The MOST TRAGIC K-Pop Idol Deaths Explained in 24 Minutes

Kim Sunungj. Within 24 hours of his solo debut, Kim Sunung J was found dead in his hotel room. He was only 23 years old. He had performed the debut broadcast of As I Told You on SBS on the night of Sunday, November 19th, 1995, and returned to room 507 of the Swiss Grand Hotel in Hongandong, Western Seoul with his manager, six of his dancers, and his girlfriend. His manager tried to wake him the following morning. He could not. The autopsy would find 28 puncture marks on Kim Sunungj's right arm and a lethal dose of veterinary anesthetic in his bloodstream. He was right-handed. The Korean music industry has never fully answered how it happened. Less than a year earlier, Kim J had been one half of Duce, the group that essentially imported hip hop into Korean pop music. He and Lee Hyundo had been friends since high school. Lie Hyundu wrote and produced. Kim Sunungj choreographed and led the visual direction. Juice disbanded in 1995 so both members could pursue solo careers. And his SPS stage that Sunday night was meant to be the beginning of his. Instead, it was the entirety of it. The substance found in his body was a veterinary anesthetic combining tailine and Zelazipam, sold under the brand name Zolatil and used to sedate large animals. It is not something an amateur user administers to their own dominant arm at close range 28 times. His girlfriend, referred to only as Miss Kim in Korean press, had purchased that exact anesthetic from a veterinary clinic in Seoch earlier that month along with two disposable syringes. She told police at first that the drug was for her dog. The dog was later found dead and had been replaced with a similar looking dog she brought home the same week. Investigators concluded she had told Kim Sunung J the injections were vitamins for fatigue and pushed the case forward as a premeditated homicide. In June 1996, the Soul Western District Court convicted her of murder and sentenced her to life in prison. The appellet court overturned the ruling. The Supreme Court upheld the acquitt. Their reasoning was that anyone could have bought the drug, that no one had directly witnessed the injections,