27-year-old man arrested for alleged murder of sister

The 27-year-old man accused of killing his sister arrives for his arrest warrant hearing at the Incheon District Court on May 2. [YONHAP]

A 27-year-old man arrested on suspicion of killing his sister and abandoning her body in a farm waterway in Ganghwa Island, Incheon, has been indicted, according to prosecutors Thursday.

The Incheon District Prosecutors' Office announced it indicted the man on charges of murder and disposing of a human body. The prosecution conducted a secondary investigation after police referred him for indictment on May 4.

The man is suspected of killing his older sister by stabbing her several times in an apartment in Namdong District, Incheon, in December last year.

According to police, he left his sister's body on the roof of his apartment for 10 days before transporting it by rental car to a farm waterway in Seokmodo, Samsan-myeon, Ganghwa County, Incheon, at the end of that month, where he dumped it.

After his parents reported his sister missing on Feb. 14, police allege the man deceived investigators by sending them a KakaoTalk message using his sister’s SIM card on another device and exchanged messages with them to make it seem as if she was alive.

The man also used the same method to convince his parents his sister was still alive, leading them to cancel their missing person’s report.

The man transferred money via mobile banking from his dead sister’s account to his own, using it to cover living expenses.

Four months after her murder, his sister’s corpse was discovered by a resident in the area on April 21 in the waterway where the man had abandoned it. Police arrested him eight days later.

Although admitting to the crime, the man said under questioning that the murder was not premeditated.

“I didn’t get along with my sister, and we regularly had arguments over small things, like our lifestyles and general attitudes,” the man reportedly told police.

“[On the day of the crime,] my sister nagged me for coming home late, so I impulsively killed her in the middle of an argument.”

Under further questioning, police said the men said, “I have no words to describe how sorry I am,” and that he begged the forgiveness of his parents.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]