Killer admits to one more slaying

The serial killing suspect Yoo Yeong-cheol told the police that he committed another murder in February, in addition to the 20 alleged killings known so far, the police said yesterday.
Mr. Yoo told questioners yesterday that he killed a 25-year old woman in Imun-dong, Dongdaemun district in Seoul on Feb. 6.
The woman, an employee at a nearby clothing shop, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in front of a restaurant in that area.
“I approached a woman walking through an alley and pretended that I was a police officer checking passers-by,” a police officer quoted Mr. Yoo as saying. “But as the woman fled, I followed her and stabbed her to death.”
The officer said Mr. Yoo stated he decided to kill her because he thought the woman was a prostitute or masseuse.
Mr. Yoo was arrested last Thursday. He claimed he targeted the elderly rich and prostitutes, mainly masseuses, out of a sense of personal hatred for the rich and sex workers.
The police said yesterday they would take Mr. Yoo to Imun-dong for more investigations at the scene of the crime.
An officer handling the case said the police investigation is nearly complete and that the case would be handed over to the prosecutors next week. But they admitted that they have little evidence of Mr. Yoo’s involvement in the murders other than his confessions.
They recovered a personal computer from Mr. Yoo’s home and analyzed it yesterday, but said they found no documents related to his crimes on the computer’s hard disk. They said the only items of interest were some pornographic photographs and movie clips.
About the only evidence linking Mr. Yoo to some of the crimes, police said, was a hammer and a handkerchief, both with traces of blood that they suspect were Mr. Yoo’s. The evidence was found at the scenes of two murders in which Mr. Yoo is a suspect.

by Sohn Hae-yong