Five boys went looking for frog eggs on a school holiday. It took 11 years to find them — and their killer has never been identified.
On the morning of March 26, 1991, five boys from Seongseo Elementary School in Daegu, South Korea — Woo Cheol-won (13), Jo Ho-yeon (12), Kim Yeong-gyu (11), Park Chan-in (10), and Kim Jong-sik (9) — set out to search for salamander eggs on nearby Mount Waryong. They never returned home.
A Nationwide Search
The boys' disappearance, on a public holiday marking South Korea's first local elections since the end of military rule, quickly became national news. Media outlets mistakenly reported the boys were hunting frog eggs rather than salamander eggs, and the nickname "Frog Boys" stuck. President Roh Tae-woo dispatched some 300,000 police and military personnel to search for them, in one of the largest search efforts in South Korean history. All five boys' fathers quit their jobs to search full-time. Mount Waryong alone was searched more than 500 times.
As the search dragged on without results, a wide range of theories circulated publicly — kidnapping rings, North Korean spies, and various rumors that were never substantiated. None led anywhere.
Found, 11 Years Later
On September 26, 2002, two men foraging for acorns discovered skeletal remains on Mount Waryong — in an area that had already been searched extensively during the original investigation. Police initially suggested the boys had become lost and died of hypothermia, pointing to how their clothing was found and knotted together.
Forensic examination told a different story. Experts found evidence of blunt-force trauma to several of the skulls and bullet-related damage to at least one, consistent with violence rather than an accidental death from exposure. Given the extended time the remains had been exposed to the elements, an exact cause of death for each boy couldn't be conclusively established, but investigators ultimately classified the case as a homicide rather than a hypothermia death.
No One Ever Charged
Despite reclassifying the deaths as murder, police were never able to identify a suspect. South Korea's statute of limitations for the case was set to expire in 2006, but that concern became moot in 2015, when the National Assembly abolished the statute of limitations for first-degree murder entirely — meaning prosecution would remain legally possible today if a suspect were ever identified.
In 2019, the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's cold case unit formally reopened the investigation. On the 30th anniversary of the boys' disappearance in 2021, the city of Daegu installed a memorial near the site, and police announced a new task force to review the case from the beginning using more advanced forensic methods than were available in 1991 or even 2002.
A Case That Shaped a Country
The Frog Boys case had a lasting impact on South Korea beyond the unsolved crime itself, contributing to reforms in missing-persons response protocols and renewed public focus on child safety. It has been the subject of two feature films — "Come Back, Frog Boys" (1992) and "Children" (2011) — as well as a 2019 documentary, "In Search of the Frog Boys," and has been referenced in more recent Korean media, including the 2025 television drama "When Life Gives You Tangerines."
Frequently Asked Questions
Has anyone ever been charged in the Frog Boys case?
No. Despite decades of investigation, no suspect has ever been identified or charged.
Could someone still be prosecuted today?
Yes. South Korea abolished the statute of limitations for first-degree murder in 2015, so prosecution remains legally possible if a suspect is ever identified.
How did the boys actually die?
Forensic examination of their remains found evidence of blunt-force trauma and bullet-related damage, leading investigators to classify the deaths as homicide rather than the hypothermia originally suspected. An exact cause of death for each individual boy couldn't be conclusively established due to the condition of the remains.
Is the case still being investigated?
Yes. A dedicated task force was formed by Daegu police in 2021 to continue reviewing the case with modern forensic methods.