Murder and suicide of ‘fatal attraction’ teens

BUSAN - A middle school boy strangled a boy in his class he fancied and jumped from the rooftop of an apartment building, police said.

The Sasang Police Precinct in Busan said yesterday that the corpse of a 16-year-old middle school boy surnamed Kim was found by a resident near the entrance of an apartment building in Sansang District in Busan at 11:41 p.m. Thursday.

The police later found another corpse, who was identified as Kim’s 16-year-old classmate, surnamed Min, near the building. The police assume that Kim jumped from the roof of the 25-story building after strangling Min with a string.

“The boy [Kim] was sitting on the other boy’s upper body,” a 36-year-old witness surnamed Yeom, a neighbor, told the police. “I asked him what happened, but the boy shouted ‘I didn’t do it!’ and ran.”

The police found the string used to strangle Min and a receipt for it in Kim’s pocket. It was bought at a nearby supermarket at 8 p.m. on the day of the deaths.

“Kim took a picture of the string and sent it to his friends through Kakao Talk,” a spokesman of the police told the JoongAng Ilbo.

Police said teachers and classmates testified that Kim was attracted to Min since March, asking him to play computer games at a PC bang several times, but Min completely ignored him.

“The boy has been stalking my son,” Min’s father told the JoongAng Ilbo. “He was waiting for my son at hagwons [cram schools] and also came to our house although my son didn’t like it. My son wasn’t able to get rid of him because Kim is stronger.”

Kim was 178 centimeters (5.8 feet) tall and 90 kilograms (198 pounds) whereas Min was 159 centimeters tall and 60 kilograms, the police said.

By Kim Sang-jin, Kwon Sang-soo[sakwon80@joongang.co.kr ]