 A murder suspect, surnamed Kang, is escorted into Jeju Dongbu Police Station on Jeju Island, Monday, after being apprehended for allegedly killing a 40-year-old female tourist near an Olle trekking course on the resort island. Courtesy of the Halla Ilbo |
Suspect arrested for killing female tourist
By Na Jeong-ju
The administration came under fire Monday for its poor handling of crimes against children and women following the killings of a 40-year-old female tourist on Jeju Island and a 10-year-old schoolgirl in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.
Especially, it faces mounting calls to strengthen community-level anti-crime measures to protect children and women from those with criminal records living in the same neighborhoods.
According to police, the tourist was allegedly killed by a local resident, while the man who is suspected of having kidnapped and killed the schoolgirl in Tongyeong was her neighbor.
The two separate murder cases have triggered public outcry over the nation’s lack of measures to prevent crimes against minors and women.
President Lee Myung-bak called for “emergency” measures to protect them from sex crimes. Calling the two incidents “worrisome,” Lee instructed the Cabinet and his secretaries to come up with emergency measures to prevent such crimes from happening again, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Jeong-ha said.
Police said they have caught a suspect in the case of the 40-year-old woman, identified as Kang who went missing on Jeju Island on July 12, one day after she arrived from Seoul on her own to hike along the popular Jeju Olle trails.
The unidentified suspect, 46, who was apprehended at his house early Monday, confessed to the kidnapping and killing her and abandoning the body.
Police searched for the remainder of Kang’s body in a bamboo field near a trekking path as he testified, and found it. “Parts of her clothes were taken off and the body was had begun to decay,” an officer at the Jeju Provincial Police Agency said.
On July 20, part of her body ― right hand ― and shoes were found at a bus terminal, which is about 18 kilometers away from a guesthouse she checked in. The National Forensic Service (NFS) confirmed that there was a DNA match between her and the hand.
The suspect lives with his mother at a village just minutes away by foot from the motel.
Police said they secured testimony from residents that the man was seen hovering around the guesthouse in the early morning of July 12. The victim left the house at 7 a.m., and her mobile phone was disconnected about 40 minutes later on the trekking path.
The suspect claimed he was not at the trekking course, but police confirmed he was, through reports from witnesses and surveillance camera footage.
He borrowed a car from one of his acquaintances on July 19, one day before the victim’s right hand was found, police said. They found a bloodstain in the car and the NFS is analyzing it for a DNA match.
According to police, the suspect once served a jail sentence after being convicted of burglary, but has never received treatment for mental illness.
On Sunday, police arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of kidnapping and killing the 10-year-old girl in Tongyeong. Investigators said the suspect, surnamed Kim, confessed that he kidnapped and strangled the girl.
The body of the victim, Han A-reum, was found inside a burlap sack on a hill, six days after she was reported missing. The suspect, who has a criminal record of sexual assault, was found to have been living in a place just one block away from Han’s home.
The recent murder of a 28-year-old woman in Suwon by Korean Chinese man Wu Yuanchun also shows that the country must strengthen community-level, anti-crime activities to protect minors and women from those who were convicted of sex offenses. Wu lived on his own in a rented house just a few blocks away from the victim’s house.
Police concluded that Wu accidentally killed the victim after kidnapping and raping her. A district court handed down the death sentence to Wu in June.
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