A military officer who worked with a female civilian employee, murdered her, mutilated her body, and then abandoned it in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do, was arrested. This officer was taken into custody on the morning of the 5th after completing a pre-trial detention hearing. The presiding judge of the Chuncheon District Court, Park Seong-min, issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, A (in his late 30s), citing concerns about evidence destruction and the risk of flight.
Upon arriving at the Chuncheon District Court around 10:45 am, suspect A did not respond to reporters’ questions about whether he felt regret for the victim or planned to apologize. He remained silent with his head bowed before entering the courtroom for the hearing. During the approximately 10-minute hearing, A reportedly admitted to all charges. After about 30 minutes, he left the court without saying anything and boarded a transport vehicle.
In police investigations, A claimed that there had been ongoing conflict with the victim, B (a 33-year-old woman). To verify A’s claims, the police have requested digital forensics on both A’s and B’s mobile phones for objective analysis. However, B’s phone was severely damaged by A, raising uncertainty about data recovery.
The police are also investigating whether the crime was premeditated, as A sent messages using B’s phone the day after abandoning the body, requesting the military unit to treat the remaining days as leave. Additionally, messages were sent to B’s family and acquaintances. The act of mutilating the body has intensified investigations into whether it was a planned crime.
A police spokesperson stated, “There was an existing conflict between the two, which seems to have erupted on the day of the incident. Once the digital forensic results are obtained, we will verify the truth in A’s testimony.”
A, who was up for promotion to lieutenant colonel, is alleged to have strangled B in a fit of rage during an argument inside his car at a military base parking lot in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do, on the afternoon of the 25th of last month. After covering the body with clothing, he mutilated it at a construction site near the base around 9 p.m. He then disposed of it along with tools at the Bukhan Riverbank in Hwacheon-gun, where he had been stationed over a decade ago, around 9:40 p.m. the following day.
The body was weighted with stones to prevent it from surfacing, but part of it was discovered floating near the Hwacheon Sports Center in Hwacheon-eup on the afternoon of the 2nd, a week later.
Fingerprint and DNA analysis confirmed B’s identity, and police traced her phone records to identify A as a strong suspect. On the evening of the 3rd, A was urgently arrested in an underground passage near Irwon Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, whereupon he confessed to all charges.