Accused taxi murderer was filmed torturing a cat

Social Affairs

Published: 06 Jan. 2023, 16:53

Accused taxi murderer was filmed torturing a cat

Screen grabs show Lee Ki-young smiling while his cat struggles to get out of a swimming pool [SCREEN CAPTURE}

Footage of the man accused of murdering a taxi driver and a former girlfriend showed him torturing a cat in a swimming pool just days or weeks before the first murder.

On Thursday, JTBC released a video of the 31-year-old Lee Ki-young playing with one of his cats in a guest house swimming pool last August. The footage, which was filmed by a fellow guest, includes his former girlfriend’s voice, putting her at the scene.

In the video, Lee puts his cat in the swimming pool, which it is obviously afraid of. As the cat squirms and struggles to get out of the water, Lee pulls it back in, delighted at its obvious distress.

The fellow guest told JTBC they filmed the scene as it was unusual to see a person trying to get a cat to swim. Lee and the fellow guest first met at the guest house last summer. They even exchanged phone numbers.

“I still remember [him] as it was quite rare to see a couple that consisted of an old woman and a young man,” the fellow guest said.

Lee’s ex-girlfriend, whom police say Lee admits to killing, was in her 50s.

“I reported the video after realizing the guy in it was Lee Ki-young.”

The video was taken last August, which is when Lee claims to have killed the woman, according to police. Police are still searching for her body.

“It is dreadful to see how he went on a vacation with the victim right before committing a murder,” said Oh Yoon-sung, a professor at the Department of Police Administration at Soonchunhyang University.

“A typical characteristic of a psychopath is animal torture.”

Lee was earlier put under psychological evaluation by two profilers to determine if he is a psychopath, but the experts concluded Friday that “it cannot be determined.”

“We concluded that information is not enough for certain factors to determine if he is a psychopath or not,” said a spokesperson from the Ilsan Dongbu Police Precinct.

“No additional psychological evaluations will be done during the police investigation process.”

“It may not be easy to make a conclusion right now as to whether Lee is a psychopath," Lee Soo-jung, a forensic psychologist, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Friday.

“Lee lied several times and not all evidence has been collected.

“The body of his ex-girlfriend has not been found yet and there may be more victims."

Murder suspect Lee Ki-young is escorted by the police in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday before getting on a van to the prosecutors' office. [YONHAP]

On Friday, the police received the test results from the National Forensic Service on DNA found in traces of blood at Lee's home.

The DNA was from Lee’s former girlfriend and an acquaintance of hers. The acquaintance was reported to have been involved in a physical fight with Lee at his house last April, in which Lee bit the acquaintance’s fingers, making them bleed. The fight was reported to the 112 emergency hotline.

Lee has repeatedly changed his story about where he disposed of his former girlfriend's body.

He first claimed that he threw it in a stream in Paju, Gyeonggi, but recently said he buried her on the banks of the stream.

The suspect is accused of murdering the taxi driver after smashing into his car, possibly while inebriated. He allegedly told the 60-year-old taxi driver that he would compensate him if he did not call the police but said he must come to his home in Paju to collect the money, the police said.

Lee claims he and the driver got into an argument at his home, and he killed him and hid his body in a closet.

While being questioned, Lee confessed to killing his ex-girlfriend in August.

Lee is also charged with fraud for allegedly using the credit cards of his two victims and taking out loans in the girlfriend’s name, approximately 70 million won in total, after murdering them.

If convicted, Lee could face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO, BAE JAE-SUNG [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]