Daegu murder suspect is convicted sex offender

A 25-year-old suspect in the murder of a Daegu university student turned out to be a convicted sex offender, whose profile has been disclosed on a government Web site for sexually assaulting a minor in 2011 in Ulsan.

The suspect, identified by surname Cho, received a one-year prison term with three years of probation for the 2011 crime.

The police arrested the suspect in a high-profile murder case Saturday at a Daegu pub on charges of killing a woman he had met at a pub and dumping her body in a reservoir.

The pub the suspect was arrested at one week after the murder was the same place where he met the 22-year-old victim.

After he was arrested, Cho gave a detailed confession about the murder.

The suspect first met the victim, identified by her surname Nam, at a pub in Jung District, Daegu, around 1 a.m. on Saturday and had drinks with her and her friends until 4 a.m., the police reported.

After a heavily intoxicated Nam left the place and got in a taxi to head home, Cho, who had moved from Busan to Daegu last year, hopped into another taxi behind her and began to chase her.

When the taxi carrying the victim stopped at a traffic sign, the suspect got in the taxi by telling the driver he was the girl’s boyfriend and told the driver to head for the motel area in Buk District.

After getting out of the taxi, Cho spent around 20 minutes trying to get a motel room but could not find one.

The suspect took another taxi with Nam about 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) to reach his one-room studio home around 5 a.m.

In the room, the murderer punched the victim in the face and stomped her in the stomach to the extent the victim’s internal organs were heavily damaged after attempting to rape her.

The suspect reportedly told the police that he killed her because he was worried that she would report him to the police after she fell on the stairs to his room and began bleeding.

The suspect’s erratic behavior did not just end with killing the victim. Cho put the dead body in his bathroom and covered it with a blanket and slept for around 11 hours, the police said. The suspect is believed to have then rented a Hyundai Avante vehicle and put her body in the trunk and headed toward Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang.

At around 3:50 a.m. Sunday, the police believe Cho discarded the body at a local reservoir there and came back to Daegu.

A week after the horrendous murder, the police found him at the same pub where he had met the victim, drinking shots with his friends.

The police said it is looking into whether the suspect had raped her while he was physically harming her. When the victim was found by a fisherman at the reservoir, she was missing clothing and three of her teeth were broken and she had severe bruises on her body.

“We are trying to find out if Cho drugged her drink at the pub,” said the police.

By Kim Yun-ho [jkkang2@joongang.co.kr]