A 30-something-year-old Army major, suspected of killing a woman and dismembering her body, was being transferred from Chuncheon Police Station to the Gangwon Police Agency for a second round of questioning on the afternoon of the 4th. The woman’s body had been discovered on November 1st in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province.
The investigation revealed that the incident began with an argument in a car, during which the military officer allegedly strangled B, a 33-year-old temporary military employee who had worked at the same base. A, identified as a major (promoted to lieutenant colonel) at the Cyber Operations Command in Gwacheon City, was recently reassigned to another subordinate unit in Seoul.
On October 25th, around 3 PM, A reportedly killed B during a quarrel in his car, which was parked at the military base. After covering her body with clothes, he is said to have moved the body to a nearby construction site after work to mutilate it. The following evening, A transported B’s body and disposed of it, along with the tools used in the crime, by the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, where he had worked 10 years earlier.
The crime was discovered a week later, on November 2nd, when parts of B’s body surfaced in the Bukhan River near Hwacheon Gymnasium around 2:36 PM, leading to a police investigation. Evidence including fingerprints and DNA analysis confirmed B’s identity, and analysis of phone records and CCTV footage, as well as questioning her family, pointed to A as the main suspect. A was arrested in a subway underpass in Gangnam District on the evening of November 3rd, where he confessed to the crime.
A had attempted to conceal the murder by sending messages from B’s phone to her base requesting her remaining workdays be treated as vacation. The police believe this was to delay the discovery of the crime. They also retrieved B’s phone from a drain near A’s arrest site.
The police are conducting digital forensic analysis of A’s phone to investigate the nature of the relationship and potential premeditation. Considering A’s claim that the crime was a spontaneous act during an argument, the police are further investigating the specifics of their relationship and A’s motives. Meanwhile, all of B’s remains have been recovered, and the search for the discarded murder tools continues. The police are also considering whether to disclose A’s personal information, including his name and age.