Man nabbed for taking actress’s urn
Published: 27 Aug. 2009, 01:15
Jung Ok-sook, the mother of the late actress Choi Jin-sil, yesterday cradles the returned remains of her daughter at the Yangpyeong Police Precinct in Gyeonggi after police arrested a man Tuesday night who stole the urn containing Choi’s ashes.[YONHAP]
Woo Jae-jin, head of the investigation team at the Yangpyeong Police Precinct, said during a press briefing yesterday that officers nabbed Park after bursting into his Daegu home around 11:10 p.m. Woo said police plan to seek a warrant to detain Park today. Police later returned Choi’s remains to her family.
Police quoted Park as saying that Choi told Park in a dream to bury her body in a tomb covered with soil since her charnel vault was stuffy. Park also said that her soul has possessed his heart. Police say Park has no record of mental illness.
According to Woo, Park surveyed the late actress’s tomb located in Kapsan Park in Yangpyeong three times - in the middle of April, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. He allegedly stole the urn after smashing the back of Choi’s headstone between 9:55 p.m. and 10:58 p.m. on Aug. 4. He appeared again around 3:36 a.m. the next day to clean up a mess left behind.
Park, 40, who lives with a wife and two sons and installs kitchen sinks for a living, had broken the original urn bearing the name of the actress after moving the remains to another urn that he kept in his room, according to Woo. Then the suspect concealed the broken urn near his house.
Woo said police received some 20 tips from the public about the theft after investigators released footage showing the suspect. Police thought one tip on Monday evening was reliable and dispatched officers to Daegu early the next day.
In a separate incident, a 40-year-old man surnamed Jeong was arrested Monday night in Nowon, northern Seoul, after claiming he had the urn. Jeong reportedly demanded thousands of dollars for the return of the urn, which he didn’t have. Detectives were suspicious because Jeong did not resemble the suspect in an additional video clip shown to the public Monday. Footage showing the suspect was first released last Thursday.
Police had put up a 3 million won ($2,406) reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect. The park offered an additional 30 million won.
Detectives announced last Thursday that the crime took place on Aug. 4 after they found footage of a man in his late 30’s to early 50’s destroying the late actress’s tomb with a hammer. Choi’s cemetery management office notified the police of the theft on Aug. 15.
By Lee Jeong-bong, Lee Min-yong [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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