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35 - Sewol Ferry Disaster and UNCW Murders
59 Plays2 months ago
Jeff tells the story of the South Korean Sewol Ferry Disaster. Sam talks about how relationship violence took the lives of two University of North Carolina Wilmington students in 2004.
Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at downtherabbitholethepod@gmail.com.
Jeff's Sources
- Sinking of MV Sewol - Wikipedia
- South Koreans still seek answers 10 years after Sewol ferry disaster - Reuters
- KCIJ - Sewol ferry
- South Korea ferry disaster texts from the doomed ship - CBC
- Rotten Mango Podcast
Sam's Sources
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Jeff Rogers
Hello, Sam. Hello, Jeffrey.
00:00:26
Jeff Rogers
Welcome to Down the Rabbit Hole with Jeff and Sam. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. Hey, yeah, you are. And please follow us on this show. Subscribe, rate, review, listen like, love us, tell us you love us. Where can you listen to us?
00:00:41
Jeff Rogers
uh you can listen to us oh my god it's like growing you can listen to us on apple podcast on spotify on amazon and last but not least i heart radio thank you kind alan for doing that for us always yes um uh where can you find us ah You can follow us on Instagram at down the rabbit world pod or you can message us reach out to us on ah Gmail at down the rabbit world pod at gmail dot.com business is done. Are you done choking?
00:01:14
Jeff Rogers
not really Before we started, we were dancing. We were listening to our song. We always listen to us. Well, we've started listening to a song right before we do this and Sam took a big sip of Moroccan mint tea and it almost took her down.
Comedic Pre-Show Antics
00:01:30
Jeff Rogers
Very close and it's still residual choking happening. get that Sometimes it's good. none Don't leave me. I would never.
00:01:39
Jeff Rogers
I was dancing with a banana in my hand for you. yeah Yes, but you first avoided the microphone that was literally directly in front of your face and grabbed a banana and acted like that was your microphone. And it was a lovely, lovely. You recorded it. I did. She did.
00:01:56
Jeff Rogers
I got you on camera, too. What's up? You got me on camera. Oh, oh, I was like, where's can to actually you were just choking. You were supposed to be dancing and singing. But at that point you had started choking on me.
00:02:12
Jeff Rogers
Oh, no, you had started choking on the Moroccan tea and I was like, whoa, what's going on? And that was very awkward. We could have just skipped all of that right now. So I probably need to talk and not have any silence to make that go away. Yes. So you're not choking anymore. no Nope, no, definitely not. Okay. Um, what's new? Oh, um, okay. So I finally.
00:02:41
Jeff Rogers
I told you about this. um there's so There's obviously different kinds of ADHD. mine Part of one of my problems is that I need to have a resolution to things. Like if I decide to watch a show or read a book series or something like that, I need to know that it is final. And I also will gladly and shamelessly look up spoilers or ask for spoilers because because I can't handle the anxiety. I don't do it. I won't. And if I'm starting a book and it's making me too anxious because it doesn't end,
00:03:10
Jeff Rogers
like there's no ending to it then i will happily put it down not pick it back up until the series is finished however i find myself in a very bad place right now because i had been avoiding reading the fourth wing series um because not only is it not finished it's not finished by at least two books from what the author has said and I'm dangerously attached and i there's no hope because it's not like I can look anything up. It's not like I know how this is going to end. So there's a lot of anxiety. Is this the one that my Ashley likes as well as your Ashley? Probably. there's I mean, there's a whole genre out there, but it's the same epic fantasy, dragons and magic and all that kind of stuff. Your nightmare.
00:03:57
Jeff Rogers
My nightmare. My nightmare. But that's OK. I'm not really reading a book right now. There was one that I'm kind of into. um The name of it is We Used to Live Here. It's like a thriller. It's a thriller. It was like it's was 2024 best of. I want to say I'm getting the name right. I hope I am. We used to live here. That sounds familiar.
00:04:24
Jeff Rogers
Yeah, I've kind of started it like half-assed, but I haven't really gotten into it. But last night I sat down and I was like, what can I watch on TV? And I told you before I watched the first series, the first season of Fargo. Yeah. Okay. So I've seen the first season. That was all. Okay. Last night, because I know that show is not like consecutive series right like you can watch whatever season you want oh they're all different stories and each of them well at least the first and now i'm on the fifth so now i watch the fifth season last night just to see what it was about also it says at the beginning it's a true story and um it's based on true events and but all the names are changed like this is the creepiest story
00:05:15
Jeff Rogers
Full of action, a little bit of a slow burn, but such good writing. I'm telling you, it's such a good show. Have you seen any of Fargo? No, I haven't. It's on Hulu. Uh-huh. Okay. Let's add that to the list. you it i yeah you don't I mean, I just enjoy it. Like, the writing is really good.
00:05:37
Jeff Rogers
the actors in it phenomenal and i don't know any of their names for this fifth season but based on a true story like what the hell it's insane that that's based on a true story but it is yeah all the names are changed don't you know don't you know all the names are changed and they have that minnesota accent you love it so much so far the two seasons have happened in minnesota but the show is called fargo Every time you say that word, I love their accent and their Minnesota niceness. It's good. Anything else? Um, you know, we're going to see a movie tonight and I'm excited for it. Um, should be a good one. Should be scary.
Exploring 'Gaze the Word' Bookstore
00:06:26
Jeff Rogers
Yes.
