Game addict allegedly killed son to keep playing

A 22-year-old man currently under investigation over allegations that he neglected his 2-year-old son and later abandoned the baby’s body in a trash bag near his home is now believed to have suffocated his child to death, police said.

The autopsy report, which the Dongbu Police Precinct in Daegu received on Tuesday, showed that the toddler had not starved as authorities previously believed.

Police said the suspect in the case, surnamed Jeong, was addicted to gaming and often stayed at Internet cafes for days at a time. When he was questioned again last week, he reportedly confessed that he killed his son because the baby wouldn’t fall asleep when he wanted to go gaming.

According to the police, Jeong returned to his home around 1 p.m. on March 7 after having stayed at an Internet cafe for a week, leaving the child unattended in his apartment in Gumi, North Gyeongsang. When he tried to go back to the cafe at 11 p.m. the same day, his son would not fall asleep. Jeong punched the child in the chest and then suffocated him by blocking his nose and mouth.

He left the body at his apartment and afterwards stayed at motels or bathhouses. After returning home on March 31, he wrapped the body in a blanket and left it on his terrace. On Friday, he allegedly put the corpse in a trash bag and abandoned it in a junkyard near his apartment.

Jeong’s wife had apparently lived in a factory dormitory since February and was unable to care for the child. When she visited him and questioned him over the baby’s whereabouts, he told her that the child was with a friend. She then reported the baby missing.

The Daegu District Court issued an arrest warrant for Jeong on charges of murder and abandonment of a corpse.

BY KIM YOUN-HO [bongmoon@joongang.co.kr]