16-year-old kills college student in love triangle

By Kim Bo-eun

A 16-year-old high school student brutally stabbed a college student in a tragic love triangle involving a high school girl, in Sinchon, northwestern Seoul, Monday.

At Baramsan Children’s Park in Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, a local resident uncovered the body of the victim surnamed Kim at around 8:45 p.m.

The victim had been stabbed around 40 times in the stomach and neck.

The resident also saw the suspect surnamed Lee as well as another suspect, a college student surnamed Yoon nearby and reported the case to the police at around 8:50 p.m.

Police arrested Lee and the high-school girl surnamed Hong, who is suspected of having been at the crime scene, at a nearby sauna on Tuesday. The other suspect, 20-year-old Yoon is still at large.

An investigator quoted Hong as saying that she left the scene prior to the murder, denying her involvement.

Footage from surveillance cameras showed Lee, Yoon, Hong and Kim had entered the park together around 8 p.m. However, an hour later, footage showed only Lee and Yoon descending the stairs at the park entrance.

According to police, the victim and the other three had met through Kakao Talk, a smartphone messenger, and had formed a cyber band online.

“Lee and Hong were going out at the time and Hong had also been friendly with Kim. It is likely that Lee called on fellow band member Yoon and murdered Kim due to conflicts over Hong,” police said.

Kim had returned to his home in Seoul on Friday from Gangwon Province, where he attended university. He had left home around 3 p.m. on Monday to go to school. Text messages between his friends around 5 to 6 p.m. revealed that he was going to meet his “group” members, who were mentioned by their messenger IDs.