00:06:27
Jeff Rogers
Oh, so you know what? Okay, since we're going to London. We are. I was looking up, we're gonna meet Lena in London. And um so the place that we're gonna meet Lena is called Gaze the Word and so it started out as a space for queer literature when other bookshops I'm reading this now off of penguin.co.uk and I've looked it up before we recorded this because I was like you know I know that it's an important part of the history and I'm so excited to go there with everybody that we're going to be with
00:07:04
Jeff Rogers
But this says, it started out as a space for queer literature, which other bookshops were too scared or too homophobic to stock. It's been a place of solidarity ever since, and it's not just for the LGBTQ community. In 1984, the lesbian and gays support the minors group, met the gaze the word matt at gays the word to raise money for the funds for the strikers.
00:07:28
Jeff Rogers
It's always been a safe space. um It's also faced tons of threats, but for like 40 years now, this has been the place to, I mean, it's been like an awesome bookstore for 40 years. I feel like I'm gonna have to bring an entirely empty suitcase just to like yeah all the stuff I'm gonna get there. Same. Even if it's just a book, we've got to support them, right? Of course. So I think we're all gonna buy something. I can't wait to go there.
00:07:55
Jeff Rogers
I'm excited. Also, that story, in 1984, the lesbians and gays support the minors. That's on my list of shows to do um for the Pride Month. It is so good. It gives you goosebumps. Oh, I'm so excited. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. World Pride coming at you, May and June.
00:08:18
Jeff Rogers
Do we have anything else? This is coming out at the end of the month Sam. Like January the end of the month january is almost over. Just like that. It's over.
00:08:32
Jeff Rogers
2025, starting out your home. With a bang. With a bang. Yeah, we're gonna just skate by that one. Gonna be a good year. Cheers, queers, we gotta do that.
00:08:46
Jeff Rogers
and forco And flip that coin, hand me the, we're drinking klipsuda. We're also drinking Moroccan tea and we're drinking Egyptian licorice tea, which is my favorite. Sam likes the Moroccan tea vest. Even though it tried to kill me. It did try to kill you, I saw it. Yeah, he probably just like reached down that throat and was like, ooh. It did. Okay, which coin are you gonna flip? um I'm gonna do the very old school U.S. five cent piece with the buffalo and the Native American. All right. You can be the Native American. Okay. I'm going to be a buffalo. Okay. All right honey.
00:09:33
Jeff Rogers
Tis you, Jeffrey. Oh, tis me. What kind of story do you have? Not good. Oh shit, mine isn't either. Do you need more club soda? Oh chairs, queers. How dare we forget that. I didn't. Cheers, queers. All right. So the story that I have for you this week is awful. And we're going to go to South Korea.
00:10:03
Jeff Rogers
Okay? Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. So first I'm going to start with a 911 call. Oh, I'm sorry. It's 119.
The Sewol Ferry Disaster
00:10:10
Jeff Rogers
That's South Korea's emergency services. So let's just get that in our head. It's 119.
00:10:15
Jeff Rogers
So the operator answers, 119, the person on the other end says, help me, the ship seems to be sinking. And the 119 operator said, a ship is sinking. And the person said, we're on our way to Jeju Island and the ferry tilted to one side. And the operator said,
00:10:33
Jeff Rogers
Is this the ship you're on or is this the ship next to you? And the person said, this is the ship I'm on board. And the operator said, what's the location of the ship? And the person said, I don't know the location. And the operator said, don't you know which ship you're on? Don't you have the GPS, longitude, the latitude? What's the name of the ship?
00:10:56
Jeff Rogers
And the person said, it's the seawall. This is the seawall. Okay. So that person was calling from the seawall ferry off of the coast of South Korea on their way to Jeju Island. At 9.35 a.m., the patrol boat 123 arrived at the location of the seawall ferry and the boat maintained communication with the Coast Guard headquarters.
00:11:18
Jeff Rogers
Mind you, patrol boat 123 or 123 is the only commanding boat at the scene of the ferry. At 937, the Coast Guard asked for the patrol boat or asked the patrol boat, do you see anybody on the boat? Do you see anyone at this moment? And the patrol boat 123 responds with no, nobody's on deck. And the Coast Guard said, do you see anybody at sea? Could somebody have jumped in? And the pdro patrol boat said, nobody's in the water.
00:11:46
Jeff Rogers
They just don't see anybody. At 9.47, somebody has seen jumping off the boat onto a rescue boat and this is good. Or is it? So I'm going to tell you the horrible story of the South Korean ferry boat disaster. Are you ready for this? I feel like I'm never ready when you go dark. It's dark.
00:12:08
Jeff Rogers
It's a horrible story because the boat sank and so many people died and people could have literally been saved. Almost everybody on this ship could have been saved. ah Just tragedy after tragedy after your tragedy. At one point the japanese the Japanese Coast Guard asked South Korea if they needed help. South Korea said, no, we're good. The US Navy asked if South Korea needed help. South Korea? Nah, we're good.
00:12:33
Jeff Rogers
300 people, well, 304 would die, and 250 of those were high school students. And while the boat is sinking, many of the kids aboard were sending text messages to family and friends. And that's where a lot of what we know comes from. Yeah, like a lot of the data, a lot of exactly what we know comes from those text messages.
00:12:57
Jeff Rogers
So on the morning of April 16, 2014, the Seawall Ferry is heading to Jeju Island. And Jeju is known to be like the Hawaii of South Korea. It's beautiful, right? And on the boat, there was 476 passengers
Murders at UNC Wilmington
00:13:12
Jeff Rogers
and the crew, or that included the crew.
