Father, Hitman Arrested for Insurance Murder Plot

Policeman arrested a head of a family in his 30s who hired an Internet contractor to murder his family after being insured for hundreds of millions of won in his wife and children’s name.

Also, a woman debtor in her 50s was found dead with debts the contractor was due to receive.

The Suseo Police Station in Seoul put Lee (36) and Kim (29) into custody on February 28 for requesting his wife (32), daughter (8) and son’s (5) murder in order to get an insurance amount and for planning to murder them at Lee’s request.

Lee is suspected of asking for the murder of his family through an internet café (community) of contract and work run by Kim after carrying whole life insurance in his wife and children’s name, which enabled him to receive 400 million won maximum in case of a family member’s death.

Lee and Kim made a deal in which Lee would give 50,000,000 won to Kim for success, and that they plotted to murder his family members by running them over by a car, after Lee let Kim know his family car’s number and the times when they go out.

In addition, they made the second plan in which Kim would explode Lee’s house by leaving the gas on after Kim went out, leaving his family members at home.

Kim also received another request from a student studying abroad, Jung, in her 20s, around this time, and is under another suspicion of receiving money from an unidentified man for taking 80,000,000 won from Park (50, female), which she was owed to a man.

Although only three cases were confirmed in which Kim was offered a murder or violence request, the police are expanding their investigation into whether or not Kim committed other crimes, as Kim’s account has money that didn’t came from these requests.

Meanwhile, Park, presumed to have been pressed for payment of debt, was found dead at her house in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu at around 8:00 a.m. on February 28. Park was questioned as a reference on February 26 at the police station just before she died, and was said to have had troubles with her family on debts.

An official of the police station said that there weren’t any signs of murder on her body, but that the police would ask for an autopsy from the National Institute of Science Investigation (NISI) and that it is conducting a through examination on Park’s relationship with Kim and a creditor.

Yang-Hwan Jung ray@donga.com