Hwaseong serial killer confesses to 14 murders, 30 sexual assaults

Ban Ki-soo, director general of Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, walks to a meeting room to provide a media briefing on the latest development of the Hwaseong serial killer investigation, in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Kim Hyun-bin

Lee Chun-jae, the suspect of the serial killings in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, confessed to committing a total of 14 murders and 30 sexual assaults between 1986 and 1994. Yonhap

The prime suspect of the infamous serial killings in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, has confessed to five more murders besides the nine known cases, police said Wednesday. Lee Chun-jae, 56, also said he committed or attempted to commit about 30 sexual assaults that did not involve murder.

Lee was recently identified as the prime suspect of the nine serial killings that took place in and around Hwaseong from 1986 to 1991, after advanced DNA technology linked him with three of the cases. He is currently serving a jail sentence for a separate murder.

Since the identification, the police have questioned him over nine times. Lee first denied the allegations but confessed last week, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.

"When we told him the DNA test results, he said, 'I knew someday this day would come and what I did would be disclosed,' and began to tell the story," Ban Ki-soo, director general at the agency, said in a press briefing.

Lee voluntarily gave the details of the murders and rapes, Ban said. "He even drew pictures to explain some of the cases."

All the crimes he confessed took place between January 1986 when he was discharged from the Army and January 1994 when he was caught and jailed for raping and killing his sister-in-law in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. He murdered her out of "revenge" after his wife left him.

The Hwaseong serial killings took place between September 1986 and April 1991. There were 10 murders, but the eighth one was later found to be a copycat crime.

For the remaining five murders Lee confessed to, the police did not disclose when they took place, saying the investigation is ongoing. But they said three of them were allegedly committed in Hwaseong and two in Cheongju.

He also said he committed about 30 rapes and attempted rapes.

Despite the confession, the police are reviewing past investigation data to confirm whether the claims are true, because the alleged crimes were committed decades before and Lee's memory could be incorrect.

Also, it will be impossible to press charges on the suspect as the statute of limitations for all the cases has expired. But the police said they would continue the investigation to find the truth behind the serial murders.

The perpetrator of the Hwaseong serial killings mostly sneaked up on the victims in rural areas at night, raped, and killed them. He also used the victims' stockings and clothes to tie their hands and feet. All the Hwaseong murders were conducted in a similar way with victims ranging in age from teenagers up to a 71-year-old woman.

More than two million policemen were mobilized in the case, a record number for a single case to track down the suspect, but failed to identify anybody.

The tragic incident inspired film director Bong Joon-ho's 2003 box office hit, "Memories of Murder."

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