00:13:14
Jeff Rogers
It was a ferry, so the ferry was also carrying a lot of cargo, like trucks and cars. Actually the the ferry was 75% cargo. 25% of the profits came from people riding on the ship to go from one place to another.
00:13:28
Jeff Rogers
The reason that there were so many people on the boat was because 300 of those people were 10th grade high school students from Daewon High School. Every year the school did this. So can you imagine being a teenager like your whole class is going to go on this field trip? No parents. Your whole class is on a field trip. Time of your life, right?
00:13:51
Jeff Rogers
The boat's delayed for two hours, though, the night before. Not too bad. They're supposed to leave at 7 p.m., but they end up leaving at 9 p.m. It was about a 10-hour boat ride. So it was going to be an all-night ride. and So now we get to the next morning. It's like 8 a.m. Breakfast is being served. But you can imagine, like, out of the 300 high school students, like or out of the 250 high school, like 75% of the students are still in their bed because it's eight o'clock and I will still be in my bed, eight o'clock in the morning. um The Helmsman, Helmsman Cho, Helmsman Cho and Third Mate Park are the two steering the boat. At 8.20 a.m., the autopilot is turned off and manual steering is turned on. So they're headed through the main goal channel is calm, it's a normal route.
00:14:41
Jeff Rogers
So calm waters. There's also CCTV of this, like about this time, and it shows people on the deck doing their thing. Some people are socializing with each other, so it's a good day. At 849 a.m., somebody decided to turn the ship 15 degrees to the right, suddenly. But this is a ship that isn't meant to turn that far that fast.
00:15:06
Jeff Rogers
and like it's well known about this ferry, it's not meant to do that. You got all these based in trucks and... when i straight line Yes, so when the ship turned, all of the cargo slammed to the left. So the boat was listing 30 degrees to the left suddenly, and listing means leaning. So the boat was leaning 30 degrees to the left. I'm doing all the hand gestures as if somebody's actually beside you watch besides you watching me, right?
00:15:37
Jeff Rogers
So the ship started leaning or listing and the tracking data from 849 and 36 seconds to 849 and 50 seconds, 11 seconds, during which the the ferry rapidly listed or leaned from 21 degrees to 47 degrees. So this thing is going down, right? The drastic change in turns. So that's at 849. At 1118, the stern of the ship is actually underwater. That's how fast this goes.
00:16:07
Jeff Rogers
But why did the boat start sinking? All of the cargo and the vessels on the boat shifted to the left. And boats also have, do you know boats so full of water? So they also have ballast water in the bottom of the boat to stabilize the boat. So this makes the center of gravity on most boats at the bottom.
00:16:26
Jeff Rogers
Okay? But the center of gravity on this boat was at the very top of the boat. I'll tell you why later. We're gonna get to that. And then the engine turns off. So, started going over and the engine cuts off. they Center of gravity is at the top of the water.
00:16:43
Jeff Rogers
but they're not dead in the water and remember i told you somebody jumped on a rescue boat right immediately after the boat starts leaning several minutes after maybe captain lee the one who is on charge is like what the hell so he starts running around trying to figure out what's going on at 8 52 the very first call that i read to you comes in this is a call like a but yeah It's not even from an adult. It's from one of the high school students called, his name was Choy Dokha. Choy is like saying the boat is sinking, help. It's 119 is saying where's the boat? Choy's like I don't know.
00:17:28
Jeff Rogers
and Choi said it's the seawall ferry and just by him saying it's the seawall ferry people know this boat so immediately they know the route that the boat was on and they know where it's headed right at 907 the crew confirmed to authorities that the ship is sinking and asked for help from the korean coast guard so here comes the coast guard um so the coast guard tells the captain to let all the passengers know to get their life jackets on and get to the deck and the captain was like Oh, sorry. Let me tell you one little part I skipped that I shouldn't have skipped because when Choi calls the 119 operator and he's like saying it's the seawall fairy and you can actually hear in the background the PA system saying stay in your room for your safety. Stay in your room. It was an automated message that was repeating over and over and over.
00:18:22
Jeff Rogers
So the Coast Guard tells the captain to get all the let all the passengers know to get their life jackets on and go to the deck. And the captain was like, well, the PA system isn't working. But it was working because it was telling people to stay in their room the whole time. So the Coast Guard said, well, we have a boat coming and a helicopter coming. And a crew member said, OK, I've told them.
00:18:44
Jeff Rogers
um that was a lie he never told him he didn't who were the first people rescued from the ferry the captain and the crew members are caught immediately jumping off of the capsizing ferry onto the rescue boat but the captain had changed clothes he had put on civilian clothes so that he wouldn't be recognized as a deserter fucking a as a deserter we'll come back to him later because incredulous right um after the captain was rescued also after he was rescued he made no attempts not even one to help anybody else on the ship so he didn't even tell them how many people were actually on the ship and he was in the civilian clothes like i said so he didn't want to be recognized
00:19:33
Jeff Rogers
Meanwhile, at this exact time, when the captain had jumped ship, there's recovered footage by the students. And one of the students in particular had all this footage that his parents released.
