Gambler confesses to murdering mother, brother

A man addicted to casino gambling admitted to killing his mother and brother over money issues and led police to the buried remains of his brother, whose body had been hacked into three pieces.

He said he disposed of the two corpses while on a romantic car trip to the countryside with his wife to repair their strained marriage.

The Incheon Nambu Police Precinct reported yesterday that a man surnamed Jung, 29, confessed yesterday to killing his mother, Kim Ae-suk, 58, and brother, Jung Hwa-seok, 32, a day after the police discovered the decomposed body of Kim wrapped in a blanket in Jeongsun County, Gangwon. The suspect’s wife had told police where to look for the mother’s corpse.

“After he confessed his crime Tuesday, he said, ‘I will give up everything. I will help you find my brother’s body,’?” said Ahn Jeong-kyun, a detective involved in the case, during a press briefing yesterday.

The suspect led them to a site in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang, where they dug up the brother’s remains at around 7:50 a.m. yesterday. The suspect had denied the murders until his confession yesterday.

The finding of the bodies came more than a month after the 29-year-old son reported his mother missing on Aug. 16. The police suspected the younger son killed the two because he had money disputes with his mother, who allegedly owned a studio apartment building worth 1 billion won in Incheon.

Police said the younger son frequently traveled to Kangwon Land Casino to gamble, is 80 million won ($74,480) in debt and had frequent disputes over money with his mother.

The police said relations between the two worsened after the suspect sold a 100 million won house his mother had bought for him and his wife in 2011.

Kim was traced to an ATM machine near her home in Incheon, where she withdrew 200,000 won on Aug. 13 at around 8:30 p.m. There was no record of her since. The 32-year-old brother was unaccounted for since calling a friend at 7:40 p.m. the same day.

The police arrested Jung on Aug. 22 but released him 16 hours after failing to come up with any evidence.

The police suspected the 29-year-old son had killed the two at an early stage because the two missing people’s belongings, including their mobile phones and wallets, were left in the mother’s house.

“We also suspected the second son attempted to destroy evidence as we could not find a memory card used for a GPS navigation system in the car owned by the suspect’s brother,” said the police.

The suspect proposed to his wife that they take a romantic trip to repair their strained marriage. They used the brother’s car for that trip, which the suspect allegedly used when burying the two bodies. The police think the trip was taken between Aug. 13 to 16.

The suspect’s wife told police where to find the mother’s corpse, which they found Monday. They are still investigating what possible role the wife may have played in the alleged murders or disposal of the bodies.

BY KANG JIN-KYU [jkkang2@joongang.co.kr]