In many Korean murders, it's all in the family

Bloody footprints outside the door of an apartment unit in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi where a man allegedly killed his wife and two sons on Tuesday night. [LEE BYUNG-JUN]

Police on Thursday asked for a pre-trial detention warrant for a man who allegedly murdered his wife and two sons in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi.

The man, whom police said is in his 40s, faces charges of killing his wife, 43, and two sons, aged 16 and 11, in their apartment at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The suspect admitted to killing them and told police he had been fed up with all three.

He claimed his wife looked down on his mother, while his sons looked down on him. He told police he frequently argued with his wife and that the couple was going through a divorce.

Police said the suspect used to be a programmer but stopped working about a year ago after suffering serious back pain. Without work, he appears to have gone through financial stress, police said, though a further investigation would be needed to figure out whether that had any role in the alleged murder.

Forensic officials who conducted an autopsy on the victims said stabs and bruises were found mostly on their heads, faces and necks.

According to data from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, among 4,287 murder cases from 2016 to 2020, 859 cases, or about 20 percent, were offenders who killed a relative they lived with. (The 4,287 murder cases do not include cases in which the relationship between the offender and victim was not documented.)

Criminal experts say that many family homicide cases are premeditated and coupled with the suspect committing suicide afterward.

The motives for killing a spouse and killing one's own children are usually different, said Gong Jung-sik, a criminal psychology professor at Kyonggi University.

“In the killing of spouses, it’s usually about financial problems, marital problems or an affair,” said Gong. “In the killing of a child, it’s usually because of the difficulties of raising a child, because they don’t believe they’re the biological father, or the child’s misbehavior.”

BY LEE BYUNG-JUN,LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]