00:19:45
Jeff Rogers
and he's a teenager on the third floor. So the female students are on the second floor and the male students are on the third floor. That's how they're separated. And in the footage, you can see the students when like the boat turns and they notice like a bump. Like maybe the boat sort of hit something, but it's such a big boat that they don't really think anything about it. They're not freaking out yet, right? They don't know that the ship is sinking. They don't think that it will.
00:20:12
Jeff Rogers
and they're checking on their friends and family but the shaking of the ship is getting worse and worse and worse and the boat starts to lean or list even more and more and by the end of the video it's the most heartbreaking video that I've seen it's not like graphic or anything like that but it's heartbreaking you'll you'll hear this of the students screaming let me live who will take care of my mom who's going to take care of my sister let me live and they all start they also start smelling like a really odd smell it smells like gas but the students they're following the fucking rules there's an automated system that's still saying please for your safety stay in your room for your safety stay in your rooms so they're doing that they're doing what they're told
00:21:03
Jeff Rogers
So here are some of the last text messages that people get. um One, and I don't know their names, it was too many names to kind of put in this story, and I can't pronounce a lot of them either. so But one of the young young people says, mom, I'm sending you this now because I'm afraid I might not i'll be able to say it later, I love you. One father writes, I know the rescue is going on, but try to come outside if possible. And the son responds, no, dad, I can't walk, the hallway's packed with kids, and it's too tilted.
00:21:33
Jeff Rogers
And another one, this was to his theater class. Apparently, there was a class of theater students on there, and the guy said, if I've wronged any of you, forgive me. And one student writes, love you guys. So then, some of the students in the video noticed that the life vest that they have in 2014, the life vest, are from 1994. At this time, so they're expired, and they're no good. It's like one thing after another, isn't it?
00:22:03
Jeff Rogers
Okay, at this time, the news is saying that a lot of people have been rescued, not true. They're they're the mainstream media. They're like, a lot of people have been rescued. Everything is good. And there are also some reports saying that all the people are rescued. So the parents of the students are watching this on the news and they're like,
00:22:24
Jeff Rogers
Wait a minute, this shit's not adding up. Their kids are not texting them back, but they're saying everybody's rescued. And then a little while later, the government was reporting that they had rescued most of the people. And then from all to most, and then from most, it was like, well, we've got 200 rescued, and then we've got 100 rescued. So it's just getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
00:22:47
Jeff Rogers
Patients start making the journey to an island close to where the boat is capsized. um They're all come into that place where the boat's sinking, right? The parents, if they can get there, they're gonna get there.
00:22:58
Jeff Rogers
And they want to rescue their own kids. They actually want to go into the water because they see nothing has happened into their kids. so theyre But there's like a row of cops there at this point. How far are they from the island? It's not far. So they're far away from Jeju Island because the ship was two hours delayed, remember? Yeah. But they're at an island called Jindo Island. So from the shores of Jindo Island,
00:23:21
Jeff Rogers
And if I'm mispronouncing it, I'm sorry. But from the shores of that island, you can see the boat clear as day and you can see nothing happened then. So the parents can see this. So while the mainstream media is like, we've saved so many people, this is fine. That's not what the parents are seeing. Families um would see their name their kids names on like the rescued list, but they aren't hearing anything from the kids.
00:23:48
Jeff Rogers
So the entire day passes and the government rescue was not really a rescue. Not at all. But according to some of but available information around 172 people survived the initial sinking of the seawall ferry on the first day of the disaster. April 16th, 2014. Out of the 476, 172 people could have or were saved. That's because they came to the deck. The only people that were saved were the ones that could come to the deck initially. Now there's people on the second floor, the third floor, that were staying in their rooms because they kept hearing the automated system, right? So then the patrol boat 123 arrives, which I talked about in that phone call, and for some reason the the coast guard abandons and backs away from the sinking ship. Meanwhile,
00:24:43
Jeff Rogers
the blue house in south korea is like the white house here so the president lives at the blue house right the coast guard is on the phone with the blue house the whole time and the blue house for some reason and i can't figure this out the only worry the blue house has president park is the name of the president the only worry that the president has is can we get some video can you send us video of this sinking ship and the coast guard They're like, ah no, that's too sensitive. well We're afraid it will leak. So they don't want us in the blue house. I don't know, like, what's the purpose of this, you know? Why would you send video of a sinking ship? Like, president should order people to take care of it, right? Not just ask for video.
00:25:25
Jeff Rogers
But now there's a lot of helicopters circling the ship, just kind of hanging out. No commands are being given. Again, Japan and the US were like, yo, we can help. we literally America was saying we literally have Marines trained in this. And you know Marines are badass. They can do all sorts of things. South Korea, now we're good. Literally turned every offer of help down as the boat was sinking and they weren't doing anything.
00:25:53
Jeff Rogers
Initially at the very beginning six people were saved that was all and then they were claiming that they didn't know that more people were on the boat But the seawall ferry is a very well-known ferry. So that was not true it's just unbelievable right it would be just six people so the blue house is talking to the coast guard and the blue house is still asking for a freaking video of the ship like i don't know i still don't i looked into this and looked into this and i don't understand the purpose of just wanting a video of the ship i don't get that all the while tons of boats are starting to pull up to the capsizing ferry these boats are not coast guard boats though these are civilian fishing boats and local fishermen like the coast guard's not doing anything so
00:26:35
Jeff Rogers
What i think of as the best of people in the world are now like the the regular people okay you're not doing anything so we're gonna pull up and we're gonna try to save the people on the ship. They're pulling up and one of the fish well one of the fisherman started rescuing people who had jumped into the cold water.
