3-year-old found dead in empty house, mom arrested for murder

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By Jun Ji-hye

Police in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, are investigating the death of a three-year-old girl who is believed to have died in an empty house after her mother moved out without her.

The death of the child was reported to police on Feb. 10 after her body was discovered by her maternal grandmother. The grandmother visited the house after she received a phone call from the building's owner who told her that the contract had run out.

By the time the girl's body was discovered, it had already begun to decompose, police said, noting that the father of the girl had left home long ago, and the mother moved out six months before the girl was found.

The mother has remarried and has a child with her current husband.

On Feb. 11, the police requested a warrant to arrest the mother on suspicion of murder, which the court granted, citing concerns that she was a flight risk.

During the police investigation, the mother reportedly testified that she had been aware that her three-year-old daughter was left in the empty house.

“We are investigating various possibilities ― whether the mother abandoned her living daughter in the empty house, or whether she killed her daughter and abandoned the body there,” a police official said.

Police asked the National Forensic Service to carry out an autopsy to find out the cause of the death of the toddler, and is planning to transfer the mother to the prosecution after completing their investigation by Feb. 20.