Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Suspect of 'torso murder' turns self in
Police officers under Magok Bridge in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday, search for body parts of a man whose dismembered torso was found earlier. The suspect surrendered himself on Saturday. / Yonhap
By Kim Rahn
By Kim Rahn
A suspect has turned himself in for killing a man, and dismembering and abandoning the body parts into the Han River, Goyang Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said, Sunday.
The 39-year-old man, whose name was withheld, surrendered himself to police at around 1 a.m. on Saturday, five days after a dismembered male torso was found near the pier of Magok Bridge over the Han River.
The man, who was a motel worker in Seoul, said that the victim, 32, was a guest there. He told police that he killed the victim as he was angry at the man for trying to avoid paying the lodging fee, and using abusive language to him.
He said he sneaked into the man's room with a spare key on Aug. 8, beat him to death with a blunt weapon and kept the body in his own room within the motel. He said he dismembered the body and dropped the severed limbs in the river early in the morning on Aug. 12, transporting them with his bike.
While the torso was first found on Aug. 12 morning, the right arm was found in a plastic bag on Friday morning about 3 kilometers from the torso. The motel worker felt increasing pressure as the victim's identity was confirmed through fingerprints and he was placed on the list of suspects, which led to him turning himself in, according to police.
The victim's head was also found near Banghwa Bridge on Saturday morning hours after the suspect turned himself in.
The police secured the weapon as evidence from the motel, checked CCTV footage around the place, and confirmed through DNA tests that the torso and other body parts matched.
“The two had not known each other before the victim's stay at the motel,” a police officer in Goyang said. “Although the suspect said he didn't preplan the crime and committed it in a fit of anger, we are continuing to investigate the exact cause of the killing as the methods were especially cruel.”