Criminal Minds Episode 12: Snapshots Of The Past

SNAPSHOTS

OF
THE PAST

FINDING OUT THE TRUTH THE MONSTER AND HIS WIFE Impartiality and integrity was important in criminal profiling.  Team Leader Kang needed to develop Ahn Yeo Jin’s profile to understand her role in the series of murders that happened 15 years before.  He did not want to be influenced by the media’s perception of her. He wanted to diagnose her. She was brought out of her cell in the Seohyun prison to the interview room for some questioning. On the way out, they came face to face with her violent husband, Jo Young Hoon.  It was as if a violent storm had swept through the prison. Jo Young Hoon had been made out to be a monster by the press. They had hit bullseye. He was, indeed, a monster - a vulgar ogre! ‘Ahn Yeo Jin, do you still remember what I’ve said? We’ll be recorded in history. This is our fate. Our names will be remembered for eternity,’ the mentally insane Jo Young Hoon bellowed and laughed raucously. The wife gaped at him coldly. She was past harbouring hatred for him. She knew him intimately – he was crazy through and through. Team Leader Kang was expressionless but Lee Han seemed a mite fearful and uneasy. ‘We can kill for real if we want!’ he bellowed loudly; his voice echoed and bounced off the prison walls. It was not necessary to diffuse the situation. Team Leader Kang had achieved what he had set out to do. Their close encounter had been staged. Ahn Yeo Jin had seemed happy enough before the appearance of her husband but now, she looked resentfully at Team Leader Kang. ‘Did you purposely arrange for this encounter? And did you find something?’ She gazed at him, her eyes questioning. He could sense the rising rancour in her voice. Team Leader Kang had wanted to observe Ahn Yeo Jin's emotions, if any, at close quarters. It had been a dreadful scene filled with verbal violence. She had grown accustomed to her husband’s intimidating and aggressive manner. In prison, she had no fear of him. He was not a threat as he couldn’t touch her any more.  She seemed calm and untroubled but she bitterly resented the NCI profiler’s tactics.

FINDING THE TRUTH HA SUN WOO VERSUS THE OGRE Having been instructed by Team Leader Kang to interview the notorious murderer, Ha Sun Woo sat face to face with Jo Young Hoon. Ha Sun Woo raised the issue of his PCLI test results and pointed out that he had received 38 out of 40 on the test.   It was doubtful that he had undergone such a test as the PCLI (Plasma Cell Labelling Index) was a test for the proliferation of the myeloma cells.  She stated that he had been diagnosed with severe Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). The personality disorder is characterised by an impoverished moral sense or conscience. But how would the pevert know the difference between the PCLI test and the ASPD test? His skills and knowledge were limited to Architecture and slaughtering young women. Ha Sun Woo must have a naughty sense of humour. Jo Young Hoon arrogantly objected to the report and corrected her facts. The sexual pervert was was much in his comfort zone in the   presence of a young and lovely lady. In his fantasies, young women were exciting opponents in his fun games. ‘It’s not antisocial personality disorder, but sexual disorder!’ he proclaimed with unconcealed jubilation. Those looking on would have imagined that he had puffed out his chest, as if he was proclaiming his most significant achievement. An animalistic odour seemed to have seeped out from his skin.  If he had hoped to unsettle her, he was disappointed. A slight smile curved Ha Sun Woo’s lips as she stared knowingly at him. One wonders if she had purposely misread the report to provoke him? ‘I think you have a beautiful smile but you’re not smiling at all.’ He seemed excited but did not pause to catch his breath before continuing his flirty talk.  ‘When I see an anxious face, my heart flutters,’ he flashed a dirty smile. The sex pervert was entranced by her beauty and her smile. ‘Are there more victims besides the discovered bodies?’ she enquired, hopeful that he would tell her the truth. ‘If I tell you, what will you give me?’ Jo Young Hoon smiled an insinuating smile, in his attempt to trigger some reaction from the serious profiler. Was it a game to him? Jo Young Hoon had been imprisoned for the last 15 years and it seemed nothing had changed. Darkness still lurked under his skin. Momentarily startled, she blurted out, ‘I’ll give you a chance to ease the pain of the victims’ families!’ He could sense at her naivete. Feeling complacent, he laughed. ‘A justice crusader?’ The interview drew to a standstill. It was stalemate. Ha Sun Woo made no headway in ferreting information out of him. She could get no further with his degenerate and uncooperative manner.

