Murder suspect reenacts scene amid jeers
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A 35-year-old suspect surnamed Lee, center, loads a travel suitcase onto a car in front of his home in Mangu-dong, eastern Seoul, where a reenactment of an alleged murder took place Wednesday. Lee faces charges of murdering and burying the body of his daughter’s 14-year-old friend. / Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
Police on Wednesday brought a 35-year-old man surnamed Lee to re-enact the alleged murder of a 14-year-old girl, at his home in Mangu-dong, eastern Seoul.
Lee, who faces charges of murder and burying the body, admitted to the killing a day earlier.
Lee was arrested Oct. 5, on charges of killing the girl on Sept. 30, putting her body in his car and driving to Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, to abandon the body on a hillside there.
At the crime scene, Lee re-enacted the murder and putting her body in a suitcase which he loaded into his car.
With the police, Lee arrived in front of his home at around 9:30 a.m.
To reporters’ questions on the motive behind his alleged offense, he only said “I am sorry.”
Lee went into his home to re-enact the murder and emerged around 45 minutes later.
When he loaded a suitcase which contained a doll meant to be the victim into a car, residents jeered, with some saying he “deserves to be shredded to pieces.”
Police have filed for an arrest warrant for Lee’s daughter, who accompanied her father to Yeongwol, on charges of burying the corpse.
She brought her friend to her home, but investigations show she left the home when her father strangled the girl after making her take a drink laced with sleeping pills.
Police will continue to question Lee and his daughter about the motives behind the murder.
Police investigations have shown Lee had an unusual obsession with teenage girls.
According to police, Lee ran a “massage shop,” which was found to be an entertainment establishment.
Last November, Lee uploaded a post on Twitter recruiting teenagers “aged 14 to 19 to serve as tattoo artists or models.”
Lee was also found to have left comments on posts uploaded by teenage girls which were about pregnancy concerns.
In the comments, he offered to listen and provide counseling to the girls.
Based on these findings, there are suspicions Lee fed the girl sleeping pills in order to rape her, but the autopsy has yet to confirm evidence of sexual assault.
Lee’s wife committed suicide last month, days after she and Lee submitted a complaint against Lee’s stepfather for alleged sexual abuse.
A separate investigation into this is ongoing.
The case has drawn greater attention because Lee appeared on TV in 2006 for his devoted care of his daughter, who suffers from a rare disease known as gigantiform cementoma involving dental tumors, which he also suffers from.
Lee had actively raised funds for medical expenses for his daughter, but police found he had spent the money on luxuries such as imported cars and premium audio equipment.
In 2015, Lee received government certification of his intellectual and mental disabilities.