Old pictures falsely linked to death of South Korean actor Kim Sae-ron

Published on February 21, 2025 at 05:00
4 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

After South Korean actor Kim Sae-ron was found dead in her home on February 16, multiple Facebook pages with tens of thousands of followers shared images falsely claiming they show surveillance footage of her last moments in an elevator. The images were in fact published in news reports in 2011 about a high school student who died by suicide.

"The reason why everyone cried after watching Kim Sae-ron's last moments," read the Korean-language text caption on a series of four images shared on Facebook on February 16.

Two of them show genuine photos of Kim, while the other two show a girl walking down a corridor and standing in an elevator (archived links here and here).

Text embedded in the images say they show "CCTV footage of Kim Sae-ron's last moments" and that it depicts her "wailing in the elevator."

Award-winning South Korean actor Kim Sae-ron, 24, was found dead in her house in Seoul on February 16, with police saying they found no signs of foul play and that they plan to handle the incident as a suicide (archived link).

Screenshot of the false claim shared on Facebook, captured February 19

Best known for her role as a kidnapped child in the 2010 movie "The Man from Nowhere", Kim's career was derailed after a drunk driving incident in 2022 made her the target of intense online harassment.

Her death has reignited debate in South Korea about the country's toxic online environment and harsh media coverage towards celebrities who make missteps, particularly women (archived link).

Facebook pages with tens of thousands of followers here, here and here also shared the purported images of Kim's last moments, all featuring comments linking to a tabloid report of her death on an e-commerce platform. The report itself did not contain the images.

Identical posts with external link to a tabloid report

But the CCTV images shared in the post are from a 2011 report about a high school student who died by suicide.

2011 reports

A reverse image search on Google found the first CCTV image of a person in a stairwell matches the 14-second mark of a video report by national broadcaster KBS about the high school student's death (archived link).

Screenshot comparison between the top-right image shared in the misleading posts (left) and the 2011 KBS report

The surveillance footage showed the last moments of the student from central South Korea's Daejeon city, who was bullied by classmates, the report said.

The second image of the girl in the elevator matches pictures published by South Korean media Xsportnews about the same case on December 21, 2011 (archived link).

Screenshot comparison between the top-right image shared in the misleading posts (left) and the 2011 Xsportnews report

Neither report said the student was seen crying in the elevator, but that she appeared unsure of herself before stepping out of the elevator at the top floor of the building.

The CCTV footage of the student's last moments made headlines at the time and sparked discussions on school bullying, as seen in local reports here and here (archived links here and here).

As of February 21, there have been no credible news reports about surveillance footage of Kim Sae-ron's last moments.

South Korea operates a national suicide prevention hotline for individuals in crisis or those looking to help someone. To speak to a trained listener 24 hours a day, call 109. More information is available on the hotline's website here.

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