Police Conclude Probe Over Celebrity Suicide
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Police Tuesday concluded their investigation into people spreading a rumor about top actress Choi Jin-sil, who committed suicide last week.
Seocho Police Station said it was unable to find the person who started the rumor that linked Choi to actor Ahn Jae-hwan's death.
The rumor stated that Choi lent 2.5 billion won to Ahn, who killed himself in early September allegedly after failing to pay his debts of billions of won. Days before killing herself, Choi asked police to trace the rumor spreader in order to file defamation charges.
Police investigated a securities company worker, Baek, for posting the gossip on the Internet, but she said she heard the rumor from another worker. It was found that four people, including Baek, were involved in relaying the rumor through online chatting ― all of whom work at securities firms.
The fourth person police questioned said that he also obtained it through chatting but did not remember where. Police seized his computer to find out the origin of the rumor, but were unsuccessful.
``We thought it would be hard to find out the originator of the rumors, and so will conclude the probe after questioning the four,'' a police officer said.
Police looked into the server of the chatting program which the four used, but secured no clues as chatting messages were not recorded on the server.
They earlier booked Baek without physical detention, and questioned her again Tuesday. They will soon decide whether to book the other three. ``We'll determine whether relaying rumors one-to-one is tantamount to spreading false information in public. We'll also review whether they recognized that the rumor would defame Choi,'' the officer said.
Police said they would no longer investigate other brokerage houses or analysts who collect and spread rumors and information in connection with the rumors about Choi. In the brokerage industry, analysts collect rumors about politicians, entertainers and top corporate executives and spread them to their clients.
Still, police said they would question those who lent money to Ahn to find out details about his death.