🔍 심야 방송 — Dead Air
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CASE FILE · 사건 파일 · CLASSIFIED · 기밀 · HOMICIDE · 살인 · EVIDENCE · 증거
Premium Case Master · Evidentiality Forensics · 90 min
심야 방송

Dead Air

📍 Studio B · KBN Radio · Yeouido, Seoul · After Midnight

A late-night radio legend signs off for the last time — poisoned on air, in front of thousands of listeners who heard nothing at all. No forged notes this time. No burner phones. Just four statements, taken the same night, and a language that builds an eyewitness test into its verb endings. Someone in that station described a face he swears he never saw. Your partner needs you to catch the tense that catches him.

4Suspects
4Evidence Pieces
2Chances to Accuse
👩‍🔬 Partner: Detective Oh Soo-jin — Linguistics Specialist, Seoul Metro Police
Case Overview

The Case File

SEOUL METRO POLICE · MAJOR CRIMES · OPEN
Victim
Cha Yeong-ran 차영란 — Host, “심야 방송” · 19 years on air
Location
KBN Radio, Studio B, Yeouido, Seoul · After Midnight
What we know
Found in the on-air booth forty minutes after sign-off, headphones still on. Cause of death: poison in her iced coffee, ingested during the final segment of a live broadcast. The booth camera was “under maintenance.” Four people remained in the station after 11 PM; all four gave statements before dawn. The official line: no witnesses. Your partner read the transcripts twice and disagrees — in Korean, she says, there is always a witness. Sometimes it’s the killer’s own verb ending.
👩‍🔬
Detective Oh Soo-jin — Linguistics Specialist
"This one is different, so listen carefully. No documents to forge, no notes to fake — just four people telling us where they were, in a language that refuses to let them. Korean marks witnessed experience in the grammar itself: ~더라 is reserved for what your own eyes took in, and it cannot be borrowed, guessed, or heard second-hand. Read every statement twice. Once for what they claim. Once for what their endings admit."
How to Use This Investigation
Use the tabs above to navigate freely. Evidence — examine Korean clues, click any word to notebook it. The Scene — read the crime scene in Korean. Suspects — study alibis. Partner — read running analysis. Accuse unlocks after 2 evidence pieces examined.
Crime Scene

KBN Radio — Studio B

Yeouido, Seoul · 12:35 AM · The ON AIR light is dark. The coffee is still cold.

Scene Description — click Korean words to learn them
Physical Evidence
—Poison in the iced coffee on the booth console
—Headphones on — she never left her chair
—Booth camera offline “for maintenance” since 9 PM
—Key-log: four people in the station after 11 PM
—No struggle — she never saw it coming
What's Missing
?Poison source not found
?Who prepared the iced coffee — unconfirmed
?Camera maintenance order — unsigned
?Engineer’s exit absent from the lobby log
?Statement grammar anomaly
Evidence · 0/4 Examined

Four Pieces of Korean Evidence

Open each tile to examine it. Every Korean word is clickable — click to reveal meaning and save to notebook.

Evidence Examination

Word Breakdown — click to add to notebook
👩‍🔬
Detective Oh Soo-jin
Linguistics Specialist
Suspect Files

Four Suspects

Read each alibi carefully. Cross-reference with the linguistic clues in your notebook.

Four statements, four alibis — and a grammar that keeps receipts. ~더라고요 marks direct observation: one suspect uses it about a rehearsal she truly attended; another uses it about a moment he swears he left before. A topic particle treats the murder weapon as old news — damning, until you check whose eyes had innocent reasons to know it. The broadcast log fixes the fatal moment at 11:47 PM. Match every verb ending against that clock. Only one collapses.
Partner Analysis Log

Oh Soo-jin's Field Notes

⚠ Formal Accusation

Name the Killer

Select the suspect and the linguistic proof. Both must be correct.

Step 1 — Select the killer:
Step 2 — Select the linguistic proof:
Verdict

The Killer
📋
Do Kyung-seok 도경석
Sound Engineer
The Linguistic Proof
도경석 told investigators he left at 10:30 and “couldn’t watch” the end of the show — then said 표정이 안 좋더라고요 about the last song. ~더라 is Korean’s evidential of direct experience: it cannot describe a scene the speaker didn’t witness. The broadcast log times that song at 11:47 PM; his lobby exit was never logged; the “offline” booth camera answered to his maintenance schedule. The producer’s 웃더라고요 — about a rehearsal she attended — is the same grammar used honestly. His is the same grammar used carelessly, and it put him in the control room, five meters from her coffee, at the moment he claims he was home.
📓 Korean you learned in this case
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