Man arrested after allegedly driving car into the sea, killing family members
Published: 03 Jun. 2025, 08:57
![Mokpo Coast Guard conducts a search. [MOKPO COAST GUARD]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/03/b5462b9c-d128-4eda-8a4d-ac9c6a94dbc4.jpg)
Mokpo Coast Guard conducts a search. [MOKPO COAST GUARD]
Police arrested a 49-year-old man accused of driving a car with his wife and two sons as passengers into the sea and then escaping alone.
The man is suspected of driving the car into the water at 1:12 a.m. Sunday from Jindo Port in Imhoe-myeon in Jindo, South Jeolla, killing his wife and two sons, both of whom were in high school.
The vehicle was discovered at 8:07 p.m. on Sunday evening about 30 meters (98 feet) from Jindo Port. Inside were three bodies believed to be the members of the same family.
While the identities of the deceased have yet to be officially confirmed, police believe the bodies belong to the suspect’s wife and two sons.
Investigators suspect the man fled the scene without requesting help after exiting the vehicle and making it back to land. He was apprehended 44 hours after the incident at 9:09 p.m. Tuesday near Yangdong Market in Seo District, Gwangju.
Police said they are considering charges including murder or aiding and abetting suicide, pending further investigation.
The Coast Guard plans to transfer the bodies to a hospital and request autopsies from the National Forensic Service to determine the causes of death.
At 2:36 p.m. Sunday, a teacher at a high school in Buk District, Gwangju, reported that a student had failed to show up to school and was unreachable.
Authorities began searching for the student and tracked the GPS locations of the family's phones to an area near Jindo Port. Surveillance footage from a nearby closed-circuit television camera confirmed that a vehicle, believed to be the family's, was seen plunging into the sea around 1 a.m. Sunday.
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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