(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Eui-jin = The police applied for an arrest warrant a day after arresting a man in his 20s who murdered his mother-in-law, kidnapped his wife, and ran away.
Despite the culprit's claim that the crime was accidental, the police are continuing the investigation under the circumstances of a revenge/planned crime.
Seoul Songpa Police Station announced on the 12th that it had applied for an arrest warrant for Mr. A, a man in his 20s, on charges of parricide and special confinement to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on the 12th.
It has been a day since he was urgently arrested and transported to Songpa Station after he fled to Yangyang, Gangwon Province the day before.
The police plan to secure Mr. A for the time being and then conduct a follow-up investigation to determine whether there is any suspicion of revenge murder under the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Crimes.
Under the Special Price Act, the statutory punishment for revenge murder is the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for more than 10 years, which is more severe than the normal murder charge.
The charge of revenge murder applies when a murder is committed in retaliation for providing clues or statements for the investigation or trial of oneself or another person.
Mr. A had been booked by the police last August on suspicion of repeatedly assaulting his wife.
At the time, the Suwon Gwonseon Police Station even conducted a search and seizure of Mr. A, but they were unable to secure him as he, a social worker, had been absent from work without permission for several days and had not responded to summons.
After his arrest, Mr. A generally admitted to charges including parricide in a police investigation.
However, he is claiming that he only committed the crime accidentally because he was emotional due to his relationship with his wife and did not plan the murder targeting his mother-in-law.
The police are investigating a planned crime based on the fact that Mr. A usually carried a weapon.
Even though it may not have been a carefully planned murder, we are also investigating whether he acted with the intention of causing harm to his wife or her family for some time.
In particular, the police are said to be looking into the possibility of a stalking crime by detecting circumstances in which Mr. A was trying to find out about his wife's recent movements.
The victim's side was reported to have heard from Mr. A that he had spent tens of millions of won to dispatch a police investigation officer to the vicinity of his wife's location.
In fact, it was discovered that the deceased mother-in-law in her 50s was murdered while going out to pick up her daughter, who was feeling anxious about her life due to Mr. A, on her way home.
It is known that Mr. A harbored even more resentment when his wife, who was in the process of filing for divorce, tried to change the content of the lawsuit to an annulment lawsuit to the effect that the marriage itself was invalid due to coercion.
However, Mr. A was found to have said that he was embarrassed right after the crime because he was waiting for his wife and had no intention of directly harming his mother-in-law.
After the police's domestic violence investigation or lawsuit begins, it is expected that forensic work will begin after securing mobile phones and electronic devices to specifically check Mr. A's intentions or plans.
However, because the residence has not been specifically identified, the police are focusing on retracing Mr. A's overall movements and securing major items seized to prove planning.
