By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A 34-year-old used car dealer was arrested Monday for hiring hit men to kill his 70-year-old adoptive mother.
According to Seocho Police, the man, identified only as Lee, has been a horseracing addict for several years and had constantly asked his mother to lend him money for his "business affairs."
The mother, identified as Yu, refused, threatening to donate her wealth to charity should he not start rehabilitation for his addiction. Lee found two men with criminal records though the Internet and asked them to kill his mother.
In May last year, the two sneaked into Yu's house in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, and suffocated her with plastic wrapping material when she returned home from her daily exercise. Lee paid them a total of 130 million won ($110,000) later.
Lee claimed Yu's death was caused by diabetes and inherited her property and insurance money totaling 2 billion won, of which he squandered 1.5 billion won over the last year. He held a memorial event for the deceased to cover up the crime.
Lee's crime was revealed when friends of Yu raised their suspicions to the police. Yu found Lee 30 years ago abandoned in front of a plumbing shop.
Witnesses said Lee always exhibited a bad attitude towards her. The police requested the prosecution to file for an arrest warrant for Lee.
After confirming that the money was wired to the hit men, police got a confession from the suspect. The prosecution will also file murder charges against the two hired killers.