Death penalty for Suwon slaughterer

Social Affairs

Published: 15 Jun. 2012, 21:46

Death penalty for Suwon slaughterer

Wu Yuanchun, the 42-year-old Korean-Chinese who abducted, murdered and butchered a 28-year-old woman in Suwon in April, was sentenced to death.

The court also suggested it didn’t believe Wu dismembered the corpse to dispose of it. Instead, it suspects he may have been involved in a ring that sells and buys human flesh. The victim’s family also believes that.

The Suwon District Court sentenced the killer to death, ordered him to wear an electronic anklet for the next 30 years and also ordered his personal information, including a photo of his face, be made public for the next 10 years.

“He killed the victim viciously and dismembered the corpse and never showed signs of regret,” Chief Judge Lee Dong-hoon from the Suwon District Court said in the ruling. “We decided to impose the heaviest punishment, even though it is life-taking and therefore against humanity.” Lee continued. “Wu took one precious life and cut the body into 365 pieces. This is an unacceptable and grotesque crime.”

It’s doubtful Wu will actually be executed, as no condemned convict has been executed since December 1997. As of 2010, there were 61 condemned criminals in jail.

Wu insisted that he abducted his victim from outside a convenience store for the purpose of raping her. He said he raped her twice and dismembered the corpse to dispose of it.

But in its verdict, the court said it doubted his story. It said the dismembering was done in a leisurely way, and that Wu smoked cigarettes, watched pornography and stopped to sharpen the kitchen knife he was using for the task. Wu spent six hours cutting the corpse into 365 pieces, about three hours longer than in similar cases, the court said.

There was no explanation from Wu why the body was cut into 365 pieces.

The court also doubted that Wu raped the woman or abducted her for that purpose. He was much larger than his victim and could have easily overpowered her, but instead tied her in a chair.

Also, in dismembering his victim, Wu didn’t damage her kidneys or use any rough instruments like hammers or saws. He used a kitchen knife.

“That means the possibility is high that Wu dismembered the corpse for other reasons,” the court said.

Around 10:30 p.m. April 1, Wu abducted his victim near Jidong Elementary School in Ji-dong, Suwon in Gyeonggi. It took the police 13 hours to track him down.

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