Police draw flak for slow response to murder victim‘s call

Police came under fire on Friday for failing to respond promptly to an urgent call made by a kidnapping victim who reported her whereabouts before being raped and killed by a Korean-Chinese man.

The incident came to light after the police made public a recording of the call made around midnight Sunday by a 28-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, in which she says that she was abducted and being raped by a man at his house in Suwon, a city 46 kilometers south of Seoul.

Her mutilated body was found the following day by the police at the house of the murder suspect, a 42-year-old man surnamed Woo.

In the tape recording, the victim tells the police that she is at a house located somewhere between a playground and an elementary school in the Jidong area, but she then begins to plead and apologize to a man and the phone hangs up before the police could ask her for the address.

The police said they mobilized some 30 crime squad officers just 10 minutes after the call was made, but the recording has set off a wave of criticism that it took 13 hours to find the victim even with her descriptions of the concrete location.

A statement of apology was later issued by the police.

"We apologize to the victim and her family as well as the public for our insufficient actions which failed to prevent the loss of a valuable life," the chief of police said.

Two senior police officials at the local station responsible for investigating the slaying are currently under inspection and will be held responsible, according to the police. (Yonhap)