The Odaeyang Incident was a horrific mass murder-suicide that took place in South Korea on August 29, 1987, involving 32 members of an apocalyptic doomsday cult.
The bodies were found tightly stacked, bound, and gagged inside the ceiling crawl space of a factory in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

The cult was founded by Park Soon-ja, a woman who claimed to be a self-proclaimed prophet. She preached that the world was sinking into decadence and would soon face an apocalypse.
Park established Odaeyang Trading Co. in 1984, a manufacturer of traditional handcrafted folk-art souvenirs.

Under the guise of running a successful business and social welfare programs, Park gathered followers.
They surrendered their personal savings, took out massive loans, and provided unpaid labor.

Park accumulated roughly ₩8.9 billion to ₩17 billion ($8.7 million to $17 million USD) in debt from over 220 private investors.
In August 1987, when investors began demanding repayment, Park and her loyal inner circle suddenly disappeared.
The police launched a large-scale investigation into fraud and swindling.
On August 29, 1987, police discovered 32 bodies—28 women and 4 men, including Park and her three children—in the drop ceiling of the Yongin factory.

Autopsies indicated that the victims had ingested a sedative before being strangled.
Investigators concluded that Park’s two sons and a top cult official strangled Park and 28 followers before the last person committed suicide by hanging.
Handwritten notes found nearby indicated compliance, with statements acknowledging that they were going to die.

Early theories strongly suggested that the Odaeyang cult was linked to the Evangelical Baptist Church (EBC) and billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-eun, who ran a major corporation called Semo Group.
Critics suspected collusion involving the flow of funds.

However, official reinvestigations in 1987, 1989, and 1991 under different administrations found no direct operational link between Yoo and the mass suicide.
While Yoo served a 4-year sentence for a separate case of religious financial fraud, the Incheon District Prosecutor’s Office formally reaffirmed in 2014 that there was no criminal connection between Yoo’s organization and the Odaeyang tragedy.