A woman has been detained for allegedly killing her three-year-old nephew, by strangling and drowning him at an apartment in Naju, South Jeolla Province.
Officers at Naju Police Station said Thursday that the woman, surnamed Choi, 25, admitted to having abused and assaulted the boy.
She told police that she strangled him because he had diarrhea, and while she was washing him he vomited, so she then put his head underwater five times in the bathtub at her apartment, Wednesday.
She said she had done so because she was “unable to control her anger.”
Choi called an emergency center after the alleged assault, saying the boy had “stopped breathing.” He was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead.
Choi has an intellectual disability, and was on medication for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, police said.
Police found records of an ambulance having been dispatched last year after the woman attempted suicide.
Choi had been taking care of her nephew for her sister since June.
She did not have a stable job and survived on a basic living subsidy and disability payments from the government.