Police said Wednesday they arrested four persons, including a shaman, two sisters and a life planner, on charges of murder and insurance fraud.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, something strange happened near the Imjin River in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province, on Jan. 1 this year. A number of bereaved family members gathered with the ashes of a woman _ allegedly those of the younger of the sisters _ who had died a couple of days earlier. However, the elder sister showed few signs of sadness and mourning when she sprinkled the ashes into the river.

Previously, the younger sister had taken out life insurance, naming her elder sibling as the beneficiary, who would receive 3.4 billion won in the event of the former’s death, a police officer said. She then faked her death.

The insurance company was skeptical and asked police to investigate, the officer said.

The police said they discovered what the conspirators did.

Officers said the elder sister kept telling someone to continue to hide in Gwangju, via a public phone in Seoul. She said large sums of insurance money would be soon paid for the “false” death.

They said that later they found the younger sister alive when they raided an apartment in Gwangju.

The police said the 44-year-old shaman, surnamed Ahn, murdered a homeless woman in her 50s in Hwagok-dong, Seoul, on Dec. 30 last year by having her eat Chinese herb medicine mixed with sleeping pills.

She was admitted to hospital and declared dead. The next day, her elder sister received a death notice for the woman, and had the body cremated, the officers said.
jckim@koreatimes.co.kr