Police Arrest Suspected Serial Killer

A suspect in the recent serial murder cases has been caught. The suspect Chung, 37, is thought to have been involved in eight attacks, wounding eight and killing five including three sisters found dead March 27 in Bongcheon-dong, Seoul.

Chung confessed to being responsible for the three serial killings that happened in the southwestern part of Seoul in 2004, and the police are now investigating into the case to confirm the offense.

The Seoul Yeongdeungpo police station, which arrested Chung for murder yesterday, likened him to the notoriously devilish murderer Yoo Young-chul for brutally killing randomly selected people out of discontent with his own life.

According to the police, Chung confessed to murdering females mostly living alone in the southwestern part of Seoul, including Geumcheon-gu, Gwanak-gu, Dongjak-gu and Yeongdeungpo-gu, after breaking into their houses since February 2004. On March 27 at around 4:30 a.m., Chung broke into the second-floor house of Kim, 55, in Gwanak-gu where Kim’s three daughters were sleeping. Chung hit the girls with a blunt instrument, severely wounding one and killing the other two. He then set the blanket on fire before running away. The injured girl died, too, a few days later.

On April 18 last year, Chung broke into a house in Geumcheon-gu by the window and struck Hwang, 47, and her 13-year-old son with a blunt weapon, stealing money and other goods. Later on October 9, he entered a community center for the disabled in Bongcheon-dong and severely injured two mentally-ill women.

Chung entered another house in Yeongdeungpo-gu last Saturday at around 4:50 a.m. and was caught by the 26-year-old house owner, Kim.

The police tracked Chung’s transit card to find out his routes, and got a confession from him that he used the subway line No. 2 when moving to commit murders.

Chung was very careful not to leave traces of him behind, trying to kill every witness and burn clothes or blankets at the scenes of the crime. He even scrapped newspaper articles reporting his killings to commit a “perfect crime.”

Chung told the police that he wanted to kill every rich man because he was angry with his inability to get a job and get married. Nevertheless, the victims of his crime were all women and the disabled of ordinary background.

In 1989, a year after graduating from high school, Chung committed a special robbery and was sentenced to two and a half years in jail with a stay of execution for four years. He also holds criminal records of serving prison terms for charges of theft, nighttime breaking and entering, and sexual assault. Upon release, he could not find a job and has been living in poverty with his mother and siblings.

He chose Seoul, not Incheon where he lives, to commit the crimes and avoided the Gangnam area where there are many surveillance cameras.

The police see it possible that Chung is also liable for the murder cases in Incheon and other regions, and are jointly conducting investigations with the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency.

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