00:26:54
Jeff Rogers
This man alone named Hoon saved about 25 people. He's a hero, but he still feels a lot of sorrow because so many people died. So civilians are actually saving people while the Coast Guard still isn't doing anything. And maybe if at the very beginning, the captain had made an announcement and said, put your life jackets on and ordered everybody out to the deck like you should have done. There were so many boats there that Japan was offering to help in the US. I mean, had they chose to get Japan's help in the US help?
00:27:23
Jeff Rogers
um couldve been With that big ship close by, they could have all been saved. It was a gigantic ship that the US had to like one of those big deck ships. Not a big deck ship.
00:27:39
Jeff Rogers
Okay, so the U.S. literally had 1,000 Marines on standby to save these people, and Japan also was on standby. I've just stressed that so much because it's such a tragedy, right?
00:27:54
Jeff Rogers
it's not even hindsight is 2020 like use the people that are willing to help and like we're all on good terms with south korea south korea's on good terms with us japan the same just it's almost like president park had like she was too proud to ask for help it happens yeah but um and the south korean coast guard their only job was to make sure nobody was illegally fishing in the water. illegalman Illegal fishermen from other countries like China, that was their only job. That was their purpose, right? So one big problem is that all the people who are employed by the government don't wanna make any decisions. They pawn it off to the next person, which leads to nothing happening. Hence the reason the civilian people are trying to save the people on the boats. They're like, fuck it, let's go get him.
00:28:49
Jeff Rogers
So there are a few heroes of this. um Back to the call, ah the to the emergence so emergency services, like I said, Choi, the high school student, wasn't able to give the exact location of the ship. But what he could give, the information was crucial. People were thinking that the ship was closer to Jeju Island, but because there was a two-hour delay, it was not close to Jeju, it was close to Jindo.
00:29:14
Jeff Rogers
However, Choi was spending time on the 119 call with emergency services. This meant that he wasn't talking to his parents and his parents couldn't understand why he didn't call because all of the other kids were calling their parents and they knew this. And later they were told that eventually though later they were eventually told that their son was the one who was on the phone with 119 and he saved a lot of lives. And they were so proud of their son, they said, God brought our boy into this world to save a lot of people. And there was Park Ji-yeon, she was young, she worked for the ferry. She was making sure that people had life jackets. She saved about 50 lives herself and her body would be found later.
00:30:00
Jeff Rogers
There was also a lot of civilian divers who showed up to save lives. They're professional. They show up. But then again, like the news was saying that most of the people were rescued. So the divers were like, maybe they don't need us. Maybe they do need us. Complete shit show. um And the volunteer divers meet, this is the insane part, and they tell their story in this documentary that I watched. The volunteer divers meet with the leaders of the Coast Guard. And the leaders of the Coast Guard, they were looking busy, like they were typing and looking and talking on the phone and
00:30:34
Jeff Rogers
they're really just ordering repeata And then they were asking the divers, like, where are you from? And the divers would say, I'm from this place. And they would be like, oh my god, my colleague is from there. and Let's not talk about the sinking ship. Well, no. They didn't just talk about the sinking ship. At one point, they all sat down and had ramen and ate while the ship was sinking. And this is from testimony. like This has already gone to all this stuff is like stuff that came out in the court trial. right So they weren't letting their civilian divers do their jobs either. They're volunteer jobs, mind you. They're volunteering. At the time, the water was very peaceful. They should have been doing stuff. And the parents are no longer listening to the news. Now they're out there watching with their own eyes as the boat with their kids and family members is sinking.
00:31:24
Jeff Rogers
And by this time, and this is hours later, the Blue House is no longer asking for that freaking video. They're saying to the Coast Guard, do whatever you can do. And the Coast Guard is saying, whatever you're suggesting to us that we do, we can't do. Because, quote, the conditions won't let us. Water's calm. But Japan is like, hey, we're still over here. Like, we'll help you. And the US is like, got a whole Navy ship here, 1,000 Marines.
00:31:52
Jeff Rogers
and the Blue House, nah, we're good. President Park was turning down other offers of help at the same time that she literally had nobody able to help. She had nobody that could do this job to save the people in the boat, but she was also turning people down. Also, South Korea had like five coast guards there. There's five different coast guards in South Korea, and all of them were there, kind of watching. Couldn't do anything, they could watch.
00:32:19
Jeff Rogers
nobody could do the job that needed to be done and later the Coast Guard's ah official documents would say at the time that they were quote doing underwater rescues. It was fabricated. The parents are watching this and they're also watching their kids on the boat sink and then there was one boat that was allowed to go it was allowed by the Coast Guard to go out to the capsize ferry and it was supposed to have all like a lot of the parents on it but the boat actually had filled up with media, people from the media instead of the parents. And meanwhile, back on the land on Jinju Island, the police were blocking everything for the parents. like not letting Some of the parents wanted to run into the water to save their fucking child and the police were there stopping them.
00:33:07
Jeff Rogers
To see these people, it was just horrific. On the second day, now we're on the second day of the rescue, the Prime Minister of the country, we finished the first day. Everybody that's saved, those are the ones that were saved. There's no more.
00:33:22
Jeff Rogers
So on the second day of the rescue, the prime minister showed up. That's the second most powerful person in the country. People started throwing water bottles at him because they knew nothing was being done to those that were drowning. And then when the president did show up, finally, the people were kind of receptive of president part because she was the leader of the country. And they thought if there's one person that can actually help, it's her. Yeah.
