Two men arrested 16 years after killing taxi driver

Two men have been arrested 16 years after they allegedly murdered a taxi driver in Incheon in 2007.

The Specialized Investigation Team for important unresolved cases at the Incheon Metropolitan Policy Agency announced Tuesday that the two men in their 40s, referred to as A and B, have been arrested on charges of robbery and murder. They are alleged to have stabbed and strangled a taxi driver, hereby referred to as C (who was 43), to death at 3 a.m. on July 1, 2007 to take 60,000 won (about 46 dollars) of cash. The two who met in prison left the body at the crime scene and took his cab to run away. They set the car on fire and drove their car to hide.

The police thoroughly investigated the case but failed to identify a suspect. But they found the scraps of a car manual that was used for kindling the fire and identified a small trace of fingerprints. The fingerprints belonged to the former owner of the car that the suspects used to run away. The police ascertained the car by harnessing this data, and after investigating the past owners of the car, they apprehended the suspects.

During the investigation, A denied the allegation, but B confessed that he conspired with A to rob the money.

It has also been reported that Lee Seung-men, the main culprit of the robbery and murder case at Daejeon Kookmin Bank 22 years ago, reported to the police in a letter that he knew the culprit of sergeant Baek Seon-ki, which occurred in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. Lee Seung-man, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial last month, claimed that the Baek murder case, which had remained unresolved, was committed by Lee Jeong-hak, an accomplice in the Daejeon bank robbery and murder case.

In addition, Lee Seung-man is also reported to have said that he knew the location of the gun that belonged to the late sergeant, which disappeared at the scene of the Jeonju incident. A .38 caliber gun was found at the location identified by Lee, and the serial number of the gun matched that of the gun that Baek had been carrying and had disappeared.

The police are conducting further investigations into the connection between Lee and Baek’s murder case based on the credibility of Lee’s statement.


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