A 58-year-old South Korean man has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend 16 years ago after her body was found stuffed in a bag and covered in cement during repair work.
Geoje City Police and Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency said Monday (Sept. 23) they have arrested a 58-year-old man on suspicion of murdering his live-in girlfriend in 2008.
He told police that he had been living with his girlfriend for about five years in an apartment in Geoje City before the fight broke out on October 10, 2008. The man is accused of bludgeoning the victim, who was in his 30s at the time, to death with a hard object.
The suspect then put the body in a suitcase and hid it on an outdoor balcony on the roof of the building. He then covered the suitcase with bricks and poured cement over it to avoid being discovered. However, the incident was uncovered again 16 years later when the owner of the building found the suitcase containing the body while demolishing it to prevent water leakage.
The investigation found that the victim had little to no contact with her family, meaning no missing persons report was filed until three years after her death in 2011. At that time, police found no evidence of foul play, and the perpetrator said in a statement that they had separated.
After the body was found, police reinvestigated the case and were able to identify the victim as a woman who had reported her missing in 2011. After performing an autopsy, police concluded that the woman had died from a blunt force trauma to the head. Police then named the man as a suspect and arrested him at his residence in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province on suspicion of murder.
During the investigation, the suspect confessed to killing his girlfriend. The man also faces additional drug charges, as police found the man was using methamphetamine at the time of his arrest.
According to police investigations, the suspect continued to live in the same residence where the body was hidden for 8 years after the murders until he moved out in 2016. Authorities said that after the suspect left, no other tenants stayed in the room, and the owner used the room as a storage area. Police will conclude their investigation and forward the case to prosecutors in the next few days.