00:33:49
Jeff Rogers
um The Coast Guard official was beside her and he said he had ordered 500 more divers to the rescue. Well, the people in the audience started screaming at him because they knew that wasn't true. Like they're watching this, nothing has happened besides the local fishermen that are rescuing the people. And you can see President Park on the video, she's looking at the Coast Guard person like she actually believed him. So she was completely on and like disconnected from what was happening.
00:34:20
Jeff Rogers
She was looking at him like, see, he's sending people. And then she was kind of in shock that the people were screaming that he wasn't because they knew more than her.
00:34:30
Jeff Rogers
um The third day, the Coast Card let a private company help. and let's face it, it's definitely a recovery attempt at this point, not a rescue, but within 72 hours of the boat sinking, there's little pockets of air that people can huddle into the pocket and survive, right? um So the contract company, I don't remember the name of it, is like, we're gonna inject air into the ship. Not only will this keep the ship floating for a little while longer,
00:35:02
Jeff Rogers
It'll also hopefully keep the people that are in there alive a little bit longer, right? You know what I mean? If there are people alive at this point. However, it's not going to go right, is it? The machines they're using to inject the air are very, very old industrial machines. So because the machines are so old, the air that they're pumping into the boat is not compatible with human life.
00:35:32
Jeff Rogers
So really bad equipment. And honestly, if if we had that air pumped into this room, we would become really ill or we could even die from it. solid. This is going great. And then again, and I don't laugh because like I said, I'll just giggle because I'm really this is a horrible story and I get like uncomfortable telling it. if um Again, like at this time, the US s and Japan, they're both like, hey, we have like the new versions of those machines.
00:36:06
Jeff Rogers
like we have the actual new ones that we just use they're really good how about we use ours no we're good it just keeps happening over and over again so the third day is when the recovery effort started by civilian divers, and these divers came from everywhere. I would just imagine that these are the very best people of South Korea. They're such heroes, and the mere fact that they came to help and volunteer, and they would do all that they could do. They would do it in three-hour shifts, like three hours of resting, three hours of diving, three hours, and this was really hard diving, but they had a mission. They had to recover all of the bodies for the families who had passed away.
00:36:47
Jeff Rogers
ah To recover all of the bodies for those families was a very hard job and a lot of the divers would be injured really badly while trying to help. But they were helping um and they went in teams and a lot of them say they'll never forget the things they saw. Young people were kind of tied together by their life vests to like not lose each other.
00:37:13
Jeff Rogers
um A lot of the kids had broken fingers and broken hands because they were trying to like break the windows to escape that way. um One of the divers spent two months away from his family recovering the victims. After this, the man had so much stress and anxiety from the things that he saw that he was never the same.
00:37:33
Jeff Rogers
and there's so many villains in this story and just i kind of said a lot of this already but what breaking it down the story just amazes me like the fairy company overloaded their cargo they that particular day they had almost twice as many cars and trucks that were actually allowed on the boat. The ballast water that I told you about, imagine like two big tubs of water on each side of the boat at the very bottom. Well, if like one side is leaning, you're going to use a pump to pump it to the other side. The pump was broken. So they didn't they had didn't have enough ballast water, period. But like the pump was broken, OK?
00:38:15
Jeff Rogers
um life sort 30 years old. the lot Well, yeah. And the ferry was controlled by a billionaire. And his art was placed on the top floor of the boat with big marble slabs. So what does that do? all the weight soon Yes. So where the center of gravity should have been at the bottom of the boat because of the marble slabs that was displaying the art of the billionaire, it was at the top of the boat, which is why it listed so fast.
00:38:47
Jeff Rogers
The captain was the first to be rescued and he didn't help after all or at all after that. And that announcement kept playing over and over and over telling the kids to stay in the rooms. The life jackets were expired. The Coast Guard had no idea what to do. And once he was deemed that there were once it was deemed that there were no more survivors on the boat, the US Navy was brought in to help recovery efforts along with professional divers from South Korea. The Coast Guard was seen so poorly after this that President Park announced plans to break it up.
00:39:16
Jeff Rogers
So she was gonna break up the Coast Guard and defund them. As for President Park, she it was later discovered that her team had falsified documents saying that she was on, quote, official duty during the first seven hours of that. She wasn't, that was just a lie. And she was impeached.
00:39:34
Jeff Rogers
ah Captain Lee, the one rescued first, was charged with murder and he sentenced to 36 years to life in prison now. chief park Chief engineer Park was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years. Thirteen of the crew members were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for abandonment and violating maritime law. One bereaved father said,
00:39:57
Jeff Rogers
that he was 30 years old at the time of the judgment and if he had to wait another 30 years for the guilty ship's officers to come out of jail he would do it and then he would hunt him down. And the owner of the company that operated the seawall ferry disappeared after the disaster but was later found dead.
00:40:15
Jeff Rogers
So people on the boat weren't the only ones who died. Like a Navy officer was injured and passed away. A person from the contract company died and the person was trying to help. It was the contract company that was bad, right? Spewing the bad air into the boat. But he was trying to help and he died from his injury. And in 2014, in July of 2014, three months later, a helicopter was trying to recover bodies and it crashed, killing five people.
