Murder suspect in guise of good daddy

Monster inside ‘Molar Daddy’ revealed, poised to hurt media credibility

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Lee Young-hak, 35, sings singer Buzz’s song “The Love” without music, while holding his wife’s photo which was framed with a black ribbon. He posted the YouTube video days after his wife, identified by only her surname Choi, committed suicide on Sept. 5.

“Now I can sing the entire song,” he says as he finishes the lyrics.

Murder suspect Lee Young-hak posted a YouTube video, in which he sings the song “The Love” while holding his dead wife’s photo, days after she committed suicide on Sept. 5. He is under investigation for the death of a friend of his 14-year-old daughter on Oct. 1 and abandoning her body in the mountains of the remote eastern county of Yeongwol. His daughter allegedly helped him during the murder. / Yonhap

His face displays no emotions — no remorse, sadness, tears or anything like that. Below the video, he left a message for his wife. “Honey, I memorized all of them. Rest (in peace).”

Lee, better known by the public as “Molar Daddy” for losing most of his teeth except one molar while undergoing surgery five times to remove tumors from his gums, appeared to pay tribute to his late wife in the eerie eulogy.

Viewers’ reactions to his YouTube video were cold. “A murderer,” one internet user wrote.

Lee is under investigation for slaying a 14-year-old girl identified only by her last name Kim and abandoning her body in the mountains in the eastern county of Yeongwol earlier this month.

Lee has led a double life.

He became a high-profile victim of rare disease after he and his family appeared in TV documentaries several times since 2006. In the public eye, he was portrayed as a poor but caring father who did everything to save his sick daughter A-yun, now 14, and raised money to finance her medical bills.

He is the author of the book, “A Happy Molar Daddy” (2007), in which he recounts the ordeals he and his family suffered after his daughter was diagnosed with gigantiform cementoma, a rare dental tumor.

But his public image didn’t reflect the monster inside. Lee is now a murder suspect who allegedly took the life of the 14-year-old girl. He has a criminal record of 18 incidents. He is an alleged sexual deviant who forced his wife to have sex with other men and record it on video. He was reportedly involved in the sex trade, too.

Oh Yoon-sung, a professor of criminology at Sun Chun Hyang University, said Lee’s eccentric YouTube eulogy is a calculated, purposeful action to avoid police investigation.

“He’s a savvy social media user and in trying to deliver the message he had nothing to do with the death of his wife, that it was an accident and he is sad for the loss of his loved one,” the professor said. “But ordinary people don’t sympathize with him and rather feel he is eerie.”

Oh claimed suspicions remain in his wife’s death. Choi fell from the roof of the five-story building where they lived in northern Seoul. She left a note. The entire content was not made public but part of it quoted her as writing she was traumatized after having been raped by her father-in-law and having a hard time with her “sadistic” husband.

Before she died, Choi filed a complaint with police against her father-in-law for allegedly raping her for eight years.

“It’s rare for a rape victim to commit suicide five days after she took legal action against the man,” Oh said. ”In cases like this, offenders, not victims, feel the pressure.”

Lee was once perceived by the public as the picture of a dedicated father after his family’s ordeal first aired on MBC in December 2006. He was diagnosed with gigantiform cementoma when he was nine. He recovered fully and became healthy after he underwent five surgeries to remove tumors from his gums.

His daughter was diagnosed with the same affliction when she was a baby. The TV documentary that aired in 2006 shows severe disfigurement of the girl’s cheek and jaw due to the tumors inside her mouth. At that time A-yun had difficulty breathing. She has since undergone seven surgeries so far.

His sick daughter transformed him into an activist, he claims.

Lee launched the online and offline campaigns to raise money to pay for the huge medical bills for his daughter. He opened the website ayun.co.kr to receive donations and make updates about his daughter’s medical status. The website is now offline.

Lee later opened a Twitter account to raise funds from the younger generation. In one of his videos posted on Twitter, he asked for support and said he “would do anything necessary” to help his sick daughter.

The Molar Daddy took a bicycle tour across the nation to raise awareness of the rare affliction and raise more money for his daughter.

In 2009, his campaign to save his daughter went overseas. He traveled to California to appeal to Korean-Americans there to donate for his poor girl.

But it turns out the public was duped by Molar Daddy.

He was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of killing the middle school girl who came over to his home upon his daughter’s invitation. During the investigation, Lee confessed he killed the girl on Oct. 1, a day after she was invited by his daughter to their home. Lee didn’t explain why or how he killed the girl. He also refused to reveal what happened before he killed her.

The monster inside Molar Daddy was unveiled as the police investigation continued.

The man, who was once depicted as a good daddy, turned out to be a convicted criminal on 18 occasions. His entirely tattooed body makes some wonder how the self-described poor daddy was able to pay for all the body art. According to experts, he could have paid as much as 30 million ($26,000) won for all his tattoos.

He took advantage of the public’s sympathy toward the needy and used his family’s ordeal as an opportunity to collect donations from good-hearted people.

He spent part of the money he raised to live a life of luxury. He spent 40 million won ($35,000) on “tuning” his imported car. He drove two luxury vehicles — a domestically manufactured Equus and a BMW — to run errands. He said the sedan is his sister’s and the BMW belongs to one of his acquaintances. But some speculate he is the real owner of those cars.

Lee’s double life, meanwhile, raised a question about journalistic ethics. He was able to raise money— albeit the exact amount of which is unknown but sufficient to finance his daughter’s multiple surgeries and his lifestyle — mainly because of his frequent media exposure. Lee and his family have appeared on TV nine times since 2006. The latest program about Lee aired on SBS in February this year.

Park Sun-gyu, a KBS reporter-turned-politician, accused the media of their loose practice of checking facts before filming. Park wondered why broadcasters didn’t look into Lee’s reputation and criminal record prior to airing those programs.

“If they had checked with people familiar with their interviewee about his reputation before filming, I think such misleading documentaries wouldn’t have aired,” he said. “Journalists work under pressure because there’s lots of competition among media outlets to find great stories. But I think they should have checked if the person they were covering was telling the truth.”

Park said airing stories or media coverage not based on fact is suicidal for the media. He warned that cases such as the Molar Daddy’s fraudulent life could hurt the media as the high-profile case erodes journalistic credibility.