met the building owner, who was renovating the basement. And the owner was pointing at a small storage room under the staircase.
They found some kind of concrete structure there. Between the broken cracks of the structure, a black object was sticking out. It looked like a person's toe. When he got closer, it reeked of a foul odor. They turned one the fan, facing outside to get rid of the smell. Then they carefully broke the concrete structure. When they broke it, they found the dead body of a woman in a coat. And she was wrapped in plastic sheets.
Someone had shoved the body, under the small space under the staircase. And it was sealed with cement. But the body must have been there for a long time. The body was completely dried up and solidified like a mummy. And a side of her face was severely distorted too.
The National Forensic Service took over the body. And the medical examiner found out the cause of the death. The skull was fractured by a blunt weapon. But unfortunately, they didn't find any clues about the victim at the scene. But there was one.
They could identify anyone with the fingerprints. But unfortunately, it wasn't possible. As she was mummified, her skin was stuck to her finger bones. No matter how they tried, they couldn't get her fingerprints. Then they got an idea, they thought about putting her fingernails in alcohol. So, the fingers got puffy and go back to its original condition.
Even if they could do that, it didn't feel right to put the body in the alcohol until it got puffy.
So they decided to cut off her fingers, they had no choice. Then a month passed by.
"Detective! We got it!"
"We got her fingerprints!"
The victim was a 56-year-old unmarried lady who lived alone in another city. She left for an appointment in fall five years ago. But she never came back. And the family has filed a missing person's report. Then they found out the culprit soon after.
The detectives of the Violent Crimes Team Two raided the culprit's house. But something felt creepy even from the entrance. It was a shaman's shrine.
When they opened the door, they witnessed something even more bizarre. This scary-sounding suspect secretly buried a dead body. He was wiping the floor of the shrine as he sweated profusely. His name was Ji Young Chun.
"Ji Young Chun!"
"Who are you?"
"You are under arrest for murdering a woman in Eungam-dong."
"What are you doing?"
They put handcuffs on the suspect without a problem.
'Ji Young Chun'
The tenant, at the beginning of the story. The tenant who said he saw a ghost, was the culprit of the murder case.
Actually, as for the ghost story, the detective found out while interrogating Mr. Ji after arresting him.
"Detective, I had never slept well for the past five years."
"That woman showed up day and night."
The woman showed up in front of Mr. Ji wrapped with plastic sheets every day just like when she was buried alive. He couldn't live like that anymore. So he went to a shaman.
"What have you done?"
"An evil spirit is glued to you."
To get rid of the ghost, Ji worked in the shrine as a part-timer for the last five years.
(Do you really think there was a revengeful spirit of an unjustly murdered woman in the basement?)