00:40:43
Jeff Rogers
three months later. That's how ongoing, that's how long the search was for the bodies. The vice principal of Don Juan High School, he took his own life and he was on a boat and he was rescued but it was too much for him. He wrote in a note that he feels guilty and wants to take responsibility for what happened. He also wrote that the trip was his idea and he can't live without knowing where the students are.
00:41:05
Jeff Rogers
After his memorial, the hearse carrying his body went around the school one more time. um One of the fathers took his own life on the one-year anniversary. And many of the people related to this story have fallen to addictions. They've divorced. They've had financial distress. like It wrecked a lot of people's lives because it was so tragic. And again, on the boat that day, there were 476 people. 304 of those people died.
00:41:33
Jeff Rogers
that day or after. And 250 of those were students from Danwan High School, beautiful young people who had their lives taken away from them far too soon, right? And the diver who played many, many divers, but some of the divers who played invaluable roles in recovery of many of the people who passed away. One of them, his name was John Guangon, and he left the scene on the 12th of July, almost three months after the ship sank. um he had trouble for He had trouble sleeping for the next 18 months. He was haunted for the rest of his life. John and a fellow diver, Kim, took their own lives two years after the seawall ferry incident.
00:42:17
Jeff Rogers
Kim said, ah when we left the scene, there were small birds in the wind and in the rain. And those tiny birds, they were flying around in the storm. And their call was so touching. But it sounded like the students crying, asking me not to leave them behind. And he took his own life. And that is the story of the seawall fairy. Yikes. Damn. That's a horrible one, isn't it?
00:42:45
Jeff Rogers
ah It's a horrible one. that is ah just it's remarkable The reason why I chose to do it was because just the incompetence and the people. The stubbornness. And the stubbornness. Like 18 different times, US and Japan was like, yo, we can help. Let us help. Please let us help. What do you have?
Response to Campus Safety Failures
00:43:11
Jeff Rogers
It's not quite that bad, but it's pretty bad.
00:43:15
Jeff Rogers
I'm sorry. I think it's a story worth telling. It is. I can always justify it and say that because those people deserve to be remembered. Deserve. Abso-fucking-lutely. Oh, OK. Well, this is not a palate cleanser. It's not. OK. In 2004, just as the semester was coming to a close, University of North Carolina at Wilmington was rocked by two brutal murder murders. You made a face. Do you know this?
00:43:43
Jeff Rogers
um um I don't know, keep going. The truly scary thing is that the two crimes were not committed at all or connected at all. On May 5th, John Faulkner received a horrifying call from a male student claiming that he had just killed Jessica, John's 18-year-old daughter. Jessica's body was found minutes later in a classmate's dorm room. Another freshman student, 20-year-old Curtis Dixon, was arrested and later confessed to the crime.
00:44:15
Jeff Rogers
Throughout the investigation, shocking truths came out about Dixon's past. It might have caused concern for a 20 year old man to be a new freshman in a dormitory that housed so many 17 year old girls. However, nobody thought twice or questioned it. I mean, think about like, people come back to college for many reasons, right? You know, whether they were doing military stuff or they just took time off in between high schools. So we don't really think about that much, right? right But you know, you put a 20 year old dude,
00:44:43
Jeff Rogers
and with a bunch of 17-year-old girls, yeah, they could be messy. So although college applications ask if individuals have ever been convicted of any crimes, their answers are not reviewed or investigated at all. Also, it probably just says no. So Dixon simply answered no.
00:45:03
Jeff Rogers
When in reality, he had a larceny conviction and had been discharged from the Navy after only 11 days at boot camp for suicidal and homicidal ideations and tendencies. He also left out of his UNCW application that he had withdrawn from two other universities just days before being expelled. One of the schools he had faced expulsion for fighting and the other school for brandishing a knife.
00:45:31
Jeff Rogers
A school official from the previous college recommended an immediate and thorough psychological examination after he stalked a female student. there's like seventeen red flags there right maybe twenty yeah yeah According to reports, UNCW never knew about these facts.
00:45:51
Jeff Rogers
So one of the schools was actually ah attached to UNC Wilmington. like And they just didn't have the records of it. There was no flag on his account. There's no flag on his name that said, hey, if this dude ever applies, here's his profile. One set UNCW. Also, it's early 2000s, right? Yeah, 2004. Wasn't, maybe it's better now, right? Wait for it. OK.
00:46:17
Jeff Rogers
Once at UNCW, Dixon repeated his previous patterns. It wasn't long into the year that Jessica was complaining to her RA, resident assistant, and calling her mom to tell her about Dixon's worrisome behaviors. He lived in her dorm her in her dorm building and was close with many of her friends. They shared like a similar friend group. He very quickly became obsessed with her.
00:46:42
Jeff Rogers
Jessica's mom told ABC News, there were times that I spoke to her in her dorm room and she'd say, wait mom, I have to whisper because he might be right outside my door. Oh my God. She lived in near constant fear of the man who she couldn't escape because they lived so close. He had access to everything she did, you know? Repeatedly, Dixon was rejected by Jessica.
00:47:05
Jeff Rogers
On the last day of school, he made his move. According to police, Dixon sent a message to Jessica, inviting her back to his room so that he could give her a summer gift. How she got to the room or if she went willingly or if he found another way to trap her is a mystery. Nobody knows why she went. At some point, he got her alone and hit her in the back of the head. Jessica was a small girl and Dixon was a large man. She was helpless.
