How 'escape to New Zealand plot' unfolded - and ended in failure
Kim Sung-kwan is being taken from Yongin Police Station, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, to inspect the crime scene. / Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
Kim Sung-kwan, a Korean who flew to Auckland three months ago after allegedly killing three family members here, said Sunday that he had plotted everything to take his mother’s money.
According to police, he has been arrested on charges of killing his mother, 55, stepfather, 57, and half-brother, 14, with a sharp object on Oct. 21 and stealing 118 million won ($110,000) from the mother’s two bank accounts.
Police have found that Kim owed 60 million won and had no stable job.
Police have also confirmed that for two days before executing the plot, Kim searched information about weapons, how to use them and how a criminal extradition system worked between Korea and New Zealand.
According to police, he first killed his mother and half-brother at her apartment in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, between 2 p.m. and 5p.m. He then killed his stepfather at a parking lot in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, at around 8 p.m. the same day.
Two days later, he flew to New Zealand with his wife, surnamed Jung, and two daughters ― one aged two years and the other seven months at that time.
But Kim, who has a permanent residency in New Zealand not know he was wanted there for a crime he committed two years ago ― stealing household appliances.
By the time a local court found him guilty of the theft, Korean police learned where he was and asked the New Zealand government to send him back.
After serving two months in prison there, he was repatriated on Jan. 11.
Kim initially claimed his alleged crime was accidental, but eventually confessed, police said. He told police he plotted killings with his wife, which she has denied.
Police are looking into how much his wife was involved and how exactly they planned and executed their plot.