Multiple homicide suspects arrested for parricide, uxoricide over weekend

Social Affairs

Published: 29 May. 2023, 16:55 Updated: 29 May. 2023, 18:30

Multiple homicide suspects arrested for parricide, uxoricide over weekend

Police on Monday arrested a 30-year-old man accused of killing his father and dumping the body in a water storage tank in Jungnang District, eastern Seoul. Police lines are seen pasted on the door of his home where he lived with his parents. [JANG SEO-YUN]

A number of homicides occurred in Korea over the past few days, some allegedly killing their romantic partners and even their family members.

Police on Monday arrested a 30-year-old man accused of killing his father and dumping the dead body in a water tank at an apartment in Myeonmok-dong, Jungnang District, eastern Seoul.

The Jungnang Police Precinct, at around 12:48 a.m. on Monday, received a report from a resident that some blood stains were seen on the floor of the apartment’s underground parking lot as if someone had dragged a dead body.

According to the police, the blood stains were traced from the fifth floor of the apartment building where the son, identified by his surname Kim, and his parents lived to the basement floor where the water tank was located. The father’s body was found in the tank.

Kim was arrested by the police at his house at around 2:20 a.m. the same day after police secured a security camera footage of Kim dragging and moving his father’s body to the basement by an elevator. He denied all accusations against him at the time of the arrest, arguing that another person killed his father.

The police believe that Kim killed his father at their home and moved the body to the water tank in the basement. His mother was not at home at the time of the suspected homicide.

“An autopsy will be requested to figure out the exact cause of the death,” the police said, adding that they will further investigate the motives behind the alleged killing as there were no apparent reasons suspected, such as domestic violence.

Murders in Korea are on the rise. According to the National Police Agency, a total of 585 homicides were reported to the 112 emergency hotline in 2022, up 23.4 percent compared to the previous year.

A 33-year-old man accused of revenge killing his girlfriend answers reporters' questions as he heads to the Seoul Southern District Court on Sunday for his arrest warrant review. [YONHAP]

The Seoul Southern District Court on Sunday issued an arrest warrant for a 33-year-old man accused of revenge killing his girlfriend after his partner reported him to the police for dating violence.

“I did not want to commit such a crime,” Kim said, coming out of the Geumcheon Police Precinct in southern Seoul on Sunday.

“I will forever ask the victim and her family for forgiveness.”

Kim is accused of stabbing his 47-year-old girlfriend to death at around 7:17 a.m. on Friday at an underground parking lot in Siheung-dong, Geumcheon District.

The police freed him about an hour before the alleged killing after he was questioned for dating violence.

Instead of going back to his home in Paju, Gyeonggi, as he told the police, he waited for his girlfriend in a parking lot of a commercial building in Siheung-dong where an internet cafe that they frequently went to together was located. Kim stabbed his girlfriend as she came to the parking lot to find her car, the police said.

On Saturday, the Suwon District Court issued an arrest warrant for a man in his 20s who allegedly choked his girlfriend to death at a motel in Ansan, Gyeonggi, last Thursday.

The accused admitted that he killed the victim, drinking with her and getting into a fight afterward.

Murders related to dating violence are another major issue in the country. At least 83 women were killed by men whom they knew, including husbands and boyfriends, in 2021, according to Korea Women’s Hotline.

Some of the motives included requests for divorce and refusals of reunion.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]