32 members of evangelical baptist church found dead following mass murder-suicide

August 29, 1987
Yongin, South Korea
Thirty two members of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Korea (기독교복음침례회) are found dead following a mass murder-suicide

The deceased were found stacked in two piles in the Odaeyang Trading Co.’s attic, bound and gagged. It was determined they had been poisoned or strangled without offering resistance. The victims, four of whom were male while the remainder were female, had their hands and feet bound, some with cloth or rope tied around their necks. Many victims had tissue paper or cloth stuffed in their nostrils or mouths as well. Among the dead were cult leader/Odaeyang factory owner Park Soon-ja and her three children. It was estimated deaths occurred two days before the discovery of the bodies.

No exact motive behind the mass murder-suicide was left, but it is presumed to center around Park’s involvement in allegedly swindling $8.7 million from over 200 people. Park was being investigated by police for fraud when her body and the bodies of her congregation were found.