SNAPSHOTS OF THE PAST THE EVIDENCE THE LETTER Meanwhile, Team Leader Kang and Lee Han were with Anh Yeo Jin.  They did not have great progress with their investigation either as she was an expert in evading all questions. She was fiddling with her handcuffs. On noticing it, a thoughtful look crossed his face. Team Leader Kang requested that she be uncuffed. ‘What’s the best thing about drawing? he asked amicably. ‘Freedom?’ she answered. Yoo Min Young requested to speak to Team Leader Kang as she and Kim Hyun Joon had been given an important piece of information and evidence. The media specialist informed the Team Leader of the letter that Ahn Yeo Jin had sent to her mother. It was of utmost importance that he knew about it so she read the contents of the letter to him. To precipitate a reaction from Ahn Yeo Jin, Kang Gi Hyeon recited the contents of the letter as they were read to him.  The tone of her letter to her mother was reconciliatory. In the past, there had been acrimony between mother and daughter. Why should people only try to reconcile when one person was about to die? ‘Mom, I know how much you’re suffering from this. When we come to think of it, we were far from having a normal mother and daughter relationship. I’m aware of that. You didn’t have any choice.’ Ahn Yeo Jin’s suppressed emotions were aroused. She had all along been calm and cold. Now, she was enraged. ‘That’s my personal story!’ But Team Manager Kang wouldn’t let go. He continued parroting what was being read to him. ‘Now, that I’m a mother, I understand how you had felt in the past.'  'Understanding you is the second gift I received in this world. ' I’ve something to tell you. It’s the first gift I received. The biggest gift I received is that people like you and me are somewhere that is imaginably far.’ Does it mean that their world is a different world - far beyond the imagination of most people? Ahn Yeo Jin tried to snatch his mobile phone away to stop his recitation but he restrained her. ‘As a mother and a woman, I didn’t fulfil my duty, so, many children died. Every time I think about it, I can’t sleep at all.’ ‘Stop! Please stop! Stop it! Stop! She pleaded as she struggled with him but she was held back by the prison wardens. Team Leader Kang tried to placate her. ‘It’s fine. It’s fine. Did you say you did not fulfil your duty? You didn’t kill the victims, did you? Why didn’t you testify in court?’ ‘I brought the female university students to my husband’s workplace.’ Lee Han was convinced that she was not guilty. ‘Isn’t it because he needed helpers?’ ‘No. If I’d paid attention, I would probably have noticed what was going on.’ She felt responsible for their deaths. ‘That’s completely different from being directly involved in a murder,’ Lee Han clarified. It seemed that she was convinced that she deserved the death sentence. That was why she confessed to the crimes. It was direct evidence.  But, the confession had been false and so, the conviction was also false. WEAK EVIDENCE The letter had sown seeds of doubt about her guilt in the minds of the profilers as well as the prison officials. If the letter had not been written, people would have wrongly believed that she was guilty of all the crimes that she did not commit. While analysing the video interview, the prison officials were convinced that the letter was a piece of weak evidence. They needed solid evidence for a suspension of the death sentence.

SNAPSHOTS OF THE PAST JO YOUNG HOON FAMILY HISTORY Team Leader Kang explained his theory on the murderer, Jo Young Hoon. ‘To understand the two murderers, they had to be seen from a different perspective – as mentally-ill patients. Jo Young Hoon’s abnormal desire developed from his mother’s repeated emotional, mental and sexual abuse. He not only suffered from a psychological trauma but he also created his own virtual reality on twisted love. He captured the victims, and killed them. By looking at his signature  - the eight cuts of his victims' bodies, he fulfilled his fantasy.  When Team Leader Kang mentioned Jo Young Hoon's murder signature, it seemed too gory for him to go into detail. Did he mean the dismemberment of the body into eight parts? The chilling image conjured was that he had slaughtered his victims like animals, and with cutting tools, he had sliced them into eight portions.  He was probably alone every time, his mother abused him. To activate the virtual reality he created, he must be alone with the victim.  'That means when he commits murder, it’s in his own world, where no one can interrupt.'  If Ahn Yeo Jin was there with him, she would have been dead by now.’ Team Leader Kang’s description of Jo Young Hoon’s family history was vague.  There is room for the imagination of the audience to run wild. What were his parents really like? The audience might wonder about the sexual abuse. Not much light had been shed on the little-known mother-son sexual abuse.

AHN YEO JIN FALSE CONFESSION The Prison Director was puzzled about Anh Yeo Jin’s confession. She had confessed that she killed her son and had implied that she had also murdered the women as well. Kim Hyun Joon and Yoo Min Young finally arrived at the prison. Kim Hyun Joon shared the news that Ahn Yeo Jin was the anonymous informant of the murders as she suffered from endless guilt. ‘If one were to read her letter to her mother, one would not see the profile of a woman who had killed 13 women and her own son,’ the NCI profiler argued. The Prison Director was astounded that she had chosen to die by making a false confession. For what reason? Lee Han had the answer. He thought that she might have cognitive impairment. It is a mental state that forces the accused to make false confessions while exhausted. He had read a study which stated that 30% of perpetrators of violent crimes were found to be innocent in their second trials. There was no question about it that they had made false confessions either because they were being controlled or due to certain interrogation techniques. Probably, Ahn Yeo Jin made false confessions to the crimes because of Jo Young Hoon’s dominance and control over her. Although the letter was a piece of evidence, it was not a solid piece of evidence. The NCI members were told that more solid evidence was needed. Team Leader Kang studied Ahn Yeo Jin through the CCTV and believed that she was trying to protect her paintings like she was protecting her child. Painting was one way people expressed themselves. The NCI had to find out what her paintings meant.