00:47:33
Jeff Rogers
The autopsy found that she had been hit behind the head and then injected with some form of date rape drug, violently sexually assaulted and then strangled and left for dead. Dixon stayed in the room that night with her dead body on the floor and then went to breakfast the next morning with a group of people, their friends. When prompted, he informed the group that Faulkner was just in her room packing.
00:47:59
Jeff Rogers
At the end of the semester, the campus clock tower tolled out 18 times in honor of each of her 18 years lived and lost. Dixon ended up committing suicide while in custody awaiting his trial. In March of that same year, so a couple months before,
00:48:18
Jeff Rogers
Kristin najokes a 21-year-old at the same campus and her mother had been approached by Kristin's ex-boyfriend while they were getting in her car in an isolated parking lot where she had been assigned. He had argued with Kristin and tried to stop her from leaving. Kristin and her mother were shaken and scared. They immediately went to campus police and asked for a change of parking assignment. The response was simple. If we change it for her, we have to change it for everybody. So no.
00:48:51
Jeff Rogers
Over the many months following her breakup with Peck, she went to the campus police many times, scared and asking for help. Each time she received no assistance, she finally obtained a protection order from the city police. Unfortunately, the simple piece of paper held no power. In June 2004, just one month after the bro brutal murder of Jessica Faulkner, Kristin left his store with a birthday card for her mother.
00:49:20
Jeff Rogers
Unknown to her, John Peck followed her to her off-campus apartment in possession of an assault rifle. When she walked away from her car towards the staircase, he began screaming at her and then opened fire. She was shot 10 times, with one final shot at point blank range. Upon searching Peck's apartment, the authorities found disguises, including female clothes and wigs, which were key to his stalking of Kristin. On his application,
00:49:50
Jeff Rogers
Peck also checked no for criminal history question. He never disclosed that in 2001, he had been arrested and pulled guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault on a female and to felony counts on charges of crimes against nature. After murdering Kristin, Peck fled authorities until committing suicide upon encountering a police roadblock in Western North Carolina. A quote from Jerry Nowjokes, the Kristin's father.
00:50:20
Jeff Rogers
Who would think that you send your daughter to college and she comes back in a box? Oh, that's horrible. In response to these horrific events, the University of North Carolina system developed a task force focused on student safety that included one specifically for domestic violence and what they call relationship crimes. So any complaint concern call that comes in that might be related to this, there's a special team in that task force that investigates it thoroughly.
00:50:50
Jeff Rogers
provides resources and follows up on ah on a more real level than just check okay the statistics on domestic violence on college campuses are staggering. However, colleges and universities across the nation, even with their own number of tragedies have worked hard to set up changes to fix the system. Has it fixed it? No, but has it lessened a little bit?
00:51:21
Jeff Rogers
So that's the story. Oh, you know, that's a horrible story. That's ah I was like, that has to be in the early 2000s, right? Maybe things are better. Well, maybe they're a little bit better, but the shit still happens. I mean, obviously you can still have a restraining order on somebody. That's a cute little piece of paper. So cute. Great. super Glad you got it. You're going to do a ball up and throw it at them. Right. Maybe laying on fire first. I might delay them a little bit.
00:51:48
Jeff Rogers
yeah yeah awful story yeah not a good day but we did it again we had two really nasty stories well not nasty i loved my story because i got to talk about the people you know and you too but like and we did it again where we did that two horrible stories in a row thing yeah oh we have to redeem ourselves next time do you have anything like on a lighter note So, you're good for that you know what? Do I? There was a story about in Indiana, you know, recently we had snow. We're in Virginia, they're in Indiana, so it's probably about the same time that we had our snow. There was these people that ordered um pizza to be delivered.
00:52:38
Jeff Rogers
and I don't have the story in front of me or I would read it from the website but essentially the man drove as far as the pizza delivery young man drove as far as he could drive in his car and then started to walk to the people's house that he had to deliver to deliver pizza to but like when he got there they these were big
Viral TikTok Generosity
00:53:00
Jeff Rogers
houses like they were mansions you know and they tipped him two dollars And so in that fucked up, you're looking at me like that's fucked up. That's fucked up. If you live in that big mansion, you're going to tip that man that's just walked to your door and delivered you your fucking food. Because the assholes that order delivery during snowstorms anyway, like that always pisses me off. Okay, there's that for sure. But then you're going to give him $2. So the cop
00:53:26
Jeff Rogers
like there was a cop that was watching that noticed him and um decided to put so the cop had like a popular tiktok account because everybody has a popular tiktok account now right? not me not me but the cop did and so the cop put the story of the little delivery guy on his tiktok and that he only got a $2 tip and that he had to walk so far to give him their fucking pizza So I think as of like when I read it today, $40,000 had been given to the pizza delivery guy. Yeah. See there's redeeming. Yeah. I love that story. that So much. I swear people are so much better than the shit you read and see on TV. A lot of the times they are.
00:54:17
Jeff Rogers
Oh, OK. They are. And you know what? Thank you, our lovely people, for listening to us. Again,
Closing Remarks and Engagement
00:54:24
Jeff Rogers
we did it for you. Hope you like it. We're putting this out into the universe. It's out there. Putting it out there. Rate us. Like us. Give us a good comment. Do whatever you got to do. But we're just thankful that you listened to us. And we're also thankful for our overly qualified and underpaid master publisher extraordinaire, Alan.
00:54:45
Jeff Rogers
and the ever-lovely, ultimate, and epically unmatched hype Queen Editor Ashley. Together, they're our first and forever fans. Bye-bye.