Woman admits to burying undocumented baby's body on hill in Busan

▲ This photo provided by police shows a search under way on a hill in Geoje on July 3, 2023, to locate the body of a baby boy, allegedly murdered and buried by his mother. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Busan baby burial-police

Woman admits to burying undocumented baby's body on hill in Busan

BUSAN, July 4 (Yonhap) -- An additional unregistered baby is believed to have been secretly buried on a hill in the southeastern city of Busan, police said Tuesday, the latest in a string of undocumented "ghost baby" abuse cases.

The baby's mother told police the baby was born in February 2015 but died, and she abandoned the body on a hill near her home in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the police said.

It was unclear why the baby died and when.

Should her statement be true, she will not be punished because the seven-year statute of limitations for body abandonment has already expired.

The police said they will try to dig up the body but foresee difficulties as the landscape around the site where the mother said she buried the body has undergone some changes.

"We will question her as to how the baby died while securing more clues on the burial site before conducting an exhumation," an official said.

It was the latest in a series of shocking child abuse cases revealed under a nationwide campaign to check the well-being of more than 2,000 undocumented babies born since 2015, following the discovery of the bodies of two unregistered newborns in a home refrigerator last month.

On Sunday, a couple was also arrested on charges of strangling their newborn to death and burying his body on a mountain in Geoje, 331 kilometers south of Seoul, five days after he was born in September last year.

Earlier in the day, the National Police Agency said it is investigating 193 cases of unregistered babies, and 11 babies have so far been confirmed dead. Four of the 11 deaths are now under investigation for suspicions of foul play.

The number of cases under police investigation is expected to continue to rise as local governments are expected to refer more cases to police as they check the whereabouts of unregistered babies.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved