Murderer tells all via Kakao Story

A 19-year-old high school dropout who enjoys gory movies raped and strangled a would-be girlfriend in a motel and then spent 16 hours dismembering her body with a knife.

He sent pictures of the dismembered corpse to a friend via phone and then posted messages on the Kakao Story social networking service before turning himself in to the police.

One message was addressed to his 17-year-old victim. “I thank you for your last look at me,” the suspect wrote, “for it was free of any fear.”

The Yongin Dongbu Police Precinct yesterday asked prosecutors to seek an arrest warrant for the 19-year-old, who is surnamed Shim, on charges of rape, murder and disposing of a corpse.

According to the police, Shim called the 17-year-old victim, whom he had known for about a month, at around 3:30 p.m. Monday and asked her to come to a motel he was staying in with a friend, surnamed Choi, in Giheung District in Yongin, Gyeonggi.

Choi left the motel around 7 p.m. Shim raped the victim around 9 p.m., police said, and strangled her shortly afterward because he was worried she would call the police.

The suspect allegedly told the police he dismembered the corpse in the motel bathroom so he could dispose of it, and that it took him 16 hours. Shim allegedly flushed some pieces down the toilet and put others into black plastic bags. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, the suspect took a cab to his residence and put the bags in an outdoor storage area. They were recovered by the police.

The police say Shim sent 16 text messages with two pictures of the victim’s body being dismembered to his friend Choi. Choi told police he thought Shim was joking around and assumed the gory photos were downloaded from the Internet.

Shim turned himself into police around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday saying he felt guilty about the killing.

But before that, Shim posted three messages on Kakao Story, which would have been seen by his friends on that service.

The first, posted at 3:29 p.m. Tuesday, about an hour after he left the motel, read: “Emotion that can make one feel a human being has drained out of me. I did not feel any sense of guilt or sadness or anger, but am only having a light smile. I shall sleep tonight in full odor of blood.”

Three minutes later, he posted the message addressed to his victim. “I praise your courage to look me square in the eye until the very last moment,” he wrote.

Police said Shim admitted he enjoyed watching horror movies with violent scenes. He has no previous criminal record or history of mental illness. The police will conduct an on-site inspection at the motel and the suspect’s house today.

BY KANG JIN-KYU, CHOI MO-RAN [jkkang2@joongang.co.kr]