Missing Korean woman, 70, found in Delhi after a month

For two days, a team of eight Delhi Police officers scanned footage from 500 CCTV cameras, spoke to at least 100 informers and to residents in central Delhi, and finally found a 70-year-old South Korean tourist who had been reported “missing” by the country’s embassy for over a month.
The woman was found on Thursday morning, seated in a crowded lane near the New Delhi railway station, dressed in a green jacket and beige pants.
A senior Delhi Police officer said, “The woman had planned a solo trip to India in February and left Korea without telling anyone in her family. She was supposed to return home on February 10 but was not allowed to board her flight after ‘violent’ behaviour was reported by airline staffers.”
This was also confirmed to HT by an IGI airport official anonymously. HT is not revealing the name of the woman.
On Monday, a month after she missed her flight back home, her family – unaware of her whereabouts – reached out to the embassy in India after they found printouts of her travel plans to India at her house, said the police officer, who asked not to be named.
A day later, the embassy reached out to the Delhi Police with a missing person’s complaint. That’s when the Delhi police unit at the IGI airport swung into action.
The CCTV trail
The CCTV trail revealed that after not being allowed to travel back home, the elderly woman went towards the skywalk near New Delhi Railway Station.
Another police officer, who was a part of the team that found her, said: “We followed the CCTV trail from Delhi Aerocity, Dhaula Kuan, to Shivaji Stadium and New Delhi. We came to know that she was seen leaving the airport on February 10. She then took the Metro and reached the skywalk near Ajmeri Gate. She spent the night sleeping under the skywalk. The next day, she went to the New Delhi Railway Station and then to Metro stations nearby.”
The second officer added that, after that, the woman stayed near that area. “CCTVs near the railway station and Metro stations showed that she took short trips on the Metro but would sleep near the railway station. She didn’t have a debit card or much cash. She would sit with beggars or go to temples for food. We don’t know how she survived without any help,” said the officer, who asked not to be named.
On Thursday, she was found sitting with locals who didn’t know her, said police.
The first investigator said that since the area where she was spotted on CCTV is large, a network of informers was deployed, and posters were pasted on walls.
“We questioned hawkers, taxi drivers, hotel owners and auto-rickshaw drivers but got no lead. Later, an informer told us that an ‘old, Korean-looking’ woman was seen near the New Delhi railway station. A few auto-rickshaw drivers also confirmed that they had seen her. That’s how we found her,” said the second investigator.
How did she survive?
While the woman has been found, the mystery around how she survived without any help, a language barrier, little money, and no shelter or phone, for over 30 days, persists.
Usha Rangnani, DCP (IGI Airport) said, “The woman is old and doesn’t know English or Hindi. The team diligently worked on old CCTV footage and CCTV trail. We must have looked at more than 500 CCTVs around the airport, railway stations, metro stations and markets to find clues. Our work finally paid off and we found her. Though she has not been cooperative, she is healthy and safe. We sent her for a medical examination and doctors said she is fine.”
Police said that initially the woman was happy when the police told her that her family was looking for her but when investigators asked her about the trip, she stopped cooperating.
“She may be mentally distressed. We have been trying to ask her questions, but she gets upset. We also brought in a translator, but she has now refused to talk to them too. For now, we are happy that the case has been solved. The embassy officials and her family are also relieved. Once legal proceedings are over, she will be sent back to Korea,” added the first investigator.