Bereaved family voice complaints about officers losing victim's clothes A photo depicting a crime scene. (123rf) South Korean police officers lost what would have been key evidence for an investigation into a 2025 murder case, local media outlets reported Thursday.Officials at Masan Dongbu Police Station reportedly failed to procure the clothes worn by two middle school students who were killed on Dec. 3, 2025, at a motel in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. The officers did not seize the evidence or return the items to the bereaved families; the clothes were discarded by cleaning staff at a local hospital.A 26-year-old man surnamed Pyo called four middle school students to a motel after becoming acquainted with them through a public chat room. Pyo inflicted injuries on three of the students, then threw himself out the window to his death.Two of the victims died while receiving treatment at a local hospital.It was reported that the police asked the hospital about the clothes only after receiving requests from the victims' families."It just makes no sense to not get the child's clothing because police failed to properly manage them. We are already hurt, and this makes things even more difficult," the family of one of the victims told reporters.Police said they could not focus on the clothes because there was a lot of key evidence and factors to investigate.But law experts have noted that clothing worn by a victim is usually considered key evidence in a criminal investigation, as any blood and damage present on the clothes can provide clues to the situation.The incident had sparked a dispute after it was found that Pyo was a convicted sex criminal who served five years in jail. He was under police probation, but did not live at the address notified to the public.He was investigated just hours before the murder for armed threat against a woman in his 20s, but police did not detain him or alert his probation officials, saying there were no legal grounds to do so.