Doctor Fakes Suicide After Killing Wife

Police yesterday arrested a doctor who disguised the death of his wife as a suicide after killing her and throwing down her body from the roof of a hospital building.

According to the police, the 44-year-old doctor, who is only identified by his surname Park, strangled his 42-year-old wife, Kim, to death at around 5 a.m. Thursday at a general hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where he is employed.

Park moved his wife’s corpse to the roof of the building and threw it down, and called the police, saying, “My wife died after jumping off from the fifth floor roof.”

But Park’s crime was revealed by the police who examined the video recorded by the closed circuit television at the hospital.

Police pressed hard against Park based on the video, in which Park carries his unconscious, drooping wife on his back to the roof and comes down alone, and succeeded in inducing Park’s confession.

The investigation also revealed that Kim arrived at the hospital with Park on a 119 ambulance at around 4 a.m. and was treated in the emergency room. She was moved to the fourth floor of the lab building where she was injected with painkiller.

A police official said, “It was revealed that Park injected his wife with chemicals at home before committing the crime. We are grilling Park on whether he had planned the crime in advance.”

Park claimed, however, that he (accidentally) strangled his wife to death while arguing with her about his extramarital affair.

The Goyang Police Station requested an arrest warrant for Park on the charge of murder.

argus@donga.com