23-year-old killer gets life sentence for grisly murder in Busan
The 23 year-old Jung Yoo-jung, who killed another woman of same age in Busan being taken by police on June 2. Although Jung's identity was disclosed, she continued to hide her face in public.
Judge Kim Tae-eob, who presided over the case, said Jung merited “grave punishment” as he pronounced the sentence against her.
The judge also mandated that Jung wear a location tracking device for 30 years as part of her sentence.
Jung’s conviction for murder, desecration and abandonment of a corpse came five months after she was indicted for killing a 20-something-year-old woman who she met through a tutoring brokerage app in May.
The Busan District Prosecutors’ Office accused Jung of planning the murder by contacting dozens of tutors on the app before finding one who lived alone. They also accused her of preparing a weapon before she visited the victim’s house.
According to police, Jung claimed to be the mother of a high school student when she scheduled a tutoring session with the victim and asked for her home address. Jung then went to the victim’s home on May 26 wearing a high school uniform, pretending she was the student.
In its ruling, the Busan District Court said that Jung killed the victim “despite not knowing her beforehand for her own perverse reasons.”
According to prosecutors, Jung stabbed the victim in multiple body parts, including non-fatal areas like her palm, in addition to the fatal wounds that caused her death.
They also said Jung severed the victim’s fingers, allegedly to render the victim more difficult to identify by her fingerprints.
Police said Jung stuffed the victim’s dismembered body parts into a suitcase before riding a taxi to Yangsan, South Gyeongsang, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Busan, to dispose of the suitcase next to Nakdong River.
The taxi driver called the police after Jung’s behavior raised his suspicions.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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