Lee Ho-seong (baseball)

Lee Ho-seong
Outfielder
Born: (1967-07-17)July 17, 1967
Suncheon, South Korea
Died: March 10, 2008(2008-03-10) (aged 40)
Seoul, South Korea
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
KBO debut
April 15, 1990, for the Haitai Tigers
Last KBO appearance
April 15, 2001, for the Kia Tigers
KBO statistics
Batting average.272
Home runs102
Runs batted in526
Stats at Baseball Reference 
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Korean name
Hangul
이호성
Hanja
李昊星
RRI Hoseong
MRI Hosŏng

Lee Ho-seong (Korean: 이호성; Hanja: 李昊星; July 17, 1967 – March 10, 2008) was a South Korean baseball player and mass murderer.

During his career he played for Haitai Tigers. He debuted in 1990 and stayed with the Tigers for his 12-year career until retiring in 2001. He batted .272 and had 102 home runs in his KBO career. Ho-seong was team captain in 1999 and 2000 and became president of the league's players union in 2001. In March 2008, he killed a woman and her children, and then himself. Police suspect the killings were motivated by debt.

Career

During his career he played for Haitai Tigers. He debuted in 1990 and stayed with the Tigers for his 12-year career until retiring in 2001. He batted .272 and had 102 home runs in his KBO career. Ho-seong was team captain in 1999 and 2000 and became president of the league's players union in 2001.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Death & murders

Police found Lee's body in the Han River on March 10, 2008.[7] One day later they found the bodies of a 46-year-old woman, Kim Yeon-suk, and her three children, buried together. A graveyard worker noted that Lee had asked to bury four bodies on February 19, about a day after the woman and her children went missing. Police suspected that Lee and the woman had been in a relationship. Lee had apparently borrowed the equivalent of $250,000. He was unable to pay the money back, and police speculated that this was the motive for the killings.

Police said their details about the case were still sketchy because there was no suicide note, but Lee was seen on security video removing four large black duffel bags from the woman's apartment late one evening. He was also put at the scene by a witness who saw him in the parking lot about the time that the woman and her daughters went missing.[8][9][10][11][12]

A few days later, letters that Lee had sent to his older brother and the new president of the Gwangju Baseball Association were revealed by the police. The letter addressed to Lee's brother described his financial troubles and gave apologies to his mother, brother, wife and son, with a request for the family to look after his son. The second letter congratulated the President on his new appointment to the position, reminisced on his baseball career, and then implied his suicide as Lee signed off "I will go ahead to heaven."[13][14]

Missing business colleague & associated deaths

In 2005, a businessman called "Mr. Cho" by the police disappeared after meeting Lee in a hotel in Gwangju over financial struggles. According to Lee's testimony, Cho then entered a taxi and disappeared, never to be seen again. Originally, the police attributed his disappearance as an intentional self-disappearance to hide from creditors. However, after the 2008 murders, renewed suspicion arose due to the similarities to the murdered women and the fact that Lee was the last person to see Cho alive.[15]

The police eventually stated they did not find enough evidence linking Lee to the disappearance of Mr. Cho, though the family of Cho stated they believed Lee killed him, citing his love for his children and that the amount of money was not enough to drive someone like Cho to disappear himself.[16]

Legacy

Response

Upon his naming as the lead suspect in the case of Kim and her daughters, public responses from people who knew him ranged from disbelief to refusing to comment, with former teammate and manager Kim Seong-han stating he was "shocked" to hear of the incident, adding "As a player, he was just a down-to-earth guy... ...I didn’t expect things would come to this. But I think the failed business ventures might have changed him."[2]

Most members and officials in Lee's team, the Kia Tigers, expressed disbelief. The team commented on his mentoring of younger players and how much they admired him, and stated that they "did not know how something like this could have happened." The Korean Baseball Association also denied being sent an explicit suicide note.[17]

At Lee's funeral, only a few former baseball associates attended, with Lee's family refusing to attend and an acquaintance showing up, but later turning back, stating "Whatever the reason, what Ho-seong did can never be forgiven." and adding "I don't understand how someone who was so polite and kind during his career could do such a thing." A citizen who watched the cremation remarked bitterly "Had Mr. Lee Ho-seong not committed murder, the funeral home would've been packed with people. Alas, for a former baseball star, his final chapter was truly disgraceful."[18]

References

  1. ↑ Ser, Myo-ja (10 March 2008). "Ex-baseball star named a suspect, then found dead". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  2. 1 2 Yoo, Jee-ho (11 March 2008). "Murder suspect won 4 baseball titles". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  3. ↑ 이, 헌재; 김, 상운 (11 March 2008). "'실종 네 모녀' 숨진 채 발견… 수배자 前프로야구 선수 이호성 자살" ['Four, missing daughters and mother' found dead... Wanted former professional baseball player Lee Ho-seong commits suicide]. The Dong-A Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  4. ↑ "'천하무적' 해태타이거즈 '올드보이'들의 현주소". The Dong-A Ilbo (in Korean). 27 December 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  5. ↑ "일가족 살해사건 연루자 가능성". 29 October 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  6. ↑ "막가파식 인생 이호성 네 모녀 살해사건 풀스토리재구성 - 라이프 - 스포츠서울닷컴". 29 October 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  7. ↑ Rahn, Kim; Jeong-ju, Na (10 March 2008). "'Suspect linked to missing case dies". The Korea Times. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Rahn, Kim (11 March 2008). "'Debt Drove Murder of Family". The Korea Times. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  9. ↑ 이데일리 (10 March 2024). "야구선수 이호성 '네 모녀 살인 사건'…투신이 남긴 의문들[그해 오늘]". 이데일리 (in Korean). Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  10. ↑ "Ex-Baseball Star Murder Mystery Baffles Nation". The Chosun Ilbo. 11 March 2008. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  11. ↑ "이호성 사망 전 벌어진 일... SBS가 말하지 않은 사실". 오마이스타 (in Korean). 2 February 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  12. ↑ "前 야구선수 이호성, 내연녀와 세 딸 살해이유...참담한 결말". 국제뉴스 (in Korean). 2 February 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  13. ↑ Jin-ho, Kim (25 September 2009). "'[TV]이호성, 자살 암시 편지 남겨…"아들 잘 챙겨달라"". Donga (in Korean). Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  14. ↑ "'"옛 시절이 행복" 이호성, 형·야구협회장 등에 자살 암시 편지". No Cut News (in Korean). 11 March 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  15. ↑ "'"이호성씨, 3년 전 동업자 실종사건에도 연루 가능성"". Khan (in Korean). 11 March 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  16. ↑ Yong-pil, Park (11 March 2008). "'동업자도 행방묘연". MBC News Now (in Korean). Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "'동업자도 행방묘연". SBS News (in Korean). 11 March 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  18. ↑ Dae-hwan, Maeng (12 March 2008). "이호성씨 의문 뒤로한 채 한줌 재로". Nate News (in Korean). Retrieved 16 July 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.