Kim Kil-tae, the chief suspect in the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 13-year-old middle school girl, is escorted by plainclothes policemen to the Sasang Police Station in Busan, Wedensday, after being apprehended in a parking lot near Deokpo Market. / Korea Times |
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The chief suspect in the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Busan was apprehended after 15 days on the run, police said Wednesday.
A team of plainclothes policemen nabbed Kim Kil-tae, while they were patrolling a residential district in Samrak-dong, Sasang-gu, at around 2:45 p.m., just 300 meters away from the crime scene.
Kim denied all allegations made against him, police said.
``When patrolling officers opened a door leading to a rooftop of a three-story villa, they found Kim,’’ said Kim Young-sik, chief of the investigation team at a press conference. ``He jumped to the rooftop of the next building and descended to the ground through a 50-centimeter-wide building-to-building space using his back and legs.’’
The chief said Kim hit one of the officers who followed him down.
``He violently resisted but was soon overpowered by an officer who jumped on top of him.’’
Covering nearly half of his face with hair bangs, Kim was wearing a gray-colored hooded sweatshirt and ivory pants. He looked pale and fatigued he added.
Asked where he had been hiding, the suspect simply answered, ``I have hidden in abandoned houses, eating only instant noodles.’’
He denied killing the girl.
``I don’t know why police tried to catch me,’’ he said, adding thought the search for him was connected to an attempted rape in January.
The capture came four days after the kidnapped girl, Lee Yoo-ri, was found dead inside an abandoned water tank just 100 meters away from her home, where she was kidnapped on Feb. 24.
She was strangled to death after being raped several times, according to police.
President Lee Myung-bak issued a special call for the urgent arrest of the suspect. Nearly 4,500 detectives and police officers were mobilized on a daily basis in the biggest manhunt in the city’s history. Thousands of hours of footage from scores of CCTVs in the neighborhood were checked.
The prosecution immediately sought an arrest warrant for Kim after questioning him, and is awaiting a court decision.
Police had placed Kim, a convicted rapist, on their wanted list after making their investigation public. DNA found on the victim turned out to be a positive match for Kim.
Officers had a chance to apprehend the suspect while he was hiding in an abandoned house near the crime scene last week but their raid was delayed, allowing him to escape.
They said Kim has always lived in the area, except for the 11 years he was imprisoned for a previous rape.
According to police, Kim was first convicted in 1996 for attempting to rape a 9-year-old girl, when he was 19.
He was imprisoned between 1997 and 2001 for another rape conviction. Just one month after being released, he sexually assaulted a woman in her 30s and was put behind bars for another eight years. Freed in June last year, he has been on the run since January for yet another attempted rape.
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부산 여중생 살해 피의자 검거
부산 여중생 납치 살해 피의자 김길태(33)가 10일 오후 3시께 부산 사상구 삼락동 현대골드빌라 주차장 앞에서 사건발생 15일만에 경찰에 검거됐다.
김씨는 빌라 옥상에 있다 경찰의 포위망이 좁혀져 오자 건물벽을 타고 달아나다 부산 사하경찰서 소속 형사 4명에게 붙잡혔다.
김씨가 검거된 곳은 사건 현장인 덕포동 재개발지역과 200∼300m 거리에 위치해 있다.
김씨는 빌라 옥상에서 건물벽을 타고 1층으로 내려가다 미끄러져 다리에 골절상을 입었고, 건물밑에서 기다리던 경찰들과 격투끝에 붙잡혔다. 경찰은 오후 4시 29분께 김 씨를 수사본부가 차려진 사상경찰서로 압송해 범행동기와 그동안의 은신처 등에 대해 조사를 벌이고 있다. 김씨의 검거는 이양 실종 15일, 공개수사 전환 12일, 김 씨 공개수배 9일, 이양 시신발견 5일 만에 이뤄졌다.
김씨는 지난달 24일 부산 사상구의 한 다가구 주택에서 이모 (13) 양을 50여m 떨어진 빈집으로 끌고 가 성폭행 후 살해, 옥상 물탱크 안에 시신을 유기한 혐의를 받고 있다.
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