Bones Found on Wolong Mountain Were One of the 'Frog Boys' Missing for 24 Years
The remains found on Wolong Mountain in Daegu 24 years ago were confirmed to be those of five of the 'Frog Boys,' who disappeared on March 26, 1991. That morning, which had been declared a temporary public holiday for local elections, the boys headed to Wolong Mountain. Of the six friends who initially set out together, only Kim Tae-ryong turned back home at his parents' urging. At the foot of the mountain, the boys told Jo Ho-yeon's older brother that they were going to look for salamander eggs—the last trace of them. During the investigation, it was confirmed that the boys were spotted near the entrance to Wolong Mountain around noon on the day of the disappearance.
The parents reported the children missing to police at around 7:50 p.m. that evening. In May 1991, following special directives from the president, the military and police joined the search, and an investigation headquarters was established under the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency. Until it was disbanded in 1996, the headquarters mobilized some 300,000 personnel in total for mountain searches and massive checkpoints. More than 570 tips were received, but no decisive clue ever emerged. The boys' photos appeared on phone cards, cigarette packs, comic books, and milk and snack wrappers, and wanted leaflets offering a reward were distributed nationwide. Yet the case slipped into a prolonged deadlock—until the discovery of the remains opened a new chapter.
The site where the remains were found was confirmed to be on land once used as a firing range by the Army's 50th Infantry Division. After the discovery, criticism arose over the police investigation. It was pointed out that police excavated the remains with picks and similar tools without forensic experts, damaging the scene.
Police suggested the boys may have gotten lost and died of hypothermia, noting that the remains were tangled together and that there were no signs of a pit. However, the forensic team from Kyungpook National University, which examined the remains, reached a different conclusion. Damage was found on the boys' skulls and other bones, raising the possibility they were killed with a blunt weapon or blade; a welding hammer was cited as the likely weapon. Even so, the circumstances of the crime and the perpetrator were never identified, and when the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's investigation headquarters was disbanded again in 2003, the case was left as a longstanding unsolved mystery.
The victims' families demanded an extension and abolition of the statute of limitations and urged the truth to be uncovered, but the statute expired on March 26, 2006. Police reviewed the case afterward but closed a preliminary review in 2015. The families raised suspicions that crucial leads were mishandled during the initial investigation and demanded a reinvestigation, and since 2019 the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's cold case unit has been re-examining the case.
Thirty-five years have passed since the boys vanished, but the full truth of the case remains unknown.
